Track and field season begins next week and the Selma High Saints are getting ready for their first meet at the Greensboro relays on Thursday, March 8.

The Saints had five seniors last season, and will be working with a new group of athletes for the 2018 season.

“I’m looking forward to a new start,” head coach Katasha Turner said. “We have a whole new group.”

The Saints have 30 student-athletes on the team this year, and some of them are new to the sport. Turner is focusing on teaching and instructing to get the new kids up to speed. She was unsure what caught the attention of the new athletes to get them to try track and field, but she let them know that they will be working hard.

“I had to let them know that track is not easy,” she said. “There are a lot of events in this one sport, but it’s not easy. We just have to put them in the best situation possible.”

Turner made her team aware that their bodies will ache and their muscles will get sore, but that is what it will take to be a track and field athlete. The team had a light practice on Friday at Bloch Park. Starting off with stretches, warmups and runs up the stadium stairs. Turner wanted the team to work on their exchange techniques since the teams’ first meet will be a series of relay races.

“Track is about progression,” she said. “It’s about improvement throughout the season. If they come out with medals throughout the season, that’s great. But we want to be able to compete and not just be out there.”

At the Class 6A level, the Saints will face tough competition throughout the season.

“The competition is very steep,” Turner said. “One of our biggest competitors when we run are Wetumpka and Paul Bryant, who are just awesome in track. Everybody gets better every year, so we know we’re going to have some steep competition.”

The team started conditioning back in late January, and have been running practice at Bloch Park for the last couple weeks in preparation for the season. Turner is interested in seeing how the team will shape out for this season. She and her assistant coach Soyong Smith are going to stick to their game plan and help the kids progress.

“We’re going to try to stick to our game plan, and put them in the best situation possible,” Turner said.

The Saints will have two home meets this season on March 30 and April 14 at Bloch Park. They will be traveling for the majority of the season to Greensboro, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Demopolis. The state qualifying sectionals will be held on the last weekend in April, and the state championship meet will be down in Gulf Shores in May.