Shrum, Bradford take
the reins at Onekama
Posted by Dylan Savela, Manistee News Advocate
March 2013
Tony Shrum and Nathan Bradford were teammates in the 1996 and ‘97
seasons as members of the Onekama co-op track and field team.
Fast forward to spring, 2013, and the two are together as part of the
program again.
Shrum, a ‘99 Bear Lake graduate, has taken the reins of the boys team
while Bradford, from Onekama’s class of ‘97, is coaching the girls.
The two inherit a program in which they were once athletes, meaning both
are aware of its tradition of success.
“We definitely want to continue the
tradition that has been built with the track team here, and continue to
improve,” said Shrum, who finished his first year as head coach of Bear
Lake’s co-op cross country team this past fall. “Taking kids to state is
always the goal.”
Shrum takes over for Anthony Torres, who stepped down after two years at
the helm, citing a growing family and new
employment as reasons for the change. Preceding Torres was
longtime boys coach Mickey Story, who stepped down after the 2010 season
— his 32nd at the helm.
Like his predecessors, Shrum will stress individual improvement along
with an expectation to have annual representatives at the Division 4
state finals. |
“You want to improve every meet,” he said, “and the nice thing with
track, just like cross country in a lot of ways, you have all different
abilities and levels of each athlete, and everyone can improve and
become better.
“Even though you compete, you’re competing with yourself almost more
than anything else.”
Bradford has a similar approach in his first year at the helm of the
girls team.
“The main thing is I want the kids to continue to work hard,” he said.
“You always try to beat (personal records) and things like that,
but the main thing is we do everything for a purpose and give it
everything we have.”
Bradford takes over for longtime girls coach Bonnie Brown, and enters
the new position with plenty of experience at the middle school level.
For the past five seasons, Bradford coached the Portagers seventh and
eighth graders, and for four years before that coached the middle school
boys at Benzie Central.
“I’ve got nine years in,” he said “and I figured it’s
time to take the step up, and I know Bonnie and Jerry (Brown) did a
great job with
the kids for a number of years, and built a good program. It’s
definitely a good one to jump into.
“There’s a lot of familiar faces, because I know a lot of the girls, so
that’s a real nice thing about it too,” he added. “I’m looking forward
to working with Tony too. Everything kind of fell in place for us.” |