The Fresno City College men’s and women’s track and field teams are gearing up to make an impressive run this season like they did last season. Both the athletes and coaching staff are measuring the success of the season by more than just their win-loss record.

The Rams have a long history of excellence in track and field. The program has racked up a combined 39 conference championships and eight individual state titles between both the men’s and women’s rosters. In the past three seasons, both have finished in the top 10 of the state finals, with Moesha Davidson bringing home an individual state title last year.

Head coach Jesus Reyes has been at the helm of the team for five years. Reyes has a different approach to coaching and says he doesn’t coach for the sake of winning and the prestige behind it.

Reyes says coaching is an honor and a chance to shape his athletes to be great human beings on and off the field. Reyes incorporates this approach into the team goals for the athletes this season.

“My goal is for them to be great human beings,” Reyes said. “To exhibit character on and off the field, and have them hold the things we are trying to teach them; being both better athletes and students.”

While Reyes may not set goals for his teams to win team championships or individual titles, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have any. The goals are set by the athletes themselves and what they personally would like to achieve this season. Davidson is a three-event athlete and is the current 100 meter hurdles state champion.

“I feel that I am pretty close physically to where I was last year and I am looking forward to improve my game in all of my events like the long jump and high jump,” Davidson said.

The teams are getting near the start of the season and each athlete is doing what they can to try sharpen their tools to perform well when it comes to in-season track meets. Second year four-event athlete Ily Lopez is known for his performances in the javelin event. Lopez has slightly changed his style from a three step release process to a five step, giving him more momentum and thrust on every throw.

“I think I will do fine, I just want to work on the new five step process, and I hope to get it down well,” Lopez said.

With the experience of 15 returning athletes on this year’s teams, with the blend of new additions to their teams they certainly have a good opportunity to do it.

“It would be great. It shows how dedicated and hardworking we are,” Lopez said. “So it would be nice to have that kind of payoff, but if it doesn’t, I will take pride that I did my best and made friends on this team in the process.”