Interview with Olga Lapina: How Moon Owl Track & Field Club Is Shaping the Future of Sports, Health, and Development in Rockland County
At a time when child development, national health, and community resilience are becoming key priorities, leaders are emerging who are able to connect professional sports, education, and social mission into one unified system. Olga Lapina, the founder of Moon Owl Track & Field Club, a coach and sports psychologist, is one such example. Her project not only develops children through sports, but also raises a systemic infrastructure issue that affects the future of all of Rockland County.
Tell us about your professional journey. What led you to create the Moon Owl Track & Field Club?
I have a long professional history. We have a saying that there are no former athletes (laughs). In the past, I was a member of Kazakhstan’s Olympic team and I am the current Kazakhstan record holder in pole vault, a multiple-time national champion, and a participant and medalist in international competitions.
My first degree is a bachelor’s degree in sports science and psychology, plus many different advanced training courses. Today, I am a practicing coach and sports psychologist, and it is very important for me to combine physical development with psychological resilience.
Track and field is the queen of sports, but not many people know why it is called that. You can watch more than 47 events while sitting in one stadium. It is a sport for different ages, different weights, and different heights. A person with any body type can find an event and successfully practice it within track and field.
It is the foundation for the development of any sport. But, like any sport, it teaches discipline, resilience, patience, respect for the process, and the ability to grow step by step. And in our Moon Owl Track & Field Club, we teach, if you will, methodology, the fundamentals of any sport.
Why did Rockland County become the growth point for your project?
We moved from Brooklyn. We wanted more freedom, closer access to nature, but at the same time we did not want to move far away from city conveniences. This is a very convenient location: about 20 minutes from national parks and about 20 minutes from Upper Manhattan.
And I was very surprised that in such a densely populated and family-oriented county as Rockland County, children have very little access to year-round infrastructure specifically for track and field.
This sport requires space. Large spaces. When the weather gets worse, the options narrow sharply. For families, this means constant dependence on the season, rescheduling, renting random spaces, and limited access to полноценный training conditions.
The nearest indoor facilities are The Armory Track & Field Center in Manhattan, where there is always a parking problem and about an hour on the road, or Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, which is even farther away. Yes, schools have partially equipped spaces, but in practice a private club does not have access to them. And this primarily affects children, because development in sports requires consistency.
How critical is the problem of not having an indoor track facility?
This problem is very serious. In practice, the absence of an indoor facility means that children cannot train consistently year-round, especially in winter and during periods of bad weather.
It also means that training has to be adjusted to other people’s spaces and short-term rental windows. Even available public facilities, such as Rockland Community College, primarily serve their own functions, and outside groups cannot plan their use more than a few months in advance.
For youth sports, this is far too unstable. If a community does not have a permanent home for training, children lose their rhythm, and parents grow tired of the logistics and simply begin giving up on sports.
How does this affect children in terms of development and psychology?
Physically, this leads to less regular movement, and therefore to less progress, lower endurance, coordination, and confidence in their own bodies.
But the psychological consequences are no less serious. Sport gives children structure, a safe environment for effort, the experience of overcoming challenges, and healthy self-esteem.
When classes are constantly canceled or become unavailable, a child loses not only training, but also a sense of stability. Interest is lost.
As a sports psychologist, I see how regular movement helps children cope with stress better, learn self-regulation, and interact with others.
What makes Moon Owl Track & Field Club unique?
Moon Owl Track & Field Club is not just training sessions. It is a community built around accessibility, freedom of choice, and the idea that Olympic sport should not be a privilege only for the selected few.
From the very beginning, we created the club as a space for families, including homeschooling families, who often find it difficult to fit into standard sports systems.
What makes us different is the family format, the absence of a culture of pressure and comparison, adaptation of the workload to age and level, and a focus not only on athletic results, but also on character, confidence, and emotional resilience.
Why do you make sports accessible, including free training?
In my case, sport helped me achieve what I have now. I was born in a small provincial town in Eastern Kazakhstan, and thanks to sport I live in the greatest country in the world, in New York.
I know not from stories, but from personal experience, how access to free sports can change a child’s destiny. I deeply believe that talent should not depend on a family’s income, a child’s age, or how conveniently they fit into the system.
If sport becomes too expensive, it stops being a public good and becomes a filter. That is unacceptable to me.
Sport helped me stop using drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. It shaped my personality and gave me hope for the future. And now I have the opportunity to help children who were once just like me.
What major challenges is the club facing today?
The main challenge is the lack of a permanent, predictable, year-round base.
When a club does not have its own facility, or at least stable access to an indoor venue, you are constantly working in compromise mode. You have to take the weather into account, look for rental windows, and adapt the program to the available space rather than to the real needs of the children.
In addition, temporary rental requires insurance, approvals, and depends on the priorities of the property owner. This makes development, attracting new families, and long-term planning more difficult.
What results have you already managed to achieve?
Even under these conditions, we have managed to build a living, stable community around the club.
We are still very young, but we are not standing still. Right now, our athletes are confidently preparing for their first competitions, and we hope to celebrate our first official anniversary this fall.
I have been coaching for more than three years, and the club received official nonprofit status in October 2025. At the same time, our team received official status with USATF.
This gives children an official sports pathway and recognized achievements that can support their educational and athletic opportunities.
But for me, the main result is not only formal achievements. It is the changes in the children themselves: they become more confident, learn to cope with mistakes, and begin to see training as growth rather than punishment.
How do you see the solution to the infrastructure problem in the county?
Right now, I have several development strategies, from small to larger. But my ultimate goal is the creation of a modern indoor track and field and multifunctional sports space that will operate year-round.
This facility should serve not just one organization, but the whole community: children, families, schools, and clubs.
Rockland County is currently in the process of updating its development plan, and in my view, this is exactly the moment when sports infrastructure should become part of the strategic conversation.
What impact could such a project have on the economy and the community?
Imagine that the county gets a modern track and field facility built to Olympic standards.
This would create a powerful economic effect:
- development of sports tourism
- growth in tax revenue
- job creation
- income from rentals and events
- attraction of businesses and investment
- keeping money inside the county
- attracting new residents
- year-round economic activity
And for children, this means year-round access to training and movement. It is also the prevention of health problems.
Such a complex would become a center of the community, a place for sport, competitions, family activities, and educational programs.
How can business and government support such initiatives?
Support can come in several directions.
Local authorities can include this project among development priorities. Businesses can participate through sponsorships, naming rights, grants, equipment, and partnership programs.
Investors can view this project not only as a sports facility, but also as an investment in health, family development, and the local economy.
What motivates you to keep going?
My main motivator is my children. I am a mother of four active children, and it was exactly their needs that became the foundation for creating the club.
What motivates me is the understanding that sport can change a person’s life if it is accessible at the right time.
I see it in children every day, how they become more confident, calmer, and stronger. How parents see in the club not just training sessions, but a space for growth for the whole family.
What would you like to say to the Rockland County community?
I would say this: Rockland County needs an indoor track and field facility not for one organization and not for a beautiful project.
It is needed for children. It is needed for families. It is needed for a county that wants to invest in the next generation not with words, but with real conditions.
A facility is not a luxury. It is a tool for health, development, equal access, and a strong community.
