The Central Coast Track Club is a community-based organization dedicated to training athletes of all skill levels from various schools in the sport of track and field. The club specializes in developing and enhancing speed, offering off-season training that helps athletes refine their skills in running, jumping, and throwing. Their emphasis on individualized development and event-specific training attracts many young athletes, including many Stevenson students. Interestingly, despite having a similar campus program, Speed and Agility, which also focuses on skill and speed enhancement, many students choose to train with the Central Coast Track Club (CCTC) during the winter months. What are the reasons behind this trend, the differences between Speed and Agility and the Central Coast Track Club, and why does the club stand out as a preferred choice for dedicated athletes?
Alumna Tessa Rava’ 24, 2024 Girls’ Track and Field Captain
Former Girls’ Track and Field Captain and Alumna Tessa Rava ‘24 has been a member of the Central Coast Track Club for seven years. Rava previously ran the 100m dash, the 200m dash, and the 4x100m relay. She currently holds the eighth fastest time for the women's 100m dash in school history with a time of 13.35 and ran the third leg of the second fastest relay time in Stevenson School history, just milliseconds shy of the school record.
Rava says that she joined the Central Coast Track Club because she “loved running” and it provided her an opportunity to run track “even when it was not Track season at school.” She adds that she discovered the Central Coast Track Club when she was searching for more opportunities to pursue Track and Field and thought it would be “a great way to train and meet people from other schools.” She added that it also provided her an opportunity to run track even when it was not Track season at school. She adds that “the coaches and the community made the club really fun” and that she “enjoyed doing Track more seriously throughout the year.”
Rava also shared why she continued to participate in the Central Coast Track Club past middle school instead of joining Speed and Agility: “I have never done Speed and Agility with Stevenson, but I think CCTC would be a better choice if you want to compete in track-specific events, especially because they have winter track meets you can participate in. I also think it’s a lot more track-focused in general and you can choose to focus on a specific event like hurdles or pole vault rather than doing general exercises.” Overall, Rava endorses the Central Coast Track Club for its focused training, event-specific training, and opportunities to run during the winter.
Central Coast Track Club hosts several meets per year, most notably the Central Coast Winter Classic Invitational which usually takes place around late January. This is an opportunity for athletes to showcase their speed and skills after about two months of training.
Alum Ko Mosley’ 24, 2023 Mark Farber Award Winner
2023 Mark Farber Award Winner, Ko Mosley, has been running Track and Field for three years and has been a member of the Central Coast Track and Field Club for two years, beginning in their junior year. The Mark Farber Award is an award given annually to one member of the Track and Field team that “lives and breathes” Track and Field in everything they do. Mosley ran the 100m dash, 200m dash, and 4x100m relay. They currently hold the seventh fastest time in Stevenson history for the Girls’ 100m dash with a time of 13.18 and held first position in the second fastest 4x100m Girls’ relay time in Stevenson history, along with Rava. They also pursue their passion for running by participating in an intramural Track Club at the University of Southern California.
Mosley says that they joined the Central Coast Track Club because they “didn’t feel like Speed and Agility was enough to train for the spring season.” Mosley continues, “I chose the club because it was more focused on track and I liked the competitive atmosphere of the club. Also, they hosted meets that I liked participating in.” Mosley participated in Speed and Agility during their sophomore year but switched to the Central Coast Track Club in their junior year: “Speed and agility feels like it's kind of generic. Like, it's alright for keeping you in shape, but it won’t help you improve as an athlete in any particular sport. Aside from wanting to improve as an athlete, part of the reason I wanted to do it is because my friends were also doing it.”
Vicky Darko ‘25, 2025 Girls’ Track and Field Captain, Class of 2025
Current Girls’ Track and Field Captain, Vicky Darko, has been running track since her sophomore year at Stevenson. She runs the 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, and throws the Discus and Shot Put. She currently has the fifth-farthest girls’ shot put throw in Stevenson history as well as the ninth-farthest discus throw in Stevenson history, distances she accomplished all during her first year throwing.
Darko says she heard about the Central Coast Track Club through coaches and teammates and became interested in joining: “I am considering joining to prepare myself for my senior track season and I want to improve my times and distances and get better for the season.” When asked about why she was considering joining the Central Coast Track Club over Speed and Agility she stated, “I am going to try and do them both, although speed and agility is on campus and easier to access, I want to be able to work in general towards speed. I am going to the club on Saturdays for specialty work and to practice things like hurdling and throwing.” On Saturdays, the Central Coast Track Club holds practices for athletes who specialize in events like hurdling and jumping. This gives athletes an opportunity to hone in on their skills with individualized attention and training towards these specific skill sets.
Darko is setting her sights on the school record for Shot Put and looks forward to training for Track over the winter.
Ron Provost, Track and Field Coach
Ron Provost has been coaching Track and Field for the past twenty years. In the 2022 school year, he coached Speed and Agility and also endorses the Central Coast Track Club for Track and Field athletes who are looking to improve in a specific event. He defines the Central Coast Track Club as providing athletes with the opportunity for specific event coaching that, during the winter season, is not available. Provost says that involvement with the Central Coast Track Club began when students wanted more specialized training in the winter than Stevenson had the coaches to provide for.
What are the benefits of the CCTC? How is it Different from Speed and Agility?
CCTC offers tailored opportunities for student-athletes to enhance their skills and prepare for the spring track season, but more specifically, “CCTC is an option for students who have specialty events like pole vault, hurdles, and high jump or throws or [who] want to work on things specific to their events,” Provost says. Speed and Agility “does not have the time in its schedule to offer coaching that is event-specific… with the exception of different workouts [for those who run] shorter distances vs longer distances.”
He adds that Speed and Agility is helpful for an athlete who is not playing another interscholastic winter sport as it gives them the opportunity “to build strength and skill that will help them during Spring track season.” He adds that, “students who run cross country in the fall will be able to get miles in that are monitored; that will also help them be more prepared and better in shape for track season in the spring.” Thus, Speed and Agility is perfect for athletes who are looking to improve their baseline running skills, get faster, or gain some mileage for the upcoming season. On the other hand, athletes who are more focused on improving their field skills or specific event skills would not find their primary needs met.
Who is the Central Coast Track Club Geared Toward?
Provost states that the Central Coast Track Club is helpful “for those transitioning from fall sports like cross-country, as CCTC provides monitored mileage and structured training to improve conditioning and readiness for Track.” He also adds that “athletes specializing in specific events such as pole vault, hurdles, high jump, or throws can benefit from detailed, event-focused coaching unavailable due to the lack of specialized coaches available at Stevenson’s Speed and Agility program” and he adds that “CCTC is not the place for distance runners that run more days a week” nor is it “the place for someone who is just trying to get a little bit faster and stay in shape.” Overall, CCTC helps develop technique and event-specific skills, offering a level of individualized attention that Speed and Agility does not have the ability to provide due to a lack of coaches.
Central Coast Track Club vs. Interscholastic Sport
Coach Provost says that he believes “interscholastic sports are the best preparation for development that a student can have.” He believes that “if you spend all winter and spring running, you are more susceptible to repetitive stress injuries, so diversifying the workouts you have is where an interscholastic sport would be great.” He adds that the competitive and intense nature of an interscholastic sport would be great for Track and that students are likely working a lot harder than they would be if they were just running on their own every day. He adds that the caveat of participating in an interscholastic sport is that it is not the same type of training: “[For example], Soccer running is not track running,” so track-specific running outside of a team sport would be optimal to prepare for the upcoming track season.
So, How Do You Get Faster Anyway?
Provost says that “the easiest way to make a high school athlete faster is to teach them how to run. In something like speed and agility, the most important thing is to learn drills that make unconscious good running form. What this means is being intentional with training and repeating form drills so that eventually they are ingrained in your running form without having to think about it consciously. He says that “[A runner’s] biggest initial improvement is an improvement that can be gotten rid of by wasted energy and form.” He adds that “running with bad form leads to injuries.” Provost also says that “If your running form is spectacular, then running volume–anaerobic workouts (running 500m so running the 400 is easier or running 300m so running 100m is easier)–are secondarily important.” Thus, athletes who already have good running form should focus on volume of running, and that is what the Central Coast Track Club is ideal for.
What is the Better Choice?
Based on these testimonies, the better fit depends entirely on the athlete’s goals. A beginner athlete who has not had much experience in the sport will gain a lot of value by learning drills and learning the basics of how to run. Coach Provost cites technique and strength as the basis of a great runner, which are skills that the Speed and Agility program targets with three days on the track and one in the weight room. An athlete who has more experience in the sport and is looking to fine-tune a specific skill or performance in an event would find more value at the Central Coast Track Club, where they offer specialized support and a specific day dedicated solely to field events. Overall, both options provide a chance for athletes to improve their running skills, it is just a matter of whatever fits their running goals.
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