Encampment is up for the challenge

The Encampment Tigers are preparing for this year’s track and field competition in the 1A Southwest Division.

Kegan Willford, Encampment Tigers track and field head coach, said there are a lot of senior boys that will take leadership but only junior girls and the track team. He believes his students will be ready and prepared for this season.

“This season we have some senior leaders that have been around quite a while, at least boy wise,” Willford said. “We have no senior girls but we have three senior boys that have good experience with some of the greatest work ethics and competitiveness that you are going to see.”

Willford said with the team’s state championship experience to expect big things to happen this year even though it won’t be easy.

“We are hoping to see big things out of all of them this year,” Willford said. “They have done it before by winning a lot of state championships and regional championships. The seniors and the ones who have won it before are the leaders of the team right now and we will see how far they can lead us.”

Willford said he is also impressed with the girl’s leadership. He said even though there are only juniors girls on the team, they bring leadership because of other sports that they compete in.

“Our junior girls are kind of the same way and they have taken leadership of both teams this year in volleyball and basketball, because of the lack of seniors,” Willford said. “We are expecting the junior girls to step up and they have seen some success in track and field at this point in their careers”.

Kagan said it will be a tough challenge to compete against the likes of Cokeville and Saratoga due to higher numbers of competitors. Currently Encampment has fewer numbers in track and field compared to the schools they will be competing against but Willford said he believes his team will be ready for the challenge.