Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Cross Country details are up

Hello again track families,

Summer is drawing to a close, and that means that cross country season
is upon us. Coaches Alice and Kathleen are heading the program this
fall -- if you liked them during track and field, you'll love them
during cross country. The team is open to incoming third through
eighth graders and practices three times a week at Hidden Lakes park
in Martinez. Details are up on our web site:

http://ctktrack.org/cc.shtml

If your athlete has never tried cross-country before, it's great
conditioning as they wait out those long months until track practice
starts up again. Meets are usually held in various East Bay parks, and
are very casual and fun.

Alice and Kathleen are standing by for your questions!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

CTK Track Picnic Reminder

Hi everyone,

I'm sure you all have it marked prominently on your calendars, but just in case:  

Awards Picnic!
Our annual awards picnic is this Sunday, May 29, from 11:30am until about 3pm at Pleasant Hill Park.  We'll have the "large picnic area" on the west side of the park.

The team will provide cold drinks and hot grills.  Bring whatever you want to grill and something to share.  The grills should be hot by 11:30am.  At 1pm, we'll divide into our primary groups so that we can wish our athletes and coaches a fond farewell and hand out a few more ribbons.  Then, at about 1:30pm, the whole team will re-assemble while we hand out an awful lot of awards. 

We know this is Memorial Day weekend and that some families have plans to be away.  If you can't make it to the picnic, here are a few final announcements...

DLS Summer Camps
De La Salle High School offers a number of sports camps over the summer.  A number of our athletes have participated in past camps and thoroughly enjoyed the program.  Naturally there's a Track and Field camp among the offerings.  Visit http://www.dlshs.org/athletics/summer/index.aspx for more information.

Firecracker 5k
The City of Pleasant Hill has a 5km race on the morning of the 4th of July.  Many of our athletes, parents, and coaches are sure to participate.  Can you beat Coach Carl?  (Yes, very probably...)  See http://www.phjuly4.com/WEBPAGES/5K_Info.html for sign-up details.

CYO Cross Country
The CYO cross country program starts in August.  If you're on this mailing list, you should get an announcement with details.  Coaches Alice Burns and Kathleen Strange will be heading up the program this fall, so contact them with questions.

See you at the park,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Thursday, May 12, 2011

End of Season CTK Track News...

Greetings,

We made it through another season! 

The Diocese Meet last weekend featured a lot of outstanding performances, especially by our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade athletes.  Congratulations to all participants!  Results are now posted and I just finished entering them into athletic.net.  (As usual, please let me know if you spot any mistakes!)  And thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped out at the Diocese Meet.  Speaking of volunteers...

Volunteer Deposits
Unless you received an email in the last 24 hours with the subject line "CTK Track volunteer deposit in jeopardy," you may safely add your $50 volunteer deposit back into your checkbook because I will be shredding checks this weekend.  (If you actually want your check back for some reason, please let me know by this weekend.)  

Thank you for helping run our meets this season!  If you worked more than the minimum (and signed in for those extra shifts), then you'll be entered in our "Extra-Helpful Parent Drawing" at the picnic.  Speaking of the picnic...

Awards Picnic
Our annual awards picnic will take place on Sunday, May 29, at 11:30am at Pleasant Hill Park.  The team will supply soft drinks and hot coals.  You can bring something to grill for your family, and (please!) something to share with the other families.  Starting at 1pm, it will be awards time when the team will hand out way too many awards in a variety of categories.  I hope you can come!

Next Season
This is my last season as parish coordinator.  Mike Clemens, our head clerk of the course at most meets, will take over this position.  Most of our fabulous primary coaches will be back next season, and I certainly hope and expect lots of returning assistant coaches as well.  I have no doubt that the CTK/SC/SS track program is in very good hands!

See you soon,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Sunday, May 1, 2011

CTK Track News for the week of 2 May 2011...

Greetings Track Families,

We had beautiful weather at Ygnacio Valley HS for the relay meet yesterday and a small but mighty group of athletes and parent volunteers.  Thanks very much for your help and/or your support of the YV student-athletes yesterday!

We've finally reached the end of the season and have just two more practices before the Diocesan Championship Meet next weekend.

Practices
  • Practice: Tuesday, May 3, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
  • Final Practice: Thursday, May 5, 5-6pm, College Park High School track
Note that our final practice, on Thursday, will end at 6pm instead of 6:30pm as usual.  

We'll have Relay Meet ribbons at practice this week (probably on Thursday) so please come and pick them up.  Relay Meet results should be posted in the next 24 hours...

Diocese Meet
The 1600m and 800m races will take place on Friday evening at James Logan High School in Union City.  The home page of the web site includes a link the program, including the order of events. 

The rest of the events, starting with the 4x100m relay, begin at 8:30am on Saturday at Granada High School in Livermore following the opening ceremonies which features a parade of athletes.  CTK always gets to go first, since we are first alphabetically in Section 1.  (And of course our St. Catherine and St. Stephen athletes walk with us!)  All team athletes and coaches, participating next weekend or not, are invited to walk in the parade.  Our 8th graders (sob!) carry the team banner and hopefully don't get lost leading everyone else into the stadium.

Meet Volunteers
If your athlete qualified for the Diocese Meet, we have eleven more assignments to fill before next Saturday.  If your athlete qualified in multiple events to take place on Saturday, guess who our volunteer coordinators will be calling first?  Help us out by volunteering right now for one of the openings listed under "Diocesan Meet" on the Volunteers page of the web site.  In fact, here is a handy link: http://goo.gl/MYats .  Thanks for your help!

Volunteer Deposits
In order to help you balance your checkbooks, we will be working on our list of less-than-helpful parent non-volunteers shortly.  We will contact everyone who we think did not do their share and give them a chance to tell us that our records are incorrect.  (Remember, we asked for five volunteer shifts per family -- or the equivalent -- although we usually settle for fewer.)  If we don't hear back or if you agree with our record keeping, we'll deposit those checks and shred the rest.  At that point, we'll tell everyone that if they did not receive an email about their volunteer deposit, then they can add that $50 back into their checking account because their check is no more.  If you actually want to get your deposit check back, please contact me and I will get it back to you (at that point).

Awards Picnic
Please mark your calendars for our annual Awards Picnic on Sunday, May 29 at 11:30am at Pleasant Hill Park!  

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Monday, April 25, 2011

CTK Track News for the week of 25 Apr 2011...

Happy Easter, Track Families!

Practice
We'll practice twice this week:
  • Practice: Tuesday, April 26, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
  • Practice: Tuesday, April 28, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
All CTK/SC/SS athletes are welcome at practice.

Relay Meet
Our annual Relay Meet will take place this Saturday at Ygnacio Valley HS at 9am.  All of our athletes are eligible to participate, qualifiers and non-qualifiers alike.  We'll even have second grade races again!

The relay meet consists of these events:
  • 4x100m relay
  • 4x200m relay (2nd - 4th grade)
  • 4x400m relay (5th - 8th grade)
  • Medley Relay (200/200/400/800m)
You might think that this meet will be quicker, since there are only four events, but somehow it seems to take about as long as our regular practice meets.

Relay teams need not be grade pure, gender pure, or parish pure for this meet.  In fact, we always try to get everyone who wants to run onto a team by having a "free agent" area where kids who don't have enough teammates to form teams can gather and be plugged into their teams.   

YVHS Student-Athletes
Since we'll be running at Ygnacio Valley High School, there will be student-athletes available to hire to work your shift.  As before, the donation is $20/shift.  Thank you for supporting YVHS athletics!  (Have I mentioned lately that it's my alma mater!?)

Picnic Coming
The annual track awards picnic is coming up on Sunday, May 29, at 11:30am at the Pleasant Hill Park.  Please mark your calendar.  Here's how it works: Bring your own hot dogs, hamburgers or whatever you want to grill, as well as something (fruit, chips, cookies, potato salad, whatever) to share.  The team will fire up the grills and provide soft drinks.  After eating, at about 1pm, we'll break into our groups one last time so that the coaches can hand out some final ribbons.  Then everyone will gather so that we can hand out a whole lot of team awards.  Of course one of the highlights is our annual extra-helpful parent drawing.  I hope you all can come!  If you need one more incentive, the entire 2011 Lost & Found collection will make its final appearance.

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Monday, April 18, 2011

Practices (and Relay Meet) are for everyone...

Hi Parents,

I'm not sure I made this clear:

Our last five track practices are for all of the kids on our team.  We might give priority in certain field event workouts to kids who qualified over the weekend for the Diocese Championship Meet, but all team members are welcome as always at our practices.

And of course our Relay Meet (April 30) is for all of our athletes.  Note that we'll even have 2nd grade races again at that meet!

See you tomorrow on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Sunday, April 17, 2011

CTK Track News for the week of 18 Apr 2011

Greeting Track Families,

Congratulations to all of our athletes who competed at the Sectional Championships on Friday evening and Saturday.  Our team did very well and I came home with 6 or 7 pounds of ribbons and medals to sort.  (I am not making this up.)  The older girls and older boys did especially well, and I heard from more than one of the other teams that this year, CTK was the team to beat.  Well done, everyone!

Thanks also to all of the parents who worked at the meet.  I am always extremely proud of the way our parents carry out their volunteer duties and this weekend was no exception.

This week we'll have just one practice, on Tuesday from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track.  This Thursday is Holy Thursday and by CYO rule we will have no practices or meets from Thursday through Easter Sunday next weekend.

The next meet is our Relay Meet, on April 30, at Ygnacio Valley High School.  Once again, we'll have YV student-athletes available to work your meet jobs for $20/shift.  More on that next weekend as we get closer.

Meanwhile, Happy Easter to you and your family, and I'll see you on the track,

carl

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

More Sectional Championship Details...

Hi Parents,

This weekend is the Sectional Championship meet as you probably know.  After this weekend, we have a two week break before our next meet (Relay Meet on April 30) and then one more after that: the Diocese Championship Meet on May 6/7.

I have a few more details for you about Friday and Saturday.  First of all, I've posted the "official program" for the meet on our home page, which is also where all the results, qualifiers, and CTK/SC/SS qualifiers are listed.  The order of events is a little bit different from what we're used to, so please encourage your kids to keep their ears open.

Friday Night at DVC
The 1600m races (and only the 1600m races) will be run Friday evening at DVC starting at 6pm.  The order of events is a little unusual: 3G 4G 5G 3B 4B 5B 6G 7G 8G 6B 7B 8B.

Runners should be there early enough to warm up, say at least half an hour before their race.  (But this is track and we don't know when that will be exactly...)  

There will be just one sheet of stickers for all of the athletes.  Coach Trish will probably have them so look for her!

Saturday at Granada
The meet starts with the 4x100m relays at 8:30am at Granada HS in Livermore.  (Plug "400 Wall St., Livermore, CA" into your car's navigation system or see the directions on the web site.)

There is a small admission charge for this meet.  It's $1 for kids (ages 6-14) and $3 for those 15 and older.  Seniors and  kids under 6 are free, as are coaches with their blue diocese cards and (of course) athletes.  Friday night's races have no admission charge.

Please pay particular attention to the event calls since the Field Events are going to be run strictly by grade this year, just like the races.  If an athlete misses his or her call for a field event, then it's just like missing a race.  Athletes may not jump or throw early or late this weekend.

If an athlete is at a field event and hears a call for a running event in which they are entered, they must check out with the field event judge and come back as soon as possible.

(Special note to 4th and 5th grade boys: Coach Trish will have your stickers on Saturday.  Not me!)

Volunteers
We have been asked by the league to handle several volunteer jobs this weekend.  Katy, our volunteer coordinator, or one of her helpful assistants will be in contact with you to ask for your help if your child qualified for any individual events to be run on Saturday.  The listing of openings is on the Volunteer page as usual if you want to beat the rush and volunteer for something!  We really appreciate it.  Assistant coaches are not normally asked to work meet jobs but, as in past years, the Sectional and Diocese meets are an exception.  If your child qualified,  please help us out.

Katy will be handing out volunteer stickers on Saturday morning.  Look for her before reporting to your job!

Parents and coaches who are not doing a meet job are not allowed inside the track fence either Friday evening or 
Saturday.

See you on the track,

carl


--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Qualifying Meet Details (and plea for some more help)...

Hi Track Families,

This is the beginning of the Championship part of the season and there are a few things to tell you about that wouldn't fit in the weekly email.  (And let's face it: you would have stopped reading by then anyhow had I added all of this.)

Meet Volunteers Needed
We ALMOST have enough volunteers for this Saturday's meet, but few extra volunteers remain on the list and we need two more volunteers for the second shift of shot put.  Please send Katy an email if you are available for one of these jobs, or want to sign up as an extra volunteer for either shift.

Unfortunately, we have had some meet-day flakiness from parent volunteers this season (not all of it weather-related) so having some extra people available to send to whatever open jobs remain is very helpful.  We'll try to have some extra help on duty at volunteer check-in to speed up the process this week.  And remember you're earning chances for our "Extra-Helpful Parent Drawing" at the picnic once you've worked five shifts.

Tell Your Coach...
Please tell your coach(es) if your athlete won't be at the Qualifying Meet this weekend.  

If your athlete qualifies but they won't be able to compete in the Sectional Meet, please also tell your coach(es) (and me) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  The Sectional Meet is run in two parts: the 1600m races are Friday evening, April 15, at DVC and the rest of the events will be run Saturday, April 16, at Granada HS in Livermore.

No Parent Spectators on the Track
Parents are not supposed to be on the track at all unless they have a coach's badge or a volunteer sticker. If you are one of those parents who likes to follow your athlete around, please find a nice spot in the spacious DVC bleachers this weekend instead.  We will be asking parents who are not working to leave the field. I really dislike having to play policeman on this, so find a nice spot and let your kids compete in their races. Thanks.

No Opposite Side Races
Expect the meet to be longer this weekend.  We are not supposed to split the meet as we usually do for the 50m and 100m races.  In addition, we are not supposed to combine grades in heats of races (other than the 1600m and 800m races).  These are league rules, not my bright ideas!

Not More Rain!?
Since there's a 50% chance of rain this afternoon, please check the web site for an update after 4pm if the weather is iffy.  We try not to cancel practice, but...

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Sunday, April 3, 2011

CTK Track News for the week of 4 Apr 2011...

Greetings Track Families,

It was nice to have such nice weather Saturday at our meet.  I'm sure that some of our new families had started to mentally file track with skiing and ice skating as winter sports, but no!  The meet moved along very well yesterday thanks to great volunteer help from many of you or your Ygnacio Valley High student replacements.  Thanks very much!

Practices
We'll practice twice this week as usual:
  • Tuesday, April 6, 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
  • Thursday, April 8, 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
I am hopeful that the bees from lane 6 will have moved on by Tuesday.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you were not at practice Thursday!)

Qualifying Meet
Next Saturday is our Qualifying Meet. The location was finally announced on Friday night:
  • Saturday, April 9, 9am at Diablo Valley College track
Briefly, the qualifying meet will determine who qualifies for the Sectional Championship meet the following week. The qualifying meet will be just like our regular meets except for three differences:
  • Second graders run as third graders from now on
  • Relay teams must be gender-pure, parish-pure, and grade-pure.
  • Ribbons will be awarded after combining the results from multiple heats of the same grade, if necessary.
To save many of you reading about this for the millionth time, please visit the page on the web site called "FAQ" where the first two entries attempt to address all of the most frequently asked questions about the Qualifying Meet and the Sectional Championship Meet. Please check there first, and then call or write with any remaining questions.

I wrote that last year, and there's one difference this year that I want to draw your attention to.  Briefly, runners who do not qualify in any events are usually done with meets for the season.  BUT NOT THIS YEAR because our Relay Meet, a league tradition for many years, happens on April 30, the Saturday after Easter, and everyone is invited to compete whether they are still competing in the championship meets or not.  (As I explained earlier in the season and at the parent meeting, this year's latish Easter has scrambled our usual schedule a little bit.)

Ribbons
We got a little behind on ribbons for reasons I cannot explain, but we definitely will handout Meet #3 (San Ramon Valley HS) ribbons at the end of practice on Tuesday, and I expect ribbons from Meet #4 (yesterday) to be ready to hand out after practice on Thursday.  I still have not heard why we don't have ribbons from Meet #2 (icy curtailed meet at Ygnacio Valley HS).

Lost and Found
The lost and found haul from Saturday's meet was massive.  Usually I try to detail the trove on the web site before I send the weekly newsletter out, but I just couldn't face the pile.  If you're missing something, please let me know and I'll try to find it as I inventory the collection in the next couple of days.

See you on the track,

carl


--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S  Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Sunday, March 27, 2011

CTK Track News for the week of 28 Mar 11...

Greetings Track Families,

I have to admit that I am surprised that we managed a nearly complete track meet on Saturday.  I fully expected that we would have to call off the meet.  However, thanks to willing volunteers from our two teams, and weatherproof athletes, we did it!  Thanks very much to all of our volunteers who braved the elements yet again.  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some sunshine.

This Week at a Glance
Volunteers
Now is a good time to tell you about (or remind the veterans about) our "Extra Helpful Parent" drawing.  Simply put, if you work more than five shifts (not counting the Mini Meet, or the Sectional Meet, or the Diocese Meet) at our meets this season, every extra shift you work will earn you a "ticket" in our Extra Helpful Parent drawing which has become a tradition at the team picnic at the end of the season.  We award gift cards for local restaurants to several lucky (though hard-working) families who go above and beyond.

We started this program a few years ago because, frankly, we didn't want to "use up" our most valuable and experienced parent volunteers early in the season and be left with a bunch of rookies later in the season.

With that in mind, please feel free to email Katy (our extra-helpful volunteer coordinator) to sign-up for any jobs you see open for Meet #4 (April 2nd), the Qualifying Meet (April 9), or the Relay Meet (April 30).

Now, a little bit of fine print:  Right before the beginning of the meet yesterday, the St. Isidore / St. Joan of Arc coordinators decided to have a quick parent meeting due to a little "negative feedback" that they had received about the whole idea of holding the meet yesterday under the liquid skies of Danville.  We told all of the parents that we intended to carry on with the meet regardless, but if they thought that it was a bad idea, then they could sign out of their volunteer jobs and be on their way.  If you took us up on the offer and left the meet at that point, please write to Katy and she will give you credit for having worked your shift anyway.  It was lousy weather a lot of the time, and we respect your decision to make it an indoor day.  We ended up with plenty of volunteers, many of whom were not signed up to work at all.  Finally, if you worked yesterday but never signed in, please ALSO write to Katy and she'll add another tick mark next to your family's good name.  Once again, thanks.  I hope you had fun like I did.

YV Students For Hire
Since Meet #4 sees us back at Ygnacio Valley High School, you once again have the opportunity to hire Ygnacio Valley student-athletes as replacement workers.  As before, the donation is $20 per shift.  (You pay Coach George Francis at the meet.)  If you plan to take George up on this fundraiser, please let me know by Wednesday so that we can help him plan.  As always, there will be extra students on hand for those better at making last-minute decisions.

Still More Pictures
If you haven't checked out the pictures on Shutterfly lately, there are some great ones again this week.  Thanks, Paul!  (Next week, maybe we'll see if he can shoot in sunlight.)

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Friday, March 25, 2011

Meet #3 volunteer assignments posted...

Hi Track Families,

Meet Volunteers
We received our volunteer assignments for Meet #3 from the meet hosts, St. Isidore & St. Joan of Arc, and Katy and I have transfered assignments to a new sheet which is now posted on the Volunteers page of the team web site.

Note that we have fewer jobs than usual this week, but all of the jobs that we do have are important so please make sure that you check for your name.  You should get the usual reminder phone calls later this week as well.

SI/SJA apparently runs their meets without a shift change (which we normally have) though we have assigned our volunteers assigned in two shifts, with some overlap as usual.  SI/SJA asks that first shift volunteers report by 8:15am (which I find kind of early), but I interpret that to mean that they are doing their utmost to start on time.

Please allow a little extra time this weekend to get to the meet, which is at San Ramon Valley High School and please sign in with a CTK volunteer check-in person when you arrive.

I'm sure that they will do a few other things differently than we normally do and that we can learn some tricks from them to use in our future meets.  

Results from Meet #2
I still have not received results back from Meet #2, but I will post them when I get them.  Perhaps the paperwork is still drying.  

Practice Today
It is going to be a wet week.  Please check for a practice update on the front page of the web site by 4pm today and Thursday.

See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

CTK Track News for the week of 21 Mar 2011...

Hi Track Families,

Several years ago, I cancelled the Mini Meet due to expected bad weather and the day turned out to be beautiful.  Ever since then, I have been very reluctant to call off a meet or even a practice lest the weather prove me over-cautious.  After Saturday's outing at Ice Station Ygnacio, I don't expect any of you will consider me over-cautious in the weather arena again.  All I can is that at 6am when we made the decision to go ahead, the weather forecast looked relatively benign until noon.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thank you very much to the many heroic parents who fulfilled their volunteer responsibilities admirably despite the conditions.  It was impressive.  If any of the second-shift volunteers are concerned that they somehow lost volunteer credit due to the early cessation of festivities, fear not: I have asked Katy to credit everyone who was signed up for Meet #2.  (I even asked her to give extra credit to a couple of stalwarts who went above and beyond.)  Thank you again!

This Week
Practice - Tuesday 5pm-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Practice - Thursday 5pm-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Meet #3 - Saturday 9am at San Ramon Valley HS track

Our meet this week is with the only team bigger than ours, the combined forces of St. Isidore  and St. Joan of Arc.  Last year, we hosted our meet with them so this year, it's their turn.  This will result in volunteer assignments being changed from what is currently posted since they are in charge of assigning the jobs.  Katy and I will try to match our parents to their existing jobs where possible, but it pains me to say that some of you on the Meet #3 Volunteers list may wind up unemployed next weekend.  Please stay tuned.  I will send out a special email when the updated jobs are posted.

Looking ahead, our schedule for Meet #4 has changed since I first published it.  Instead of traveling down to Livermore to run at Granada HS, we'll be back at Ygnacio Valley HS (have I mentioned it's my alma mater?) on April 2.  Let's see if we have better weather for our return.

Last Chance for Refunds
We are aware that there are a number of athletes signed up for our team who have not shown up for practice or meets in some time, if ever.  If your child is one of these athletes, please send me a message by Friday, March 25, if you want to make it official that they are not doing track.  If your child drops after that date, I will have paid our league fees and your chance at even a partial refund will disappear.  Poof!

Pictures
It's been a long time since we've had such great pictures from our meets, and now there are even more since Demaris Cleland has joined Paul Nuti in posting pictures on Shutterfly.  If you haven't received an invitation (possibly since you joined the team late), contact Paul at p_nuti@yahoo.com to request an invitation.  Paul even took a few pictures Saturday at YV.  Thanks, Paul and Demaris!

CTK Parent Education Talk
I was asked to let you all know about an upcoming talk:  On Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7pm in the Church, Christ the King School’s Parent Teacher Group will sponsor a talk by Dr. Glenn Brassington, entitled, “Excellence is No Accident: Mental Skills Training for Success and Creativity in Academics, Sports, and the Performing Art.”  Read more


See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Using Athletic.net For DVCL Results

This is for parish coordinators and their helpers who want to know how to post their team's results on athletic.net.


There are two cases:

1. Someone else posts the results

2. You Post the results


After each DVCL Meet, Gil sends the coordinators the results in a spreadsheet that contains all the results for each of the meets.  Usually, there are three meets per weekend.  And usually, there are three sheets in the spreadsheet file per meet.


If you're at a meet with CTK, I will take care of posting the results to athletic.net when they are available, so you're case #1.  If you're at a meet with St. Mary, David Burnash can usually be counted on to post results.  Otherwise, talk amongst yourselves and decide who needs to post each meet's results.


Case #1 is simpler, so we'll start there.  If you fall into Case #2, start with the steps below which everyone must do.


For Case #1, there are really just three steps:


1. Introduce your team to athletic.net
2. Upload your roster (and keep it updated)
3. Enter your schedule (and adjust it)


Case #2 adds one more step:
4. Upload meet results


Introduce Your Team
If your team has not used athletic.net before, you may need to introduce the team to the site first.  When I was getting started, they created a whole hierarchy for CYO Track.  Here's the hierarchy for CTK:

  • Youth Clubs
  • CYO
  • Oakland CYO
  • Diablo Valley
  • Christ the King

You don't really need to know any of this, but you do need to know that athletic.net considers our teams "youth clubs."  If your team includes more than one parish, you need to make a decision whether to list them separately or as one big team.  If you want to post relay results that are mixed between your teams (as CTK does), then make it one big team.


Follow the instructions and sign up as a coach for your team.  It leads you right through the process.  I believe that if someone has already done that, then you'll need to get their permission.  (I can't test this unfortunately.)


The next two steps are to upload your roster and to enter your schedule.


Upload Your Roster
To upload the roster, again, just follow the instructions.  Basically, you need to make a spreadsheet similar to the one we all send to Gil at the start of the season.  You'll just need each runner's name (first and last in separate fields), their gender (M or F), and their grade.  After you upload it, you can edit it later to add new team members or fix spelling errors.


Enter Your Schedule
There are simple instructions for entering your schedule.  The site keeps a list of meets for each date.


Entering the schedule is a little tedious, unless someone has been there before you.  If athletic.net already knows about your meet, then you can just select it from those on the 
calendar and you're done.  Otherwise, you just need to name the meet, list it's location, and city.


A couple of years ago when we started using athletic.net, we decided that our meets would have names like this:


CYO-DVCL Meet #2 - YVHS
or
Mary Chatterton Relays - YVHS

If you enter meets, please follow that form.  Otherwise, just select them if they are already on the schedule.  (Since we all go to the same Sectional Championships or Diocesan Championships meet, you ought to be able to select it since I've already entered them.)


Upload Meet Results


First, you'll need a program that I wrote that you can download from our web site:


Navigate to this location in a browser:
http://www.ctktrack.org/convert_to_hytek/


Download this program: convert_to_hytek.exe


Put it somewhere you can find it again.  You'll be running it from the command line (i.e., from a DOS or CMD window).  


Next, open the results spreadsheet and save the three sheets in "CSV" format.  For instance, if you are working with Meet #2, you might save the sheets in three files called 


meet2_track.csv
meet2_field.csv
meet2_relays.csv

Open a CMD window (Run -> cmd) and then change directories to where the convert_to_hytek.exe and three CSV files are using the "cd" command.

Then, type this (or cut and paste it):

 convert_to_hytek < meet2_track.csv > meet2_track.txt

You should either get some error messages or else (we hope!) something like
356 records converted.

If you get error messages instead, you might be able to figure out what's wrong
from there. Most are just warnings which you can ignore if they are about
misinterpreted garbage lines from the CSV file. But you might get some that
will indicate things to correct in the CSV file before rerunning convert_to_hytek.

Note that Excel can edit a CSV file.   In other words, if there are problems, fix the line(s) with the problem(s) and then re-save it and try again.

If you still have problems, please send me the error message or whatever response you get from running convert_to_hytek. If you think you're doing everything right but it's still not working, you can send me your CSV files and I'll try to convert them myself.

One thing that might happen is that convert_to_hytek.exe might not run on your PC if you are way behind on patches or have an old OS. Dave's running Vista and didn't have problems. I'm using XP Pro. You could try running "depends.exe" on the convert_to_hytek.exe program if that means anything to you.

After you make your three "txt" files, you are finally ready to upload the results to athletic.net.  Select the meet on the site, and choose "Upload Results."

It is a bit tedious, but works fine in my experience.  Here are some things that you need to do along the way.  The process is done by following the tabs on the Upload page left to right.  You can go back and forth and even upload the results more than once if you totally mess up.
  • "Meet Divisions" are school grades for us.  For each meet, you'll need to "Edit Meet Divisions" and make 2nd through 8th grade divisions.
  • Teams - You may need to match up team abbreviations.  It will make some wild guesses but get most of them right.  Sometimes "St. Michael" might end up as "SM" in the results, for instance, and you can associate "SM" with St. Michael if St. Mary was not at your meet.
  • The "Athletes" tab is where you can connect "M. White" from the results to "Mary White" from your roster if necessary.   Select your team and see how many of the results you can clean up. 
  • Under "Events," there is not usually much to do.  Mainly you'll need to make sure the shot put size is correct.  (We use 6 lb shots for the girls, and the 5th and 6th grade boys.  We use 8 lb shots for the older boys.)
  • Under "Timing Mode," you'll just pick "Hand" unless your meet was at Granada where most events will be "FAT" (for fully automated timing).   But even at Granada, you may have hand-timed the 1600m and will certainly have hand-timed any short sprints run on the opposite side of the track.
  • Finally, you'll reach "Publish."  Just do it.
Note that you can edit results later when you discover errors.  

Good luck!

CTK Track News for the week of 14 Mar 2011

Greetings Track Parents,

I hope you have fun yesterday at the meet.  The weather was perfect, I thought, making it a nice day to be outside.

Thanks to all of the parents who worked at yesterday's meet.  We had pretty good coverage but can do better.  If you find that you are scheduled for next weekend's meet but cannot make your work assignment, please either find your own replacement or at least notify Katy, our volunteer coordinator, earlier in the week than Friday.  Of course there's nothing you can do if you or your athlete wakes up sick on Friday or Saturday and we try to have extra volunteers on hand for that.

Yesterday many parents worked meet jobs for the first or second time.  You will find that our meets will go faster and faster as the season continues and we all become a little more efficient.  Think of it as one more competition - how early can we finish?  Last season we finished one of our meets at about 12:35pm which would mean knocking an hour and forty minutes off our time from yesterday.  We can do it!

This Week
For the remainder of the season, we're extending our practice time to end at 6:30pm to take advantage of the extra daylight we were given by last night's time change.  Here's the schedule:
  • Practice: Tuesday, March 15, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
  • Practice: Thursday, March 17, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
  • Meet #2: Saturday, March 19, 9am, Ygnacio Valley High School track
As usual, athletes and first-shift volunteers should be at the track on Saturday by 8:30am.  We'll begin the meet with first heat of the 1600m race at 9am.

Results
Meet results are posted for yesterday and you can reach them from the "Schedule" page of the web site.  Let me know if you spot errors.   Yesterday's results will eventually make their way into athletic.net.  We will have ribbons this week at practice (usually on Thursday) along with Starburst awards again (usually on Tuesday).  Personal Best ribbons will debut soon as well.

Speaking of the "Schedule" page, you'll notice that the rest of the meet venues are filled in now.  We'll be visiting San Ramon Valley HS for Meet #3 and then Granada HS for Meet #4 before returning to DVC for our Qualifying Meet on April 9.  Meets #3 and #4 will require changes to the volunteer staffing (for the better!) that I'll discuss next week.

Lost & Found
Part of the fun of cleaning up after the meets is all the cool stuff we find around the track.  This week's treasures are now listed on the Lost & Found page of the web site, where they will remain until the team picnic after the season ends.  If you spot something you'd like back, send me a note and I'll try to bring it to practice.  

Spikes
A lot of the kids on the track team wear track spikes at the meets.  These are great for running, but a sure way to visit our First Aid tent if the kids wrestle or otherwise roughhouse.  I will speak to the kids at practice this week (they listen quietly with their hands folded in their laps whenever I speak at practice...) but please reinforce this. 

Spikes are only for racing, long jumping, and high jumping.  Kids should wear them to practice without special permission from the coaches for a number of reasons.  And they should be very careful around that they don't poke themselves or their teammates.  Kids are only allowed to wear 1/4" or shorter pyramid style spikes.  I have hundreds of replacement spikes that I am happy to give to the kids at meets, by the way.  Don't both buying any.

Hire A Ygnacio Valley Student-Athlete To Work Your Shift
For the past couple of years, Ygnacio Valley High School athletes have been required to pay a substantial fee to participate in high school sports.  The YVHS track coach, George Francis, who himself used to be a CYO track coach, has invented a fundraiser to help his students pay their sports fees.  For $20 per shift, you can hire a YV student to do your job at the meet.  Please let me know by Wednesday night if you are interested in this offer so I can give George some idea how many of his athletes to have on hand Saturday morning.  Lots of parents from our team and other league teams participated last season and they raised about $6000 this way.  (Please don't do the math on how this affects your $50 work deposit!)  They always have extra kids on hand so you can hire them Saturday morning without a "reservation." too.

See you on the track,

carl


--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Friday, March 11, 2011

CTK Track Update

Hi parents,

Tomorrow is our first "real" (or at least non-mini) meet.  

There are a few guidelines that I probably failed to mention at the parent meeting or in an email this season.

The only people allowed on the track or the field during any of our meets are athletes, coaches, and parent volunteers.  Parents who are not working should remain in the stands, or outside the fence surrounding the track.

The way we tell who is a volunteer and who is just a stray parent is by handing out little volunteer stickers to parents as they sign in for their jobs.  Of course, we'll have parents from other parishes helping and they will have their own volunteer stickers.  All coaches will be wearing diocese-issued ID cards as usual, making them easy to identify.

Please help by cooperating with this league rule.

Otherwise, the meet tomorrow at DVC starts at 9am.  Athletes and first shift volunteers should arrive by 8:30am.  The setup crew should arrive at 8am and do not need stickers.  (The setup crew can sign in AFTER they are done.)

Meet Schedule
The rest of our meet venues are now posted on the Schedule page of team web site.  Over the coming weeks, we'll be visiting Ygnacio Valley HS, San Ramon Valley HS and Granada HS in Livermore.

Pictures
Finally, most of you should have received an email from parent Paul Nuti, a CTK parent who is taking and posting pictures at several of our meets.  I looked through his collection from the Mini Meet and there are plenty of great pictures.  (If you did not receive an invitation, please contact Paul at p_nuti@yahoo.com.)


See you on the track (at least if you're working...),

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

Monday, March 7, 2011

CTK Track News for the week of 6 Mar 2011

Greetings Track Families,

Thank you VERY much to everyone who helped out at the Mini Meet on Saturday.  I think the meet went very well.  Unfortunately we had a number late cancellations and no-shows among the meet volunteers, but many of you stuck around for a second shift and helped double (or, the case of one enterprising family, quintuple).  I want to also thank our experienced volunteers who passed on their knowledge to the newer volunteers.

Meet Results
I have typed in a lot of the CTK/SC/SS Mini Meet results on athletic.net which we'll use all season.  (We have results since 2007, for the history buffs!)   Our part of the site is here:

If you spot any obvious errors, please report them and I'll try to fix them.  We did have a few races where we didn't get all the times, and the places for each race are listed by heat, and not consolidated.  I will get the rest of the field events typed in and maybe the relay results too when I get a chance.  We don't have ribbons for this meet, but we will for the rest of the season.

Practices
First of all, we have apparently had our last practice on the date of a home lacrosse game.  We were caught off guard on Tuesday but it is not scheduled to happen again this season.

This week we'll have a sort of unusual practice schedule.  
  • Practice - Tuesday 3/8 -  5-6:15pm - College Park HS track
  • Practice - Thursday 3/10 - 5-6pm - College Park HS track
Starting the following week, the rest of our practices will be 5-6:30pm since we'll go on Daylight Savings Time next weekend.

Please note the 6pm finish on Thursday.  All of the Coaches have to attend a league "Coach Certification" workshop on Thursday evening after practice so please be extra sure to pick up your kids on time that evening.  We always keep one male and one female coach at College Park until all of the kids are collected and it would be nice if we didn't have to wait around for once.

Next Meet
Our first league meet will be at Diablo Valley College track (right across the street from where we practice) at 9am on Saturday, March 12.  Meet assignments are all posted and you should receive reminder phone calls later in the week.  We will have help at the meet from the other parishes running in the meet, but everyone assigned to work needs to do their part.

The meet will be just like Saturday's effort except for two things:
1. We'll run the boys' 50m and 100m races on the opposite side of the track at the same time as the girls will be running on the "home' side.  This really speeds up the meet.
2. We'll finish up with some relay races that we didn't have time for at the Mini Meet.

Our guests this week at DVC will be St. Ignatius (again), St. Francis of Assisi, St. Agnes, and Queen of All Saints.


See you on the track,

carl

--
Carl Godkin
CTK/St.C/St.S Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/