The Portal track team has been very competitive in the state meets including having multiple individual state champions. All of this success cam without ever hosting a home track meet, or having a track in Portal to practice on.

That all changed this year as the Bulloch Board of education allotted money to build a track at Portal, and Saturday morning they hosted their first-ever high school track meet at Portal Middle/High.

“It is a true blessing,” said Portal Athletic Director Justin Chester. “A lot of people in the Portal community have been wanting a track for our student athletes to compete on, and to come here today with beautiful weather and a few schools of similar size to compete against makes this a special day. We are thankful to the Board of Education and all our supporters who saw a need and helped to make this happen. Not only do we use this for track but we can also bring our P.E. students down here as well as the kids over at Portal Elementary.”

Head track coach Tendai Hagins has coached at Portal for almost 30 years and is still pinching himself to try and believe that Portal actually now has a track to compete on.

“I never thought it would come but I am so thankful we now have a track here at Portal,” Hagins said. “In my opinion we have the prettiest little complex in the state of Georgia. It was a great feeling to tell the team we were actually going to have a track and today you can just see it in their eyes how proud they are to have this. Just to be able to show our team where they need to be on the track for various events is something we have never been able to do and is so important especially with the newcomers.”

One of the track athletes that was happy to have a place to train and host meets is senior Hailey Scott who is the defending state champion in the 400-meter run.

“We have never had a track before but I think this is beautiful,” Scott said. “I am so very grateful we finally have one. It is especially nice to have a track to train on and not have to go to another school. It is also great to be able to host a meet and see your family and friends there supporting you.”

The meet only included a few teams including Statesboro Steam, ECI and Johnson County. As the Panthers get more acclimated to their new track and the work that goes into it they are hopeful they can expand to bigger meets and possibly host the region meet.

“We look forward to bigger and better meets in the future,” Hagins said. “Our parents are just so excited to actually not have to drive to watch their kids compete. We lost a lot of great athletes from last year, but I think we still have some talent. Our 4x100 meter relay team has already broken the school record set last year and I am looking forward to seeing them continue and what the future has in store.”

Next up Portal will next travel to Claxton Friday for the Virginia Albert relays.