Speed Skills Track Club Claims 10 Regional Titles, Sets Sights on Junior Olympics
The youth program's sprinters and distance runners swept multiple age groups at the AAU Region 1 Championships, but coaches say grades come first.
Speed Skills runners celebrated their success at the AAU Region 1 Championships in Schenectady, New York. (Speed Skills via Instagram)
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Chris Howell | July 2, 2026
Speed Skills Track Club came home from Schenectady, New York, with nearly two dozen medals.
At the AAU Region 1 Championships last weekend, the club’s young sprinters and distance runners combined for more than 20 individual podium finishes, including 10 regional championships and four runner-up finishes. Head sprint coach Amir Onque-Shabazz said in an interview this week that the results matched what he expected heading into the meet.
“I 100% teach my kids this,” Onque-Shabazz said. “The work you do at practice, the numbers you put in, that’s what shows up in the race.”
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Zayn Phillip, age 7, and Isaiah Pierre, age 9, each swept their group’s 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter dashes, finishing first in all three events. Ten-year-old Kyrie Anderson reached the podium three times, taking silver in the 400 meters and bronze in the 100 and 200. Thirteen-year-old Victoria Huang won the 1,500-meter run and finished second in the 800. Fourteen-year-old Allaura Wilson won her age group’s 400-meter dash, and 16-year-old Jayden Williams won the 400-meter hurdles.
Onque-Shabazz said his coaching philosophy comes down to three things. “Happy kids, happy parents, happy coach,” he said. “If I get those three, it works.”
Speed Skills is entering its eighth year. It was co-founded by Onque-Shabazz and Mike McCabe, the head track coach at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, who serves as the club’s program director. Samantha Peters coaches middle distance, distance, and cross country, and Selena Patterson is the assistant sprint coach. The club trains athletes ages 6 to 18 in events ranging from the 100 meters to the two-mile run, along with hurdles.
Fall training begins in mid-September at Oak Ridge Park in Clark, followed by an indoor season that runs from mid-December through mid-March. The outdoor season, which included last weekend’s AAU meet, now heads into a stretch of high-stakes competition.
Speed Skills co-founder and Head Sprints Coach Amir Onque-Shabazz with two youth runners. (Speed Skills)
Onque-Shabazz said the club’s athletes are headed to the USATF Region 2 Junior Olympic Championships in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in mid-July, where the top five finishers in each event advance to the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Norwalk, California, later in the month. A separate group of athletes will compete at the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Des Moines, Iowa, which run from late July into August.
Onque-Shabazz said what happens off the track matters just as much to him as what happens on it.
“You can’t run for me if you get C’s,” Onque-Shabazz said. “Every last one of my kids is an honor roll student. Nobody gets bad grades. If you get a C, you can’t run for me.”
He said the payoff for the early mornings, the travel, and the cost families put into the sport often comes years later, in the form of college scholarship money.