ROCKINGHAM — It may not have been the season Chris Campolieta wanted to have, but the Richmond Senior High School head boys’ track and field coach still feels his athletes competed to make the 2019 season a success.
In his second year as the team’s head coach, Campolieta saw several returning runners and jumpers, as well as many underclassmen, fill the spots left behind from a season ago. Injuries throughout the season led to many fresh faces stepping up to earn their stripes early on.
Remaining competitive in each of the team’s regular-season meets, the Raiders took seventh in the Sandhills Athletic Conference championship after several top performers were pulled due to injury. But Campolieta wouldn’t let that one performance define his team’s season.
“As a team we did fine. The boys worked hard and developed as the season went on,” Campolieta said. “We had a chance to put a lot of young guys in situations to compete at the varsity level and that is always a positive.
“We battled through a lot of injuries in the middle of the year that kind of set us back in terms of reaching out full potential,” he added. “A lot of the time we had to pull young men out of events to keep them safe and injury free. I thought if we stayed healthy all year we could have ran better at the conference, regional and state championship meets.”
A season ago, Campolieta’s 4x100-meter relay team finished first in the state, but saw its state title race wiped away due to a zone infraction. While still one of the fastest foursomes in the state this season, the Raiders placed eighth overall in the same event in last week’s state championship meet in Greensboro.
Seniors Preston Coker and Malik Stanback, both returners from last year’s relay team, paired up with junior Jaheim Covington and sophomore Caleb Hood to run a time of 42.25 seconds. That mark was less than half a second from finishing in the top six.
Campolieta added that while the relay teams competed, it was “hard to build chemistry” when injuries led to inconsistency from meet to meet.
There were also several personal records set in 2019, as well as growth across the board in several events. Campolieta noted how Coker and Stanback consistently ran sub-10.9 second races in the 100-meter dash, which kept the team in several meets this season. Coker also finished sixth in the state championship meet in the 200-meter dash.
Another group that got better as the season went along was the high jumpers. At the start of the campaign, Campolieta said how none of his guys could clear 5’-6”. But with time, seniors Xavier Pettigrew, Alex Quick, Christopher Quick, junior Antron Miller and sophomore Dalton Stroman developed into a solid group of jumpers who all cleared 6’-0”.
Miller cleared the bar at 6’2” at the regional meet earlier this month.
The head coach said he also “saw a great deal of improvement from our throwers this year.” Juniors Javon Little and Gavin Russell, along with sophomore Jah’meek Harding all threw over 41 feet in the shot put, after having not competed in the event last year. All three also scored points in the SAC championship meet at UNC-Pembroke.
Junior Joerail White hit a personal record of over 135 feet at the regional meet in the discus throw. He had some injury issues that sidelined him for a few meets, but he finished the season strong.
“I’m very thankful to have had two throwing coaches in Coach Bryan Till and Coach John Ware to help these kids reach their goals,” Campolieta said.
With two years of head coaching experience under his belt, and the two being a roller coaster of highs and lows, Campolieta noted his biggest takeaway this season is that “winning really isn’t everything.”
“High school coaches can get lost in just trying to win everything and they forget about developing these boys into young men of character,” Campolieta shared. “It is our job as coaches to help these athletes understand what character is, and how to display it every day.
“Sure, I would have loved to win more races or meets, but I know for a fact the young men that ran this year left the program better people,” he added. “And that is what is important to me and my staff.”
The future of the program also looks bright, with a lot of returners set to come back next spring.
“We have a lot of young guys who got a lot of chances to compete this year,” Campolieta closed. “All of our top throwers are back next year, along with a few of our faster guys. There is a bright future for track in Richmond County."
