Sunday, April 27, 2008

CTK Track News for week of 28 Apr 08...

Hi,

I'm sending this a little bit early today since the results for the Qualifying Meet are now published on the web site for you to check.

League Meet
Remember, the 1600m race next week will take place at Heritage HS in Brentwood at 6pm on
Friday evening May 2nd. The 7th & 8th grade boys (not girls!) high jump will also take place
at the same time.

The rest of the events will take place Saturday, May 3rd, at Granada High School in Livermore starting at 9am with the 4x100m relays.

If your child qualified (or appears to be an alternate) in any event but he or she will not be able to
compete next weekend, please let me know by Monday afternoon at 5pm at the latest. I
will attend a league seeding meeting Monday evening where we'll go over all of the results
and finalize lane assignments for next week. I should have a final list of qualifiers on
Tuesday at practice.

We will be recruiting "volunteers" from among the parents of qualifiers to work at the League
Meet, so please try to help out. Since many of the qualifiers are children of primary or
assistant coaches, we may be asking coaches to work at this meet too. (If your athlete
is not available to compete though, of course we won't ask you to work.) We will get our
job assignments Monday night too; if you have a job you'd really like to do, please let
me know and I'll see if I can capture that job as part of our allotment.

Practice Continues
As I said earlier, all athletes are welcome at practice for the next two weeks whether they
qualified in an event or not. We will undoubtedly have a much smaller group over these
last four practices as the season winds down. As usual, practices will be at College Park
on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 6:30pm.

If you have any questions, please be sure to ask.

See you on or near the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/SC/SS Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit www.ctktrack.org

CTK Track News for week of 21 Apr 08...

Greetings Track Families,

Thanks once again to all of the volunteers who worked diligently to make Saturday's meet a success. The other parishes involved are apparently also blessed with helpful parents and coaches and I thought it went well.

Practice
We'll practice twice this week as usual:
  • Tuesday, April 22, from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS
  • Thursday, April 24, from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS
Qualifying Meet
As you probably know, next Saturday is our Qualifying Meet and is the last meet that all athletes may participate in
since only the top three or four finishers in each event move on to the league championship meet the next week. I have put a lengthy and (I hope) complete description of the Qualifying Meet on the front page of the web site for those who want to read all I know on the subject. If you have other questions, please ask.

One question you may have is, what events should my athlete attempt to qualify in? The easy way to tell is to look at their ribbon collection and pick the events they have done best in. If you want data, however, we got data. I have collected and posted a PDF of all individual running and field events for the whole league for the season up through meet #3, which was April 12. (I'll update this when I have meet #4 results.) This file, for the true track junky, will give you an idea how your athlete's performance stacks up against the rest of the league. Keep in mind that they will only be competing against St. Mary and St. Perpetua in the Qualifying Meet (abbreviated SM and SP on the report) as well as of course the kids from our teams (CTK, SC, and SS). There are a few inconsistencies in the report due to different ways data was entered at the different meets, and the sorting is ascending alphabetically in all cases which is not what you'd want for field events. However, the information is there for your study at http://www.ctktrack.org/08_DVCL_Result_Summary.pdf if you care to visit. Maybe it will help...

We'll attempt to explain how all of this works at practice but we'll need your help managing expectations, especially for the younger kids.

Our Qualifying Meet will take place at Ygnacio Valley High School and will start at 9am as usual. As you will know if you read the information on the web site, not everyone can run relays this week. However, we still want to know who is not able to come to this meet. Please let your primary coach know if any athlete cannot make it.

We will continue to practice for two more weeks after this week. Although these practices are primarily geared towards those who qualify for the League Championship Meet and the Diocese Championship Meet, *all* athletes are always welcome to continue coming to practice. On the other hand, if your child is ready to move on, we understand. (But please mark your calendar for our team picnic on Sunday, June 1st!)

Lost & Found
You have all outdone yourselves by leaving a huge pile of stuff at Ygnacio Valley HS the last two weekends. Please check the Lost and Found section on the web site if you are missing something. Apparently a lot of you are!

Coach Appreciation
Marcia Eaton, our hard-working picnic coordinator, has asked me to add this note to the weekly reader:

Hello everyone! By now it's no surprise to you how hard our coaches work. Every year at the team picnic, we show our appreciation for all the time and energy they put in through out the season. Here's where I need your help. It's coach contribution time again! I will be collecting money for coaches gifts at the qualifying meet on 4/26. Please look for me--I will have a big sign to help you. At YV this weekend, I will be in the lawn area near the finish line. You will have to walk past me to get to the bleachers. The suggested amount is $10 per family. If you are unable to make either of the meets, you can mail your donation to me at: 16 Sheila Court, Pleasant Hill 94523 - Marcia Eaton (marciaro@mindspring.com)

Volunteers Needed For Saturday's Meet
You would think that with 235 kids on the team that we would be able to fully staff a track meet seven times over the course of each season. But somehow we always need more help at the end of the season. If you are available to work for the very important meet we have coming up next Saturday, please contact Trish or Greg Brown right away and let them know. Remember the post-season drawing and think of the job satisfaction! And it's local! Thanks!

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/SC/SS Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit www.ctktrack.org

Monday, April 14, 2008

CTK Track News for week of 14 Apr 08...

Greetings Track Families,

Thanks again to all of the parents who helped out at the meet yesterday. The meet ran very smoothly until the primary coach for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys attempted to insert runners into the 4x400m at the very last minute and confused everyone. You would think he'd learn.

We especially appreciate those who worked extra shifts and we will remember you indeed during the end-of-season drawing at the picnic. The families of Christ The King second graders had first communions yesterday or have them next weekend so I expect we'll be scrambling again for volunteers. I am always pleased with how cheerfully everyone serves their time at the meets -- you all put on a very good act and I appreciate it.

This Week
We'll have two practices this week, on Tuesday and Thursday at College Park as usual. I am told by the lacrosse coach that they have a game Tuesday afternoon again but it should be finished by 5pm so you may catch the end of it if you come early to practice.

Our meet next weekend will seem very familiar if you were there yesterday. We'll be at YVHS again, and host both St Agnes and St. Ignatius again. However, we'll see St. John Vianney and St. Francis of Assisi (instead of St. Monica and QAS this weekend).

As usual, we'd like to see first shift volunteers and athletes at YVHS by 8:30am.

Ribbon/Result Problems
I have heard anecdotally about various result or ribbon problems, especially from the relay meet. If you think something is wrong, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it and get your athlete the proper ribbon if necessary. I fixed a few problems today already. Please send me an email about such problems and I'll get to it as soon as I can.

Lost & Found
I added a number of new treasures to the Lost and Found page of the web site. Please check out the collection.

Bring More Water
My son brought two full water bottles to the meet Saturday and still ran out of water. Please make sure you send plenty of water with your child to meets. It's hot out there!

Qualifying Meet Coming
Next week is our last regular "practice" meet. After that, our athletes start trying to qualify for the post-season league and diocese championship meets. We'll talk more about how the Qualifying Meet works next time.

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/SC/SS Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit www.ctktrack.org

Monday, April 7, 2008

CTK Track News for week of Apr 7...

Hi,

Since I'm sure you've all had your fill of track for today, I'll keep this short.

Congratulations to all of today's participants. We had a very large group there today and our athletes did very well. Thank you to all of the meet volunteers who worked hard to make the meet flow smoothly.

My main message is NO PRACTICE TUESDAY April 8! College Park has a lacrosse game and scientific studies have shown that lacrosse balls and youth track stars do not mix well. This will happen twice more, on April 29 and May 6.

Practice will resume on Thursday, April 10, at College Park from 5-6:30pm as usual.

Our next meet is next Saturday, April 12, at Ygnacio Valley High School. I'm delighted to save half an hour's driving time and I'm sure you are too! The meet will start at 9am. As usual, we'd like to see athletes and first-shift volunteers there at 8:30am and the setup crew at 8am. We'll have a regular meet next week with field and individual events.

Please alert your child's primary coach(es) if your child(ren) will not be able to attend the meet. Please work with our volunteer coordinators if you need to change a work assignment for next weekend.

See you Thursday at practice,

carl