Willie Price’s youth track meets helping kids gain confidence through friendships, exercise
· Yahoo Sports
When each kid took off down the long jump runway, the assembled families and participants cheered and hollered.
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It did not matter if it was their kid or their friend or not. It did not matter if they knew each other before the meet. Whether or not a kid finished in first or last didn’t matter, they all got ribbons and had smiles on their faces after the events.
The kids were getting outside, meeting new people and having fun. They all were having fun at the Niagara Track and Field Club’s recent meet at Niagara Falls High School.
For former Niagara Falls High School assistant track coach Willie Price, it’s what makes his youth track and field meets unique. In the Niagara Track and Field Club meets, there are no teams and everybody cheers for everybody.
“We say cheer for everybody because that one kid that might have had that one bad jump or that one bad race and now all the parents are cheering for them,” event organizer Willie Price said. “… And they pick it back up when they didn’t think they could pick it back up because they were so tired. So those kind of things, that's what motivates me.”
The inspiration for putting on the track and field events for Price came after one of the worst moments of his life. Back in 2011, Price fell 25 feet off of a roof and was seriously injured, breaking his left ankle and the bones in the balls of his right foot.
After the fall, he promised himself and God that if he could ever walk and run again, he would help the community.
After recovering, the 64-year-old lived up to that promise and started the event in 2017 after meeting with then-Niagara Falls Superintendent Mark Laurrie about the lack of both track and field activities and cheap activities for kids in the summer.
Before every event, Price calls all of the families to midfield where they do stretches to get warmed up before the kids participate in the events. The families all take part and Price says it is to make sure that everybody feels included.
The sponsor-fueled free event serves kids from 3 to 14. The importance of the event was not just noticed by Price, but by the families participating, including Shawniece Baillie, who had her two kids, Evie and Aubrey, take part in the event.
“I think that they’re really important,” Baillie said. “It gives opportunities for families to come together. It gives opportunities for kids to learn new skills and meet new friends and to stay active.”
One of the things that Price enjoys the most about the events is helping kids learn the sport and grow in the sport over time. Over the years, he has helped each of Marketside Restaurant owner Tony Poletti’s three kids, including his 3-year-old son Vito, who Price laughingly recalled running the 200-meter dash Tuesday.
Price spoke to Poletti’s wife Kiley before the 200 and said that he did not think the littlest Poletti child could run the distance event. Then he looked to the other side of the track and saw Vito taking his place at the starting line against older kids and proceeded to finish the race.
The relationship between the Poletti family and Price has seen Tony and Kiley help out at the events.
“My kids are in basketball, baseball, soccer, swimming … and he’s one of my favorites,” Tony said. “He encourages kids to compete against themselves, beat their own time. … He’s very instructive and encouraging and it’s one of my favorite sports.”