The sounds of dirt crunching under metal spikes and heavy, gasping breaths are interrupted by the shrill shriek of a whistle as Head Track Coach Mr. José Márquez calls out to the next group of runners to finish their drills.
This year marks Coach Márquez’s first at the school, as well as his first year as an English teacher. He is a first time head track coach but he is no stranger to the sport, having had four years of experience from being a former assistant coach at Arroyo High School.
“It’s much more trusting and supportive here,” Coach Márquez said. “Coach VanDeVeere is really trusting of me and is not afraid of letting me take risks and make decisions.”
Coach Márquez first met fifty-five of his new runners on the first day of school during seventh period, ready to take on the responsibility of helping them shape up for the new season.
“He’s a really flexible instructor,” Senior Esther Kao said. “He’s really nice and even supportive of letting us work out the way we see fit. It makes me feel like working really hard because of this.”
Coach Márquez was originally a distance runner in high school and college, and has had to adjust to coaching short distance. In order to do so, he refers back to how his own coaches instructed runners on how to improve and work hard.
Once he was hired, he was welcomed with open arms by the faculty, particularly the teachers from the English department and the other coaches.
“Things are going well so far and I’m getting help from the other coaches,” Coach Márquez said. “We go to coaching clinics together to learn as much as we can about what we need to do.”
So far, he enjoys interacting with his students and fellow faculty alike, and finds the overall ambience of the school very positive. He hopes that adjusting to a new environment will allow him to grow more as a coach and a teacher.
“Every school has its own culture, and the hardest part was fitting into it, like a Tetris piece,” Coach Márquez said. “I can try to fit in one way, but it might not be the best way. So I wonder about how to fit in the best way.”
Coach Márquez held tryouts in January, where 45 prospective runners met him at the track. All of them impressed him with their passion and motivation. On the first day of tryouts he did not take any times, but he informed
and taught the new runners the fundamentals of track.
“Coaching has to be a positive experience for all the students. It has to challenge and support the mind and body,” Coach Márquez said. “I think when students find the most about themselves and become confident about themselves, that’s where I see the most success.”
Coach Márquez is different in the way he organizes the team and the training regiments. In comparison to his predecessors, he is much more methodic in how he plans out day-to-day practices. At the end of every December, he looks at the results from the previous year and builds from there. He keeps an agenda detailing his daily workouts that he keeps in his classroom.
“Coach Márquez is on task and keeps track of things, especially about the runners that come and go,” Sophomore Ethan Teng said. “Coach Lawrence really pushed us and told us to run, while Márquez maps out what he wants us to do on a certain day or week.”