New track boosts hopes at SU

 
The resurfacing of Roscoe J. Moore track will allow Southern Track athletes to focus on the competition instead of the dangers of an “injury-causing” training ground.
The track is no longer the blue that Southern alumni may remember, but the standard red color along with yellow exchange zones for relay runners.
The track had not been resurfaced in 26 years, and it is recommended that a track is resurfaced every seven years. Due to poor maintenance, it has become an injury-causing surface.
110-meter hurdler Erich Seals said that the track caused a lot of injuries, some happened because of the holes in the track during inclement weather.
“All of the sprinters were really getting downsized because you have to put so much impact and force on it,” Seals said.  ”When you have something that just has not been taken care of in the last 26 years, its crazy.”
Seals’ fellow runner suffered from two stress fractures because of condition of the track.
The Roscoe J. Moore track hit its all-time low when the Pelican Relays (a track meet that has been held on Southern’s campus since 1959) went to a different location because it wasn’t suitable for runners at the collegiate and high school levels.
The only other time the Pelican Relays wasn’t held on Southern’s campus was in 1981, during that time A.W. Mumford Stadium was undergoing a total renovation.
“I was actually here the year before they didn’t have the relays and no one wanted to come here, nobody wants to run on anything that has not been taken care off,” Seals said. 
He said the recruitment efforts and perceptions of the Southern program were at stake with the delay of the track’s maintenance.
“It looks bad for recruiting, it looks bad for high school kids who wanted to come over here, and it looks bad when you don’t have colleges here to run,” Seals said.
Brian Johnson, Southern head track coach can take a sigh of relief along with his runners with the resurfacing complete.
Johnson, a member of the 2008 United States Olympic team, said that the new track can help revive the Southern’s track and field teams.
“I like it a lot its going to help me out a lot in recruiting so much just having that new red and yellow surface,” Johnson said. “It’s a really soft surface I can really train them hard on it and I don’t have to worry about them getting injured as much.”
This year’s Pelican Relays will mark its 53^rd year since inception, and it will be held on the Roscoe J. Moore Track for high school runners only due to the track’s completion date too late for the collegiate schedule.
Johnson is still excited about having the Pelican Relays back on campus.
“We are trying to have 36 teams here and make it big and that will help us out in recruiting and it will allow us to see the local talent as well,” Johnson said. “We are going to have a DJ here so we are going to try to make this really big.”
Although the Southern men’s and women’s teams won’t be able to compete on the track this year they will probably be happy just to see meets being held on the track.
“Even though we can’t host it for collegiate teams it’s still good to have high school kids come here and eventually they will want to come here because they will see that we have a nice track,” Seals said.
The Pelican Relays are scheduled for April 6-7, 2013.