The Camp Verde High School track and field team is looking to pick up from where it left off in 2010, and should have the talent to do so this spring.
“Our girls will be competitive this year,” said Camp Verde Head Coach Lori Showers, who is entering her ninth season at the helm of the Cowboys track and field program. “Our boys are young and have some talent so we will see what happens.”
In 2010, the girls team made all the noise, finishing fourth overall at the 1A-2A Conference Track and Field State Championships in May.
Camp Verde was the only public school in the top five, giving everyone a reason to believe the Cowboys are for real.
The girls lost only one senior to graduation in Jessica Reay, making it an interesting 2011 season for the Cowboys, to say the least.
Camp Verde will have to contend with a new group of schools, however, this spring, as the Arizona Interscholastic Association realigned the schools over the summer.
The Cowboys currently sit in Division III. As an example to the changes made, rival schools Mingus Union [4A-II conference] and Sedona Red Rock [3A conference] high schools were in different conferences last season, but now all three reside in Division III.
“The changes to the regions, or divisions as it is now, will affect everyone. We are one of the smallest schools in our division. We will contend with teams that have as many as 1,400 kids in their schools,” Showers said.
Top Returners
Top returners for the Camp Verde girls include juniors Deborah Truncali and Emily Showers while senior Libby Roulette returns to compete in the triple jump.
Truncali is a distance runner and should run the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races this spring while Showers is a 4×400- and 4×800-meter specialist.
Sophomore standouts Donnie Buss and Amanda Showers return as well. Buss will be a top star in the 100-meter hurdles this spring while Showers competes in the 300-meter hurdles, the high jump and the long jump.
For the boys, four juniors will carry the load for the Cowboys this season beginning with Chris Zellner who returns to throw the shot put.
Zeke O’Callaghan returns to run the 800-meter and Cameron Stewart should join Zellner in the throwing events.
Junior Trent Fogelson returns as well but the three events he will participate in are undecided at this time, according to
Lori Showers.
Sophomore Justin Reay also returns to run the 400-meter, and both the 4×400- and 4×100-meter relay events.
Outlook
The Cowboys began the 2011 season March 2, when they traveled south to the Wrangler Invitational at Wickenburg High School.
The boys and girls both took second overall, with seven teams participating. The girls scored 123 points, only four behind first-place winner Estrella Foothills High School which had 127 while the boys had
106 points, far behind Wickenburg’s 236.
“Our girls might have won if we didn’t drop the baton in one of our relay events,” Showers said smiling.
With the new alignment this spring, the Cowboys talent may get lost in the mix with bigger schools looking to dominate the state event come May in Mesa.
