It’s a new season for the Lincoln High track team. The track season officially started about a week before spring break, and the team is working very hard.

This past year, the team has lost some exceptional runners, but the team has also acquired many prospective new runners. Just last year, there were around ten to fifteen runners on the cross-country and track teams. This year, however, there are between twenty to thirty runners on both teams.

There are a couple changes on the team this year as well: the addition of a new assistant coach. Derek Chen, who serves as both the cross-country and track coach, confidently said that the Lincoln track team has a “better chance of winning this year.”

Lowell High School, whose track team is huge compared to Lincoln, is currently Lincoln’s greatest rival.

Lincoln’s track team also has more female runners than in previous years, which increases the the track girls’ chances of winning.

“Track is going very well and [the] new runners are awesome,” said Chen.

“The practices are going along very well.”

Even though the team has more members, that does not necessarily assure the team of success. Chen fears that the team may lose a few runners because of academic issues. It is a challenge that all athletes face, and it affects not only that particular athelete, but the whole team. Chen hopes that the runners will keep on practicing while maintaining good grades.

The new runners who consistently show up to practices believe that “the practice[s] are hard, but [they] are able to keep up.”

Chen believes that the new runners – the whole team – will be able to become great runners as long as they show up for practices. After all, this team is fueled by perserverence and self-motivation.

Practices are held on weekdays and Saturdays, which always manage to impres Chen.

“The team from what I saw in cross country went pretty well. We had a lot of guys and girls out for cross-country and it was fun. Hopefully for this season, if we get many runners out for practice, who will participate fully everyday and have a lot of progress, we might even beat Lowell.” said assistant coach Luis Coites.

Junior Nelson Louie, a new runner, considers track practice to be “pretty good and not that hard.”

After the second meet, in which the team unfortunately did not win, runners on the team are keeping their heads high.

“The private schools did really well again this year. They were fast enough to even beat Lowell,” said sophomore Jordan Ng, a track team runner.

“The guys needed a little improvement but the girls did really well.”

Like the great Lincoln runners they are, the team will practice harder in order to beat not only Lowell, but every opponent who comes their way.

“We just have to try our best and hope for the best.” said Ng.