A move to the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference may prove to be beneficial to all of Edward Little’s track athletes.

SOUTH PARIS – On one end of the track complex at Oxford Hills High School, Edward Little coach Dan Campbell followed distance runners around the track, yelling encouragement and rattling off split times.

That alone shouldn’t strike anyone as odd. It was, after all, a team meet in late April. The difference from last year is that, for the first time in 20 years of coaching at EL, Campbell was yelling split times in a girls’ race.

For years as part of the SMAA, the boys’ and girls’ track teams at Edward Little ran on different schedules. The sheer size of most of the teams in the southern part of the state warranted separate meets. Only at the state meet did the two squads compete together, and even then they often camped at opposite ends of the facility.

Now that they’re in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference, the teams compete together at all of their meets.

“It’s still just two meets into the season,” Campbell said. “Everyone is still trying to get used to it.”

Campbell and fellow coach Steve Robertson have coached for more than 35 combined years at Edward Little, and together with their assistants have nearly 100 years of experience. Still, prior to this season, with different operating philosophies, the two teams rarely mingled, even in practice.

“We’ve always had different ways of doing things,” Robertson said. “It was just what we did. We had different attitudes and different ways of running the teams.”

“We feel that by combining the two teams and the two sets of coaches, we have one of the most experienced bunch of coaches in the state,” Campbell said. “Rebecca Hefty and Art Feeley have a lot of college experience that they bring to the table, Al Harvey has been involved as a coach for 40 years and more as an athlete, and Steve, well his record speaks for itself. There is no shortage of coaching talent here.”

But all of the coaching talent in the world can’t physically create solid athletes, something Edward Little has been blessed with for several years in track and field. Still, those talented athletes never seemed to work together from team to team.

“I don’t think anyone would argue the point that there was some animosity between the boys’ and girls’ teams in the past,” Campbell said. “There was a sense of jealousy going both ways. This year, though, all of that is gone. We train together, share equipment and cheer each other on. That’s probably the most positive piece to putting the two teams together like this.”

Part of that transition started over the winter, with Hefty and Feeley coaching a combined indoor program.

Still, putting the two together is almost like trying insert a square peg into a round hole. It will fit only if you whittle corners down enough.

“We all started working more with fewer athletes,” Robertson said. “Dan took all of the distance runners, which has worked wonders for them. I have been able to work almost exclusively with the pole vault. It’s harder for me not to be involved with everything, but it’s a better situation for the kids.”

“We’re both veteran coaches and there is no reason that we can’t learn from each other,” Campbell said. “We will still have some philosophical differences, but no matter how you split hairs, we are all still here for the kids.”

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