{"id":23974,"date":"2025-01-18T00:40:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T07:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/coaches-in-cortez-prepare-track-athletes-for-spring-with-preseason-training\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:07","slug":"coaches-in-cortez-prepare-track-athletes-for-spring-with-preseason-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/coaches-in-cortez-prepare-track-athletes-for-spring-with-preseason-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaches in Cortez prepare track athletes for spring with preseason training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School coaches offer preseason training to track athletes during the winter. (Jeremy Yarbrough\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For athletes who wish to take their track and field training to the next level, winter training is offered at Montezuma-Cortez High School. Athletes are given extra training and face time with coaches that will prepare them for the track season in spring.<\/p>\n

Coach Bob Archibeque, who is about to start his 48th year coaching track and field at MCHS, said he can\u2019t remember a time in his tenure that winter training hasn\u2019t been offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can never remember a season when we didn\u2019t offer offseason conditioning for the upcoming season. We have most years began this winter training in December and January,\u201d Archibeque said. \u201cWe use the track mostly unless weather is poor. Other than the track, we use the weight room, halls, roads and hills when possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Yarbrough, who is in his 18th year of coaching, said participating athletes are training at the track two or three days, depending on the week, as well as doing a lifting program on the other days.<\/p>\n

About 15 students have been participating consistently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been fun,\u201d Yarbrough said.<\/p>\n

Archibeque noted that there is \u201ctremendous benefit\u201d in winter training to prepare for the track and field season. Not only does it create interest in the program and recruit potential track athletes, but it also allows coaches to get to know the athletes more, better understand where athletes fit into the program, create a team culture and help eliminate injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are better prepared to do workout and compete come spring,\u201d Archibeque said. \u201cWe take a slow gradual approach in our philosophy. We try not to go too fast to eliminate injury as much as possible. We do a lot of injury prevention for outdoor season, especially in the lower leg areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do this, the coaches work to create a foundation and base that allows the athletes to complete workouts in the spring and grow their confidence at indoor winter meets.<\/p>\n

Another aspect of the winter training centers upon strength development, power, anaerobic and aerobic systems, as well as techniques that will be used for the 18 events that are offered during the outdoor season.<\/p>\n

Jarrett Watkins, MCHS physical education teacher, also weighed in on the strength part of winter training.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe training really looks like standard lifts and a lot of plyometrics, a lot of jumping and agility stuff,\u201d Watkins said. \u201cThey\u2019re basically trying to get their endurance up for the season, because they can\u2019t really get outside too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also mentioned that winter training can help prevent injuries like shin splints.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s getting a head start on the track season,\u201d Watkins said. \u201cThose kids that come during the winter have a head start on the kids that don\u2019t. That endurance that you need for track, they\u2019re starting from scratch when they finally hit the season in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former MCHS track and football coach Ivan Mack, who now coaches track for Monticello High School, echoed what his fellow coaches shared about winter training, saying, \u201cWinter training has been consistent and is extremely important to establishing a foundation for the spring track season.\u00a0These athletes have an advantage when entering the track season because a lot of the base physical preparation has been set.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the goals Archibeque shared for the 2025 track season include getting as many athletes to participate as possible, be competitive at meets, see improvements throughout the season, \u201cmake a run\u201d at league titles, take athletes to state and give athletes a great experience.<\/p>\n

Zander Cruzan, a former MCHS track athlete in his freshman year at the University of Northern Colorado, helped the coaches with winter training while on his break. Cr<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom an athlete\u2019s standpoint, it might not be as encouraging to start your preseason running and strength and conditioning in the preseason, but I highly encourage getting a jump on it,\u201d Cruzan said. \u201cWhen spring rolls around, you\u2019ll have that much of an edge on your competition. \u2026 I would just encourage athletes to get a jump on the preseason training because it works wonders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruzan noted that trying to start from scratch before the short spring season can be difficult for athletes who wish to have strong track seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really have a lot of time to build the base that you want when you just jump straight into training when you\u2019re not ready for it,\u201d Cruzan said. \u201cThat\u2019s where a lot of injuries can come, and people don\u2019t meet their expectations because they didn\u2019t have enough time to build themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archibeque and Yarbrough also spoke of Cruzan\u2019s participation in the winter training.<\/p>\n

\u201cZander comes to some workouts and shows kids how to prepare properly for workouts throughout his warmup and demonstrates a very high-level work ethic,\u201d Archibeque said. \u201cHe shows our kids how an athlete from our small school can make it at the highest level of collegiate track and do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always been such a role model for the kids,\u201d Yarbrough said. \u201cHe\u2019s super kind and he\u2019s super encouraging. This hasn\u2019t gone to his head at all, and I love for him to be around the kids. The kids have loved seeing him, how he trains, seeing his workouts and just seeing his positive vibes he\u2019s given to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mack, who coached Cruzan in football and track, noted that seeing an athlete return to the community they grew up in to give back is special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is huge when an athlete who is competing or has competed at high level comes back to the community and imparts their knowledge and experiences on other athletes.\u00a0It creates an energy amongst the kids and allows them to see their potential possibilities,\u201d Mack said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

coaches shared the importance of preseason training to help eliminate injuries and build a base for spring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,60,36,29,2647,594],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-track","tag-track-and-field"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78343,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23974\/revisions\/78343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23974"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}