The 2024 Culver City High School Track season has been underway and with it comes the newest member of the coaching staff. Coach Henry Lutz, the long distance coach, hopes to lead the long distance runners to a successful season. 

Coach Lutz, also a new math teacher at CCHS, said he wanted to become a coach to be able to support students, an experience he enjoyed while coaching at his previous school.  

“At my last school, I was an assistant coach for the club we had called ‘Students Run LA’ where we would train for the LA Marathon, [which] was a really good experience,” Coach Lutz said. “I liked it so much that when I came to this school I wanted to do something like that again. I feel like I can bring students the support they need in order to grow as athletes.” 

According to Coach Lutz, the typical practice for the long distance track team is to “alternate between long distance hour runs, and shorter distance runs around the track trying to run certain times.” The team also runs their warm up mile and cooldown run at an easy pace, as well as conduct all their stretches together.

“I personally measure success in athletes through the effort they put into their workouts,” he said. “As long as they push themselves to reach their target times, they will improve little by little at the end of each workout. Athletes should be tired and that’s a sign that they are working hard.”

With sights on a successful spring season, Coach Lutz is adamant that CCHS students should join track.

“Track is a great sport; anybody can join as long as they want to improve,” he said. “You’ve got to be committed and you’ve got to work hard, but track is all about setting goals and how you’re going to reach that goal. I think track is an opportunity for students to improve themselves. Students can learn the importance of a team and the importance of goal-setting.”