A lot happened in the summer months of 1984. Prince released the album "Purple Rain." Ghostbusters hit theatres and was a massive summertime blockbuster. The Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics set for that summer in Los Angeles. And the Cochrane High School Track and Field team won the Rocky View Schools (RVS) Divisional championship.
While history changes and evolves over time– that is what makes it history, after all– Cochrane High's domination of track and field events among Rocky View schools has remained constant.
Beginning in 1984, and occurring every year after that, Cochrane High has won the RVS Divisional Championship. For 42 straight years the Cobras have come out on top as the best all around track and field team in the school division.
At Calgary’s Foothills Athletic Park in May, the Cobras cleaned up at the RVS Sports Association Divisional Championship. Weeks later the team won again at the South-Central Championships. A day after Cochrane High honoured the schools top academic and athletic talents at its annual awards ceremony on June 6, the Cobras took home provincial gold on the same field in Calgary that they set upon their championship quest nearly a month before.
The early June win not only allowed the Cobras to extend their track meet win totals and add two more championship banners to the schools rafters– one at the South-Central Zone championship and another for the 3A Provincial Championship– it also added to the schools ongoing excellence at the provincial championship level.
When the Cobras Track and Field team ascended to the Provincial podium after the track meet in Calgary, the win meant that the Cobras would be crowned the province-wide champions of all 3A schools for the 18th time in 22 years.
Cochrane High’s team domination of track and field extends from a base made of superb athletes. Just this year the Cobras boasted a track and field roster that featured two athletes who have signed with university programs. Elise Hagen, a track runner who was named as Cochrane Highs senior girls Athlete of the Year, signed with the University of Dalhousie to run track, as did Erik Solomon, a senior boys pole vault, long jump, and javelin athlete.
Cochrane High had over a dozen athletes represent the school at the provincial championship, a number that not only contributed to the Cobras eventual first place finish, but is also a testament to the seemingly enduring superiority of the schools track and field program.
Another year passes and another track and field banner can be added to the program's long list of wins that grows closer to being half a century long.
