Bobby Kelly was kind of coerced into joining the Prince George Track and Field Club this year when his dad strongly suggested it would be good way for him to improve as a basketball player.
That fatherly advice has certainly paid off and the 16-year-old College Heights Secondary School student realizes it every time he steps out onto the court at the Roll-A-Dome to play for his Northern Bounce Academy team.
He’s quicker, faster, more flexible and can leap buildings in a single bound. Well not exactly. He’s no Superman, but being able to jump 33.6 inches with both feet off the floor is some kind of vertical.
“My dad told me I was doing I like track a lot, it helps me with my other sports, learning the proper form and technique and stuff,” said Kelly, who says his running ability has noticeably improved after months of practice with PGTFC sprint coach Cathy Johnson.
“She taught me to keep my legs up, proper form, you don’t have to be so aggressive, just stay relaxed when I run. I found, once I started, I wasn’t too quick, but now I’m getting up and down the court real quick. It keeps me in better shape.”
Kelly has found a friend in the track club and on the basketball court in Adam Sieben. They train and compete against each together in both sports and are close in ability and that’s bringing out the best in them. They had a chance to gauge their track and field progress during the two-day Spruce Capital meet that wrapped up Sunday at Masich Place Stadium .
Now in his sixth season with the PGTFC, Sieben kicked in the afterburner to put some distance between himself and Kelly in the 100m race Saturday, clocking a personal-best 11.91 seconds, two-tenths faster than his previous best.
“I had a pretty good start and just tried to keep the speed the entire way through,” said Sieben.
Kelly finished the sprint in 12.63. A couple of adults ran with the boys 100m race and 26-year-old Calum Westbrook was the fastest of the fast, finishing in 11.49, while 34-year-old Brody Yoxall crossed the finish in 12.60. Caleb Emon ran a 12.45 100m, third-quickest in the meet. Fourteen-year-old Kamfechi Udumaga clocked 12.76, after missing three weeks of practice with a torn hip flexor.
Sieben, a Grade 9 student at Duchess Park, also won his 300m final in 38.21, a full second quicker than his previous best time.
“I like the sprints, the 300 is maybe my favorite,” said Sieben.
Kelly ran the 400m and kept pace in the early going with 18-year-old Max Whitehouse but faded badly over the last 200m.
“My lungs started giving out on me,” said Kelly. “I tried to push. I would say it’s the toughest race, it’s like a long sprint.”
Kelly added 10 centimetres to his best high jump on Saturday, clearing the bar at 1.70 metres.
“I like jumping; jumping is my thing,” said Kelly. “I actually got a good sleep last night and I’ve been working on my form a lot.”
Emon, 16, won the high jump with a PB leap of 1.75 metres, proving he’s a national-level athlete in the event. He would have qualified to represent Prince George in the 2021 Legion National Youth Track and Field Championships, originally scheduled for Aug. 6-8 in Sherbrooke, Que.,, but the meet has been cancelled due to the pandemic.
“He gives me motivation, for sure,” said Kelly. “He has a different approach, but I like seeing what he does, to try to improve.”
Like Sieben, Kelly is in his fourth year with Northern Bounce. They play two or three times every week with their academy team and that’s been their salvation the past two basketball seasons considering COVID has forced cancellation of the high school leagues. They’re just getting back to playing games again at the academy, now that the province has lifted heath restrictions which prevented that to try and limit the spread of the virus.
“They’re both excellent basketball players and they’re also really good track athletes,” said Johnson, a former national level sprinter from Calgary who ran track for Ohio State University from 1996-2000.
“Whether you’re in soccer, basketball or hockey, any sport that involves movement, track will add to your skillset and that’s what you want. Track will add value to the sport that you do and it has something for everybody. We have walking events, throwing events , jumping events, distance events and sprinting events.”
Kionae Roberts proved the Spruce Capital meet speed queen, running the 100 in 14.05. She went on to break the meet record in the 13-year-old girls 300m in 45.14 seconds. That shattered the old record of 46.36 set in 2014 by Brooklyn Stouffer, who is now coaching Roberts at the PGTFC.
Roberts had some fast company in her 13-14-year-old girls division with Hannah Neukomm (14.45) and Jocelyn Murguly (14.50) both posting sub-15-second runs, as did Emma Ward (14.56), who won the 16-17-year-old division.
Spruce Capital was the last of three scheduled meets on the PGTFC calendar but there could be more meets out of town once COVID provincial health orders are revised. The province is expected to announce on Tuesday it is moving to Step 2 in its four-stage restart plan.
