Families……. The Heart of Track And Field

Zenzele Vital   Blazing a trail in the 400m

Talking to many families at track meets and now many more via the e-mail one thing is for sure,success for our youth athlete is impossible with out the great coaches,and strong familiy commitment and sacrifice year in and out to help our youth athletes reach their full athletic potentional.  Here is a great youth athlete to watch in the future.   

   Zenzele Vital  Age - 8  Subbantam  Divison USATF   Primary Divison AAU

 Zenzele (pronounced; Zen-Zay-Lay) Vital is the youngest child of Jonathan and Montina Vital of Waldorf, Maryland. Her name is South African and means, “She will do it on her own”.

Zenzele is an 8 year old , whose favorite subject is Math, is the youngest member of the Speed Tech Track Club (www.speedtechtrack.com) based in Clinton, Maryland, just outside of the nation’s capitol.

 The Vital’s first noticed how much Zenzele loved to run, while assigned to Ft. Lee, Virginia, when she was about 4 years old. They say she would never “just walk” anywhere. She always ran to where ever she was going, even in the house.

 A few years later, after her family relocated to Maryland, Zenzele would sometimes race the boys on her 11yr old brother Boakum’s football team during practice. When the coaches realized she was actually beating some of them, they strongly encouraged the Vital’s to sign her up for organized age group track.

 With the abundance of youth organizations in Maryland, it wasn’t hard to find a team. She soon became a member of an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Potomac Valley District team and didn’t waist time in establishing herself as someone track fans should keep their eyes on.

 In February,2008 at the AAU Northern National Indoor Championships, held at Merrillville H.S. in Merrillville Indiana, not only did she win gold in the three events she ran in (55m, 200m, 400m), she blazed the competition while setting “Primary Age Group” records in two of them. (200m; 35.76 & 400m; 1:18.20)

Kent Green, Speed Tech’s head coach, says, “Zenzele has the heart of a lion and a million dollar smile. She is a coach’s dream”. Her athleticism is outstanding, she’s very receptive to coaching instruction, and it doesn’t take a lot to get her motivated. Big meet or just another day of practice, it makes no difference. She’s ready to roll when ever she steps on the track.

 Zenzele and all her team mates have been working hard this outdoor season to continue to improve and ultimately earn a trip to Detroit Michigan, where this year’s AAU Junior Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 2. It won’t be easy but odds are this young lady will add more hardware to her already impressive list of accomplishments.

Thanks to Coach Kent and the Vital family for providing TrackMom with this story.

Until Next Time

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