By TR HARLAN

Everyone can use some help.

For the Chesterton boys track team, that help may come from the return of Head Football Coach John Snyder to the helm of the program. But, he says it won’t be because of him.

“I felt the need for our football kids to be out for track,” Snyder said. “Without having the football coach involved it was difficult to convince them to do that.

“Secondly, I thought it would help the track program to get more kids involved.”

The Trojans will open the outdoor season tonight as they run against Highland beginning at 4:30 p.m. at CHS.

“My overall goal for the program is to develop depth in all events,” Snyder said. “The really good track teams have depth. Everyone has some really good runners, but it’s the runners right behind them that scores points to put you over the top.”

Snyder takes over for Tim Ray who had piloted the program for the last five years. Ray, CHS’ Boys Cross Country coach, will remain on the staff as the team’s distance and high jump coach.

“The last time we got the football team involved, we were successful both in track and in football,” Snyder said. “With 103 kids out, we have depth and now we have to help the quality level of that depth.”

Snyder knows the turnaround won’t come immediately, but has seen the process begin through the indoor season.

“We were seventh in the DAC last year, so I want to be sixth or better,” Snyder said. “If we do that every year, we’re only a couple years away from competing with the top teams.”

The majority of the Trojans’ points may come from the distance group that finished second in the conference in Cross Country during the fall.

“I’d say the distance kids are probably a strength, but the problem is, the entire area is loaded in distance kids. That’s probably our best chance to score points in meets with David (Osborn), Chester (Vanek) and that group.”

Andrew Morris, Jon Rogers and Ryan Cutter also made strides during the indoor season in the distance runs.

“We have some quality middle distance kids that should continue to improve too,” Snyder said. “Other than that, I think we’ll be right in the middle with everybody else.”

Chesterton’s greatest strength might be its young kids with a talented group of freshmen and sophomore’s littering the roster.

“We’ve got a really good freshman and sophomore group of kids,” Snyder said. “Some classes are really good in sprints or distance or the field events, but I think this group can be good in every event.

“We’ve got some really talented kids in those classes and I’m really excited about what they are capable of.”

Posted 4/3/2008