By Stephen Dawkins

County track and field this season will feature one new coach, one team making a reappearance and 15 athletes with state meet experience.

Ginger Williams and her husband, Keith, will coach Thorsby’s track team after also having led the Rebels volleyball team.

The couple put an emphasis on workouts when they took over the volleyball program and will do the same with the track athletes.

“Hopefully, that will lead to the ones that were close last year being able to compete for state championships this year,” Ginger Williams said.

She will have lots of talent to work with.

Sophomore Sade’ Archie won state championships—the first in school history—last year in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash.

Several other Rebels competed in the Class 2A state meet, including Marcus Bray, Dillian Simmons, Nathan Oldroyd, Zac Hensley, Phillip Hicks and Kevin Brasher.

Thorsby’s first meet will be April 3 at Spain Park.

Maplesville did not field a track team last year, but this year’s squad will still include an athlete with state meet experience.

Sophomore Cameron Morrow qualified for state in the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles as an eighth grader in 2008.

Track will still be a challenge for Maplesville, coach Brent Hubbert said, because the number of competitors could vary from 6-12 depending on baseball and softball games.

Maplesville’s first competition will be March 11 at Pelham.

Chilton County’s 4×100 meter relay team qualified for state last year, and three of the four—Will Cooper, Chris Felder and Montel Wilkes—will be back.

“We lost some good runners from last year, but we’re just working every day trying to get better,” coach Matt Maddox said.

CCHS will also compete at Pelham on March 11.

Isabella coach Lanny Jones has a similar situation’s to Maddox’s.

“We’re basically starting over,” Jones said.

If that’s the case, though, the Mustangs have a solid foundation.

Three team members competed in last year’s Class 1A state meet: Senior Blake Lawley in the shot put and the discus, freshman Davis Ratliff in the 1,600 meters and the 3,200 meters, and Willie Stacy in the long jump, 110-meter hurdle and the 100-meter dash.

Seventh grader Sarah Graham turned in possibly Isabella’s performance at its first meet on Feb. 27 at the Hoover Open, which had an average of about 90 runners per race.

“We were the only small school there,” Jones said. “I thought we did real well.”