Another talented local athlete has committed to compete for the Medicine Hat College (MHC) Rattlers athletics program.
Aden Haywood has agreed to join the Rattlers running team for the 2021-22 season. In a Facebook post from the Rattlers on Feb. 28, Haywood, a Grade 12 student at the Estevan Comprehensive School, said he is excited to attend and run at MHC.
Haywood said he initially planned to go to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, but opted for Medicine Hat because of Brian Corcoran, the coach of the program.
“The coach has a lot of experience,” said Haywood. “He has a lot of experience, and he’s worked with a lot of teams.”
It’s a brand new program at Medicine Hat, and Haywood believes it will be great to get involved with the program in its first year.
“Brian has worked with a lot of good athletes, and he has a lot of experience himself as a runner, so I think it would help out a lot, because I’ve never really had coaching where my coach has done a lot (in the sport),” said Haywood.
He would have been part of the running program at SAIT had he opted for that school.
Haywood will be studying criminal justice while at Medicine Hat. It’s a four-year program, and he said there are so many jobs he could enter with that degree, but right now criminal science, forensics or working as a Canada Border Services Agency officer would be his preferences.
Corcoran said on Facebook that Haywood is “a real hidden gem.”
“I'm really looking forward to working with him as he moves up to the college ranks,” Corcoran said.
In his Grade 11 year in 2019, Haywood was seventh in the senior boys division at cross-country provincials.
Previously in 2019, at the track and field provincials, Haywood was eighth in the junior boys’ 3,000 metres and 10th in the 1,500 metres.
Haywood said the club is labelled as a cross-country team, but they also compete in indoor track meets in the winter. Cross-country is his preferred discipline.
“I’d rather run through an actual course. It’s always different each time. On the track, it’s always the same old thing every time,” said Haywood.
He was concerned that losing his Grade 12 season, along with the track and field season in Grade 11, could cost him his shot at competing at the collegiate level.
“When I heard that I didn’t have a season this year, I lost a lot of hope for sports and going to post-secondary with it. Bur once I started emailing coaches and telling them that I kept on training each day, it helped out,” he said.
Haywood is the second Grade 12 athlete at the Comp. to commit to Medicine Hat. Earlier this year, it was announced that Kyler Dutka of Bienfait would play for the Rattlers men’s basketball program. Dutka’s older sister Tatiana is already part of the women’s basketball team.
The presence of a number of other Estevan athletes didn’t factor into his decision.
“I knew that people were looking at the school, but I was just planning to run at a small college, and not really looking to university. I was planning to go to Alberta. That was the goal.”
Still it helps that he will know some people at the school once he arrives.
Haywood expects he will need to keep running before the 2021-22 season begins, so that he can build his strength. He anticipates there will be a variety of training, using hills, the track and more.
