Cydney Ventura
Reporter
As last year’s winter track season came to a close, the boys’ coach, Steve Bedard, decided to step down from his position. Since Mr. Bedard was the boys’ track coach for nine years, his job would be a tough one to fill. Fortunately, former college track coach Bill Martin chose to take up the offer and become the new coach. With his extensive 33 years involved with the sport and college and high school coaching experience, Athletic Director Jay Egan felt that he would be the perfect man for the job.
Mr. Martin’s substantial knowledge of the sport was stemmed from his past running experiences and numerous athletic accomplishments. He is a three-time Olympic trials qualifier, Olympic finalist, Iona College hall of fame inductee, as well as a Westchester County hall of fame nominee.
According to Mr. Egan, Mr. Martin wasn’t very hard to find since he first discovered him from prior track meets back when he was a coach himself. “Before I was the athletic director I was the girls’ track coach for ten years and I actually knew Bill because he has coached at a number of other schools in the FCIAC [Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference],” he said. “So I knew him from coaching against him and the fact that he was at Norwalk High School and had already been coaching.”
Mr. Egan also explained why Mr. Martin’s hire would help to strengthen the team in events not just limited to running. “The thing that appealed to me about Bill is that I’ve seen the work that he has done with the athletes at Norwalk,” he said. “Hurdlers, high jumpers, long jumpers and that’s what I think is important for our program, that we are able to develop those types of skills in our athletes.”
Senior captain Devaun Bovell has found that getting comfortable with the new coach has not been too hard for him or the team as a whole since a majority already knew him coming into the season. “The team has gotten used to our new coach pretty quickly,” he said. “He was the assistant coach of cross country, so half the team already knew him coming into the indoor season.”
Devaun is also confident in how he thinks this season will turn out with Mr. Martin. “I think that the team will do well with the new coach this season because he not only has running experience but also coaching experience,” he said.
Junior Sam Reynolds agrees with Devaun and believes that Mr. Martin will only bring positivity to the team and lead them to a successful season. “He’s a really motivational guy, he always writes quotes on the Facebook group,” he said. “He seems to care a lot about the sport and he has a good history with running so that can only lead to good things.”
Senior George Bennett provided some insight on what coach Martin’s workouts and practices consist of and how they differ from Bedards’. “Martin’s workouts are a lot more conditioning right now but Bedard last year did a lot more repetition,” he said.
George also made it clear that everyone is going to miss Mr. Bedard because he has contributed so much to the track program over the past years. “All the seniors wanted their final year to be with Bedard because he has meant a lot to us, but we’re making the transition,” he said.
Mr. Martin expects his athletes to perform the way they would with Mr. Bedard as coach and doesn’t believe that his new position will hinder the success of the season . “I don’t think me being new is going to affect the performance of the team, it’s only going to depend on the boys who are here that return and whether or not we can make up for those boys that graduated,” he said.
Mr. Martin also spoke about the talent on the team and how he thinks it will benefit the season. “We’ll return with Devaun Bovell, who was runner up at the New England’s last year which theoretically makes him the number one hurdler this year in New England,” he said. “So with his leadership and with him anchoring the team, I think the boys will rally around him.”
The boys are looking forward to another triumphant season and Devaun believes that the new coach will continue Mr. Bedard’s legacy. “In my three years of running, our track team has been successful, and I think it will continue this year with the new coach,” he said.
