The Daily Record
2016 NCHSAA Track Champions
He’s No Slow Polk
By AL MYATT
Sports Editor
Josh Polk began running track as a freshman at Hobbton during the outdoor season in 2015.
Blessed with natural talent and a willingness to develop his abilities, Polk won the NCHSAA 1-A 200-meter at North Carolina A& T’s Belk Track on May 20 in 21.82 seconds.
“It’s great to know that all your hard work pays off — all the good coaching and running at the meets with your friends,” Polk said. “Me and my teammates put in a lot of work throughout the week, at different invitationals and Saturday practices.”
Polk’s track season didn’t end with the state meet. He ran in a multi-state meet at Marvin Ridge in the Charlotte area last weekend and will compete in the New Balance Outdoor National Meet at A& T on June 17.
Polk is 5 feet, 10 inches and 150 pounds. He plays running back for the Wildcats in football.
“I don’t favor one sport over the other,” Polk said. “I try to focus on one thing at a time.”
Hobbton football coach Robert Hill hopes the Wildcat gridders will benefit from Polk’s wheels, too.
“His speed does translate to the football field,” Hill said. “We’re hoping he can do some good things for us. We’re hoping we can just get him out in some open space and let him use his athletic ability.
“The speed that he has and what he has garnered with his activities in track, we’re looking for him to do some big things for us.”
His speed could help him further his education.
“I hope to go to college and go from there,” he said.
Polk thinks he might want to study engineering.
He won the 200 in the Carolina Conference meet as a freshman in a time of 23.6.
He has bettered that clocking by almost two seconds this year.
Polk finished fifth in the state 100-meter this year after going in as the top qualifier.
Senior Cordell France of Mount Airy finished 0.06 seconds behind Polk in the 200.
“The dude who got second place came back on me a little bit,” Polk said. “That was the best start I had.”
Polk usually comes out of the blocks a couple of times as he prepares for a race.
“I talk to my coach and a few of my teammates,” he said. “They can get me ready. If I’m nervous, I like to be psyched up. At a big meet, I usually have some nerves.”
Polk has known he has speed for some time, having raced his cousin in the yard — and usually winning.
“Coach (Jeff) Klaves has gotten me faster,” Polk said.
Polk is an athlete who responds well to coaching.
“You rarely have a kid who is talented and has the best work ethic on the team,” Klaves said. “As a coach, you put those two things together and you get a special athlete in Josh Polk.”
Klaves, a Wisconsin native, ran at Campbell from 2005 to 2010. He has coached on the college level at East Tennessee State and Florida Gulf Coast.
Polk has gotten significantly faster from his freshman to sophomore years. “Last year, Josh Polk, first year running track and field,” Klaves said. “Anytime you get your feet wet in the sport to have success, it’s great but more than anything you learn how to lose and how to respond from that. You can go two pathways. You can be OK with it or you can obviously do something greater to help overcome that. …
“What we’ve done is phased in some high level competition in key moments throughout his training progressions where he was able to make the most of it.”
The Hobbton coach noted that Polk regrouped for the 200 after being less than his best in the 100.
Klaves called the upcoming New Balance competition, “the marquee meet of the summer.”
Polk will run in the Emerging Elite division.
“It’s the up and comers,” Klaves said.
The Wildcats coach noted that Polk improved his state championship time at last weekend’s meet, running 21.74.
“Last year, the emerging elite division was won with a 21.72,” Klaves noted. “Josh is putting himself in the right positions. … It’s the product of doing the right things for a lot of months. He’s very consistent and he’s very coachable.
“His family really buys in to the program that we have at Hobbton.”
Focus On 200 For Present
Polk is focusing exclusively on the 200 for the time being.
“He’s going to have a lot of success in the 100 in the future,” Klaves said. “We’re just going to run the 200 at the national meet. There is a prelim and a final.
“Our No. 1 goal is to make it to finals. Once you’re in the finals, you have a chance to win the division. Josh is going to go out and race that prelim like it is a final.
“If we’re fortunate enough to make the finals, we’re going to go ahead and race to win.”
Outdoor track is subject to the weather, a force that became a factor last weekend.
“He was supposed to run at 8:30 (p.m.) and he didn’t run until about 10:30,” Klaves said. “After the rain storm, he ran the fastest time of his career with only three other guys in the heat.
“Usually, there’s eight guys in the heat. There was nobody within a half-second of him. … There were athletes invited from Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. There were a lot of great performances.
“The rain hit and some of the teams and some of the athletes had left but he still ran extremely well. … With a lot of great athletes around you, you can falter or step up. He stepped up. … ”
Polk’s potential hasn’t been defined but the circumstances of the meet at Marvin Ridge boosted Klaves’ confidence in the soph.
“That’s where as a coach I start to get excited,” said the Wildcats mentor. “He’s now able to do these things just by his coaching cues and the practice that he’s bringing.
“Now you talk about going to a national meet where he’s going to have all the competition in the world. That’s going to push him to a whole new level so we’re coming to a great close to a great season and this is just a start for this young man.”
Josh Polk, a sophomore at Hobbton, progressed in his sprinting ability to win the NCHSAA 1-A 200-meter championship. He is shown at right with Wildcats track coach Jeff Klaves. Hobbton won its boys regional championship although it doesn’t have a track. ‘Our track is the sidewalk or the parking lot,’ Klaves said. ‘Wherever we want it to be.’
Daily Record Photos/Al Myatt
