Tomorrow Peeples-Taylor, head coach of the Boston Lions Track Club, is helping neighborhood kids get their lives on track by introducing them to competitive running at an early age.

Says the 52-year-old Boston native who established the club in 2018, “I have a love of track and a big history in track, [so] why not make some track stars while teaching them how to be successful citizens? Because at the end of the day, I tell them, when we’re gone, they’re going to be left here to rule the world.”

The 31-member team, made up of kids ages 3 to 19, is currently in the middle of its summer season and fresh off an impressive outing at the 2024 USA Track and Field’s National Youth Outdoor championships in New York.

Solo Lewis, 10, was one of the success stories while competing in the 200, 400, and 800-meter races at Icahn Stadium. The Mattapan resident broke the record for all three events in the girls 9-10 age group and ran faster than every other female athlete in the 11-12 age division. 

“It was the best day of my life,” said Lewis. “I have an amazing coach and I love running because it shows what I have.”
Lewis’s younger siblings, Legacy, 6, and Shyne, 4, are also on the team, which practices at Roxbury’s Madison Park High. While the trio stretch and train together, but when it comes time to race at practice, Lewis competes against the older boys on the team. 

“I feel like [running with the boys] helps me train. My goal is to pass the boys. If I do that, I’ll probably set a good record,” Lewis told The Reporter. 

Her current record for the 400 meter is 1:02, but she and her coach are confident she can get her time down to a minute flat at the Region 1 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championship on Thursday of this week (July 11).  If Lewis does well in New York, she will then compete in the 2024 USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships at the end of the month in Texas. 

Her goals go far beyond the Junior Olympics, though. She one day hopes “to be famous and beat Sha’Carri Richardson’s records.”

Above, the Boston Lions smile with their coaches before a hard practice under the July sun in preparation for the 2024 USATF Region 1 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championship which will begin on July 11 in New York. Cassidy McNeeley photos

Peeples-Taylor says Lewis and other athletes on the team have huge potential.

“When Solo started with me last year in April, she went to her first track meet with me and she lost both events,” the coach said. “She was so determined that this would never happen again. I told her the things she needed to do and from that day forward she has never lost a race.”

Another impressive athlete on the Lions is 14-year-old Nasir Camille, who is ranked with the fastest 400 time for Region 1 at 52:89 for the 13-14 boys age group. Camille is currently injured and will not be participating in the upcoming meets, but he is looking forward to supporting his many teammates, a group that includes Urijah Mejias. 

Urijah Mejias (left) and Coach Tomorrow Peeples-Taylor (right) hope several Lions set new personal records at the competition in New York.

Since being on the team, Mejias said, the most important thing he has learned is to “keep working at whatever you believe in. Even if it’s not working out right now, keep doing it and it will happen.” For him, this means leaving New York with a new personal record or setting a meet record. 

While Mejias has the support of his coaches and teammates, his family is very much behind him as well, especially his mother, Damaris Ayala. She has noticed that since working with Peeples-Taylor, her son has become a better athlete and person. “I see a lot of discipline, responsibility, and prioritizing,” she said. The coach “is tough but discipline and being tough on them is a good thing.” 

Like the little tracksters on the Lions, Peeples-Taylor began her own athletic career rather young. “As a little girl living in the city, I had a lot of lead poisoning in my system,” she said. “Growing up, I couldn’t walk, I was in and out of the hospitals for years. At one point the doctors sent my mother home with exercises to strengthen my legs up to walk,” she added. “My brothers and sisters did the stretches and walked with me. Then I started jogging, then fast running, and then it became competitive.” 

When she decided to launch her own program six years ago, she chose the name Boston Lions because, she says, “the lion is the leader of the pack. It’s not about who’s the fastest, or who’s the strongest, it’s about the leader. It goes hand in hand when I tell them everything is not about a win, it’s about pushing yourself to the best of your ability and you will eventually win.”

Peeples-Taylor took note of the fact that that “pretty much everybody is from Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury. We hear that we’re not good enough all the time, we’re shown we’re not good enough all the time. With this program here it shows them, yes, you can. It may take more work but it’s obtainable.”

Before the team leaves for the next round of competition in New York, Mayor Wu was scheduled to host a send-off for the team at City Hall on Wednesday of this week (July 10) at 3 p.m. 

The Lions look forward to their long-awaited recognition, Peeples-Taylor said. “We need to celebrate our local heroes. They need to be recognized for their accomplishments. It boosts their morale and lets them know that they are somebody.”