HIGH SCHOOL SPRING SPORTS DIGEST : AN EARLY GLANCE AT TOP TEAMS AND PLAYERS : Track : Watts and Taft Eager to Defend the State Title

A year ago, Taft High track Coach Tom Stevenson, armed with the best team in school history, eagerly awaited the arrival of the new season. The team featured sophomore sprinter Quincy Watts, and Stevenson entertained thoughts of a City Section title.

“I was only concerned with the City meet back then,” Stevenson said recently. “I hadn’t really thought about the state meet. Winning state seemed like a dream.”

That dream came true. Powered by Watts, Taft won the state title, becoming the first Valley team to win the boys championship. Watts won the 200 meters, placed second in the 100 and anchored the 400-meter relay team to second. At the City championships a week earlier, Watts won the 100 and 200 and anchored the victorious 400 relay team.

His personal bests of 10.56 in the 100, 20.97 in the 200 (the age-15 national record) and 48.27 in the 400 distinguished him as one of the nation’s premier high school sprinters, all before his 16th birthday.

Watts, a 6-3 forward on the varsity basketball team, received a scare during the basketball season when he broke a bone in his left foot. “I couldn’t stand not playing,” Watts said. “But not running was even worse.”

When the bone healed, Watts couldn’t wait to get back on the track. And his workouts have proved that.

Watts’ workouts are designed by Nick Newton, 53, one of the nation’s top masters sprinters, who began working with Taft’s sprinters last June.

“Last year we never did anything longer than one 550 during workouts,” Watts said. “This year we’re running 550s and 880s and we’re doing repeats.

“Last year I only came home really tired and dizzy once or twice. This year I come home tired and dizzy a lot. Now when I come home, I take an aspirin and go to bed. Then I wake up sore in the morning.”

But Watts said the hard work will pay off.

“We’re the defending state champions and everyone is gunning for us,” he said. “It comes with the territory. We have to be ready to prove ourselves.”

The “we” Watts spoke of includes seniors Jay Borick, Sean Roberts and O’Shun Pierre, and juniors David Finestein and David Flores. Borick, the defending City Section champion in the pole vault, has been sidelined with a back injury but is expected back in three or four weeks.

Even though Watts hasn’t set any personal goals for himself because of his injury, he speaks candidly of the team’s relay goals. “We want to run under 41 seconds in the short relay and 3:10 in the mile relay,” he said.

And what of another state title. “We want to win it again,” said Roberts, who ran the first leg on the 400-meter relay in 1986. “We know it won’t be easy but last year was a great experience for us and we’d like to do it again.”

And no one will be surprised this time.

Notes

Watts isn’t the only returning state sprint champion from the Valley area. Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa became the first freshman girl to win the state 100-meter title, winning in Cerritos last June in 11.78. Burnham, who has a personal best of 11.77, opened her season with a Southern Section leading time of 12.00 in the 100 at the Spartan Relays last Saturday. Burnham is also one of the state’s best 200-meter sprinters. She qualified for the state championships at that distance in 1986 but was disqualified for running out of her lane. . . . Westlake junior Desiree Joubert heads the list of remaining Valley-area athletes who scored points at the 1986 state meet. Joubert finished third in the 800 and seventh in the 1,600.