Track Team Takes Children by Storm
The Middletown Knight Striders of Middletown, Maryland, is changing the lives of ordinary children
The Middletown Knight Striders is one of the youth club track teams in Frederick, Maryland, and it has helped benefit many children who grew up in Maryland for a long time by allowing them to acquire valuable skills such as sportsmanship, teamwork, and ethics.
The children who play on the track team are split into two age groups: 8 and under, and 9 and up. This arrangement works for practice, but during meets, where the children play against other youth track teams from Frederick County, they are split into certain age groups.
There are many events that the children involved in the team participate in.
“Usually… I do the long jump, 100-meter run, and the 15-meter run,” said one boy who went to the Middletown Knight Striders as an 8- and 9-year old.
A young boy from the Middletown Knight Striders runs towards the long jump.
The events strengthen a child’s athletic ability and competitiveness, as well as teaches them many values. In addition to that, being part of a youth track team helps children learn many different values, including many associated with sportsmanship.
“From before, I was just this lazy, slow person,” the boy continued, but then he added that it improved his athletic ability.
One parent said that she decided to put her child on the team because it would “build muscle in some parts of his body, and because it is very healthy.” She spoke about her child’s improvement after being with the team for a while, saying,
“He didn’t like it in the beginning; his speed was not good. But, a year later, I saw the difference. It was really nice. He was getting second and third place.”
In addition to improving a child’s athletic ability, the Middletown Knight Striders also helps a child get to know other children with the same interests, as well as teaches them values that will remain with them throughout their lives.
One of the boys from the Knight Striders paces his long jump.
In addition to that, track team taught the children involved that nothing in life is for free.
To do well at a meet, participants had to train. “Almost every week, we had to run one or two miles,” one of the kids at the Middletown Knight Striders said. “It [the training] was really hard and difficult.”
The parents were also pleased with the progress that their children had made as part of being with track team.“He [her son] learned that you don’t get things easy. You have to earn it. You work hard; you get what you’re looking for. He learned teamwork; he learned to accept that it’s okay to be third or fourth place and not to always win. So, that was a very nice lesson.”
When one goes out and sees these children running in meets, it is astounding to see how such young kids could be so fast and agile. At one meet, a child from the Frederick Lightning took first place in a race, speeding by the audience in a blur.
One day, one of these children may become professional track athletes and even go on to play in the Olympics. When asked about who his running role model was, one of the boys didn’t miss a beat. “Usain Bolt,” he replied instantly.
