Many have been the Air Blastoff training social media posts that have displayed workouts that were a bit ... – unconventional, let’s say.

Typically, these videos have also been teeming with smiles galore and loads of laughter from the young contingent under to tutorship of Olympic gold medal winner Robert Esmie.

Given the varied and eclectic background of the athletes under his watch, this approach likely makes a great deal of sense – not to mention keeping things loose and different as teens and pre-teens devote several hours a week to better themselves in a whole array of track and field pursuits.

A year-end gathering this past weekend at the home of the affable Jamaican-born sprinter who bolted through the leadoff leg of the Team Canada 4 X 100m relay team that upset the Americans and all others in 1996 in Atlanta provided a wonderful opportunity to catch up with this wonderful array of talented Sudbury athletes.

Amanda Syncox isn’t the first hockey player to transition to track – and certainly won’t be the last – even if the ties that link her two passions are a little outside the norm.

“I’ve always been fast on the ice, fast on skates,” said the 15 year-old grade 11 student at Lo-Ellen Park who competed in no less than five separate events (the max) as she made her way from SDSSAA to NOSSA and eventually OFSAA championships last spring. “I’ve been running since I was three or four, so it’s transferred over a lot” – though the stride motions are notably different.

“As I have gotten older with more muscle, I tend to perform better in track than hockey.”

While Syncox is more than competent in the shorter sprints (100m & 200m – lead runner with LEP junior team that ranked 9th in the 4 X 100m relay at OFSAA), it is in the 400m that she emerged as city champion, tackling an event that is as tough as they come when run well.

“I tend to take my first 50m as a full out sprint, as fast as I can,” said the forward with the U18 BB Lady Wolves. “For the 150 metres along the back, I tend to get into a rhythm, get a pace going. When I hit the 200m mark, I try and pick it up – but honestly, it is almost a full out sprint, from start to finish.”

“By the end, I will be tired. It gets difficult at the end, for sure.”

A few years younger, Mackenzie Roy benefitted from extending that distance somewhat, settling in to the 1200m that is contested as part of the Legion Track & Field series and shaving nine seconds off her time this summer. To boot, she has noticed the difference when she takes to the ice as a top-end young figure skater, still her sport of choice these days.

“Track really helps my skating, just my overall strength,” said Roy, having just started her grade nine year at St Charles College. “I am getting so much height on my jumps now. I used to under-rotate everything and now I can rotate my jumps.”

Targetting a sub 2:30 800m time next summer, Roy has quickly taken to the team environment within the Air Blastoff squad, in this her first summer of competition with Esmie and company.

“We all support each other and it’s just so much fun being with all of them.”

The younger brother of Laurentian sprinter Naomi Palmer, Kobe (Palmer) experienced that feeling quite young, attending workouts with his sister before teeter-tottering between basketball and track for the next several years.

A grade 12 student at St Charles College, Palmer has returned to his roots as he looks to cap off his high-school career. “I started track pretty young but took a break from it to focus a lot on basketball,” he said. “But now, I am pursuing track more. I just think there are more opportunities for me in track than basketball.”

Interestingly enough, while his early days with Blastoff were often geared towards sprints, Palmer has now added the throwing events to his repertoire, including his favourite in the form of the discus.

“It seems more natural, just the way that I throw it, the way that it feels coming off my hands,” he said. “You’re focusing on stability, getting as low as possible, maintaining your form and trying your best, throughout the entire throw.”

Should he need any lessons, he can always tap into grade nine thrower Blaire Rickard, a young woman who has always kind of leaned in this direction, especially with both the discus and the hammer throw, of all things.

“I’ve always been really good with spinning and my spatial awareness,” noted the freshman at Lasalle Secondary School. “Making it to nationals when I just started in the hammer is special.”

Certainly the performances of both Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers in Paris (gold medal winners in the hammer throw for Canada at the Olympics) did nothing to dissuade the local product from following her dreams.

“It definitely gave me some more ideas, but I had found a love for the hammer before the Olympics,” said Rickard. “They just inspired me to try even harder.”

Nadia MacDonald got all the motivation she needed from her performance at the Legion District “H” Meet in Sudbury in mid-June, setting the wheels in motion for a memorable few months of competition.

“I think the rest of the summer was amazing for me, probably some of the best track experiences I have ever had,” said MacDonald. a 15 year old at Lo-Ellen who captured three gold medals at the MTA (Minor Track Association) Outdoor Championships in Markham in July.

“In my mind, the long jump is definitely the strongest (5.08m – PB), but I think Robert sees a lot of different things in me, that I can do a lot of different events.”

It’s a sentiment the energetic coach also shares with those who are even closer to him on the team – such as his 11 year-old son, Nehemiah Esmie, who cited the 150m sprint and javelin as his two favourite events.

“I like that they are so different,” said the grade six student at Churchill Public who confirms that basketball remains his true passion at the moment – though he sees similarities when he throws.

“When I play basketball, I like the way the ball flicks off my fingers – and I also like the way it flicks off my fingers with the javelin,” said young Esmie. “And I throw pretty far”

It was a summer of personal bests for many an Air Blastoff representative, including former gymnast Brooke Wylie, who finished in a dead heat with two other sprinters behind Melina Doiron in the junior girls 100m final at cities in May.

“I feel like I am doing a lot of the same main conditioning (from gymnastics), but more focused on legs,” said the grade 11 student at E.S. l’Horizon. “Gymnastics was more full body. I also need to focus on my arms (when I race) because they are kind of all over the place.”

She need not look a whole lot further than club teammate Melina Doiron, an incredibly technically sound sprinter who cranked out a personal best time of 12.04 seconds in the 100m sprint while competing at Legion Nationals in Calgary in July.

“That was a great way to end my season,” said Doiron.

Well, that and all of the fun that was the year-end party at Chez Esmie Saturday evening.