- January 19th, 2006, 12:18 pm
#636
Our indoor track apparently is having a nice impact reaching out to the Lynchburg community:
LU's new facility puts area athletes on fast trackhttp://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... th=!sports
By Ted Allen
Lynchburg News & Advance
January 19, 2006
Central Virginia has long been known for producing some of the state's top track and field talent.
Now, with the opening of the Tolsma Indoor Track Center at Liberty University's LaHaye Student Center, area athletes have the opportunity to showcase their speed and skill on a much larger local stage.
"The only thing kids want to do is to run fast and that's what this facility allows them to do," said Brookville athletic director John Vasvary, who will serve as director of the Group AA state meet to be run at LU for the first time on March 4. "It's absolutely great. It's the best thing that's happened to track in the area in a long, long time."
Previously, Heritage High has hosted the majority of the area's high school indoor competition, with other facilities available at Lynchburg College and Virginia Episcopal School. However, those tracks, located in the schools' gymnasiums, are only one-twelfth of a mile in length. LU's track center, located in the enormous former Ericsson Building, features a 200-meter oval.
"When Liberty University got the additional 1 million square feet of space, I got to thinking there must be some place to put an indoor track," said Tolsma, LU's indoor and outdoor track and field coach. "There's only four lanes on the curves, but eight on the straight-aways. We wanted to make it fast."
As an added bonus, the track is manufactured by Mondo Super X, which has supplied outdoor track surfaces for the past five Summer Olympic Games.
"It's only fitting that ? in a place that's been such a good track area, that you'd finally have something like this," Vasvary said. "If you look
at the program Brant Tolsma has had at Liberty, there's no question the place is going to be something special when it's all said and done."
The center is far from finished, but very much a work in progress. It still has a factory-like look to it, with missing ceiling tiles temporarily exposing a metallic roof and a labyrinth of pipes, lights and vents.
"It's not a pretty facility, but it's a great facility," said Staunton River coach Joe Curcio, who will be the director for the Group AA outdoor state meet at James Madison University this spring. "This is a wonderful place to run."
Tolsma said there are plans to put Astroturf on the flooring on the inside and outside of the track surface, possibly before LU hosts the Old Dominion Athletic Conference meet for the first time on Feb. 24.
"We're excited," he said. "We have upgraded the facility and it's an ongoing process."
Though many runners prefer the banked turns offered at Virginia Tech's Rector Fieldhouse, site of last winter's Group AA state meet, LU's track is completely flat with wide, sweeping turns.
"Our kids feel comfortable running on this track," Rustburg coach Gerald Mosley said. "They're more accustomed to running on tracks that aren't banked. They feel like they're at home, so it's just great for all of the area teams around here."
"The kids go out to Virginia Tech and they're not used to the springiness of the (high banked turns)," Curcio added.
Spectator seating is one of the biggest advantages the Tolsma Center has over venues such as that at Virginia Tech,
"The bleachers were something I pushed for that we had to get in before the season started," Tolsma said. "They seat 750, but if you pack the place out, you could get 3,000 people in here, including the athletes."
"It's only going to help increase the popularity of indoor track in the area," Mosley added. "It's going to bring in big teams to run here."
LU has already hosted three big prep meets, including last weekend's Asics High School Invitational, which drew 1,080 athletes from seven states including two teams from Alabama.
"We're really excited about what it's doing for not only our own program, but also high school track and field in the area," Tolsma said. "We're trying to feel our way to see what we can handle. We had entries from 43 schools and had to turn away another 10 or 20, including two from Tennessee."
Fred Henderson, head coach of Liberty Christian Academy's first-year indoor team, said the Asics Invitational is already one of the state's biggest and should continue to grow.
"We hope in a couple of years, this will be one of the best meets in the mid-Atlantic," he said. "The potential's already there."
Tolsma says he's both humbled and honored that the facility will bear his name, with a dedication ceremony set for 11:45 a.m. on Jan. 28, during a break in the On Track Open meet.
"If I had to have something named after me, it would be a track," Tolsma said. "I don't aspire for things like that. Track's not about coaches, it's about athletes. But it certainly is a great honor from Dr. (Jerry) Falwell."
"People will be running all over your name long after you're gone," Curcio said.
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