For Zarion McMillian, April 17 was a proud day to be an Anderson Indian. The track team was in the zone and brought home their first Madison County title in nine years.
Being able to bring a county title home is amazing for the Anderson track team especially when you do it as a team. “It’s just, it’s like a warning sign to let them know we are coming. We’re coming,” McMillian said. He talks about how hard work pays off. They have been able to have individual success in the past but this is the first year in a long time that they came together and have been cohesive.
The upcoming track meets are very exciting for the coach Laitham Louthen since leading the Indians to a great track season. “Next Friday, we have our conference meet at Marion, and after winning County, the team’s confidence is very high, and we’ve set the goal or the expectation is to go out and compete, to try to win the conference meet next Friday,” Louthen said. After winning county and shocking everyone, the track team is going into the conference meet with high hopes of winning.
On the other hand, McMillian, is looking forward to the end of the year meets when he has a chance to go to the state meet holding the 100 meter record for the school. “There’s no pressure. Nobody’s beating them times. [sic] Too fast,” McMillan said. One of the more confident runners, that’s the edge that helps him want to get better and makes the team better with his confidence and his work ethic.
“I really just don’t like to lose. Like, I hate to lose. So, like, every time, like, both of my sophomore and freshman year, I just hated it. I hated losing. So I kept on pushing myself. And now I don’t lose,” McMillian said. Having a leader like this can make a team really good, especially one that has been through adversity.
Winning the county championship is always a gift and a curse. Some students take winning a meet as the end all be all and it is hard for them to stay humble. “ We want kids to qualify for the state meet. So we just keep talking about what we need to do to keep moving forward, to achieving those goals. And we meet and discuss the plans of this is where we’re at, this is where we need to get as a group,” Louthen said. How do student athletes humbly handle that? In order to be humble they have to set goals and be prepared because there will be adversity at the top mountain and bottom.
