ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke Tigers Elite AAU track team is preparing for their biggest meet yet. They're heading to the AAU Junior Olympics at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro on Saturday.
"The expectation is for the kids number one to have fun. We're looking at mainly getting a PR, personal record, getting a little bit better. Carry that momentum into next year," head coach Tra Wilson said.
The meet is a national event the entire team qualified for.
"We've been very lucky that we have so much diversity in age and specialty and talent that we've actually managed to bring a pretty big group down to Greensboro," thrower Kalei said.
"It's pretty cool because you get to see different people from different areas, I can remember seeing people from Mexico, California," hurdler Jeshawn added.
The travel team has athletes of all ages from as young as 4 to seniors in high school .
"You get to do your sport, you get to compete and better yourself, but you also do your warm up lap with 6-year-olds and see that they're winning too," Kalei said. "You have 10-year-olds cheering you on, 18-year-olds mentoring you, it's a family more than it's a team."
Most teams share bond within the same age range, but the Tigers consider themselves unique and extremely lucky.
"So it's like a big family, big brothers, big sisters, it's fun when you watch those kids at the meets, they're sitting in eachother's laps theyre cheering eachother on. You can't get any better than that," Wilson finished.