'It's not about winning.' City's fastest girls want to dominate life, not races.
The Class 3A, 6th Region track and field championships are set for Saturday at Henry Clay, but on the girls' side another city school is expected to leave with a lot of medals.
Tates Creek possesses the region’s fastest girls’ times in every non-hurdles running event except the 4-by-800 meter relay, which belongs to Bryan Station, headed into Saturday's meet. A region's winner and runner-up from each event automatically advance to the KHSAA State Championships at the University of Kentucky next weekend; the next 10 best times/marks/heights from the regions, collectively, also advance to state.
Rosalynd Hollingsworth, a junior, last month ran the 100m in 11.76 seconds, the fastest time in the state this season and a time that would have won the event at all but one state meet in KHSAA history (North Hardin's Kianna Gray ran an 11.73 in the 2015 Class 3A 100). Hollingsworth is also part of the 4-by-100 relay ream that at last month's Eastern Relays ran a 47.07, a meet-record time that was is faster than any time ever ran at the KHSAA state meets.
Commodores Coach Jonathan Hawks said his team is trying to position itself to compete well at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor event in June. Winning the program’s first team state title would be nice, and it’ll be within reach based on the likely number of entrants it'll field, but that isn’t what Hawks' girls are focused on.
"It’s not about winning. I feel like if you go against competition, competition will fuel you to a faster time," Hawks said. "It’s about just developing the kids to have a strong mindset. I’m not gonna say ‘go dominate the race,’ but dominate the things you do. Dominate as an individual and everything else will take care of itself."
Hawks, a Georgia native, arrived in Lexington by way of joining the roster of the Kentucky Horsemen, a now defunct indoor football team, after his NFL dreams were put to bed. He started helping out local athletes and was given an opportunity to assist the football and track teams at Tates Creek. Hawks assumed the reins of the track team last season.
Tates Creek gave Hawks purpose, and his bond with the school has kept him from moving back home.
“I want to see them gain some of the success that people may have said they couldn’t have,” Hawks said. “ … That’s why I enjoy pumping my heart into this school, cause I know these kids and this community, they see what I’m about and I’m just giving everything that I went through in my life to them.”
They’re continually giving back to him, too.
“These kids become my family and their families become my family,” he said. “ … They know that I’ve got their back no matter what, even if it’s not about track. I’m passionate about seeing them succeed. It’s not about trying to run in college. Everybody doesn’t want to go to college and run track, so what can I do motivate this individual to want to be a better individual as person?”
Character-building is a constant focus for Hawks. Providing a positive influence – whether it’s on the track or far away from it – matters more to him than building faster, stronger athletes.
Of course, focused people with positive motivation tend to flourish when their number is called.
“He builds their mentality. He builds their spirit. He builds them as a person and it helps them become a better runner," Myann Davidson, a Tates Creek junior, said of her coach. "If you can persevere in practice, you can persevere in life. That’s what he teaches you. We try to make it through practice so we know that if things get hard any time, we can push through."
Senior Kendra Thomas, who anchored the record-breaking relay team as an alternate in Louisville, echoed that sentiment.
"Anytime during the day I can call him and know he’s gonna be there for me," Thomas said. "Just knowing your coach will be there for you, whether you’re running track or not, is a really big thing and makes you want to go harder."
This story was originally published May 10, 2018 at 10:21 AM with the headline "'It's not about winning.' City's fastest girls want to dominate life, not races.."