The Wabash track and field team begins the indoor portion of its season Friday night at Rose-Hulman. While that's not normally huge news, this year marks a new start for the Little Giant thinclads.

Clyde Morgan begins his first season as head coach at Wabash after a successful career at his alma mater, Thiel College. Morgan takes over for the recently-retired Rob Johnson, but the transition between the legendary 37-year Wabash coach and the "new guy" has been virtually seamless.

Part of that transition has been Morgan's desire to incorporate Johnson's foundation while adding his own training techniques and ideas. Johnson, Horace Turner, Roger Busch, and Steve Rogers can still be found in the Knowling Fieldhouse nearly every day working with their student-athletes. Morgan is there too, bringing a revitalized energy and some new training programs to add some fun (and hard work) to the practice.

Want to know what some of those drills look like? Check out this video of some training practices the Little Giants went through at the end of December. Monday they were back on the track running the same drills to see if they had improved their time with the training programs they were given and expected to complete while taking some time off during the break. Nearly every person cut time off their December effort.

Morgan's influence has not been limited to the track. He has pushed the community aspect of being a part of Wabash, as well. Several Wabash track athletes participated in a classroom reading program in Crawfordsville schools in November.

"I think going over to read to the kids was important because it is always great to give back," Morgan said. "It is great to see the positive impact that our young men had on the kids in the school. Our student athletes were not just reading to the kids, but encouraging them to read more and answering questions. As our young men walked through the hallways it was great to here them talk about when they were in middle school. It's good to see that our men can make an positive impact not only on the track, but in the community."

Morgan's wife, Jennifer, had some of the young men read with her students.

"The kids thought it was cool that the Wabash guys read some of the same books that they did when they were younger," she said. "They even gave my students some tips on how to make reading fun and more enjoyable."

Success on the track will no doubt continue with Morgan at the helm of the program, just as it did during the 37 years Johnson ran the team. The reason is simple — just like Rob Johnson, Clyde Morgan knows what it takes to be a Wabash man, and he knows he can!