A few years ago, Catasauqua’s Adam Kosciolek didn’t see a track career in his future plans.

“I started track my sophomore year,” reflected Kosciolek, who transferred to Catasauqua from Jim Thorpe before the start of the school. “I joined after being convinced by a buddy of mine who played on the offensive line with me. I also was convinced by my algebra teacher, who coached the throwers as well.”

This past year, Kosciolek was a senior lineman for the Rough Riders’ football team. He will continue his football career at McDaniel College next fall. He believes his football commitment can help him devote his full attention to track.

“I committed to McDaniel College to play football for another four years,” said Kosciolek. “That definitely took some weight off my shoulders with the whole college process and freed me up to do track for sure.”

In the meantime, though, Kosciolek wants to close out his high school career with a successful track season. Last year at Jim Thorpe, Kosciolek placed 13th in the discus, 14th in the shot put, and 18th in the discus at the Colonial League meet.

Those results helped fuel him for this season.

“I think no matter what I would want to do track especially after having a pretty good season last year making leagues for all three of my events,” said Kosciolek. “I definitely wanted to give it one last run my senior year and get a chance to play with some of my friends from football, but football helped me decide on definitely doing track because I had a good season as a player. Overall, we had a solid year as a team.”

Head coach Kyle Rusnock believes Kosciolek can have a memorable and productive season. In the Roughies’ meet against Bangor March 17, Kosciolek was fifth in the discus (92-11), seventh in the javelin (99-1) and fifth in the shot put (37-7).

“Adam is an all-around great person and a natural born leader,” beamed Rusnock. “We are very lucky to have him on our team this year. He is an excellent athlete and as I always say the best athletes make those better around them and he surely does that.

“Adam is a major asset for us in the throwing events. He is going to score a lot of points for us this year helping us win meets. Adam will be throwing in the postseason season for us as well and the ultimate goal will be to get to Shippensburg.”

Kosciolek sees the team’s tight bond as a sign for success down the road.

“The chemistry on the team is great,” boasted Kosciolek. “It’s a very tight knit group from the sprinters, the jumpers, and all the way down to the throwers. We all have a bond with each other, and we all want to win and get medals.

“Hopefully, we will hang up some banners by the end of this season, which I think this team is very capable of doing. We have a bunch of great athletes all around the board who all work extremely hard. Many of us seniors want to win gold on our last go around.”