Born to Run program a hit at TSD
5/20/2009
By: News 8 Austin Staff
RICKY DOYLE: Welcome into another week of Carrozza’s Corner. We’re
happy to have Paul back with us and we are also joined this week by
Nick Bannon, from the Texas School for the Deaf, and if there is one
thing that we’re always trying to do on this segment, it’s get kids,
especially, out and get them running, and you just wrapped up the Born
to Run program at the Texas School for the Deaf. Tell me how it went
for the kids at the school and how they liked the running.
NICK BANNON: It is a very long and a generous program for our
students. The whole program starts in October. Our students look
forward to it and the culminating activity is what happened this week.
Runtex provided a wonderful array of activities for the students to do
including a marathon and it was just wonderful.
DOYLE: That’s great. Paul, you said you’ve been doing this a couple
of years there at the school and you can kind of see the growth,
right, over the last few years?
PAUL CARROZZA: Yeah, we continue to prove the point that kids want to
be active. It’s adults that are holding them back, and they allowed us
to come in and coach the kids directly. We came in once a week and
worked. We got to take over their PE class one day a week and they
learned the routine of how to warm up, do drills, do strides and build
endurance through the year. Once you’re fit, running is fun. It’s just
when it’s applied improperly. So, kids are learning. They are getting
hardwired and we have never seen it not work. They are our neighbor.
They are just right down the street from us. It’s a beautiful
facility, a beautiful community and we love being a part of it.
DOYLE: We’ve watched some of the teams at the School for the Deaf in
football and various sports and compete well against people. It’s the
same thing with running. If kids enjoy running and it’s something that
they can be successful at, they like to run, the students at the
school and they’ve enjoyed it.
BANNON: We feel that running is a big aspect of playing sports.
Perhaps that is what helps the students do well in sports and provides
cardiovascular benefits. Not only that, it provides the students with
the confidence to do well in sports and even in school.
DOYLE: You’ve taken the Born to Run program all over the place and it
doesn’t matter if it’s a school for deaf or just a normal school. Are
they the same results every where you go?
CARROZZA: Yeah, it is. It’s about proper warm up, long term goals so
that the kids aren’t – they are conditioned to run. They don’t run to
condition. That’s a big difference as you go to get kids and adults.
They have to learn that their body has to get fit before you go out
and try to run continuously for a long period of time. The other thing
they do so well, is they host the Ranger Triathlon. It’s the kid’s
triathlon and on the School for the Deaf, right there in the center of
town, they’ve got a pool, and they’ve got a track and they’ve got
enough roads to ride the bikes and have a triathlon. So, that’s
happening as well. If you haven’t been to the School for the Deaf,
it’s a great community, but we do know that kids’they want to be fit
and active and they want to be athletes. Most important, every child
wants to be an athlete.
DOYLE: Paul, real quick, while we’re here, we should mention Congress
Avenue Mile being moved to June.
CARROZZA: June 7th. The focus Congress Avenue mile for most is the
high school elite competition where it’s the one place for all of the
high school milers, no matter what division you’re in, you have to go
heads up with each other. The regional meets were moved to the weekend
of the Congress Avenue mile. So we moved the Congress Avenue mile to
the Sunday of the state meet, so now most of the kids will be
competing in the state meets, stay an extra day and compete in the
mile.
DOYLE: They might be a little tired.
CARROZZA: Well, I think they will be warmed up, peaked and they may
be faster than ever literally. For the rest of us, it means a little
more time. Who doesn’t want a few more weeks of intervals for a mile.
DOYLE: That’s June 7th, is the new date. Don’t forget, you can go to
runtex.com. You can get information for the Congress Avenue Mile and
all of the runs that are coming up. You can always shoot us an email
here. It’s [email protected].
Source:
http://www.news8austin.com/content/sports/?ArID=241120&SecID=5