‘I feel like I wanted to be challenged’: Guilbeau’s senior year was his first with Westgate track team
Published 1:00 am Friday, May 13, 2022
- Caleb Guilbeau (left) competes in the 1600-meters with teammate Tray'Quan Francis
The Westgate track and field team is full of exemplary athletes who have been competing in the sport for years. For Caleb Guilbeau, the decision to run for the Tigers was made a little later in life.
Guilbeau began running for Westgate in his senior year, looking for a new challenge and hoping to join a team that had already won one Class 4A state championship.
“I feel like I wanted to be challenged,” he said. “I knew that we had a strong track team and I just wanted to be a part of it. I knew that they just dominated all the time and I wanted to feel what it was like to be a part of that team. It felt amazing and everything worked out perfectly.”
Guilbeau said that it wasn’t easy to make the team, given the Tiger’s success and high standards set by head coach Philip Guidry.
“I had to work really hard,” he said. “It’s very hard to compete with these other guys and you can’t slack off and be a Westgate Tiger.”
The hard work did eventually pay off, with Guilbeau making it all the way to the state meet to compete in the 1600-meters.
“It feels amazing to win state,” he said. “I definitely don’t regret anything this past year. I had to follow a plan, and coach Guidry gave so much advice to me, Tray’Quan (Francis), and my other teammates. He always said that if we follow the plan, we’ll get there, and we did it.”
Guidry said that Guilbeau flourished this season with the aid of coaches and teammates who pushed him.
“Caleb started running as a senior and didn’t know what to expect,” Guidry said. “He had good coaching and teammates to support what he was doing. I’m going to miss him.”
Guilbeau doesn’t have any college offers to continue his athletic career, though he admits that it was never his intention when he joined the team.
“I didn’t come initially to make it to college, I just wanted to be a part of the team,” he said. “This experience definitely taught me a bunch of life lessons and things that I can take with me to the rest of my life.”
