BOZEMAN — It's the spring season of sports in Montana, and both the Bozeman High and Gallatin High track and field teams have had to get pretty creative when it comes to indoor workouts.
But some days you catch a break. Despite there being snow on the ground, Thursday was 40 degrees and sunny which meant the athletes could practice outside.
Snow to start the season is nothing new for these programs; it’s an expectation that Bozeman high knows how to adapt to.
“This is not a rarity in Montana, the snow and cold that we have right now, so it's just something we're going to have to work through and lots of other teams are going to be dealing with it," Hawks coach Blaine Pederson said.
Over at Gallatin, they’ve been able to get outside more than normal to start their season.
“We're going outside today, and we have been almost every single day, since we started practicing," Raptors coach Chantel Jaeger-Smith said.
Every year, the athletes are more than ready to get back outside on the track after the indoor season.
“I've been training all winter, and it's nice to finally get outside and on the track to start getting prepared for the season,” Gallatin junior Christian Heck said.
And that’s exactly what the coaches are seeing, anticipation from their athletes that has translated to successful preparation because of it.
"This year so far has been really promising to start, despite the weather, it hasn't really slowed the motivation of the kids down, nor has it turned kids away from track," Jaeger-Smith said. "We have a great turnout this year."
Both teams will compete at their first meet on April 1 at Belgrade.
