Umemotos stepps down as boys head coach at Senior High

Mr.Umemoto steps down as boys head coach at Senior HIgh

T.J. Umemoto, track coach for 15 years, has stepped down.

“I don’t want to stop coaching track and field. I just have other priorities that I need to deal with. Only so many hours in a day. The athletes will be fine. We have a great coaching staff, so there will be very little changes,” said Umemoto.

The athletes will miss his pep talks at the beginning of the week to get the athletes ready for  the upcoming track and field meet. Umemoto has coached many of the athletes in the past few years that still go to Senior High today. Umemoto claimed, “I hope that they will take the love of the sport and they will continue to do the sport correctly.”

While the boys team will have a new head coach, Umemoto  wants “Us [the team] to continue the tradition [ of excellence].” To help us keep the tradition, at the week Umemoto would have two athletes, a boy and a girl, give a speech about what it takes to make a team work, but before the athletes would come up to give their speeches. Umemoto says he still stop in to see how we are doing during the track season. He is excited to see new and old athletes competing.

“The reason I’m taking the head coaching position is because I’ve been very pleased in how things are going in the last couple of years,” Quesenberry stated.  “When Umemoto stepped down I threw my name into the hat.”

Quesenberry has a different way of coaching. “A lot of it will be similar but I feel like Coach Umemoto did do a good job. He taught [the athletes] to be accountable and responsible, but at the same time it is going to be different, like teachers are to students. I’ll bring things that Umemoto did not, and Umemoto brought thing that I could not,” Claimed Quesenberry. “I want to thank Coach Umemoto for how structured you are. You taught me the importance of certain things in the track program.”

Thanked Senior, Joaquin Bodine, “You're so supportive and an awesome coach. I hope that he is happy with his decision.”  The boys will bring a new challenge to Coach Quesenberry. “I hope not to screw anything up and let the boys do what they do.” States Quesenberry

“I heard about him leaving at the beginning of my senior year.” Explained Bodine  “I think it's going to be really weird. After having the same head coach for three years. You really start to fit into his teachings.”

Still, Bodine believes in coach Quesenberry. “It won't be exactly like how Umemoto taught us, he's been around a lot of the time so he'll keep things the same and bring in new things,” described Bodine.