LaVar and Preston Herron had a vision four years ago – start an AAU track program to showcase Northern Kentucky athletes.
Preston Herron, a 1999 Boone County graduate, passed away three years ago at age 43. Lavar, a 1996 Rebel alumnus, started NKY Elite Track Club to honor his brother.
“This was our vision together,” LaVar wrote in a text message Thursday.
Preston Herron played football and was a member of Boone County’s track team. He ran for 5,014 yards from 1995-98, played collegiately at Kentucky State University later coached at Frankfort Western Hills.
LaVar played football and ran track for Boone County; he and Preston were sprinters, but Preston could throw the discus. After high school, he served eight years in the active and reserve Marine Corps and played one football season at Long Beach City College in California.
If you ask for LaVar Herron’s favorite memory of Preston, the answer comes quickly: Nov. 15, 1996, when Preston ran for 342 yards in Boone County’s 42-14 win at Madison Central in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs.
“It seemed like every time he touched the ball, he scored,” LaVar says.
Vastly behind to very successful
A second reason the Herrons wanted to start NKY Elite Track: to catch up with other youth programs around the state.
“We were vastly behind the track and field world behind Louisville, Lexington, and I wanted Northern Kentucky to get caught back up,” Herron, who’s also Bellevue’s track coach, says. “And over the last couple years, it has been very, very successful.”
Has it ever – 23 athletes qualified for the 2026 AAU Junior Olympic Games beginning Aug. 2 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Two claimed a state outdoor title May 23 at the University of Kentucky: Dixie Heights’ Ari Carter took the Class 3A discus title with toss of 133 feet, 5 inches, and Walton-Verona’s Abrielle Hooten joined Maci Pettit, Josie Holtzapple and Maggie Meyer to win the 4×200 in 1 minute, 47.50 seconds.
Then there’s 10-year-old Mya James – she placed fourth in the age eleven 1,500 meters at the AAU Region 6 meet last month in Knoxville, Tennessee.
It’s not unusual to see James competing against older girls in the 1,500.
“There’s not a ton of people running it,” she says.
Feed the Cats
NKY Elite Track practices at Freedom Park in Edgewood. The training regimen carries a feline name – Feed the Cats, a philosophy longtime football and track coach Tony Holler created in 1999 that emphasizes high-velocity sprinting and avoids high-volume workouts.
“(Holler’s) philosophy is, we sprint, bounce as fast as possible like cats, and we rest,” Herron says. “A lot of our success, is rest, nutrition, weightlifting, being bouncy and all those things.”
Herron said getting kids to choose baked, broiled or grilled foods instead of fried foods has been a challenge.
“Changing the whole mindset of the normal athlete into eating correctly and feeding the body correctly and putting the right carbs in your body, proteins in your body, is very tough for a kid to understand,” Herron said. “They like to eat a lot of fried food.”
Cooper’s Jorden LeRoy will be in the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. He mostly stays with a fried-free diet, though he admits to splurging after the high school track season ended. He said it was “a little hard” to return to clean diets for the AAU season.
“But my mom (Nicole Chase) helps me a lot with supplements,” LeRoy said. “She prepares me good meals, makes sure that I’m eating decent at least to keep in shape.”
Healthy nutrition wasn’t so hard for Bellevue’s Dakarai Minor.
“I’ll eat whatever,” Minor said. “If I need to eat good, I’ll do it. I’ve been eating good.”
‘Frustrating’
Herron said it will cost about $6,000 to send the team to Des Moines; he said about $1,500 has been raised so far. He’s reached out to local businesses, but he’s stressed out that “not many” businesses have responded.
“It’s frustrating to see that people want us to build into them, but they can’t build back into the community,” Herron said.
Herron is nevertheless confident the money will come by the July 30 deadline.
“Watching these athletes earn the opportunity to compete at the Junior Olympics has been incredibly rewarding,” Herron wrote in a press release. “and we would love the chance to share their journey with the community.”
Businesses or individuals interested in sponsoring NKY Elite Track Club may call Herron at 859-669-0450, email to Lavar.Herron@gmail.com or contribute via Venmo at @NKYUETC.
