Abington Friends School Track & Field Headed in the Right Direction
It is rare for any given high school track team to have three runners capable of running a five minute mile or better. That is a luxury usually only enjoyed by the largest public schools. It is almost unheard of for any given high school to have two Freshmen and a Junior capable of doing so. Despite being one of the smaller private schools in the area, such is the case at Abington Friends School this spring.
Lead by Freshman Michael Eastmond who posted a Personal Record in the mile by running 4:48.7 at GFS on Tuesday, the Track and Field Program at AFS is enjoying a remarkable resurgence under new Head Coach Kyle Rankin.
The rate at which these guys are improving is really impressive. said Rankin, Week to week they are beginning to see the results of their hard work and I can sense their excitement and enthusiasm levels growing with every race.
Not far behind Eastmond are Boys Team Captain, Noah Rosenfeld, and Freshman, Jack Balick. Though he is only a Junior, the leadership that Noah provides for our young team is exceptional, said Rankin, and although he has been a soccer player for many years, I am not sure that the one with the most distance running potential might not be Jack Balick.
Thus far this spring, members of the Boys and Girls Track teams at AFS have combined to establish nearly 60 new Personal Records.
When you are talking about high school sports, there is nothing more exciting than potential, said Rankin, As one of the youngest teams in the area, we have got a ton of it. Exactly where we go and what we decide to do with that potential over these next couple of years is really up to the kids. We have an enormous amount of work to do, more work than I think the kids can really appreciate and understand, but many of the important pieces are already in place.
Rankin anticipates that AFS may have as many as a dozen athletes running at next Wednesdays PAISSA State Championship meet to be held at Hill School in Pottstown.
We have still got business to take care of this spring, said Rankin, but I have already got one eye on this fall’s Cross Country season. I think that many of the kids do too. If we can stay healthy and work as hard as we need to work over the summer, we have the potential to be among the most exciting young Cross Country teams in the area this fall.”
Prior to assuming his role as Head Coach at Abington Friends in January, Rankin had been coaching at Eastern University in Radnor. As a collegiate athlete he had been a standout distance runner at the University of Tennessee in the late 1980s.
As I have said all along, my intention is to develop the AFS Running Program into something that all of us can truly be proud of, said Rankin, though we’ve got a long way to go, I think that we are heading in a very positive direction.