The Olympic Trials have begun and memories of sports have been flooding back.

Tonight the Track and Field Trials have started and I have been running down memory lane.

I started running the half and Mile in Jr. High and continued with the middle and long distance races in High School. I ran cross country and track my freshman year and lettered in both sports.

I have some great memories of my freshman year as it was great to watch some of the older athletes on the team and learn from them.

Another great memory of that year was winning the Iroquois League championship. About seven years ago they made all new banners for my hometown high school gym and I was able to acquire the old championship banner.

Even as a freshman I helped contribute to the win as I placed in several events, including being on the 2-mile relay team that won the gold.  I am not sure when we started using metric designations, but we usually just referred to the old names for the races.Here is our league championship 2-mile relay team

I also have the patch that we were given for winning the championship. It is on the back of my letter jacket that is still hanging in one of my closets.

I remember the new smell of the jacket. Luckily the jacket was a bit large when I received it as I had almost outgrown it by my Senior year. I remember wearing it at cold and windy track meets while waiting to run the half, mile, two mile or the two mile relay.

One of my best Track memories was our two mile relay team qualifying for State my senior year and running my last High School race in the Wichita State University stadium.

Bryan, beside me on the right end, and I ran together all four years on the 3200m relay and I have some great memories of our friendship.

Steven