UCC Track Coach Alan King Encourages His Athletes to be Active in the Community

On Sunday, UCC Track & Field coach Alan King, along with assistant coach Renate Richardson came to the Stewart Park Natural Area with almost 40 members of their track team to help build a soft trail. King, who is in his second year as head coach, is growing the Umpqua Community College cross country team which had 10 student athletes a year ago. This season he has 19. Besides growing the program, King has also been working on getting his team more involved in the community. “I reached out to Ryan one day, and said I would love to get something going with the trails here,” King said. “We did workouts out here last year before all the tree damage, but couldn’t currently because all of the damage. It’d be cool to put a soft trail in here and the city said alright let’s do it and here we are.” In 2017, the first year XC returned to UCC the team didn’t have enough student athletes to field a team. “Our trails system is all mountains and hills on campus. It’s nice to get somewhere where it’s flat and you can run a bit faster so it’s going to be another option for us this year,” King said. “Our track is pretty dilapidated. We’re trying to get some plans going to get it rebuilt. Anywhere we can get out in the community and help is awesome for us.” The track and field team which King also coaches went from 18 student athletes last year to 54 this season. The UCC track and field team was eliminated in 1996 but returned in 2018. “You’re not only getting an education. You need to learn how to be a good citizen in life,” King said. “We do push all of our student athletes to do community service.” King said the teams plan on coming back for future community service projects to help improve the accessibility and extend the soft trail for everyone to enjoy. The Riverhawks XC team will compete next in the Warner Pacific XC Open on October 19 at Lents Park in Portland. The track and field team has already begun practice for next spring.