Nyack Track Team Young, But Large

Nyack track and field Head Coach Miles Taylor isn’t quite sure why his spring team is the largest he’s had in about six or seven years, but things it could be because of a rumor that spread around the school.

“I think there was a rumor going around that I left,” he said. “They heard the crazy man was gone and all signed up. But I’m still here.”

Actually, Taylor isn’t sure why the boys and girls spring teams have around 75 members, but he welcomes the influx of new competitors. Of those 75 or so, only 10 are returning from last year. And the rest are all freshmen and sophomores, except for one girl who was brought up from seventh grade.

“So far they’ve worked hard for us, and that’s what we want,” Taylor said. “They’re out there really going for it.”

The team kicked off its spring season Saturday at Clarkstown North, where they participated in the Ram Relays. Taylor said it’s too early to get a read on the team, but was pleased with the performance.

“We ran well today,” he said. “We had a lot of kids perform well. It was a good start.”

Ifetayo Tyler took home the Indians’ lone first-place finish with her performance in the 1,600 meter race. On the boys side, Nyack’s best finish came in the 3,200 meter relay.

Taylor said that with such a young team he knows it might not be the smoothest season.

“With younger kids, there’s always going to be pains, there’s always going to be bumps in the road,” he said. “What they have to realize is that this is a business. We don’t have a freshman team or a JV team. These kids are coming straight from middle school and joining the team. Our business is to try and win, so that’s what they have to do.”

But a positive side of having such a large team with little experience is it provides a lot of area for competition amongst the team itself.

“I have more to choose from, which should make them competitive and that makes everybody better,” Taylor said. “Hopefully they like what we do and stick around for four years.”