Flyin' Frogs Weekly Breakdown On The Track
10/21/2008 12:00:00 AM
Oct. 21, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas - Flyin' Frogs head coach Darryl Anderson sat down with GoFrogs.com this past Monday to give fans his inside look into how practice has gone during preseason workouts.
This is the third installment of Anderson's weekly look into preseason workouts. TCU will open the indoor season on Jan. 17 at the Texas Tech Invitational.
Breakdown
We are getting ready to start up week seven of our training and from here in we are really starting to get more detailed and specific in what we need to do to get closer to our goals in each individual event area.
The first six weeks have gone extremely well. I think there have been some rough spots as always, but I also think there have been some bright spots. Really, the new student-athletes to our program have shined for the most part. We are excited about Whitney Gipson and Hayley Shade, while Mark Barnes, OJ Stoneham and Richard Knotts have all done well on the men's side. Hayley Shade has been pleasantly a hard worker and someone you just enjoy being around.
With our returnees, we are really pushing forward, but we have a couple of people that aren't training at this point due to minor issues, but that has caused some of the other returnees to have to step their performance up, which is excellent. I think Dell Guy has been solid in the fall, while Mychal Dungey has changed his whole attitude and demeanor and that will serve him well. Jordan Pitts has done really well with trying to stay the course and not get distracted, which has been very pleasant.
On the women's side, Neidra Covington has done well in the jumps and Candis Kelley is really working hard going into her senior year. I think Kishelle Paul in the last two weeks has started to pick up the pace. She wasn't aware that we were getting ready to have a talk about her training, but she must have sensed my body language because she has really picked it up and moved herself in the right direction. Jessica Young is really working hard right now, hold on I have to stop because my wife is calling. (Coach Anderson had to take a break from his weekly breakdown because his wife was calling about his daughter's dentist appointment)
Meaghan Peoples has been really steady and been doing the work she has to do to improve herself in the heptathlon.
I think we are starting to see some development in cross country here at TCU. Festus Kigen has performed very respectfully in the two big meets this fall, while the women have started to get a little more competitive with each other. Tanja Ivandic and Danielle Selner have done well, but we are going to continue to improve our women's cross country team.
Overall, we are slowly coming together, but obviously we are getting to the time of the year where the stress level is causing the kids to have some mental fatigue because of schoolwork. We just need to continue to talk about the goals and objectives of the team.
This team has a chance to be special if we continue to work hard and come together. I think if we continue to work hard and talk about our goals then I think those are the things that are going to get us through the next couple of weeks.
From a coaching standpoint, I think the coaching staff has done a superb job of keeping the kids going. I think everybody is doing well and the one thing that I always talk about is work ethic. Everyone that is involved with this track and field program from the top to the bottom has to have an improved work ethic and I think we are doing that.
I am pretty happy in where we are at, but ask me again in a few weeks because we are going to start working on some points in practice that are critical for the success of the team.
Players Mentioned
