GUILDERLAND — They’ve come out in droves for the Guilderland boys’ track-and-field team.

The team has 114 members ranging from grades eight to 12
"This is the biggest team Guilderland has ever had," said Coach Pete Wachtel. "I thought the 104 we had last year was big. There are so many guys on the team, you can’t believe it."

The team has a no-cut policy and over 120 students came out, but some have dropped out in the first few weeks of the season.

The team has 16 seniors, 23 juniors, 46 sophomores, 23 freshmen, and six eighth-graders.
"It has to do with these four guys in this room, they’re right here in the high school," Wachtel said looking at his assistant coaches — Dave Kosier, Jason Usher, and Matt Wright. "They are all working here and do a nice job recruiting kids. It is also word of mouth by the kids. They will tell their friends that they had a great time. With a 100 kids, doing that you get a lot of new kids. We had some kids from last year that didn’t come back."

With that many kids, Wachtel has become mostly an organizer, doing less hands-on coaching than he would like. But besides getting help from his assistant coaches, he gets help from the upperclassmen who have experience.
"We have a lot of kids that haven’t been on the team," Wachtel said. "They walk in and don’t know how to race. We have kids like that from freshmen to seniors. But the upperclassmen relay things to the underclassmen. We have seventh- and eighth-graders up from the middle school. They stand next to guys that are six foot, two and they look like little midgets. But we have good team camaraderie."

Strong returners and newcomers to watch

The team returns a strong group of distance runners.

Junior Brian Rhodes-Devey and senior Seth Dubois have gotten headlines for their work on the Dutch cross-country and indoor track teams. Rhodes-Devey is the state champion in cross-country and Dubois also went to the state meet.
"The distance group has been around," Wachtel said. "They are great and set such a good example."

Also returning is sprinter and jumper Jarrell Gatterson.
"He broke his leg and missed the football season," Wachtel said of the junior. "He then struggled during the indoor season but during the outdoor he has been a leader out here."

Also returning is junior Mark Domaracki. He will run the 400 meters again this season.

Senior Jordan Bieber returns to run sprints for the Dutchmen. He was a Section II place finisher in the 55 meters during the indoor season.

Tyler Engelhardt, a junior, came out for the team during the winter season and has made great strides heading into the outdoor season.

Greg Masto, a senior, will high jump for the Dutch this season.

The Dutch have newcomers out this spring in seniors Matt Doherty and Matt Femia.

Paul Booker and Drew Smith are out for the team for the first time as sophomores but have made their mark in other sports at Guilderland — Booker in football and Smith in basketball.

Bill Reed, who set some school freshmen marks, returns this season.

Also returning are strong sophomore runners Dave Slingerland and Jake King.

Corey Leggerio is another returning sophomore who had some impressive runs as a freshman last year.
"We’ve been able to plug him in the varsity lineup," Wachtel said. "Hopefully, that will continue."

Roland Graves is another distance runner who could fill into different spots.

James Terry will throw the discus this season.
"He’ll do all right," Wachtel said. "He can produce some of his best throws if he continues on the same learning curve."

Multi-sport athletes

Something that is a little new to the team is the number of athletes who participate in another sport.
"One of the things that we lacked in the past is we did not have many multiple-sport athletes," Wachtel said. "If you take schools like Burnt Hills and Niskayuna and look at their rosters, they have kids that are multiple-sport athletes. We tell the kids that good athletes can do more than one thing. I know there is a calling to specialize more, but some people are starting to figure it out."

Domaracki, Doherty, and Smith played varsity basketball for the Dutch in the winter. And Booker, thrower Donovan Lloyd, and Gatterson were members of the football team. Booker also played junior-varsity basketball.
"It’s better to do a lot of different things," Wachtel added.

Wachtel is looking forward to the season, which was supposed to begin on Tuesday with a meet at Ballston Spa.
"I’m excited about a lot of things heading into the season," Wachtel said. "When we had 40 kids, we could do the line-up in like an hour. Now it takes three-and-a-half to four hours depending on the meet. We’ve got to find the right spot for everybody."

Wachtel said that everybody comes to work hard every day. It doesn’t matter if they are big-time contributors or newcomers who probably won’t get into a varsity race.
"Different guys work hard," Wachtel said. "The middle-of-the-road guys work just as hard. They know they might not get into a race, but they just want to get better."

The brightest spot of having 114 athletes is the work they do in practice.
"It’s not just working out," Wachtel said. "It’s that they are pushing each other in the workouts. That’s what’s happening. If our practices are competitive, we are going to get better. The kids on j.v. and the freshmen group are part of this.
"A big part of the team is the kid that ran a 4:45 mile last year and wants to cut it down to 4:30," Wachtel added. "Those people are just as important as the ones that are scoring."