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/