Track News for the week of February 3, 2013

Hello everyone, and welcome to the semi-regular track newsletter. There will be a lot of information as the season gets started: future installments will be shorter, I promise!

• Missing emails?

If you're not seeing regular email from me, you may be one of the few families that didn't supply an address on your forms. All the emails are archived on our team's news blog:

http://ctktrack.blogspot.com/search/label/2013

Click "News" on the team site to take you there.

• Practice begins this week at College Park: Tuesday, Feb 5 from 5-5:45pm

College Park is supposed to be installing safety nets around the football field this week, so the stadium is temporarily closed. We'll still hold practice in some form, though. Look for the coaches or myself to guide you. A little inconvenience now means not dodging lacrosse balls later.

Practice times will gradually lengthen as we get more daylight. Always check the schedule page on the web site for the latest details:

http://ctktrack.org/schedule.shtml 

If you're new to track, there's a couple of things to remember for practice:

1. Dress warm!
2. Label everything with the athlete's name
3. Hydrate! Bring -- and drink -- water, preferably from a re-usable sport bottle of some kind
4. Go to the bathroom at home: facilities are very limited at College Park

This is all spelled out in detail on the "Practices" web page:

 http://ctktrack.org/practices.shtml

• Late signups/missing paperwork

I'll still accept signups for a couple weeks: you can speed the process along by bringing me a completed set of forms off the web site, plus a check for fees and another check for your deposit:

http://ctktrack.org/forms.shtml

If your athlete is dropping, just let me know by email. I have not yet cashed any checks, and will shred them if you're leaving the program.

I wear a brown cowboy hat to most track events,  so I'm fairly easy to pick out of a crowd. I love questions.

• Uniforms

If you need to change the size of the team shirt or sweatshirt, or want to add something to your order, tell me right away. I'm planning on placing our uniform order with the printer this week. Once shirts and sweats have been handed out, they're yours and cannot be refunded.

You do not need to wear uniforms to practice (though some do.) The t-shirt is only required at meets. The sweatshirt is just a keen fashion statement. Athletes need to dress warmly at practice, in whatever clothes are comfortable for working out. Parents waiting in the stands should dress doubly warm.

• Volunteer shifts

I've keyed in all the volunteer sheets from the signup nights: a summary and more details about volunteering is on the team site:

http://ctktrack.org/volunteers.shtml

Please make sure that this agrees with your calendars, and notify me of changes.

If you're "Allen Brezac" or know this person, could you contact me? This person signed up for two shifts on April 20, but I don't know which family to credit. Thanks.

• Weather watch

If the skies look ominous, I'll make a weather determination by about 4:00pm that day and post it to Twitter (@ctktrack). Through the magic of technology, this also appears on the front page of the team web site in the upper left corner:

http://ctktrack.org/ 

I can't promise that we'll stay perfectly dry all the time, but we do our best. A little drizzle won't stop practice, but a torrential downpour will. The surface of the track is all-weather, even if the coaches and myself are not.

Thanks for reading this far, and we'll see you at practice.