There is one thing that can be said about Edwardsville High School head boys’ track and field coach – he is a winner.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Lakatos just completed seventh year as head track and field coach at Edwardsville and he concluded the season with his first state title for the Tigers. He also was head coach of a Herrin team that won state championships in 2007 and 2008 and was involved as a coach in that program for 10 years.
Recently, Lakatos was inducted into the Herrin Hall of Fame for his success as a coach. He said when he was in high school he ran for the legendary State Hall of Fame coach Tony Holler, at Harrisburg. Holler won multiple state track and field championships at Harrisburg.
“It is hard work and getting the coaches and kids to buy into trying to win a state championship,” Lakatos said. “You have to understand you have to do the little things right and not just go through the motions.
“A lot of times, kids can sit in a classroom all day and come to practice and have a lot of things on their mind from school, family and what not and not come to practice hard. It is also hard to get kids to come out for track in the springtime. We try to be creative with our practice approach.”
During speed work on the track, Lakatos does a lot of timing of the runners and makes the practice atmosphere competitive.
The Edwardsville head track and field coach is all about the “team” part of his group and that is how he and the Tigers pulled out a state championship this spring. It wasn’t about one person, but a multitude of kids earning points at the state meet. Lakatos also works a lot with his team members with their attitudes and helping creating successful individuals once they finish with track and field.
“Instilling the team work all goes back to the coaches and getting enough kids out,” Lakatos said. “Our school is big enough to attract kids to make our program stand out and be different. We want our program to be more fun than other programs.”
Lakatos praised his coaching staff for their efforts. Lakatos is an assistant football coach to Matt Martin and Martin returns the favor in track and field, working with the shot put and discus crew. The Edwardsville head coach said there is no question there is a correlation between have a strong football team and track and field group that work well together.
The Edwardsville coach said he adopted many of Holler’s philosophies into his methods of coaching to build a team and put the right people in the proper spot.
Lakatos said he felt it was a great honor to be inducted into the Herrin Hall of Fame.
“I left Herrin right after winning a state championship and my goal was to build another program,” he said. “I get the kids in football when they are freshmen and I get to connect with them and encourage them to do other sports.”
What impressed Lakatos the most about his team’s state championship was that it was so balanced.
“We scored in 10 of 18 events,” he said of the state meet.
