Our daughter Haley joined the Lightning just over a year ago, a couple months before the pandemic forced everyone into lockdown. She has always been active in sport (swimming and triathlon) and has discovered that running is one of her strengths and something she enjoys. She had some success in competition and wanted to continue to improve and focus on her running. We talked to a few people including her high-school coach and the Lightning were recommended to us as a club that had a supportive approach to training and developing runners in all aspects of the sport. This was very important to us given some of what we had heard and read recently about the challenges for young women in this sport. We are very pleased with the approach that Darl takes to leading this program and the effort he has put in to make it a success.

Haley has benefitted a great deal from the camaraderie and support that she gets from the team, especially during the pandemic. Darl has found creative ways to keep them motivated and training safely and this has been a big factor in supporting mental health for these teens during a very challenging time. Haley has continued to develop as a runner and has been motivated to continue training on her own even when they couldn’t gather as a team. The approach that Darl takes with a weekly team workout, combined with self-directed training,  works well and helps to manage the time commitment for student-athletes. It is also very clear that Darl has a passion for the sport and the time and effort he has put into developing the program and supporting and encouraging runners is amazing. Compared to other sports the program is also very affordable and we like that it is setting a foundation for something Haley can continue to do for the rest of her life regardless of what she does competitively.

Trevor and Jen Griffin