SPORTS
Gridiron Badgers moonlighting as track standouts
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Also by Michael Poppy:
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by Michael Poppy
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
As the UW football team heads into preparation for the 2005 season, a select few Badgers will be taking their off-season training to another level. Brian Calhoun, Antonio Freeman, Paul Hubbard, Chris Pressley, Levonne Rowan and Joe Thomas have traded in their helmets and shoulder pads for a pair of spikes for the upcoming track season. While track and field assists these athletes by maintaining their football physique, there is no doubt that each one can competitively hold their own in the sport of track and field as well.
Junior Brian Calhoun will be new to the Badgers’ track and field team, but the sport is not new to him. The University of Colorado transfer brings with him an impressive running resume.
While competing for the Buffaloes the past two seasons, Calhoun primarily ran sprints and participated in the jump events. Although his track participation was limited due to spring football practice, Calhoun is well aware that track and field has many benefits to his off-season football duties.
“There’s definitely some benefits,” Calhoun said. “Definitely, it helps you work on your speed and, I mean, speed’s always used in football. Conditioning is so different than just football so it helps you work out longer. There’s a whole bunch of plusses to track.”
Heralded freshman Antonio Freeman will also be a new addition to Wisconsin’s track and field team. However, he will not have the NCAA advantage that Calhoun has already experienced. Regardless, Freeman is seeking to make an immediate impact.
“I’m looking to burst onto the scene,” Freeman said. “I’m out here with Demi (Omole), we compete in practice everyday, we’re going to get faster. I’m plan to step up in track this year.”
This will be the first year since their days with the Milwaukee Striders track club in high school that Calhoun and Freeman will be reunited and there is no question that the two enjoy each other’s, as well as their other football teammates’, company on the track.
“(Being in track together is) cool because I know Freeman, we’re good friends, and Demi and Joe Thomas and all them,” Calhoun said. “It’s real fun because we get to joke about all different kinds of stuff.”
While these dual-sport athletes work hard in both sports, the track season tends to be calmer than the chaotic schedule of the football season
“(Track’s) fun, football’s fun, but it’s a lot more laid back,” Calhoun said. “You come in, you do your workout and you leave — there’s no meetings, there’s no film watching or things like that, but it’s fun. It’s a smaller team so you’re a little closer to all the guys so it’s really fun.”
Despite the fact that track and field is more laid back than football, the spring season will still be a hectic time for these select athletes with numerous track invites and football practice.
“It’s going to be pretty hectic,” Calhoun said of the upcoming spring. “It’s actually already started being hectic and we haven’t even started our main meets, but it’s what I want to do so I think it should be fine.”
As far as the other football players participating in track this year, they, too, will be seeking to compete at a high level while also staying in football shape.
Sophomore Joe Thomas is seeking to top his personal bests of 61-7 in the shot put and 178 in the discus in Big Ten outdoor events last season and must prepare to anchor an offensive line that will be missing Dan Buenning, Jon Clinkscale and Morgan Davis next season.
Thomas will also have to show Chris Pressley the ropes in the throwing events as the freshman adjusts to the collegiate level. Pressley is no stranger to success, however. In fact, he was the 2003 New Jersey state champion in the shot put and earned various All-American honors in football. Talent runs in the family, as Pressley’s uncle was a dual-sport athlete at Bethune-Cookman.
Junior cornerback Levonne Rowan has run track at the collegiate ranks only for a limited time, but last season he recorded personal bests in both the 60 meters (6.97 seconds) and the 100 meters (10.64 s). This season, track and field competition should help bolster Rowan’s football speed, as he must step up as a leader and playmaker in a defensive backfield that lost notable stars Scott Starks and Jim Leonhard.
Despite the fact that Paul Hubbard’s scholarship may have switched to the title of football this year, he won’t be taking track and field lightly by any means. Hubbard experienced plenty of success during his freshman year of track last season by winning the Big Ten crown in the long jump at both the indoor and outdoor conference championship events. This season, he is looking to duplicate those achievements.
As happy as these select few athletes are to be competing in both sports, head coaches Barry Alvarez and Ed Nuttycombe may be even more delighted that they have decided to take the extra step and participate in football and track and field.
“They’re a great talented group of guys,” Nuttycombe said. “They’re all out here because they love competing, they love track, they all did track in high school, a lot of them did it in the summer competitions, and they’re willing to do that extra work that allows them to do both and we’re just glad to have them. And I think they have fun with it, too. They make a team that’s already good, better.”
