A new track team is training within Picayune, comprised of students who attend Heritage Christian Academy.

Now that the local private school has its own facility, students interested in being part of a track team have a place to practice that’s close to their school.

Volunteer Track Coach John Stricker said this is the first year for the track team at the school, and already the children have been able to participate in a number of competitions across the region.

Stricker said some of the races the students have competed involved more than 100 students. Currently the team has about a dozen members.

An added bonus of the track team involves parents training with their children to get them in shape. Stricker said that bonus leads to a healthier lifestyle for everyone in the family.

And since the school is Christian based, scriptures are incorporated in the team’s training. As they run, onlookers can hear them recite passages from Bible.

Stricker said that at first he was apprehensive about enrolling his child in the private school because he feared they would miss out on the things offered at public schools. But when he saw that the school is establishing sports teams, his concerns subsided.