A change of scenery hasn’t slowed down the Wolf Pack track team.
The Wolf Pack track team started practice last week, but instead of running on Tulane’s track, the team has been lacing up and heading out to practice on City Park’s community track in Tad Gormley Stadium.
“For the past several years, we have had a facilities sharing agreement with Tulane” the athletic department explained in a statement. “That has allowed us to use their track while they utilize our parking garage for home events held in Devlin Field house.”
However, due to Tulane’s construction of their new football stadium, projected to be complete by the fall of 2014, the Loyola track team has had to make other arrangements and is making the best of the situation.
“Whether we’re practicing at Tulane or the park when it rains a lot we have to come [to Loyola’s Sports Complex] to practice anyway,” explained head coach Andy Canegitta.
“Since our campus is landlocked and land is at a premium in the Uptown area, we have to be creative in providing facilities for our respective athletic programs,” the athletic department said.
City Park is used by other NAIA programs in the city, including Loyola’s golf and tennis teams. The stadium, which seats over 26,000, held the 1992 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials and the annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Track and Field Classic. Coach Canegitta and the team have stayed focused on and excited about the season during the switch.
“We are looking pretty solid, we have a bigger team from the previous team as it grows each year,” Canegitta said. “And with the addition of our assistant coach it’s working out much better than me working out five or six groups. It’s more attention for each group.”
Canegitta is excited for the upcoming season. “As always, I’m looking for everyone to improve their performance,” he explained. “I think we should fair pretty well in our conference. As one of the older programs, it’s taken us a while to get where we are and I think it would take a while for them to get some really talented athletes in their program like we do.”
Sam Thomas can be reached at [email protected]
