Young Chicago track and field athletes lap the competition across the U.S.
CHICAGO (CBS) – A local group of young athletes is making its mark well beyond Chicago. Now, they're giving everyone a reason to track them as they lap the field.
As CBS 2 previously showed you, the Dr. Conrad Worrill Track & Field Center at Gately Park opened in July of 2020.
The first-class indoor facility hoped to provide athletes an opportunity to train and serve as a competition site. CBS 2's Jori Parys had the story of those athletes sweeping the competition on the national stage just a few years later.
Craig Collins has always had a vision for track and field in Chicago, from coaching at the high school and college levels as a former athlete, to helping Gately Park offer programs for kids of all ages and experience levels. But Collins wanted to take things to the next level.
"A park district that evolved into a track club around a neighborhood and that track club took you to different places every weekend around the state, eventually around the region, and if you were lucky enough, you went to nationals," Collins, the track and field operations director, said. "That had always been in my DNA."
So Collins, along with the Chicago Park District and ASM Global, started Gately Park Athletic Club, allowing six age groups from 7-18 to compete.
"Everybody seemed supportive about it and I think it's going to catch on," Collins said.
What began as a team of four quickly grew to 35 in its first season but the success that they would achieve came even faster.
"We ended up taking 14 kids down to nationals in Louisville and 13 came back All-Americans," he said. "If you had told me that down the road that would have happened, I would not have thought that at all."
"People was from California, Colorado, Ohio, all those different states," said Zion Morrison, 13, a track champion. "For me to go out there and win three events, it really surprised me."
Morrison won three of the club's seven total titles at the USA Track and Field Youth Indoor Championships. He and his All-American teammates credit their short time training at Gately, to helping build bright futures.
"When I'm training, I always think I want to go to the Olympics, I want to get to the higher levels," said K'Saundra Frison, 11, a long jump 4x400 champion.
Erik, Frison's father, said, "this is like a safe haven if you think about it. You know, leave school and going right to practice and practice is serious. They went to nationals had great success. Now having bullseyes on their back. So they're no longer the new club."
It's a club that aims to be around a long time.
"Gately is open to all kids," said Carinne Parker, a track and field coach. "We want to help all kids in low-income and poverty who just don't have access to a facility. It's great to see kids inside big track, not just inside the hallways. So I feel like it's going to continue to grow every year."
Collins added, "As I get older within the sport, I can look upon this as something that was created for Chicago, not just the South Side but all Chicago. Hopefully this facility is around 70 years from now.
For now, Collins continues to see kids signing up because being on the team is, well…
"It's really fun," said Kennedy Hall, 7.
With sending 14 kids to nationals, 13 All-Americans, it sounds like they're building a juggernaut on the South Side.
