Community track set for debut in Saugus

SAUGUS – For the first time in well over a decade the high school varsity track team will host a track meet, at home.Thursday, May 7 at 4 p.m. the varsity track team will hold a home meet, thanks in part to Winthrop High School and the unfailing efforts of the Saugus Community Track Association.SCTA President and coach Chris Tarantino said Winthrop offered to let him borrow starting blocks and hurdles – items the track is still short on – in order to be able to host the meet.Tarantino said it was bittersweet to finally have a track, but not have everything that goes with it.It had long been one of the town’s great ironies that it had several championship track teams, despite having no usable track. The Belmonte Middle School track, which was used by both middle and high school teams, had been condemned years ago when it was deemed by track officials as too dangerous to run on.Four years ago, Tarantino was coaching a middle school track team with more than 100 kids, yet every meet meant a trip away because they had no track. Parents shared his frustration to the point where they banded together to form SCTA.The goal was simple, to raise enough money for a first class track that could be used by middle and high school runners as well as the community at large. The price tag was steep, however, at nearly $400,000 for a state of the art facility.The group got a boost with a $250,000 state grant and in 2007 officially broke ground.”This is very exciting,” Tarantino said. “We’ve been at this now for coming up on four years.”Tarantino said when the project first started, the bulk of his runners were eighth graders. Today they are seniors in high school. He said he is thrilled that they will get to officially use the track before they leave school.Tarantino also credited the parents who not only formed but stuck with SCTA to the fruition of the project.”It’s a great group of parents,” he said. “Some of the parents don’t even have kids still in the (track) program but they stuck with it.”Tarantino is hoping to put together a little fanfare for Thursday’s meet, though he has less than a week to get it together and still has work at the track to complete.”We’ll do a ribbon cutting maybe and try and make a little fuss at least,” he said. “But we do still have to do a little maintenance. I suppose cleaning up the shot put area versus a big to-do is a little more important.”