On a cold crisp February day Coach Zac Ereckson stands in Roger Dupaix stadium. Mercilessly blowing his whistle as his team runs sprints. “It’s about pushing kids out of there comfort zone that’s what makes them better” that’s the philosophy for the newest face of Skyline Track. Why though is the schools head football coaches back to the field? “I wanted to get my football players in shape, the best thing you can do as a football player is run track. Track improves speed, strength, and agility and that’s what we need to be a successful football team.”
However offseason training is not the only thing Coach Ereckson is gaining from this experience. The newest Skyline track coach has other motivations as well. “I love working with athletes. Coaching track gives me a chance to work with basketball players, soccer players, and those kids who just run track.” The goal for Ereckson is to get kids out for the track team keep them out for the track team and then to improve their varying skillsets. “I saw there was an opening for the Track head coach position because Mr. Hymas gave it up after last year and I took the opportunity.” Obviously Coach Ereckson is excited about this opportunity to try to build a great track team while also focusing on improving the football program as well.
Coach Ereckson isn’t just in this to improve his football team though, don’t worry he knows a thing or two about track. The coach ran in high school and coached in Texas, one of the most competitive preps markets in the United States, and has worked with world class track stars. The team is obviously in good hands. Coach Porter is still coaching the Women’s team so it is not as drastic as a change as many make it to be.
You don’t have to ask many questions to get to the bottom Coach Erecksons football goals though, those he has pretty well set in stone. “Oh you don’t even have to finish the question (after asked what his football goals are) it’s a state title, period. We talk about it all the time, every day, you can’t have these year by year goals where you say, alright this year well make the playoffs, next year region title, then state title. No we have one goal to be the last team standing in Rice Eccles Stadium on that third week of November.” The passion Ereckson has for winning is obvious. It’s infectious, you know that because when you hear that message enough eventually you start thinking that way too.
It is a bit odd though that he plans to practice winning. “Well do some highlight type stuff were we practice celebrating winning a state title, well watch film of past winners celebrating and then do it ourselves every Friday.” Of course that’s not all that will go into preparation for next year. The team is now in a boot camp that helps build mental toughness more than physical strength. “It’s really difficult for some of the players because we hold them to such a high standard. The exercises themselves are not challenging but before it (the boot camp) ends we will do them perfectly. That means they have to be in proper attire they must all stand at perfect attention when asked and they can’t be late or late for classes. The goal of this is that you hold your teammates accountable so you can finish perfectly.” Finishing perfectly is something this team needs practice at. When asked what the most disappointing thing about the season was Ereckson had this to say. “I think the most disappointing thing was how many close games we lost. We lost in the last two minutes to Wasatch we lost with a last second interception to Hillcrest and we were in the game against Olympus until the last ninety seconds. That’s the won that bothers me most because I think we played the better game we didn’t win so that’s no conciliation but I thought we were the better team.”
So what makes a good coach? “You have to be genuine with the kids, build relationships with the kids and then they’ll run through walls for you. You can put up the crap like the motivational signs on the walls but in the end to get a buy in you have to live and preach your vision.” It’s clear that Coach Ereckson does that. This is the guy whose passion for sports and athletes is undying the guy who has meltdowns over bad calls on the sidelines, who demands the very best from his players and students. Effort is a corner stone of the coach’s philosophy and its clear with numbers in the nineties for track this year effort will become a cornerstone for most of the student body though. As far as what Coach Ereckson is doing with his back to the football field this spring is pretty simple. A reverse running saying, it’s a sprint not a marathon to get to the finish.