• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About Us
  • Videos
    • Featured Video
    • Foodie Friday
    • Monthly ReCap
  • Online E-Editions
    • This Week’s E-Editions
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
  • Social Media
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
  • Advertising
  • Local Jobs
  • Puzzles & Games
  • Circulation Request

The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

       

Click to join our weekly e-newsletter

  • Home
  • News
    • Land O’ Lakes
    • Lutz
    • Wesley Chapel/New Tampa
    • Zephyrhills/East Pasco
    • Business Digest
    • Senior Parks
    • Nature Notes
    • Featured Stories
    • Photos of the Week
    • Reasons To Smile
  • Sports
    • Land O’ Lakes
    • Lutz
    • Wesley Chapel/New Tampa
    • Zephyrhills and East Pasco
    • Check This Out
  • Education
  • Pets/Wildlife
  • Health
    • Health Events
    • Health News
  • What’s Happening
  • Sponsored Content
    • Closer Look
  • Homes
  • Obits
  • Public Notices
    • Browse Notices
    • Place Notices

Liberty runs away with coveted spots in county championships

February 6, 2014 By Michael Murillo

Liberty Middle School’s track team began the season with a coach who wasn’t just new to the school, she was new to coaching. And she wasn’t going to hide her enthusiasm when it came to supporting her team.

Under first-year coach Toni Kuzmicki, far right, Liberty Middle School’s track team sent 17 athletes to the county championship. (Courtesy of Liberty Middle School)
Under first-year coach Toni Kuzmicki, far right, Liberty Middle School’s track team sent 17 athletes to the county championship. (Courtesy of Liberty Middle School)

“If you had seen me at the track meet, I was the one in the middle of the field screaming her head off,” Toni Kuzmicki said.

Kuzmicki’s enthusiasm paid off for the school, which excelled at their cluster track meet, where athletes from different schools compete in eight events: shot put, long jump, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, 400-meter open, 800-meter run, 4-x-100 meter relay and 4-x-200 meter relay. Only the top two in each category move on to the county championships, where the top finishers in cluster track meets from across the county compete for spots in the finals.

Liberty not only sent 17 athletes to the county championships, but was represented in the finals in the long jump, 100-meter dash, 800-meter run and the 4-x-100 meter relay.

While Kuzmicki was learning the ropes when it came to coaching, she already had plenty of experience with track events. She was a district champion four years in a row at her high school in Miami, participating in the one-mile and two-mile competitions. She also ran track in college at Nova Southeastern University, and was able to use that background to educate and motivate her team to excel.

The athletes responded to Kuzmicki’s coaching style.

“She worked with the sprinters and she was able to really give them good advice,” runner Alejandro Michel said of his coach. “We were able to take a lot more kids to county than last year.”

He went on to reach the finals and placed seventh in the 800-meter run.  Michel also ran track in the sixth and seventh grades, but said that the athletes now have an especially good attitude and relationship with the coaching staff.

Charisma Henry, an eighth-grader who was part of the group that went to the finals, agrees that Kuzmicki and her coaches made a big difference.

“The way they coached, it was cool because we raced against each other and they timed us,” she said. “And we kept on doing that, trying to get better times. And we also conditioned before and after practice.”

Henry believes that the practices set the tone for the team to take things more seriously, and produced better times as a result. In Henry’s case, this year’s trip to the finals was her first.

She also said that even though they raced against each other in practice, the team had strong camaraderie during the races. When she was running, she could hear people cheering and rooting for them.

“You could hear Liberty from miles away. It was really great,” she said.

Kuzmicki is proud of her team’s accomplishments and praised her coaching staff — Jessica Macrae, Stephanie Padilla and Katie Smith — noting that they were all first-time coaches. But she’s also started thinking about how to build on this year’s success.

A number of her top performers were sixth-graders, meaning they still have a couple of years to grow and succeed on the team. Kuzmicki told them to build on the success they achieved.

She’s also looking forward to growing as a coach, and improving the regimen she planned for her athletes. Conditioning is already one area designated to become a priority next year.

“We kind of just took their natural ability and ran with that, but next year we’ll know to get that muscle memory formed at the beginning, and then push them as we go,” Kuzmicki said.

Published Feb. 5, 2014

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Sponsored Content

Our Favorite Tampa Bay Summer Camps for 2023

May 3, 2023 By Brand Partner Content

Calling out all parents! Summer is just around the corner, and it's time to start thinking about how your kids will … [Read More...] about Our Favorite Tampa Bay Summer Camps for 2023

Welcome to Ashton Oaks 

April 25, 2023 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Is it possible to combine the serenity of wide open spaces with the bustling activity of urban life? We believe so! … [Read More...] about Welcome to Ashton Oaks 

More Posts from this Category

What’s Happening

05/25/2023 – Meet the Artists

The Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center, 12118 Lake Blanche Drive in Odessa, will host a Meet the Artists: Chasco Camera Club Reception on May 25 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Guests can meet the artists ‘behind the lens’ of the displayed photographs, chat with them about their work, and have light refreshments. All artwork will be for sale (artists can be contacted directly for purchase inquiries). For information, call 727-815-7126. … [Read More...] about 05/25/2023 – Meet the Artists

05/28/2023 – Memorial Day Remembrance

The 26th annual Memorial Day Remembrance will take place on May 28 at 10 a.m., at Veterans Memorial Park, 3602 U.S. 301 N., in Tampa. A Garden of Gold flags will be erected in tribute to fallen heroes, featuring the faces of more than 30 veterans who gave their lives in service. The event includes a keynote speaker, fallen hero name reading, a rifle salute, taps and patriotic music. Refreshments will follow the outdoor ceremony, and guests can visit the monuments. For information, call 813-635-8316. … [Read More...] about 05/28/2023 – Memorial Day Remembrance

05/28/2023 – Paint Along

The Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Cultural Center, 12118 Lake Blanche Drive in Odessa, will host a Paint Along: Sunset Through a Field on May 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., for beginners to intermediate artists. Through this guided class, participants can create a watercolor piece by painting a landscape. All materials will be provided. For information, call 727-815-7126. … [Read More...] about 05/28/2023 – Paint Along

05/28/2023 – Play-Reading Series

The Straz Center in downtown Tampa will present the final ‘episode’ of its free BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Play-Reading Series on May 28 at 2:30 p.m., in the TECO Theater, as part of its effort to be more inclusive and to diversify artistic offerings. The featured speaker will be Native American playwright LeAnne Howe, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation, who writes fiction, poetry, screenplays, creative nonfiction and plays that deal with American Indian experiences. Excerpts from her play, Savage Conversations, will be presented. For information and reservations, call 813-229-7827. … [Read More...] about 05/28/2023 – Play-Reading Series

05/29/2023 – Memorial Day Ceremony

First United Methodist Church, 6209 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., in Land O’ Lakes, will host a Community Memorial Day Ceremony on May 29 at 6 p.m., to honor those who gave their lives fighting for freedom. Those interested can email a photo of their loved one to Sue Shae at . There is no need to include the loved one’s name, just the branch of service and the war that was fought. … [Read More...] about 05/29/2023 – Memorial Day Ceremony

05/29/2023 – Memorial Day Observance

American Legion “U.S.S. Tampa” Post 5, 3810 W. Kennedy Blvd., in Tampa, will host a Memorial Day Observance on May 29 at 11 a.m. The event will include an invocation, two guest speakers, vocal tributes, and a raising of the flags to full staff at noon. Bring a flag to show support for flag-waving along Kennedy Boulevard. If a group would like to place a remembrance wreath during the post’s “everlasting” portion of the ceremony, as part of the Roll Call, wreaths must be brought to the registration table between 10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., on Memorial Day. All branches of the military will be represented. For special needs arrangements, directions or questions, call 813-870-0505. … [Read More...] about 05/29/2023 – Memorial Day Observance

More of What's Happening

Archives

 

 

Where to pick up The Laker and Lutz News

Copyright © 2023 Community News Publications Inc.

   
%d bloggers like this: