By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
While watching a group of distance runners circle the track during an evening training session at Ryle High School last week, coach Shawn Proffitt talked about how quickly the BCK Track Club has grown.
“This is only our third year,” he said. “When we started out in 2016, we only had six kids and three of those were the coaches’ kids. We’ve got 42 on the roster this year and the AAU guys are telling us we’re the second largest AAU track club in Kentucky.”
Sidney Reagor became the first BCK Track Club member to win an AAU national championship last year.
Proffitt is one of three Northern Kentucky high school coaches who created the summer track club for local athletes. The club’s three-letter name stands for Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.
The coaches conduct training sessions two times a week to prepare club members for AAU track and field competition. At the Region 6 meet two weeks ago, 29 of them qualified to compete in more than 50 events at the AAU Junior Olympics national meet July 27 to Aug. 4 at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
All but one of the national qualifiers are high school students entered in the 15-16 and 17-18 age groups. One of them is Sidney Reagor, a recent Campbell County High School graduate who won an AAU national championship in the girls’ 17-18 age group 2000-meter steeplechase last year.
Steeplechase is an arduous distance event with barriers and water jumps along the course that runners must clear. Reagor had never competed in a race like that before, but she became the club’s first national champion.
“We were all surprised,” coach Proffitt said. “We were hoping for a medal and she just gutted it out last year. It was awesome.”
In a couple of weeks, Reagor will be returning to the Junior Olympics to defend her steeplechase title. Seven of her teammates will compete in boys’ steeplechase races and two girls qualified in the multi-event heptathlon.
Shawn Proffitt
The opportunity to compete in those events that are not offered in high school meets is a drawing card for many of the young athletes, who pay $300 to be members of the BCK Track Club.
Proffitt said the money covers AAU membership fees for each athlete, uniforms with the club logo, entry fees for district and regional qualifying meets and hotel expenses for him and the other two coaches, Edmundo Echeverria and Russell Harden.
None of the coaches are paid a salary out of those club dues, according to Proffitt. They all volunteer their time to work with the team during the summer.
“There’s baseball guys and there’s football guys and I’m a track guy,” said Proffitt, who works for TQL Logistics and coaches high school track at Covington Catholic. “This is my Zen area. I’d rather be doing this than anything else.”
Simon Kenton senior Sophia Delisio, one of the area’s top distance runners in cross country and track last school year, joined the club this summer to shake up her normal training routine.
“My last couple years really didn’t go the way I wanted them to and a big part of it was I wasn’t really having fun anymore,” she said. “I’m friends with Sidney (Reagor) and she told me a lot about (the club) and how much fun it was so I decided to try it out.”
Sophia Delisio
Delisio qualified for the Junior Olympics in the 1500- and 3000-meter runs. She’ll also get a chance to be a sprinter as a member of a 4×100 relay team.
Several other club members qualified in multiple events, but Reagor is the only one going to the national meet as a defending champion.
“My qualifying time at regionals wasn’t very good, but it was my first race this season and I just have to go with it,” she said. “We’ve been training really hard since then and I feel really confident I can get a good time at nationals. We’ll have to see how it all plays out.”
Last year, Reagor was one of three runners battling for the lead in the steeplechase event when they came to the final water jump. One of the girls stumbled in the water and Reagor beat the other one in a race to the finish line.
“It was kind of scary, but I think that’s what makes the steeple so unique,” Reagor said. “It’s kind of hard to fall in a regular race, but when you’ve got these huge stationary objects and some water jumps on the course it makes it a lot more difficult.”
To learn more about the BCK Track Club, email the coaching staff at bcktrackclub@gmail.com
AAU Junior Olympics qualifiers
Girls 17-18 age group
Sophia Delisio (1500 run, 3000 run, 4×100 relay)
Kyla England (triple jump, 4×100 relay)
Savanah Harmon (pole vault, 4×100 relay)
Tara Marland (100 hurdles, 4×100 relay)
Hanna Miller (triple jump, pole vault, heptathlon, 4×100 relay)
Erika Nageleisen (400 hurdles, 1500 run, 4×100 relay)
Elizabeth Proffitt (4x100m relay)
Sidney Reagor (2000 steeplechase, 3000 run, 4×100 relay)
Boys 17-18 age group
Connor Geiman (discus, javelin, shot put)
Benjamin Hail (2000 steeplechase, 3000 run, 4×800 relay)
Michael Krebs (2000 steeplechase, 4×800 relay)
Aiden Smith (1500 run, 2000 steeplechase, 3000 run, 4×800 relay)
William Swinehart (2000 steeplechase, 4×800 relay)
Will Tate (1500 run, 2000 steeplechase, 3000 run, 4×800 relay)
Casey Wolnitzek (800 run, 4×800 relay)
Girls 15-16 age group
Allison Arnett (high jump, 4×100 relay)
Megan Arrasmith (4×100 relay)
Alexa Echeverria (4×100 relay)
Emma Hopkins (100m hurdles, high jump, 4×100 relay)
Lauren Jackson (400 hurdles, pole vault, 4×100 relay)
Emily Parsons (pole vault, 4×100 relay)
Catherine Russell (pole vault, 4×100 relay)
Alana Weinberg (100 hurdles, heptathlon, 4×100 relay)
Boys 15-16 age group
Leo Bouldin (400 hurdles, long jump)
Adam Ruschman (3000 run)
Jackson Smallwood (discus, javelin, shot put)
Dominic Taylor (1500 run, 2000 steeplechase, 3000 run)
Ethan Wever (2000 steeplechase, 3000 run)
Boys 12 age group
Bryson Cowart (100 dash, 200 dash)
