Baker's Dozen

Valenica Greenidge knows she'll be a busy girl competing in four events at the AAU National Track and Field Meet in Detroit, Mich.

The meet began last week and runs through Aug. 2.

Greenidge, who will be an eighth-grader at Vela Middle School, qualified for the national meet as a member of the Brownsville ISD Summer Track Program.

In Detroit, she'll be competing in the 200 meters, 400 meters, long jump and on a 4x100-meter relay team in the young girls division.

"It's tough (doing several events), and it's a challenge, but it also helps you get mentally fit for other things in life," she said. "When you know that you can do it, it just motivates you to work as hard as you can.

"I know it's going to be tough (at nationals)," she added. "I just have to try my hardest. Hopefully, I'll win. If I can stay focused and do my best, I feel I'll have a good chance."

Valencia has an older sister, Lydia, 14, and a younger brother, Christopher, 9, also competing at the AAU national meet. Lydia is competing in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump in the intermediate girls division, while Christopher is competing in the 400 meters in the bantam boys division.

Valencia, Lydia and Christopher are three of the 13 athletes from the BISD program to make the trip to nationals.

The BISD summer program involved approximately 100 athletes this year, according to head coach Delma Hernandez.

Of the 100 athletes, 50 earned a spot at nationals with their performances at an AAU qualifying meet June 27-28 at Sams Memorial Stadium. Thirteen of the 50 are paying their own way so they can compete at the national meet in Detroit.

"This is the best turnout we've had in terms of numbers (for the BISD summer program), and we're expecting it to be even greater next year," Hernandez said. "Little by little, we've gotten bigger and bigger. We thank BISD for the support we've received."

Hernandez is assisted by local high school track coaches. They include Mario Cisneros of Pace, Jenny Schuster of Rivera, Rigo Morales of Porter and Jaime Vasquez of Hanna.

Besides Valencia and Lydia Greenidge, other girls from the BISD program competing at nationals in-clude Rebeka Schaelchlin (sub-youth division 200, 400), Chanel Texada (youth girls 200, 400, 4x100 relay), Bethany Schaelchlin (bantam 400, long jump) and Hannah Schaelchlin (midget 400, 800).

In addition to Christopher Greenidge, there are six other males from the BISD program competing at nationals.

They include David Texada (midget division 100, 200, 4x100 relay), James Ukoli (midget 200, long jump, 4x100 relay), Terah Woodley (young men's 100, long jump) Marcus Moore (young men's 400 hur-dles), Lupe Martinez (young men's 400 hurdles) and Caleb Schaelchlin (sub-bantam 400, 800).

Caleb is making his second trip to AAU nationals. Last year, he placed 23rd out of 51 finalists in the 800 in his division in 2 minutes, 53 seconds.

Martinez, a standout hurdler at Hanna prior to graduating last spring, is getting ready to start his freshman year at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He'll be running track for the Islanders.

"My strategy (at nationals) is to just go out and run my race and have fun because I've already gotten this far," Martinez said. "It's a good preparation for what it will be like in college."

Likewise, Woodley, a senior at Living Way, said his involvement in summer track has been a good way to get ready for his final year of high school athletics. He'll soon start playing soccer for the Warriors.

"I'm going to try my best and hope God helps me perform to the best of my abilities," Woodley said. "We'll see where that gets me."