Campbell Armstrong, Reporter
@carmcourant
While track was mostly just an after school activity to fill their time, seniors Henry and Wyatt Spangler took their talent to a new level when they recently committed to run Division I track at Providence College. “I started playing at the start of freshman year,” Henry recalled. “I was playing lacrosse in middle school but I didn’t really want to pursue it in high school.”
Wyatt and Henry agreed that sprinting was their forte, considering they were naturally very fast. Henry took on pole vaulting when he realized that sprinting went hand in hand. “I pole vault because it was just something I thought would be fun to try freshman year,” he said.
Track became a part of the Spangler’s lives that they hadn’t seen coming. “Track is just a really great sport in that most of the people that are on the team really care about it and strive to make it a great community,” Wyatt said. According to Henry, “Track is a fun team activity and I feel that we have a really good relationship with everyone considering we are all friends. We have a lot of fun and it’s also a pretty rigorous sport which keeps it interesting.”
The twins first considered track after competing in Nationals last summer in Greensboro, North Carolina. Due to the fact that they started so late, they never thought that this possibility awaited them. “Before the possibility of track in college, Providence would have been a really big reach for me and my brother, so it definitely helped me get into a better school than I could academically,” Wyatt said. “We scheduled a date to visit Providence and we both met with the coach together. He informed us he would be in touch in the near future. They didn’t really reach out to us, we reached out to them,” he admitted. After meeting with the coach, he offered to recruit the twins. At first, the plan was to hear back at the same time but after getting Wyatt’s email wrong, only Henry received it. Nervous and heartbroken, they all thought that one got in and not the other. Soon, the problem was fixed and they ended up both
committing.
Although it seemed far-fetched in the recruitment process, Wyatt and Henry didn’t do this alone. With the help of a few coaches, they were able to transform this after school activity into a lifestyle. “We have had three coaches that have really helped our recruiting process. Coach Martin helped in the sense that he was the one who reached out to a lot of coaches for us and let them know that we were interested in pursuing track in college. Coach Evans and Coach Pavia definitely helped by preparing us for a division one sport in terms of increasing our speed,” Wyatt said.
Growing up together, they both admit that going to college won’t be much different than life during high school. “Originally, going to school with my twin wasn’t planned but I don’t mind it. I’m really excited because I never thought that division one would be a possibility for me before this year,” Henry said.
Wyatt agreed. “I’m most excited for the fact that it will be taken a lot more seriously and I know people there will really care about the sport. Everyone is going to be good, so I can’t wait to meet everyone and see what they are all about.”
