OHS track program enters dual-sport era
In his second season as Orrick varsity track coach, Kirk Thacker is doing something he didn’t have to do last season: share his athletes with another sport.
Per a change in school district participation policy, student-athletes may play more than one sport each season. Thus, some girls are splitting time between track and field and softball (see related preview).
Thacker is confident he and first-year softball coach Taylor Golden will easily juggle practice time with their dual-sport athletes.
“We can find inventive ways to get our practices in, whether … (that) be morning practice (or otherwise),” he said March 6. “If they have a softball game, I can have mine come in and do morning practice – or vice versa, … they can do morning practice if we have a track meet.”
A history of addressing dual-sport issues fuels Thacker’s confidence. While leading the Norborne Hardin-Central varsity 8-man football program, he worked with athletes who split time between cross country and football,…