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Steamboat Springs — The existence of spring break is the bane of all spring sports coaches, because the weeklong vacation typically pulls athletes away at a time when every practice counts.

However, the frustrations of most coaches have nothing on those of Steamboat Springs High School track and field coach Luke DeWolfe.

Most of the state took spring break a month ago. Steamboat, however, is scheduled to be out of school next week. That means the Sailors are only taking a token crew to today's track meet in Rifle. It means they'll only have a small contingent next week when they are scheduled for a meet at Moffat County. It means that, starting today - just three short weeks before the regional track meet DeWolfe termed the most important of the season - his track team is about to scatter into the wind.

"It's tricky for us because we're just about to go on spring break," DeWolfe said. "It's tough. It's really tough, especially coming this time of year."

The rest of the Steamboat spring sports teams squeezed the majority of their schedule in before the break, their postseason fates for the most part already decided. But when the track team returns, it'll have its most critical stretch ahead. Directly ahead - the team travels May 3 to the Western Slope League meet in West Grand, then turns around six days later to compete at regionals for a trip to state.

DeWolfe said he's issued workout plans for his team, which he expects the athletes to follow. He backed up the writing with a stern lecture before Thursday's practice, the last with the entire team before those leaving the area head off for vacation. Athletes staying in town will be expected to show up at daily workouts. Those leaving, well, DeWolfe can only hope for the best.

"Just don't sit around, eat Cheetos and watch 'Oprah,'" he warned. "I'll try and get them to come to practice, but the majority will be out of town. It really takes away some momentum about what you did, and it does it during real critical time.

"I'm not sure there's a great answer to fixing it," he continued. "We'll make the best of it."

Making the best of it begins with today's meet in Rifle. Steamboat, which will be joined by area schools Soroco and Hayden at the meet, can qualify athletes for state if they meet a certain time or distance. But that won't be the goal, DeWolfe said. Rather, the team will simply be focused on getting a few seconds faster or stretching a few inches longer, building for what he still insists is the most important meet: regionals.

"We do have kids that are still intense right now," he said. "A lot of them will be there. The one thing it hurts us is our relay teams can't work. It really takes away from them, but in the individual events, we'll still have kids shooting for improvement and individual records."

- To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 871-4253 or e-mail jreichenberger@steamboatpilot.com