Forest Park track leans on senior leadership, familiar coaching duo

Seniors set the tone

Forest Park’s spring track outlook begins with the kind of leadership that can steady a team through a demanding end to the school year. The girls are leaning on seniors Lily Sarder, Ava Fischer and Elsie Williams, while the boys are being guided by Joey Mainville and Will Hoffman. With Kurt and Lindsay Anderson again running the program, the Trojans have the rare advantage of continuity at both the top of the roster and on the coaching staff.

That matters in Crystal Falls because this track season arrives after months of pressure in other sports. Many of the same athletes have already powered through volleyball, football, cross country and basketball, making the final stretch of the school year less like a fresh start and more like a test of stamina, habit and leadership. Forest Park is not rebuilding around younger athletes so much as asking older ones to finish what they started.

Girls carrying recent success into one last spring

The girls’ side has the clearest local hook: a senior group trying to turn recent success into one final statement. Forest Park’s girls track team finished as high as fifth out of 19 teams at the 2024 Upper Peninsula Championships, and several of the same names are back to chase more. Fischer won the 100 hurdles at that meet, while Sarder and Williams finished second in the 4x200 relay, proof that the Lady Trojans have already shown they can compete with the top programs in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

For Fischer, the season carries a personal edge as well as a team one. She said she is preparing to match what she achieved as a sophomore while also focusing on enjoying her senior season. That combination fits the moment at Forest Park, where senior athletes are balancing ambition with the knowledge that this is the last chance to add to school history.

The girls’ roster is also larger than it was a year ago, with 23 athletes out this spring. Lindsay Anderson said she had to order more uniforms because the numbers are up from last season, a small detail that says a lot about the program’s health. More bodies mean more relay options, more event coverage and less pressure on any one athlete to carry the entire meet.

Boys aim to extend a championship standard

The boys bring their own momentum into the spring, and it is hard to ignore where it came from. Forest Park won the Upper Peninsula State Championship in cross country in the fall, a result that raised the bar for everything that follows. In a program used to success, that title does not create a cushion so much as a standard, and the Trojans know the expectations attached to the Forest Park name.

This track roster includes seniors Joey Mainville and Will Hoffman, along with freshmen Soren Santi and Reuben Rasner. That mix gives Kurt Anderson something he values in the spring: a blend of experience and young legs. He expects the boys to be competitive in distance events, where the cross country foundation should matter most, but the roster also gives the team enough bodies to fill out a broader range of events.

The boys have 16 athletes on the roster, which is a solid number for a school of Forest Park’s size and enough to stay competitive across multiple meets. It also helps that the same athletes have already learned how to compete under pressure. For Mainville and Hoffman, this spring is another chance to close out a senior year that already included a title run in the fall.

A program built on continuity, not reset buttons

What makes Forest Park especially interesting this spring is that the track team is not trying to invent itself. The Anderson coaching tandem has been around long enough to give the athletes a familiar structure, and the senior class has already shown it can deliver in big moments. That kind of continuity can be underrated, especially in a small community where so many athletes move from one sport to the next without much downtime.

The wider school year has made that continuity even more important. Forest Park’s volleyball team finished 42-2 and reached the state semifinals, then saw a five-set loss to Fowler end a run that had reinforced the program’s place among the state’s elite. Over three seasons, that volleyball group put together a staggering 112 wins and 10 losses, which means athletes like Fischer and Williams have already lived inside a winning culture.

Football told a different story, but it still adds to the context. Forest Park entered the year as the reigning MHSAA 8-player Division 2 state champion, then went 1-7 in 2025. That kind of swing can test a senior class, but it can also harden it. When those same athletes step onto the track, they bring the lessons of both triumph and adversity with them.

Why this spring matters in Iron County

Track and field may not always draw the same attention as a playoff run, but at Forest Park it sits at the center of a larger story about school identity. The seniors in this lineup have already helped define that identity in volleyball, football, cross country and basketball, and this spring is their final chance to leave a mark in a different setting. For the girls, that means trying to build on a top-five U.P. finish and medal-level performances in hurdles and relays. For the boys, it means converting a cross country championship into another strong finish under the same banner.

The numbers suggest a program in solid shape. The girls have 23 athletes, the boys 16, and both groups are backed by a coaching staff that knows the school and its expectations well. The roster depth gives the Andersons flexibility, but the deeper strength comes from the seniors who have already shown younger teammates what Forest Park competition looks like when it is done right.

If this spring becomes another memorable chapter, it will not be because the Trojans surprised anyone. It will be because the school’s most experienced athletes, guided by a familiar coaching duo, kept a demanding year from slipping into fade-out mode and turned the last leg of the season into one more run worth remembering.