DePue competing in track for first time in nearly a decade

For about a decade, DePue High School did not offer a spring sport for boys.

This year, that changed when DePue brought back track and field.

“We didn’t really have any sports for high school boys to do in the spring,” DePue track coach Trae Blumhorst said. “We were looking at different options. We already had middle school track, and we’ve had a lot of success in middle school track in the three years since I’ve been here, and I think even before that. So it made sense that if we were going to give boys an opportunity to do something in the spring to do it with track because they already had the experience in middle school, and we figured there would be some interest.”

With the help of some recruiting from Blumhorst, who coaches golf and volleyball in the fall, junior high basketball, high school boys basketball and junior high track, the Little Giants built a roster of 12 athletes.

The team is made up of Jonathan Garcia, Donovan Maltas, Martin Quintana, Pablo Escobar, Ivy Tyson, Sara Aguirre, Vivian Lopez, Samantha Nieto, Yoanna Gutierrez, AnaMarie Gavina, Cindy Torres and Mariana Moya.

Lopez, Gutierrez and Nieto also play soccer for DePue.

“In middle school track we always have about 40 kids,” Blumhorst said. “The sophomores, juniors and seniors haven’t had track in 2-3-4 years. A lot of them were kind of skeptical of it. I put it out to my basketball players and explained how it was a great opportunity to get in shape for basketball. I got four basketball players to do it. The girls, I knew a few of them who liked track before and knew a few of them liked to do all the sports they can, so I talked to them.”

After getting enough interested athletes, DePue officials had to put together a schedule and get old uniforms and equipment out of storage.

“We sent out an email to area schools and our conference about meets. It was too late to get into many, but luckily Indian Creek invited us to all of theirs and Putnam County invited us to a few, so it worked out,” Blumhorst said.

DePue had old high school uniforms and had high jump mats in storage in the gym.

“We had plenty of [uniforms], and they were in great shape,” Blumhorst said. “I don’t know how old they are, but they obviously haven’t been used in a long time.”

While the Little Giants had uniforms and some equipment, there isn’t much in the way of track facilities in DePue.

The school does not have a track, so coaches mapped out the block around the school, which Blumhorst said is about 400 meters.

“It’s a little bit smaller, so when we practice the 100-meter dash, we have to go through one intersection then go all the way down and finish in the next intersection,” Blumhorst said.

The Little Giants practice the discus and shot put in a parking area near the water plant behind the school, practice high jump in the gym, use the blacktop across the street from the school, run hurdles on a long line of grass on the opposite side of the school and occasionally walk down to the soccer field for practice.

“The only thing we really can’t do is long jump and triple jump because we don’t want them jumping on hard surfaces,” Blumhorst said. “They’ll practice running through their steps. I always tell them to make sure to get plenty of practice jumps before they do their actual jumps at meets.

“We try to use everything we have. We kind of makeshift it and do the best we can with what we’ve got.”

The Little Giants have competed in four meets this season, including the Little Ten Conference Championships.

The DePue girls will compete in the Class 1A Bureau Valley Sectional on Wednesday, while the Little Giant boys will compete in the Class 1A Deer Creek-Mackinaw Sectional on May 16.

“The 12 kids I have have been excellent,” Blumhorst said. “They’re excited every day. They’re making the most out of everything. They’re doing great.”