New era for Scot track team begins with addition of Scot Center
After 27 years as a head coach, College of Wooster head track and field coach Dennis Rice has seen virtually everything – everything, that is, but an indoor home track meet.
No more. On Jan. 20, with a snowstorm outside bringing everything to a crawl, there was Rice, hosting the first indoor home meet of his career at The College of Wooster in the sparkling new Scot Center on the Wooster campus.
To say it was long overdue would be understating the obvious. All it took was 30 or more years for the Scot Center to come to fruition, but who’s counting now? The false starts and the non-starts of projects of old led to a real start Friday night when the starter’s gun sounded indoors. In what Rice termed an “old-school” dual meet with a long-established rival, Oberlin, the meet began with an old-school event, the mile run, which was won by Wooster’s Meredith Shaul.
As exciting as the meet was for Rice, the shining star of the night was the Scot Center.
“The Oberlin coaches were jealous,” laughed Rice. “The other coaches and officials were amazed with the facility. They thought it was an incredible facility to walk into. We would travel in past years and go to different facilities, and we would be, ‘Wow, we wish we had this.’”
The “wow” is now directed at Rice and Wooster, and that wow-factor works inside the school. Two transfers, both sophomores, opted to compete this winter at least in part because of the facility. Amy French, a transfer from Syracuse University, did not run track there. Once on campus, the facility helped convince her to return to the sport.
“I did a college search and Wooster was one of the one’s that came up,” said French, a hurdler and 5-2 high jumper in high school. “I visited and loved it, and a lot had to do with the track coaches … (the Scot Center) wasn’t the deciding factor, but it didn’t hurt.
“It’s important not just to know what you want, but what you don’t want. I feel a part of things here, while at Syracuse I didn’t. I was doing what I needed to do as an individual, but I was not part of anything bigger.”
Kendra Shehy, a 2010 Triway graduate, went to Miami of Ohio for a year before returning home.
“I really didn’t know about the building until I toured,” said Shehy, who said she “needed to come back home.”
“This is better than Miami’s. They had a full-sized Olympic pool, but the weight room wasn’t better. This is just a great facility …and everyone has been so welcoming. … It’s exciting.”
Sophomore middle-distance runner Ann Berkow said “it makes the school more special than what it was,” and it also offers a reprieve from tough weather conditions.
“We will still go on distance runs outside, but it’s really cool to have this place for two hours, Monday through Friday,” said Berkow. “It’s nice because people will come to support us. It’s nice to have people say, ‘I run at The College of Wooster.’ We’ve never had that. Now we have multiple opportunities for people to come compete. They can come here now.
“When we have athletes visit the school, they are more likely to come because of a state-of-the art facility,” she said. “It didn’t help me, but I didn’t know about the 10 o’clock practices. Not at all.”
Ah, but senior captain Remington Jackson knew of – and experienced -- those end-of-the-day practices at Wooster High School and that’s something the sprinter will love to forget. As a freshman he heard rumors about the Scot Center – now he gets to experience it, even if it’s for one semester.
“This is going to be one of the best recruiting tools,” said Remington. “Before we would go up to the high school and practice from 10 p.m. to midnight. As hard as it is here academically, it’s hard to practice so late and wake up early without it interfering with your studies. Now we have a new weight room, a brand new aerobics room and one of the best tracks in the world – I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to be on the Wooster track team.”
While Remington is a four-year member of the team, he understands why some of his peers may have turned away from the sport.
“You know the Wooster weather. When you have the ice or blizzards, you can’t get to the (high school) track to run, so we would run around the gym in circles,” said Remington. “You miss out on practices and that has hurt the team the past couple years. Now we have a place we can come to from 4-6 p.m. every day. In our off time, we can come to the track and do our own workouts because we have that available to us. We couldn’t drive to the high school because they have their own practices.
“Coach is so excited. He has more intensity now because we have the facility.”
Another captain, senior Logan Pry, is a thrower who also runs sprints. The improvements in equipment and having a place to run will pay dividends.
“It means a lot more team unity,” said Pry. “It feels great. Every group practices as a team at 4 p.m. I’ve seen a huge difference in team unity and it feels great to have a home-field advantage we’re not used to having. Before we would load up every Saturday and go someplace. That’s tough. Now we can have home meets and have a home track to defend, just like other schools.
“I’ve seen an improvement. I’ve broken my PR already and the amount of practice time we’ll have before we get outside in March … is going to help us score more points and be more competitive as a team.”
Katharina Kroll came to Wooster via Germany and then Wayland, Mass., located just outside Boston. Another captain who has competed four years for Wooster, she is excited to have the Scot Center.
“I do not miss those 10 o’clock practices,” she laughed. “I think a practice time from 4-6 makes it possible for more people to join the program. A lot (of possible athletes) were limited by that time and didn’t join. Having the facility here we have better cohesion. We’ve come together as a team. Before we would all be split up at different times, so this helps unite the team.
“For my senior year, I’m happy I still get to enjoy it for one semester. It’s too bad it’s not more, but I’m proud to run for the college on home turf. That’s great – it’s better than none. (Individually) I can have a wider variety of workout options and we’re not limited by time now. One of the great things is we won’t be having to shovel the ring. The facility is here, we can have dry shoes and don’t have to wrestle with the weather every day.”
The change to a normal practice has appealed to another four-year captain, Sarah Appleton.
“It’s been nice,” she said. “It was brutal to work around academics. Now we can have a nice rhythm to balance academics and athletics, and it’s nice to be able to run over here in this facility. You got to know your (event-specific) teammates at 10 p.m. – that was our time together at the end of the day – but we didn’t practice with the jumpers and throwers. We didn’t know them as well. This is helping the team unity because we’re all together.”
Appleton was used to training outdoors as a distance runner, so the lack of a facility was something “I didn’t think about” when she was exploring her college choices.
“I didn’t know it was a drawback,” she laughed. “It didn’t dawn on me. I run outside and assumed we would run outside.”
Once the project was initiated, she was happy with how it proceeded.
“They drew up pictures and my first year I heard more; my sophomore year they had models out in Lowry and we started to see swatches of different track surfaces,” she said. “It was cool to be part of the process. It makes it feel like it’s ours – the students. It’s something we use and we had some input. That makes it feel like it’s ours, more of the college community.
“I’m just enjoying practice at 4 as a big group.”
And so is Rice, who will probably be pinching himself for months on end when he steps into the Scot Center and gazes at a 200-meter track.
“It was awesome just being at home and giving both of our teams a chance to be on our campus. To have an indoor meet -- on our campus -- is amazing,” said Rice. “Obviously, for our program, it’s the best thing to happen to us.
“It’s an opportunity to not just train, but host meets. Friends can come and watch us compete and it’s only going to get better from here. Having this facility is going to enhance the overall student population.”
It’s changed things from Rice’s perspective already.
“One of the things we talked about Thursday night was many times during the course of (past) indoor seasons we would get on the bus and travel to meets and people were seeing teammates for the first time,” said Rice. “We practiced at different times through the day and night. It’s hard to develop a true team concept you need to be successful. It’s amazing to walk in at 4 o’clock and have practice.”
Or have a meet, which went off with but one minor hitch.
“The meet turned out perfect,” said Rice. “The only thing was we couldn’t get the tape player to work for the National Anthem, but an Oberlin woman volunteered to sing and she did an amazing job. For hosting the first indoor meet ever, that was the only glitch and an Oberlin student saved that.
“One thing that helps is we get certified officials for each event ... and I get a lot support setting up from student workers. You need quality support and that’s something we have in place. (Athletic director) Keith Beckett really supports doing that.
“It went off without a hitch, no issues. It was a great way to start – an old-school dual meet with one of our oldest rivals, Oberlin, which is strong in track and field. It was great to start the season off in a positive way.”
And the meet?
“Well, I guess that was the other glitch,” said Rice. “When you host the very first indoor meet you’d like to win. The women’s race came down to the 4x4 (00) relay and we lost 75-74, and the men got beat 75-65. It was a very close meet on both ends. … Obviously we were hoping to win and that didn’t quite work out.”
Wooster will have two other opportunities to snag that first home win. The Scots host a North Coast Athletic Conference Quad this Saturday (Jan. 28) and the Fighting Scot Invitational Feb. 4. Both of those meets begin at noon, with the gun sounding on the running events at 2 p.m.
Wooster will host the NCAC Indoor Championships in 2013.
No more. On Jan. 20, with a snowstorm outside bringing everything to a crawl, there was Rice, hosting the first indoor home meet of his career at The College of Wooster in the sparkling new Scot Center on the Wooster campus.
To say it was long overdue would be understating the obvious. All it took was 30 or more years for the Scot Center to come to fruition, but who’s counting now? The false starts and the non-starts of projects of old led to a real start Friday night when the starter’s gun sounded indoors. In what Rice termed an “old-school” dual meet with a long-established rival, Oberlin, the meet began with an old-school event, the mile run, which was won by Wooster’s Meredith Shaul.
As exciting as the meet was for Rice, the shining star of the night was the Scot Center.
“The Oberlin coaches were jealous,” laughed Rice. “The other coaches and officials were amazed with the facility. They thought it was an incredible facility to walk into. We would travel in past years and go to different facilities, and we would be, ‘Wow, we wish we had this.’”
The “wow” is now directed at Rice and Wooster, and that wow-factor works inside the school. Two transfers, both sophomores, opted to compete this winter at least in part because of the facility. Amy French, a transfer from Syracuse University, did not run track there. Once on campus, the facility helped convince her to return to the sport.
“I did a college search and Wooster was one of the one’s that came up,” said French, a hurdler and 5-2 high jumper in high school. “I visited and loved it, and a lot had to do with the track coaches … (the Scot Center) wasn’t the deciding factor, but it didn’t hurt.
“It’s important not just to know what you want, but what you don’t want. I feel a part of things here, while at Syracuse I didn’t. I was doing what I needed to do as an individual, but I was not part of anything bigger.”
Kendra Shehy, a 2010 Triway graduate, went to Miami of Ohio for a year before returning home.
“I really didn’t know about the building until I toured,” said Shehy, who said she “needed to come back home.”
“This is better than Miami’s. They had a full-sized Olympic pool, but the weight room wasn’t better. This is just a great facility …and everyone has been so welcoming. … It’s exciting.”
Sophomore middle-distance runner Ann Berkow said “it makes the school more special than what it was,” and it also offers a reprieve from tough weather conditions.
“We will still go on distance runs outside, but it’s really cool to have this place for two hours, Monday through Friday,” said Berkow. “It’s nice because people will come to support us. It’s nice to have people say, ‘I run at The College of Wooster.’ We’ve never had that. Now we have multiple opportunities for people to come compete. They can come here now.
“When we have athletes visit the school, they are more likely to come because of a state-of-the art facility,” she said. “It didn’t help me, but I didn’t know about the 10 o’clock practices. Not at all.”
Ah, but senior captain Remington Jackson knew of – and experienced -- those end-of-the-day practices at Wooster High School and that’s something the sprinter will love to forget. As a freshman he heard rumors about the Scot Center – now he gets to experience it, even if it’s for one semester.
“This is going to be one of the best recruiting tools,” said Remington. “Before we would go up to the high school and practice from 10 p.m. to midnight. As hard as it is here academically, it’s hard to practice so late and wake up early without it interfering with your studies. Now we have a new weight room, a brand new aerobics room and one of the best tracks in the world – I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to be on the Wooster track team.”
While Remington is a four-year member of the team, he understands why some of his peers may have turned away from the sport.
“You know the Wooster weather. When you have the ice or blizzards, you can’t get to the (high school) track to run, so we would run around the gym in circles,” said Remington. “You miss out on practices and that has hurt the team the past couple years. Now we have a place we can come to from 4-6 p.m. every day. In our off time, we can come to the track and do our own workouts because we have that available to us. We couldn’t drive to the high school because they have their own practices.
“Coach is so excited. He has more intensity now because we have the facility.”
Another captain, senior Logan Pry, is a thrower who also runs sprints. The improvements in equipment and having a place to run will pay dividends.
“It means a lot more team unity,” said Pry. “It feels great. Every group practices as a team at 4 p.m. I’ve seen a huge difference in team unity and it feels great to have a home-field advantage we’re not used to having. Before we would load up every Saturday and go someplace. That’s tough. Now we can have home meets and have a home track to defend, just like other schools.
“I’ve seen an improvement. I’ve broken my PR already and the amount of practice time we’ll have before we get outside in March … is going to help us score more points and be more competitive as a team.”
Katharina Kroll came to Wooster via Germany and then Wayland, Mass., located just outside Boston. Another captain who has competed four years for Wooster, she is excited to have the Scot Center.
“I do not miss those 10 o’clock practices,” she laughed. “I think a practice time from 4-6 makes it possible for more people to join the program. A lot (of possible athletes) were limited by that time and didn’t join. Having the facility here we have better cohesion. We’ve come together as a team. Before we would all be split up at different times, so this helps unite the team.
“For my senior year, I’m happy I still get to enjoy it for one semester. It’s too bad it’s not more, but I’m proud to run for the college on home turf. That’s great – it’s better than none. (Individually) I can have a wider variety of workout options and we’re not limited by time now. One of the great things is we won’t be having to shovel the ring. The facility is here, we can have dry shoes and don’t have to wrestle with the weather every day.”
The change to a normal practice has appealed to another four-year captain, Sarah Appleton.
“It’s been nice,” she said. “It was brutal to work around academics. Now we can have a nice rhythm to balance academics and athletics, and it’s nice to be able to run over here in this facility. You got to know your (event-specific) teammates at 10 p.m. – that was our time together at the end of the day – but we didn’t practice with the jumpers and throwers. We didn’t know them as well. This is helping the team unity because we’re all together.”
Appleton was used to training outdoors as a distance runner, so the lack of a facility was something “I didn’t think about” when she was exploring her college choices.
“I didn’t know it was a drawback,” she laughed. “It didn’t dawn on me. I run outside and assumed we would run outside.”
Once the project was initiated, she was happy with how it proceeded.
“They drew up pictures and my first year I heard more; my sophomore year they had models out in Lowry and we started to see swatches of different track surfaces,” she said. “It was cool to be part of the process. It makes it feel like it’s ours – the students. It’s something we use and we had some input. That makes it feel like it’s ours, more of the college community.
“I’m just enjoying practice at 4 as a big group.”
And so is Rice, who will probably be pinching himself for months on end when he steps into the Scot Center and gazes at a 200-meter track.
“It was awesome just being at home and giving both of our teams a chance to be on our campus. To have an indoor meet -- on our campus -- is amazing,” said Rice. “Obviously, for our program, it’s the best thing to happen to us.
“It’s an opportunity to not just train, but host meets. Friends can come and watch us compete and it’s only going to get better from here. Having this facility is going to enhance the overall student population.”
It’s changed things from Rice’s perspective already.
“One of the things we talked about Thursday night was many times during the course of (past) indoor seasons we would get on the bus and travel to meets and people were seeing teammates for the first time,” said Rice. “We practiced at different times through the day and night. It’s hard to develop a true team concept you need to be successful. It’s amazing to walk in at 4 o’clock and have practice.”
Or have a meet, which went off with but one minor hitch.
“The meet turned out perfect,” said Rice. “The only thing was we couldn’t get the tape player to work for the National Anthem, but an Oberlin woman volunteered to sing and she did an amazing job. For hosting the first indoor meet ever, that was the only glitch and an Oberlin student saved that.
“One thing that helps is we get certified officials for each event ... and I get a lot support setting up from student workers. You need quality support and that’s something we have in place. (Athletic director) Keith Beckett really supports doing that.
“It went off without a hitch, no issues. It was a great way to start – an old-school dual meet with one of our oldest rivals, Oberlin, which is strong in track and field. It was great to start the season off in a positive way.”
And the meet?
“Well, I guess that was the other glitch,” said Rice. “When you host the very first indoor meet you’d like to win. The women’s race came down to the 4x4 (00) relay and we lost 75-74, and the men got beat 75-65. It was a very close meet on both ends. … Obviously we were hoping to win and that didn’t quite work out.”
Wooster will have two other opportunities to snag that first home win. The Scots host a North Coast Athletic Conference Quad this Saturday (Jan. 28) and the Fighting Scot Invitational Feb. 4. Both of those meets begin at noon, with the gun sounding on the running events at 2 p.m.
Wooster will host the NCAC Indoor Championships in 2013.
Published: January 26, 2012
