Danville High School’s track and field team began its 2026 season in January, running until the state competition in March. This sport encompasses over 15 different events in the areas of throwing, running and jumping. Five students at DHS, were interviewed to give their insight on the sport: Ella Bottom (10th grade), Banks Bratcher (10th grade), Gavin Walker (12th grade), Annie Capers Walter (10th grade), and Anna Watson (12th grade).
Because there are so many different events, the team has many coaches. The head coach is Ryan Jackson, who oversees the entire team. The other coaches include Coach Clint Followell, Coach Dionte Caldwell, Coach Roy Walker, Coach Darius Napier, and Coach Shatoniah Jones. Because different events all have different coaches, students often work more closely with one coach than others when they focus on an event. However, students are not limited to just one event. Most students compete in between two and four events per meet.
The most well-known area of track and field is running. Many DHS students compete in these events. Running has two different main competitions, long-distance running and short-distance running. Many of DHS’s long-distance track runners are also involved in cross country. Anna Watson, in fact, is the captain of the girls cross country team, and other runners, such as Banks Bratcher and Annie Capers Walter, are also participants of the team.
Watson says the cross country and track overlaps are, “something new to our team because a lot of times before we didn’t have a lot of distance runners on the track team. … It’s a good little crossover and helps everyone stay in shape throughout the year.”
However, the track team overall is involved in a lot of sports, not just cross country and track. Gavin Walker is a member of the football team, Ella Bottom is a member of the swim team and Anna Watson is a member of the tennis team.
For these extra-involved students, sometimes time can be hard to manage. One way that Annie Capers combats this is by making lists.
“I always make a list of all my schoolwork, and then I’ll pick days for me to [complete it]. Because sometimes I’ll go straight from track practice to soccer after school, so you just have to… try your best to balance it out [which can] sometimes it can be a little difficult when there’s so much going on,” Walter said.
One less common area of competition at DHS is jumping. Ella Bottom of the team is currently competing in one area of jumping that no one else at DHS competes in, which is pole vaulting. Because it’s such a specific area of competition, she goes to practice in Richmond.
“I actually pole vault in Richmond with a club because we don’t have a coach for pole vault. … It’s the only pole vault building in Kentucky, and … everyone there pole vaults, so we’re all doing the same thing,” Bottom said.
One notable achievement for some of these students is the number of years they have done track. Many students started in middle school and still do it, such as Banks Bratcher. Though Bratcher is only a sophomore at DHS, he has been running track for Danville since middle school.
(Madelyn Kernen)
“In middle school, it takes less effort to get into track,” Bratcher said, “In high school, you have to be more dedicated to actually practicing. … Also, there’s just higher competition at [high school] meets.”
However, that is not the same for everyone. Anna Watson, a senior, joined this year.
“I joined track because I had extra time in the winter and I wanted to get fit for tennis,” Watson said.
Despite all their hard work, the track and field team still finds plenty of time for fun at their meets.
“After meets, sometimes we go out and, like, eat food all together, and that’s fun. … We also always put ribbons in our hair. Yes, I love doing that,” Walter said.
Bratcher likes doing this as well.
“I remember [at one meet] I had my hair with two pink pigtails and ran around 200; I feel like [the pigtails] gave me like 10 plus speed,” said Bratcher. ”There’ll be meets whenever we’re all just in a good mood and we’ll do something fun like that. Mess with your hair or put on a temporary tattoo.”
