If you haven’t heard of the Next Level Track club, you’ve certainly heard of some of the athletes they train. Names like Jalen Mathews formerly of Paxon, the Bob Hayes and Class 3A Region 1 champion in the hurdles. What about Nia Guine, the rising Jr State finalist who helped Bolles Track Team Win the State Title. Then there’s DeAndre Petty, the 2A 800M State Champion from Andrew Jackson who energized an entire school with his legs and personality. Yea you know them, and you know some of their other athletes as well.
Amber Williams – Raines
Emerald Williams – Raines
Amir Warren – Mandarin
Ryan Saint-Germain – Paxon
Barry Jinks – Raines
Evan Rogers – Christ’s Church Academy
Darius Biddings – Paxon
Mone’t Bowen – Bolles
These athletes have already made major contributions to their teams, and one of the major reasons behind their success on the track is their Coach and the Founder/Director of Next Level, Kenny Anderson. Anderson, a former track & field athlete out of Stanton High School, went on to run track in college at Florida A&M University. After college, he coached college basketball at a couple of D2 stops, but found himself pulled into the direction of his first love track & field. He founded Next Level a year ago, but chose to take a different direction with his approach. ” We do things a little different at Next Level. Florida doesn’t have a lot of indoor tracks, so we start in the fall and take trips to different colleges and meets to allow athletes to gain exposure”. Exposure is the name of the game for Next Level, because it leads to scholarship offers by college programs. No wonder Coach Anderson’s twitter name reads “Cut the Check”.
” We intend to put athletes in position to receive college scholarships by working hard. So at the end of the day the only thing left to do is cut the check. Just cut the scholarship check.” – Coach Anderson
It’s a confident moniker that breeds confidence in athletic performances. Performances that saw Jalen Mathews (110m hurdles) achieve a #7 ranking in the Class of 2018. He is also ranked #3 in the state(all Classes) He’ll be at Raines this year. Or performances that saw 2018′ Mone’t Bowen finish ranked #11 in the country in the 400 hurdles. She has already garnered lots of attention from college recruiters and is expected to be one of the top 300m hurdlers in class 2A this year. She’ll be at Bolles next year. These performances on the track is what allows an athlete to convey to a potential college suitor the words, ” Cut the Check”. Deandre Petty signed with Bethune Cookman University, and Darius Biddings signed with Mount Olive University. Exciting times for them and exciting beginnings for a program in just its first year.
Great weekend man! Took a couple pics with some superstars 😅🙌🏽 @JPacifico11 @jackson_storey4 @flrunners @DyeStatFL pic.twitter.com/dCnaCgWoFm
— DeAndre’ Petty (@legendary_petty) May 8, 2016
Next Level took collegiate trips to schools like LSU, and to states like New York, North Carolina, and Alabama to name a few. They have athletes from 9th grade to 12 grade, and they specialize in areas from sprinting to hurdling. They take specific pride in training hurdlers being that Anderson was a hurdler himself. Said Anderson about the make up of his track club, ” I tell them let’s work hard and grind and watch it pay off in the end”. With their talented athletes and focused driven administrators working hard, the next level is not just where they currently stand, but it is where the club is ultimately going.
Next Level Information:
E-mail: nextleveltrackclub@gmail.com
Founder/ Director: Kenny Anderson
Administrators – Monique Bowen, Kutuishi Williams
