It was the afternoon before the first track and field meet of the season when Kealakehe High School cross-country head coach, Patrick Bradley, received some bad news — the next day’s Saturday track meet had been canceled due to COVID-19.
Bradley, who is the head coach for the Waveriders boys and girls cross-country teams for the last two years and the assistant coach to Duke Hartfield for track and field, was confident his athletes were primed and ready for a winning season.
“It was just total heartbreak,” Bradley said. “Disappointing for me, but just heartbreak for the kids who had been training since — well they never quit training since the end of the cross-country season in November. They kept running.
“We had several kids who were going to have phenomenal track seasons and we were very fortunate that only one of them was a senior, and that was Leann Hamilton. She ran well enough as a junior that she was still able to get a Division I scholarship. But she would have had a lot more offers if she could have run her last track season this year.”
Hamilton recently signed a national letter of intent in April to compete at Cal State Northridge, a school in the Big West Conference. Hamilton has won more than 30 BIIF races in the 800 and 1,500 meters during the last two years, and walked away from last year’s HHSAA state track and field meet with a silver medal.
Prior to coaching at Kealakehe, Bradley is also credited with the success of Konawaena High School’s running programs during his five years as head coach (2013-2018), leading the Wildcats to the school’s first HHSAA Division II cross-country team championship title in 2016, and producing a BIIF cross-country champion, Cody Ranfranz. Then in 2017, Bradley coached Josiah Vallez to winning the 800-meter race at the track and field state championships.
While the COVID-19 pandemic continued to evolve in March causing school closures and cancellation of all high school sporting events, Bradley said he held out hope for a possible return in May.
“We were hoping (the track season) was going to come back,” he said. “We kept thinking right now we are not going to have the first meet and we don’t know about the second one, but then after that period we thought, what if there is no virus for two weeks and we have the season for the month of May? We could still have one meet, and then the Big Island and state championships.
“So, we hung our hat on the fact that the virus is going to go away in April and we are going to have a track season in May. And, we were hearing from HHSAA that it was still a possibility, but then the virus didn’t go away enough and then they said we are done for the year.”
As schools turned to distance learning as a way to continue academic progress from home, so did Bradley by having to refocus training and workout schedules to keep his athletes in shape and motivated amid social distancing and shelter-in-place mandates.
“I think it’s kind of a blessing in disguise because after losing that track season, I’ve never seen a bunch of kids as motivated as they are right now,” Bradley said. “I mean they are training on their own and they really want to do good this year. That’s the culture I want to try to establish is that the kids want to train, they want to run on their own, and they enjoy it.
“And I give them a variety to keep them motivated. I tell them things in my background and why distance running is a year-round sport. I love when I’m asked the question, ‘How come they run so fast on the mainland?’ I say, because they train year-round. If you want to be successful, you need to run year-round. Sprinters don’t need to but middle and long distancers need to run all year round.”
With the school year officially ending in May and the state and county slowly reopening the economy in phases, Bradley said practices in small groups have resumed and his athletes are training harder than ever.
“I have to be enthusiastic and I have to give them a variety of ways to run,” he said. “We do intervals, we do tempo runs, we do long runs, we run hills, and then we also train at altitude. We try to train at altitude one day a week at 7,000 feet.
“When you are running you are pretty space-distanced anyway but one way I do workouts is the boys run together and the girls run together, and there are enough ability levels that they are always several feet apart.”
Bradley has always envisioned building a dynasty at Kealakehe and predicts this coming season, while it may start a month later than usual and be shortened, will be a championship year for the boys cross-country team.
“You know what I keep hanging in front of my boys? I let them know that when we won the state championships in cross-country in 2016 at Konawaena, I tell them, you guys are better than that team. I think we have a shot at winning the state championships, I really do.
“We’ve got Alec and Aiden Ankrum, Levi Childers, and a newcomer, Cameron Cornforth, who is running stride for stride with Alec. So, I have four kids who are potential top ten out of the 200 that will go to the state meet in cross country. If you get four into the top ten then you got it.”
On the girl’s side, Bradley praised Cozette “Cozy” Wood and Xitlalitl Reyes as being the top two female runners on the island.
“We had a meet last year at Makani Golf Club, and Cozy had been finishing in the top ten in the other meets but she won that meet,” Bradley said. “She beat Leann and then she was second at BIIF behind Shaian (Garana) from Konawaena. She’s going to have a phenomenal year. She will be a sophomore and I think she can go undefeated this year although her best competition will be Xitlalitl. Cozy and Xitlalitl are the best two runners on the Big Island right now.”
How does Bradley think the season will unfold for cross-country while navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic?
“I think we might have a short season this year, but I think we will still have a season,” Bradley said. “I don’t think the season will be affected as much, but I don’t know, I hope not. The good news about running is that it’s not a contact sport. I think a lot of people who are afraid of the virus are afraid of the contact sports.
“And I think this is Alec Ankrum’s year. This is his year to be the top distance runner in the State. His speed has developed and he’s always had great endurance and I think Alec will be fantastic in cross-country and on the 3,000 in track.
“He was having a good year his 10th grade year because he hadn’t been beat, and then he got this horrible flu in the middle of the track season. And then this year, his 11th grade year disappeared. So it’s been so unfair that both his 10th and 11th year were taken away. He’s gotten medals in the last two years in cross-country and states but I think he will be running for the championship this year. And he has earned it. He’s one of those guys I don’t have to bug him on the days we are not training and wonder if he’s running on his own. A lot of times I’ll ask what did you do yesterday, and he’ll say, ‘I ran 10 miles.’”
