Harlan adds boys track to his Chesterton head coaching duties

When John Snyder took over as Chesterton boys track coach for his second stint, it was with the intention of bolstering the team's flagging numbers.

He did so by requiring any football players not involved in another spring sport to run track. The resulting spike helped the Trojans capture back-to-back regional titles.

Now that Snyder is going back to focusing solely on football, successor TR Harlan's biggest concern is maintaining the participation level that contributed to the program's resurgence.

"We can't do it without those guys," Harlan said. "It's not like lifting is a bad thing for track. We'll try to balance the two things where they're lifting a couple days and here a couple days. I hope my relationship with the other coaches will help. We'd love to have four, five soccer athletes running track, the same with the basketball guys. Any athletic kids who aren't doing anything in the spring, come and be an athlete. We'll work around your schedules."

Harlan, also Chesterton's volleyball coach, has already been involved with track, working with the jumpers and going to girls meets.

"It's pretty much a mirror schedule. We go to most of the same places," he said. "One thing before I agreed to it was making sure the whole staff was going to be back. That's been huge, continuity-wise, in the success we've had the last couple years. Track isn't one of those things where you're in charge of 100 kids. Every event has a good assistant coach, which is instrumental in whether we're going to be successful or not."

The volleyball assistants and strength coach Shane Nelson will help cover conflicts that come up with the offseason conditioning schedule in that sport.

"The fact that they're not back to back makes a huge difference," Harlan said. "I don't know how (girls basketball and baseball coach) Jack (Campbell) does it. I've got a good staff who'll be able to take care of things and make sure they're done the way I want."

Chesterton returns pole vaulter Justin Zosso and 400 runner Joe Troop from a team that was senior-dominated last season.

"I know enough of the kids and they know me," Harlan said. "We'll do some different workouts, some thing I'm more comfortable with, but we don't need to re-invent the wheel."