First year head coach Yanell Holiday is using her prior track experience to help improve the Cougars’ program.
New Cherry Hill High School East girls track and field head coach Yanell Holiday has experienced it all as a runner.
From joining the track team unexpectedly in high school to learning to run the hurdles on spring break, Holiday is full of memorable stories and experiences from her high school and college track career.
Now, Holiday is hoping to use her expertise and experience to improve a new generation of runners at Cherry Hill East in her first season as a track coach.
“Track has always been the sport that helped me grow as a person,” Holiday said. “I always said I wanted to do it as far as coaching.”
Holiday began running track while attending Ursuline Academy after the athletic director asked her to stop playing basketball and start running track and field. To help pick up the sport, she joined the Wilmington Track Club, a move she credits to becoming a successful track athlete. Holiday was an all-state runner at Ursuline in the hurdles and high jump.
Holiday continued her career at Hampton University and Wilmington University. After graduating college, Holiday always wanted to jump into coaching track, but had focused most of her spare time as an adult attending her own children’s athletic events. With two of her three kids now in college, the timing was right for Holiday to finally jump into coaching.
Holiday has brought a unique perspective to her new job. At the age of 50, Holiday remains an outstanding athlete who competes in the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia. Holiday’s athleticism allows her to be a hands-on coach who will run alongside her team and demonstrate first-hand what she’s trying to teach the athletes.
Holiday’s approach to coaching is as much mental as it is physical. A day prior to Cherry Hill East’s opening dual meet of the season against Lenape High School on April 5, the team wasn’t on the track, but rather in a classroom discussing the next day’s opponents and the events each athlete needs to run.
“We’re sitting in there and talking about what the expectation is for each of us,” Holiday said.
Holiday’s strategic approach translates down to each individual event, where she is working on helping runners improve things as small as the kick at the end of a run or a runner’s stride.
“You show pictures, I videotape them so they see what they look like,” Holiday said. “We’re really talking about form. You have to be as efficient as possible.”
“I’m telling them that you have to be cerebral, teaching them that there’s a strategy to run,” she added.
There has also been an increased amount of work in the weight room. Holiday has added more lifting, push-ups and sit-ups to the athletes’ workout routine this year.
Holiday feels the changes will pay off. She said a number of her runners have seen substantial improvement already early in the spring season.
Holiday is building a culture based around commitment, integrity and family. She wants her athletes to be committed to the program and give their best effort at each practice and meet.
Holiday is also focusing on building stronger team unity.
“This is an individual sport, but any decision you make has to be for the good of our team,” Holiday said. “Whether it’s as a student, whether it’s as an athlete, whether as a sister or sibling, any decision you make, are you representing the team well.”
