Before the four-day break for Easter weekend, the LHS track and field team headed to Fargo, ND without a clue in their minds that their trip would create a viral video viewed by millions of people worldwide.

The meet produced a large amount of LHS winners in a variety of different events, but none of the victories were more impressive than the LHS win in the coaches medley race at the end of the meet. The LHS coaches team consisted of Trey Naasz who started the race off with a powerful 100 meter dash, then Naasz passed the baton off to Jim Jarovski who also ran the 100, next Jarovski passed the baton to Marshall Byrd who ran the 200 meter leg and finally the baton was handed off to Jordan Strand as the anchor leg. Strand made up a huge gap between the LHS  coaches relay team and the other competition. Together, the squad successfully brought home the gold medal. Strand’s 50.9 second 400 was essential to the crew earning this miraculous comeback for LHS.

The victory for the LHS coaches was well-earned and helped pad their confidence.

“[Being in a viral video] feels awesome. I knew we could win,” said Naasz. “We are the fastest coaches in the country… it makes sense it went viral.”

As the race was unfolding, LHS student Braedon Treadway pulled out his phone and videotaped the majority of the race. After the medley ended, the video captured was posted to the LHS track and field Twitter account (@PatriotTrack) where it proceeded to amass 1.72 million views and counting with many comments centered around the idea of wishing that the commenters’ very own track and field programs could compete in such events like a coaches relay.

With the video gaining such a buzz on social media from the LHS track and field Twitter account alone, many media outlets and accounts devoted to track and field picked up on the race. One such media outlet was the widely known sports media account House of Highlights. House of Highlights posted the video on their Instagram page, and it has received close to 1.9 million views so far. Other than House of Highlights, Sports Illustrated has Tweeted out the video and has gained 150 thousand views. Former Olympian Carl Lewis’ Twitter comments on the video have helped gain even more attraction towards the already viral video as well.

“I think [the video] received such positive reactions because Strand ran a sub 51 second [400] and Jaws gave it his all… everything was good,” said Naasz.

With the overwhelming support the video has gained, many want a coaches race to be included at the end of all meets, whereas many others think exactly like Lewis. Lewis responded to the idea of having coaches relays at the end of every meet by tweeting, “No thank you.”