Q & A with SPIRE Institute's Director of Track and Field Charlie Powell
By Spire Institute (Sponsored Post)
April 4, 2012
Earlier this year, the non profit SPIRE Institute in Ohio announced the launch of its high school and post grad Track and Field Academy in partnership with Andrews Osborne Academy, a college prep school. Prior to this year SPIRE built one of the premier track and field facilities in the country with a 300 meter indoor track with 120 meter straight aways, and an 8 lane outdoor track. The Track and Field Academy under the direction of former University of Pennsylvania coach Charlie Powell will let track and field athletes maximize their potential while getting a first-rate education.
While at Penn, Powell may be most known on LetsRun.com for coaching 800m national champion Sam Burley. Powell at Penn had 2 NCAA individual champions, 18 NCAA All-Americans, one Pan Am Champion, 60 individual NCAA Championship Qualifiers, over 100 individual Conference Champions, over 100 All-East Athletes, two NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship recipients, two Thouron Scholars, Canadian and Australian National Champions and over 50 Academic All-Ivy Team Recipients. Powell's athletes set 15 conference records, 22 outdoor school records and 21 indoor school records.
The Q&A with Coach Powell below will help you learn more about SPIRE's innovative Track and Field Academy. For more info on SPIRE click here.
Q: The first question is why take this on? You were a successful collegiate coach with a lot of job security. Why not stay at Penn until you retired?
Coach Charlie Powell: Actually, I was going to retire until this came up. SPIRE is such a wonderful opportunity. As a college coach, I'd see so many kids who would like to have this type of situation where they can train with top notch resources and coaches, but they can't and they are frustrated where they are. So many times when I was recruiting as a college coach, I'd see the kid who was the only one who could break 10 minutes for 2 miles at his high school. And you'd think 'What would he be like if he was training with other kids like that?' Or even 'What if he was just around other like minded kids in different events who were very passionate and focused on being a great athletes and getting the most of their abilities?' Instead of 'Why are you running so many miles?', they'd say, 'That's great your working so hard.' Imagine, being around guys who want to be state champions or junior champions instead of around guys saying, 'Come hang out with us.' Couple that with world class facilities and it's a wonderful opportunity here at SPIRE.
Q: Tell us a little bit about the track and field facilities at SPIRE.
Coach Powell: We have some of the finest facilities in the country. It's pretty amazing. The indoor facility is one of the better tracks in the country if not the best.
I've been to a lot of indoor places and nothing really compares to this. We've got a 300 meter (indoor) track with very wide radius turns, 8 lanes around the turn, 10 on the straightaway. The straightaways are so long we can run the 110m hurdles. We have 2 vault pits, 2 long jump areas. We can run 4 throws at the same time. It's phenomenal. (The indoor facility has hosted NAIA nationals and next year will host the Big Ten Championships).
Outdoors, we have an 8 lane track within our stadium and we're building a 9 lane IAAF Class 1 facility (a facility that could host a Diamond League meet).
Q: Let's turn to the coaching situation at SPIRE. What can an athlete expect a SPIRE? Will you be coaching or just supervising everything?
Coach Powell: I'm the director but it's all hands on for me. One of the things I said, is I want to be on the track (working with kids) and not just in the office.
There are other coaches we will be bringing in and we'll be making those announcements over the next few months. We're hoping to bring in an outstanding throws coach and an outstanding distance person, but I can't say too much now.
We want to have a top notch group of coaches that will be here the whole time.
We already have the Michael Johnson Performance Center here at SPIRE. They are in place. They work with everyone from track and field people to football to soccer, lacrosse kids, whatever. They (at Michael Johnson High Performance) are pretty amazing at what they do. They are focused on the fundamentals of making every athlete faster, stronger and more agile. They are a great help.
Plus we will have a full-time psychologist to work on the mental aspect of competing. We have a nutritionist on staff. We have a nutritional center with a cafeteria. They can give us readouts of everything the kids are putting in their bodies. The kids won't just be going home and eating pizza and junk. We can not only give athletes advice on diet, but we can provide the food for them, and monitor it. It's very unique.
In some ways its similar to the Olympic Training Centers in Chula Vista (California) and Colorado Springs.
Q: How has the reaction been so far from parents and students?
Coach Powell: We've been getting a lot of positive feedback. The key now is to get people to finalize for next year. I get from 12-15 solid leads a week and in addition all the other requests for information, hundreds a week. People want to know about it.
Plus we have interest in our summer programs which this first year will be one week camps for really in depth training. We're going to have a sprint/hurdles week and a throws/jump weeks. Those are starting to catch fire as is the PG (post-grad) year. As for the full high school academy, we're more getting calls, "Are you really going to do this (put on a track and field high school academy)?" We put them in touch with Andrews Osborne and they see this isn't a pipe dream. They are a school with a 100 year history. Our athletic part with their academic part and you have a viable model.
Q: You mentioned the PG year. Talk a little bit about that.
Coach Powell: The extra year can be a huge help for so many kids. How may kids did you know that started school a year early because they were ready?
Now fast forward and they are graduating at 16 and a half or 17 and everyone else is 18. ?That's a big difference athletically.
A lot of kids just mature at different rates. A lot of college freshman look like they should still be in high school.
An extra year or so can be so important. You're really missing out on a whole year of development. Plus, some Division III colleges and the Ivy League don't let kids take a redshirt year in college and they are really missing out on a whole year of development that we can provide. With us its a one year commitment not a four year commitment. You can really find out with a PG year, what can I do after this? Now where can I go?
Q: If I'm a parent with a high schooler what's your pitch to me?
Coach Powell: Most of the time they come to us because they have a son or daughter who has an interest and passion in track and field. We're going to take that inner drive, that inner passion and allow that to help us mold that young student athlete into a fantastic student, into a fantastic athlete. I hate using the Army slogan "Be all you can be" but it spells it out really well. We want them to not leave any stone unturned. Not have them think, "You know if I had that other coach I would have been better." We don't want kids to finish up and say, "What if." Would have, could have, should have that drives coaches crazy.
Go out and do it. Give it a shot. That's our pitch.
We want parents to know we're no longer a place with just great facilities. We are a place for kids who have a passion . Some will turn out really awesome, some won't. But we're going to make everything available so they can be as successful as they possibly can be. Not everyone is going to be a national champion, not everyone is going to be an Olympian, but why can't you just go out there and feel pride, "I went after this and I reached my goal. I got really good at this." That's what it's all about.
I've got a feeling in two to three years we'll be really well known. I hope so and I think it will be good for US track and field. We're trying to promote opportunities for excellence in track and field as well as swimming, volleyball, soccer and things like that.
For more information on the Spire Track and Field Academy click here.
The post above was paid for by Spire Institute.
|
|
|
|
|
|