CLEVELAND — East Technical High School in Cleveland is known for its history of greatness in sports. It's a history that includes two Olympic gold medal-winning alumni: Jesse Owens and Harrison Dillard. It's with those legends in mind that coach Michael Hardaway is working to revive the school's boy's track & field program.
"When I got here last spring, they hadn't had boys track for two years," said Hardaway, who serves as the head coach for both football and boys track & field. "We're still recovering from COVID. City schools canceled sports through COVID for a whole year, so a lot of athletes we had under our care transferred to suburban high schools that had sports during COVID."
Hardaway said many of his students did not know of Dillard and Owens until he held a team history lesson.
"They were shocked," Hardaway said. "Some of them went home and did a lot of research and were able to come back the next day or the ensuing days and explain who Jesse Owens was and some of them were amazed that he was an East Tech graduate."
Hardaway's focus for his athletes has been maintaining grades and working to become better both in and away from track meets, but he said he has also learned from them.
"They get up every day. Sometimes their circumstances aren't the best coming from the neighborhood...sometimes home life, but they get up every day and they come in to give me a hundred percent," said Hardaway. "They give this program a hundred percent and they give this school a hundred percent and that gives me inspiration. when they give me a hundred percent, that makes me go through the roof."
Last season, Hardaway said the boys' track team had 15 student-athletes. While he said there is more work to be done for this team to rediscover its illustrious past, this is a challenge Hardaway said he embraces.
"I've loved every bit of my journey the past year," said Hardaway. "There's been some ups and some downs, but I embrace it all because I understand that sometimes from trials and tribulations, growth comes from that."