As soon as the final flash of the camera had captured the memories of the NCAA Indoor Championships, Florida’s track and field teams locked in on their next goal.
The Gators were proud of what they had accomplished throughout the indoor season leading up to nationals, winning a national championship on the men’s side and finishing fourth on the women’s side.
But that was just part one in the novel of their season.
They wasted no time turning over those pages and directing their attention to writing that next chapter.
“Immediately after the meet, (the team) started talking about getting ready for outdoors,” coach Mike Holloway said.
Florida has one week until its 2018 outdoor seasons begin on March 23 at the FSU Relays in Tallahassee.
Until then, the teams will spend their time between the white lines and narrow lanes of the Percy Beard Track preparing to win a third consecutive outdoor title.
The transition to outdoors is a task that won’t be difficult for Holloway’s teams.
“It’s easier for us because we train outside every day,” Holloway said. “That’s the one disadvantage we have of running indoors. We don’t have an indoor facility to train on.”
Holloway, who was named the USTFCCCA National Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year, was proud of his team’s hard work throughout the indoor season.
But with outdoors coming up soon, he was impressed by how quickly his athletes were able to refocus after their last meet.
“It was great to hear them talk about we gotta do this at outdoors, we gotta do that at outdoors,” Holloway said.
They finished indoors with 13 different athletes named to the All-American First team. Three more made the All-America second team.
The “on to the next one” mindset that the Gators have had all season is what will help them move on from the success, but carry that same momentum to outdoors.
“You don’t want to celebrate your successes for too long,” Holloway said. “Because then they lead to failures.”
That’s part of the culture that Holloway has built over the years and it’s what he attributes most of the success to.
“It’s a family. We lift each other up. We have a ‘lean on me so you don’t fall’ kind of attitude,” Holloway said. “What breeds winning is hard work and trust. That’s the biggest thing.”
Follow Alanis Thames on Twitter @alanisthames and contact her at athames@alligator.org.
Coach Mike Holloway is already looking ahead to the outdoor track and field season after the Gators men's team won its fourth indoor national championship on Saturday. “You don’t want to celebrate your successes for too long,” he said.
