On to State

In the old days, track runners were referred to as thinclads. The Lely 4 x 100 meters team lived up to that nickname when they showed up for their photoshoot Friday afternoon at Trojan Stadium. All had their shirts off, showing they are fit and ready to compete for the state championships on May 17 in Jacksonville. They believe they can win. So does their coach.

One of the runners, Loveguens Avena, also qualified for states in the triple jump.

“Ever since middle school, people have been doubting me,” said Loveguens Avena, "saying I'm skinny and that this was not my path. But I believe in myself. I put in work every day to get this far. I trust the process. Now, I'm doing big things. Yeah, they're going to remember the name. It's Loveguens.”

First year Lely head coach Jermain Washington has been preaching the process.

“It's a real special group,” Jermain Washington said. “They grew up together. They bought in day one in the off-season. They kind of held our team together, just being leaders, just trusting the process. I think that's the biggest thing, them having faith, believing that we can do it all the time. We battled a lot of adversity this year. I think that's the biggest thing for them, just overcoming, especially the last meet. They were getting down a little bit there, just emotionally getting down, not thinking they're doing good enough. But they're right there. All these guys are great leaders on the team. These are the true leaders. They'll uplift each other. And that's really key. Just having kids like that, you can't really beat that. You've got to root for each other."

The five state-bound seniors grew up together in the same east Naples neighborhood.

"I'm with my fellow brothers,” said Joshua Philogene. “We basically grew up together. I knew these boys ever since I was a little kid. I knew everybody's parents. We grew up in College Park, walking pretty much the same path. I knew these cats for a long time. We just been having that little bond with each other."

“Even though we played for different football teams when we were younger,” said Don Salomon, “we went to the same elementary and middle school - Manatee Middle School. We've always been working together, grinding. We've been wanting this since day one. Always grinding every day. Coming out here in this hot sun. You don't see a lot of people doing this. Now, we could be the ones that make history for Lely. I feel like our chances in states is like, we've just got to trust our coach. Just believe in the work ethic. I just believe that it's a pretty high chance." 

“Put God first in whatever you're doing,” Salomon said. "Put God first and we're gonna do this together. We're gonna make it happen."