Svoboda loves track challenge> Cheerleader enjoys making seasonal change of pompons to pain

Bangor senior Jill Svoboda’s passion is cheering. But it is in track that the competitor in her runs wild.

Her sophomore year, Svoboda tried outdoor track – just for something to do – and felt drawn to the pain and pressure that cheering lacked.

Bangor spring track coach Gary Capehart recalls an interval workout of 300s three years ago where he had groups of boys and girls running at the same time. After the slower group of boys started, Capehart started Svoboda’s group.

“When they came down the last 100-meter stretch, boom, Jill came flying by five to six boys,” Capeheart said.

Capehart said he ran to the start to call out times and heard Svoboda say to her teammates: “Gees, it’s fun beating the boys.”

While Svoboda joined the Rams track team to keep busy, her competitiveness led her last year to a fourth-place finish in the state meet in a time of 1 minute, 1.37 seconds in the 400.

Yet Svoboda has remained committed to cheering, the activity she has done fall and winter since sixth grade, therein lies the paradox of an athlete who will contend for a gold medal in the Class A state championships this spring.

As a cheerleader, Svoboda said can’t prepare for the physical or mental demands of track, and yet she relishes the challenge the spring season brings.

The bounding in cheering provides a workout, but Svoboda said it doesn’t compare to the pain in track.

“I get a lot more nervous for track,” Svoboda said. “Competing for cheering I get nervous, but there are 11 other people. In track it’s just you.”

And yet Svoboda enjoys the seasonal whiplash of going from pompons to pain. Cheering is something she can enjoy. But track is more of a challenge.

“I like being pushed,” Svoboda said. “I like doing well. I get really nervous. Confidence is something I have a hard time with. But getting nervous is what pushes me.”

Capehart said he believes his one-season senior is talented enough to be successful in the 800 as well as the 400. While Svoboda doesn’t have the distance base for the 800, her coach believes her competitiveness can compensate for her lack of training.

“Watch this,” Capeheart said last week at a Rams track practice. He then called to Svoboda who was talking with her teammates.

“Jill, would you run the 1600 Saturday?” he asked seriously.

Svoboda slowly walked up to her coach, laughed and then grew quiet, seeing he wasn’t joking. She wiped her face with her shirt, looked down, then back at him.

“Sure,” she said. “Sure, I’ll do it.”

Capehart laughed.

“That’s OK, I was just trying to make a point,” he said.

Point made: Svoboda will never shun a challenge.

Bangor assistant coach Jeff Ingalls is so impressed by Svoboda’s competitiveness and athleticism that he tried to sway her last fall away from cheering to soccer.

But Svoboda broke his heart.

“We would have been a different team with her,” Ingalls said of the Rams, who went 13-3. “She can go to the level of success in whatever she does. She goes by pain and she doesn’t give in. She’s driven.”

Next year, Svoboda will attend Boston University and has been talking with the track coach. She’s also considering trying out for the cheerleading team. But she’s not sure she’s ready to retire from track.

“I see myself more as a cheerleader,” Svoboda said. “It’s just more fun. This is so much work. I’ve only been doing track three seasons. But I haven’t decided what I will do in college.”