'It's heartbreaking:' Apex High School track stars hope season not over

APEX, N.C. (WTVD) -- Apex senior Brian Poirier is on pace to break the school's 300-meter hurdle record.

"I've put in a lot of work to get to this point," he said. "I was really hoping to see it through but so far there's no word as to whether or not our season will be completely over," Poirier said.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Poirier's goals are on hold.

"I was pretty upset at first," Poirier said. "This is my senior season; I was pretty excited. I had big personal goals as well as team goals."

Instead of spending days on the track training, he's at home working out, using PVC pipes as hurdles.

"I was very impressed with how the team reacted," he said. "We had one official practice before the ban went in and it was that Friday. Our coach brought in a bunch of PVC pipes. We spent the whole practice making makeshift hurdles."

Brian's teammate Rae McBride qualified for indoor nationals but the day she was supposed to leave for New York, the meet was canceled.

"It would have been my first time so I was really excited," McBride said. "I was glad because it's my senior year. It would have been cool to finally go to nationals and then it got canceled because it's heartbreaking. I put in all that work for nothing at that point."

Their coach knows it's been difficult for his student-athletes.

"As a coach, you become somewhat of a parent to the kids in the sense that you enjoy seeing their growth and what is going on with them," said Apex track and field coach Roy Cooper. "Seeing each with Rae and with Brian how much they've changed over the course of four years, the expectation was very high of some good things and then that's taken."

Cooper is sending workouts each week to his team hoping to keep them involved, active and positive during this tough time.

"I do believe we're going to as a nation get through all of this," he said. "High school sports in the big picture of things is pretty small, but in their lives, in this moment of time it's pretty big."