Born to Run program a hit at TSD<\/p>\n
5\/20\/2009<\/p>\n
By: News 8 Austin Staff<\/p>\n
RICKY DOYLE: Welcome into another week of Carrozza’s Corner. We’re
\nhappy to have Paul back with us and we are also joined this week by
\nNick Bannon, from the Texas School for the Deaf, and if there is one
\nthing that we’re always trying to do on this segment, it’s get kids,
\nespecially, out and get them running, and you just wrapped up the Born
\nto Run program at the Texas School for the Deaf. Tell me how it went
\nfor the kids at the school and how they liked the running.<\/p>\n
NICK BANNON: It is a very long and a generous program for our
\nstudents. The whole program starts in October. Our students look
\nforward to it and the culminating activity is what happened this week.
\nRuntex provided a wonderful array of activities for the students to do
\nincluding a marathon and it was just wonderful.<\/p>\n
DOYLE: That’s great. Paul, you said you’ve been doing this a couple
\nof years there at the school and you can kind of see the growth,
\nright, over the last few years?<\/p>\n
PAUL CARROZZA: Yeah, we continue to prove the point that kids want to
\nbe active. It’s adults that are holding them back, and they allowed us
\nto come in and coach the kids directly. We came in once a week and
\nworked. We got to take over their PE class one day a week and they
\nlearned the routine of how to warm up, do drills, do strides and build
\nendurance through the year. Once you’re fit, running is fun. It’s just
\nwhen it’s applied improperly. So, kids are learning. They are getting
\nhardwired and we have never seen it not work. They are our neighbor.
\nThey are just right down the street from us. It’s a beautiful<\/p>\n
facility, a beautiful community and we love being a part of it.<\/p>\n
DOYLE: We’ve watched some of the teams at the School for the Deaf in
\nfootball and various sports and compete well against people. It’s the
\nsame thing with running. If kids enjoy running and it’s something that
\nthey can be successful at, they like to run, the students at the
\nschool and they’ve enjoyed it.<\/p>\n
BANNON: We feel that running is a big aspect of playing sports.
\nPerhaps that is what helps the students do well in sports and provides
\ncardiovascular benefits. Not only that, it provides the students with
\nthe confidence to do well in sports and even in school.<\/p>\n
DOYLE: You’ve taken the Born to Run program all over the place and it
\ndoesn’t matter if it’s a school for deaf or just a normal school. Are
\nthey the same results every where you go?<\/p>\n
CARROZZA: Yeah, it is. It’s about proper warm up, long term goals so
\nthat the kids aren’t – they are conditioned to run. They don’t run to
\ncondition. That’s a big difference as you go to get kids and adults.
\nThey have to learn that their body has to get fit before you go out
\nand try to run continuously for a long period of time. The other thing
\nthey do so well, is they host the Ranger Triathlon. It’s the kid’s
\ntriathlon and on the School for the Deaf, right there in the center of
\ntown, they’ve got a pool, and they’ve got a track and they’ve got
\nenough roads to ride the bikes and have a triathlon. So, that’s
\nhappening as well. If you haven’t been to the School for the Deaf,
\nit’s a great community, but we do know that kids’they want to be fit
\nand active and they want to be athletes. Most important, every child
\nwants to be an athlete.<\/p>\n
DOYLE: Paul, real quick, while we’re here, we should mention Congress
\nAvenue Mile being moved to June.<\/p>\n
CARROZZA: June 7th. The focus Congress Avenue mile for most is the
\nhigh school elite competition where it’s the one place for all of the
\nhigh school milers, no matter what division you’re in, you have to go
\nheads up with each other. The regional meets were moved to the weekend
\nof the Congress Avenue mile. So we moved the Congress Avenue mile to
\nthe Sunday of the state meet, so now most of the kids will be
\ncompeting in the state meets, stay an extra day and compete in the
\nmile.<\/p>\n
DOYLE: They might be a little tired.<\/p>\n
CARROZZA: Well, I think they will be warmed up, peaked and they may
\nbe faster than ever literally. For the rest of us, it means a little
\nmore time. Who doesn’t want a few more weeks of intervals for a mile.<\/p>\n
DOYLE: That’s June 7th, is the new date. Don’t forget, you can go to
\nruntex.com. You can get information for the Congress Avenue Mile and
\nall of the runs that are coming up. You can always shoot us an email
\nhere. It’s run@news8austin.com.<\/p>\n