Former Sikeston track stars inspire young athletes at running camp

SIKESTON — A small but determined group of young athletes delved deep into the art of running this past weekend during a running camp at Sikeston High School.

The camp was hosted by former Bulldog and Missouri Baptist University tracksters Riley Cantrell and Keon Graham.

“The main benefit of the camp was to give kids at this age resources to improve their athletic ability,” Cantrell said. “I am blessed enough to have parents who could do this for me, but very few kids in this area can travel to Cape/St. Louis for speed-specific training. Luckily, God allowed me to study a degree that focuses on the body during exercises while running at the collegiate level. [Sikeston assistant football] coach [Josh] Freeman played at the collegiate level and has extensive knowledge of everything we covered. Keon Graham is competing against national competitors at the collegiate level. Who better to help teach these athletes? Hopefully, I did my part to bring some knowledge with me and pour it into the kids.”

Javon Rowe and Keane Atkins sprint during a running camp at Sikeston High School on Saturday, July 8, 2023. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

The camp focused on refining the athlete’s running technique, building strength, increasing speed and mastering acceleration. Through a series of specialized exercises and training sessions, the participants learned how to optimize their form and stride and develop a more efficient and powerful running style.

“Acceleration is a huge part of the running phase, but we don’t teach young athletes how to do it,” Cantrell said. “We expect people to just run. A majority of the camp was about this, focusing on the importance of the angle of the body and how to use their power from the bottom up. We only worked for an hour or two, but there were major improvements.

“When working on acceleration, we typically think of it as going from 0-100,” he continued. “These athletes don’t just run track; they play football and soccer and basketball. Once we incorporated some movements before that phase like jogging and jumping, I think they understood it a lot more clearly.”

Additionally, the coaches emphasized strength training exercises to enhance muscular power and endurance, enabling the athletes to maintain their speed over longer distances.

“Everything we did at the camp was something these athletes could do on their own,” Cantrell said. “They went home with a paper full of workouts to do during their training.”

Furthermore, the camp provided some other valuable insights including injury prevention, mental conditioning, nutrition and hydration, and race tactics and strategy.

“I’m always motivated to get faster,” said Keane Atkins. “It helps me get better, and it was something to do. I expected to get faster and help with my acceleration because of my positions I need to be fast and have acceleration.

“It got me to drive my legs and get my knees up higher to accelerate,” he continued. “The falling starts were kind of difficult but I overcame it by [coach Cantrell] helping me by holding me up a little and saying where I should start running from.

Despite not being actively involved in competitive running, Atkins expressed confidence that the skills learned at the camp would benefit him in other sports like football, basketball and baseball.

“I noticed that my form was better because he recorded us running,” Atkins said. “I was driving my legs and my acceleration got better.”

in conclusion, Cantrell expressed enthusiasm for the success of the running camp and his intention to make it an annual event, ensuring that young athletes in the community will continue to have access to valuable resources for improving their athletic abilities.