By Christopher Tremblay Staff Sports Writer

Upon entering Holliston High School Connor Teague joined the football team as well as the basketball team for the Panthers. While he continued to play football up until this, his senior year where he was named the Tri-Valley League Most Valuable Player, he gave up basketball following his junior campaign to run indoor track.

Although the senior was replacing basketball with his final winter season at Holliston, he was no stranger to the sport. According to Teague, his father was a runner in college, so he grew up running.

“I probably began running around five or six years old,” he recalled. “Eventually I was running road races with my dad and I liked being on the move at all times; it utilized my athleticism. There wasn’t a lot of kids running so my dad would slow down and stay with me. During those races.”

Teague would also put his running ability to the test for the Holliston outdoor track and field team where he would run the 100 and 200 meter events, while also taking part in the long jump beginning the spring of his sophomore year.

During his junior basketball season, Teague injured his shoulder and would miss pretty much the entire basketball season; thus, the decision to forgo basketball his final year at Holliston. 

“I really enjoyed football and basketball, but as I got older I found that track was becoming my number one sport. I felt that it fit my skill set performance more,” Teague said. “It was a much more individual sport with everything relying on yourself. I really didn’t have a feel to how good I was or could be until I got to high school.”

As a sophomore he saw where he stood amongst the other athletes and knew where he excelled. Spring track was originally something he was doing for fun because he enjoyed it, but it quickly turned into a sport he took very seriously.”

“Ther was no competitiveness – it was just a fun activity to do,” he said. “But eventually I saw I could be somebody and started to train harder, especially seeing how good everyone else was. I felt that I had the potential but was not reaching it at that time.”

As a basketball payer who could jump Teague felt that the long jump would be an event at which he could excel.

“It’s a very different event where you’ve got to run perfectly every time while hitting your mark before jumping,” he said. “You need to stay consistent. It was difficult at first but I kept practicing and it allowed me to adapt and get better.”

Being a sprinter, while his dad was a distance runner Teague had to rely on you-tube videos and his track coach on perfecting his running. Prior to taking his start in the blocks for his races he would become very anxious waiting for the gun to go off. He learned how to calm himself down, get low and fast and take long strides to become successful. 

Coming into his first winter season he was looking to etch his name in the Panthers record books.

“I knew that I was close to a couple of school records and I really wanted to accomplish getting those,” Teague said. The 55-meter was definitely within reach and my personal best on the long jump was not far off; I had jumped 20’ 9 ½” during the spring season.”

Indoor track coach Aaron Ladd originally didn’t know what he what he was going to get out of the senior due to his basketball injury.

“I was not exactly sure what he could do,” Ladd said. “I started him with the 55-meter and then just kept adding from there.”

At the time of this writing, Teague was taking part in three events for the Panther and was ranked high within the states in each event. In the 55-m he was ranked third in the state; 8th in the long jump and was in the low teens for the 300-m.

Teague went out and currently owns the two records he was looking for – he has run a 6.57 in the 55-meter elapsing the original record of 6.71 and has jumped 20’ 11” in the long jump.

“Connor had fouled three times, disqualifying him in the long jump and literally had a few minutes to collective himself and get over to his 55-meter race,” the Coach said. “There he set the school record with a time of 6.62 seconds and has since broken that. It just shows what he is capable of doing, especially after fouling out just minutes earlier of another event.”

Ladd added that t he senior has also taken the titles at both the TYVL Showcase and at the Track at New Balance.

Teague will be entering the Division 4 State Tournament as the number one 55-meter runner and he is looking to finish strong in that event as well as the long jump.

“Right now, I am hoping that I can finish in the top three of the 55-m in the Division 4 Tournament while I top five in the long jump would also be nice,” he said. “If I could add a league MVP that would also be nice to go along with my football MVP. Getting the school record just shows what you can accomplish with hard work.”

With still yet another season of track to take part in Teague is looking to going to college next fall where he has two football scholarship offers at Endicott College in Beverly MA and Saint Anselm College in Manchester New Hampshire. At this point he is still undecided where he will go to play football but is also weighing his options if he’ll walk to the track team and try to make a name for himself there as well.