Submitted photo – Hoopa senior Quincy McDonald recently signed his letter of intent to compete for College of the Redwoods next year.

By Ray Hamill — The Warriors appear poised to make some noise in H-DNL track and field in the coming years.

The Hoopa boys and girls enjoyed a productive spring as a group of talented and hardworking young athletes gained some valuable experience in multiple events.

And head coach Benny Griggs believes some of them have what it takes to enjoy plenty of success over the next two or three seasons.

“It was a lot of fun (this year), especially when you’ve got a lot of freshmen and they do well,” the coach said. “They were setting PRs every week, and this group of freshmen are going to be really good within the next two or three years if they stay with it.”

Most notably, young Jonathan Peralta.

The standout sophomore speedster qualified for this year’s league final in the boys 100 meters, while also competing in the 200m, the long jump and as part of the Hoopa 1x100m relay team.

And he made his presence felt in all of his events.

“Within the next two years, he’s going to do something special,” Griggs said.

Peralta enjoyed a strong finish to the season, placing 16th at the NCS Class A meet in the 200m and setting a new PR with a time of 23.68 seconds.

His fastest time in the the 100m is 11.93 seconds, and Griggs expects him to compete for league titles in both sprints before he graduates.

He also teamed with Daniel Peralta, Micah Robinson and Jack Marshall to finish seventh at the league meet in the 4x100m relay.

Two of his young teammates, in particular, also impressed the coach this year.

Freshmen Luella Cosce and Maple Myers both hit the ground running in their first seasons competing at the high school level and should only continue to improve over the next few years.

Cosce is a multi-sport standout for the Warriors after also impressing in volleyball and basketball.

She set a PR in the 100m at last month’s league championships with a time of 14.56 seconds and also competes in the 4x100m relay and the shot put, making it to the NCS Class A meet in the latter two events.

“She throws pretty well and she ran really well as a freshman,” Griggs said. 

Myers also enjoyed a good start to her high school track and field career, competing for the Warriors in the 200m, the 400m, the 4x100m and the discus.

She qualified for the NCS meet in the relay, along with Cosce, Jadin Little-Kane and Aurelia Boadicea, where they placed 12th.

And three of that speedy foursome are only freshmen — Little-Kane is a junior — making them the youngest relay team in the league, so they should only continue to improve.

Two seniors also closed out impressive careers with the team this spring, and one of them is not done yet.

Quincy McDonald recently signed his letter of intent to join the College of the Redwoods track and field team.

The standout senior will compete in the shot put and discus for the local community college program where he will work with well-respected CR throwers coach Eric Wright.

“That’s good place for him,” Griggs said. “I think if he can get a little more coaching and a little bit more hands on with Eric, he’ll do well.”

McDonald certainly left his mark at Hoopa High.

In this junior year he qualified for the NCS Meet of Champions, where he placed 22nd overall in the discus one week after finishing third in the NCS Class A Championships.

And while he failed to earn a repeat trip to the MOC this spring — he placed sixth at the Class A meet — he still appears to have a bright future at CR, where the coaches will no doubt get the best out of him.

McDonald’s PR in the discus is an impressive 134’ 8”, which he set at a league meet earlier this year, while his best-ever throw in the shot put is 37’ 5”, which he set at the Jim Deaver Hornet Invitational at Enterprise High in April.

His teammate Daniel Peralta also closed out his high school career this spring.

Despite battling some minor injuries, Daniel enjoyed a good final campaign, especially in the 400m, where he placed third in a league meet at Del Norte in April with a PR time of 53.92 seconds.

Daniel qualified for the NCS Class A championships in two events, both the 400m and the 4x100m relay team.

Overall, Griggs says it was an enjoyable season for the team.

“It’s a really a great group of kids,” the coach said. “I had no problems out of them. They came to to practice and they worked.

“Overall, it was a really good season. All of them did the best they could do and they learned a lot. They came here and really worked hard.”