AAU SPOTLIGHT: LAWTON LIGHTNING
09/24/2015
Lawton, Oklahoma is a city about 100 miles southwest of Oklahoma City with just under 100,000 people. But up until three years ago, one thing Lawton didn’t have was a Track and Field club. The Lawton Lightning Track and Field Club was created to give youth athletes the opportunity to ...
Lawton, Oklahoma is a city about 100 miles southwest of Oklahoma City with just under 100,000 people. But up until three years ago, one thing Lawton didn’t have was a Track and Field club. The Lawton Lightning Track and Field Club was created to give youth athletes the opportunity to participate in track and field events, and the organization that the Lightning chose to run with was the AAU. "We chose AAU because of the opportunity that the AAU offers to see other kids with the same type of ability they have,” said Darrin Carter, a volunteer distance coach with the Lightning. “These are the children they will be competing with nationally at all ages and are the best and most competitive in the country.”
Last year, the Lightning trained a team of 60 youth athletes, with 14 of them competing the 2015 AAU Junior Olympic Games in Virginia this past August. Their club also competed in the Regional Championship in Missouri and the District Championship in Texas.
“In Lawton there are not a lot of activities outside of football and baseball for kids in this age group to get involved with,” explained Carter. “This is a military town and kids come and go all the time, so kids that are transient don’t always get the attention in sports that local kids get.”
The Lawton Lightning have already started training for the 2016 season and hope to attend the Regional and District Championships to qualify for Nationals again!
