Liberty Christian Academy has recently added another sports program. Starting in the 2024-25 school year, LCA will provide students, both boys and girls, the opportunity to run track in the spring.
Doug Smith, the schools’ newly hired head administrator, brought this idea to Athletic Director Butch Clark. Smith will lead the program as head coach.
“We’ve had some interest in it for several years, but we’ve never really had someone that was skilled enough to coach it,” Clark said. “I’ve known for a long time and he’s always done a good job at whatever he does.”
Smith noted that coaching track is a passion of his, as his daughter runs collegiate track and he ran himself when he was younger.
“I just think it provides great opportunities for kids,” Smith said. “So many kids can find areas or things in track that help them be successful.”
Smith has coached the sport for about 15 years at previous schools. He also watches and learns from his daughter playing the sport as well.
“It’s just something that I have a passion for,” Smith said.”I’ve learned a lot through watching my daughter really devote herself to it and improve the little aspects of it.”
Clark added that some of the students have already shown interest in participating next year, but the school will have to work around girls soccer that also competes in the spring. Smith also said that what’s nice about track is you only need a couple kids to get a team going.
“We’ll have to work around that. I had to do that as a track coach for years and find opportunities for kids who want to do both and be able to participate in both,” Smith said.
As of now, the program is considering extending the sport to middle schoolers, but Clark notes it will depend on how much help and resources they are provided with.
Both Clark and Smith are hoping to add a few more assistant coaches, but added that this will also depend on how many kids participate.
“I wouldn’t want to limit it to high school if we have the people and resources to add middle school,” Clark said.
LCA will continue to build more student interest surrounding the sport, but should be set to run in spring 2025.
“I am excited to see what happens,” Smith said. “It presents awesome opportunities for kids and what I love best about it is it’s an awesome sport where you can measure yourself on an almost daily, weekly basis.”
