To get to practice after school in Gainesville, Ja’Carree Kelly used to drive 20 minutes from Buchholz High School to Fred Cone Park, which had the first all-weather, rubberized running track in Alachua County. These days, Buchholz has a rubber track of its own.
As he laced his hot pink running spikes and dug them into his team’s renovated track surface, Kelly, 16, a junior sprinter, said it’s more convenient to stay on campus for practice.
“It was embarrassing,” he said. “We have the fastest team in Gainesville, and we didn’t have a (rubber) track.”
The Buchholz track and field team began training at its $543,000 new facility last month. Alachua County Public Schools approved the project in September, and the high school agreed to pay $12,000 per year for 12 years to satisfy the rest of its $158,000 portion, according to Jackie Johnson, a spokeswoman for the school district.
Buchholz joined Gainesville and Santa Fe as the three public high schools in the county with all-weather tracks. Eastside, Hawthorne and Newberry High Schools have asphalt tracks.
Its new track means Buchholz can host postseason meets in the future.
The Florida High School Athletic Association, which is based in Gainesville, only holds regional or state playoff meets at schools that have a rubber track, said Ed Thompson, its director of athletics and track and field administrator.
Thompson emphasized the economic impact for cities hosting FHSAA meets, saying it’s “far greater than just the gate for the meet” and that “the community benefits from having people come in and eat at their restaurants and stay in their hotels.”
Buchholz’s new facility is not quite ready to host meets, however, as its athletic program must raise money for hurdles, pole vault mats and high jump mats that satisfy state standards.
The Buchholz community has asked for an all-weather track since before 1980.
Isabella Tseng, 16, a junior on the girls’ track team who also plays violin and wants a career in the medical field, said while Buchholz usually drags its feet at fixing things, she appreciated seeing people working on the new track and that it “got done very efficiently.”
Patrick Douma, head boys’ cross-country coach and volunteer assistant track coach at Buchholz, used to be the head girls’ track coach at North Marion High School in Citra. Douma said there were no all-weather tracks at public high schools in Marion County during his time there – and that only Trinity Catholic High School in Ocala has one now.
With more high schools in Alachua County now having rubber tracks, Douma predicted that their track teams will soon be more competitive at regional and state meets.
Buchholz has a new head track coach to go with its new track. Last year, Terrell Battle coached track at Lake Minneola High School in Lake County, which has an all-weather track.
“It allows you to bring in talent from the area and the state and see how we compare,” Battle said.
According to Douma, rubber tracks are also less likely to cause injury than asphalt ones, especially for distance runners who put in more miles on the surface. Thompson agreed.
“You’re doing it because you’re investing in the athletes and their safety,” Thompson said.
James Williams, 18, is a junior who competes in the 200m and 400m dashes and 4x400m relay team for Buchholz. It’s just his first year on the team, after he suffered a torn ACL and MCL on a kickoff return during his sophomore season on the Buchholz football team.
Williams said he feels comfortable running on the new track.
“I don’t want to put myself in a dangerous environment and get injured again,” he said.