After three straight winless seasons, coach Jerry Van Slooten’s team makeover is starting to take hold
When Jerry Van Slooten took over the Hamilton West boys’ track & field program in 2011, he inherited, to put it succinctly, a mess.
A once-proud program had fallen on hard times. In a school loaded with athletes, few were coming out for the team. The ones who did join the team mostly wanted to stay in shape for other sports. That’s not a surprise, as it happens at a lot of places.
But that first year, Van Slooten said there were also some bad attitudes from seniors that were trickling down to the underclassmen. Van Slooten was forced to dismiss them from the team, and Hamilton ended up suffering its third straight winless season.
Things got a little better last year as West broke its losing streak with two dual meet wins. This spring, in the season’s second week, the Hornets equaled that with a tri-meet victory over Robbinsville and Notre Dame on April 10.
No one is proclaiming the Hornets are back. But they are getting there.
Senior sprinter Ruben Desane, one of the team leaders along with Mark McKenzie, was a sophomore on that 2011 team. He said the younger athletes got the message when Van Slooten took disciplinary action.
“It showed us that coach, like he always says, doesn’t want any fat on the meat,” Desane said. “They wanted everything to be raw and serious and everything. We knew the guys who were removed were some of our best runners. And we saw that when that happened, the coaches were serious about winning track meets.
“We’re telling these younger guys now that we used to be slow but we’re getting better. They wouldn’t believe us. As the program kept building, we kept telling them come join, and they see more serious practices. Even without the coaches around, they see us running. We call ourselves track nation, so if we’re track nation we have to show them that we’re serious.”
It couldn’t have been easy for Van Slooten. In his first year, he obviously wanted to win and getting rid of some of his top talent certainly wasn’t going to help. But he had to make the move.
“The numbers were low, and I guess the senior commitment wasn’t where it needs to be to have a winning program,” he said. “Kids would come in and show up and not give the effort to get better.
“The younger kids would see this, and that wasn’t good. When the culture is not where it needs to be, you have to come in and try to change the culture. You had to let the young kids know what the expectations are. It’s still a fight. We haven’t had winter track so that makes it difficult, but now it’s coming back so that will help.”
In the meantime, Van Slooten hit the recruiting trail.
“I think if a kid sees me in the hallway, they turn away if they’re athletic,” he said with a laugh. “I’m constantly recruiting in the school. Other kids are like ‘Get away. He’s gonna ask you.’
“Part of the problem is, without winter track, 80 kids come out but 30 don’t want to be there. So you spend the first month of the spring season weeding out the kids who don’t want to be there. That first month can be very frustrating.”
Signs of progress began to show last year with dual meet wins over Ranney and Hightstown. The Hornets also had two athletes place in the county meet and two place in sectionals. One transferred to Pennsbury and a talented distance runner transferred to Nottingham, but Group III high jump qualifier Darryl Hardee is back, and Darius Miller is also a threat in the jumps.
“Darius has been here through it all,” Van Slooten said. “He’s seen the difference and hopefully he’ll have a big year. Our jump crew in general is pretty good. Tyree Adams has come out and is doing well in the high jump and triple jump. Darryl had a nice year last year so we’re looking for him to do well.”
The distance team is also solid after Jeff Meckel and Austin Jenkins had strong cross country seasons.
“We’ve never gotten points in distance,” Van Slooten said. “Now, against teams without strong distance guys we’re getting firsts and seconds, and teams with good distances, we’re getting seconds and thirds.”
Senior Greg Williams, coming out for the first year, has given a boost to the sprint team along with Desane and McKenzie. The throws are also upgraded with Bashawn Smith, Zach Bauman and Marcus Hall and Will Dyott has looked good in the pole vault. Desane and Edouige Paul handle the hurdles.
“In our meet with Notre Dame and Robbinsville, we scored points in every single event,” Van Slooten noted. “We had never done that. That shows the depth of kids we have. Now you just kind of develop the high level talent.”
Van Slooten feels that this year’s team is built more for dual meet success, due to having decent talent across the board. As for the county and state meets, he isn’t sure what to expect since Hamilton doesn’t have many of those true superstars.
“We’re designed right now to put wins on board, and getting people excited about the program,” the coach said. “It seems to be a good county meet team you need four or five stud athletes, and we’re not there yet outside of Darryl.
“But winning the duals is a good feeling. At the Notre Dame/Robbinsville meet the Robbinsville coach [Jon Hutchinson] said ‘You guys are doing a good job, we’ve seen improvement every single year.’ Last year, teams were surprised by us because the first year we got blown out every meet. Last year, scores were close, now this year, I think it surprised Robbinsville and Notre Dame that we beat them.”
Van Slooten gives much of the credit to Desane and McKenzie, two football players who have gotten serious about track.
“When kids come out and don’t know what track is about and you have those guys changing their schedule to fit track in and make it a priority, it rubs off,” Van Slooten said. “Then they’re going to the trainer to go back out there instead of sitting in the stands when they’re hurt. It’s good for younger kids to see that mentality.
“When we were going to the Notre Dame meet, they were on the bus trying to get the team excited for track. They’re up there saying ‘This is Notre Dame, let’s go!” They help bring the intensity and focus, and you need to have that.”
Desane has gone from just trying to keep in shape, to wanting to succeed.
“I actually do enjoy it,” he said. “My freshman year, I hated practices, and my sophomore year we were getting killed. But by last year, I figured I might as well stay. You get to compete, you bond with other students on your team when we’re under the tent (at major meets). We share stories, we share how we run.”
Overall, it is a huge difference this year from when Desane and McKenzie first came into the program.
“Just because you’re good doesn’t mean you have the privilege to joke around at practices and show no leadership,” Desane said. “Now the practices are more serious, people show up more.
“Coach is honest about winning and all that other stuff. It’s more intense, there’s more competition. Before, we just showed up and did what we had to do and got out of there. Me and Mark wanted to step in and show them what track is all about it.”
The Hornets seem to be getting the message.
,
