CTK Track News

Welcome to the 2012 Season

2012-01-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to remind everyone about some upcoming dates and pass along other information.

The team web site is always your best source for information:
http://ctktrack.org

I'll also archive all these letters on the team "News" page:
http://ctktrack.blogspot.com

First Practice on Thursday, Feb 2, 5:00-5:45pm at College Park High

Next Thursday, February 2 is our first practice, starting promptly at
5pm at the track at College Park High School. Our first few practices
are short due to the looming darkness: always check the schedule page
on the team web site to confirm practice times.

http://www.ctktrack.org/schedule.shtml

The front page of the web site and our Twitter feed (@ctktrack) will indicate if practice is canceled due to wet weather. I'll update by 4pm on practice days if the sky looks gloomy.

Athletes need to remember:

Bring a water bottle with your name on it. Reusable bottles are best: less garbage after practice.
Dress warmly! And label your clothing, too.
Go to the bathroom before you leave home: CPHS facilities are very limited.
Wait in the stands when you arrive. Walk AROUND the outside of the track to the stands.
Do not climb fences or gates or play on the hillsides. Cross-country starts in the fall if you like that sort of thing.

We have a great coaching staff this year, and I know they're eager to
get started. Parents are welcome to stay and watch, but please, sit in
the stands, and keep off the track and field areas during practice.

Anyone with outstanding paperwork or payments can get them to me at
practice. I'll make myself easy to find.

Pickup can be a little hectic: go slow in the parking lot, and please
come to the track to retrieve your loved ones and their belongings. We
promise to wear them out if you promise to come get them on time.

Parent Meeting on Monday, Feb 6, 6:45-8:00pm at Christ the King
Church Parish Hall

All new families are *strongly encouraged* to attend. Returning
families are welcome, too. Find out about shoes, practices, meets,
relays, ribbons, volunteer jobs, and anything else you can think of to
ask. No question is too strange! Bring your trickiest questions and
play Stump The Coordinator. Athletes will find this meeting
exceptionally boring, so you probably want to leave them at home.

Forms and volunteer sheets will be available at this meeting for late
signups. If your child has a friend that would like to try track,
bring along their parent. Our numbers are low this year, especially in
the St. Stephen and St. Catherine groups, and we always like being
able to build full relay teams for the qualifying meet.

For an athlete to be eligible they must:

Attend one of the parish schools OR
Attend the RE program at one of the parishes OR
Live within one of the three parish boundaries

It also helps if they like to run. :-)

Field Clinics

I've booked the track and field at College Park High School for two
special field-event practices. Usually this is an invitation for a
rainy weekend, but we're going to try for it anyway. The clinics are:

Sat Feb 18, 1:30-3:30pm
Sun Feb 26, 1:30-3:30pm

Athletes are welcome to attend one or both of these. This is a chance
to practice field events in a little looser environment than a regular
practice. Specific events are subject to which coaches I'm able to
bribe into attending.

Coaching

Trish Heaney is the head coach this year: you'll also see her managing
the middle school girls and boys at practice. We are still looking for
someone who can dedicate themselves to acting as a primary coach for
the Intermediate level boys group (grades 4-5.) We are covered for the
practices, don't worry, but if there's a parent among you who would be
interested, or thinks you may be interested, please let me know, and
I'll put you in touch with Trish. The ideal coach is someone who's
worked with kids before (soccer coaching, for example), who can help
athletes in a range of skill levels find their "niche" event, and who
realizes that personal improvements -- a faster time, a farther jump
-- are more important than finishing first.

Similarly, we could use someone with high jump experience. If you
have a track & field past, and did high jump once upon a time, please
let me know. Or, if you have a high-schooler who does high jump (and
who needs community service time!) we would be willing to talk to
them, too. We would like them to come to a couple of practices, and
ideally to the field clinics.

Thanks everyone, and I'll see you at practice

Practice Starts Soon

2012-01-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Second signups are over: the next scheduled signup night is during the parent's meeting on Monday February 6 starting at 6:45 in the CTK parish hall (adjacent to the main church parking lot: look for the signs.) See the team site page about signups and to run off a copy of the forms if you want to fill them out in advance.

Interested in coaching or being an assistant coach? We have a meeting this Thursday at 6:30pm at Christ the King school, room 222: the same room as signups. We're still looking for coaches to help out with the middle-grade (4-5-6) for both boys and girls. If you're interested, come join us at the meeting.

First practice is Thursday, February 2 at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, starting promptly at 5pm. If the weather looks menacing, always check the team web site or our Twitter feed (we're @ctktrack) for updates. Practices are every Tuesday and Thursday, and we have a couple of special practices in later February that I'll talk about soon.

For practices:

Use the restroom at home. Facilities are very limited at CPHS track.
Bring a water bottle -- reusable, preferably -- with the athlete's name on it.
Dress warmly! Practice can be chilly, especially when the sun dips below the tree line. Wear a jacket or sweatshirt, sweatpants, even a hat. Dress in layers, and you'll be prepared.
Label everything! The coaches have their own warm clothes, we don't need yours. We'd like your workout clothes get back to their owners.
Be safe. Stay with your practice group, and listen to your coach and assistant coaches. Be careful crossing the track -- it's like crossing a busy street. Please do not climb on the fences and hillsides. We would like to be allowed to continue practicing at CPHS.
Do not run if you are hurt. This includes getting hurt while at practice.

When practice is over, parents should come to the track to pick up your athletes. We can't dismiss them or let them leave early without handing them over to a responsible adult. Stragglers will be walked up to the parking lot gate when we're doing cleaning up.

If you forgot to turn in paperwork at signups (birth certificate copy, concussion form) or owe the team your volunteer deposit or other fees, you can see me at the first few practices to handle it.

The very first practices may seem confusing or overwhelming to new families and athletes: don't worry. Everyone is a pro after about two or three practices. However, some kids are surprised to discover that there is a lot of running at track practice and meets, and maybe decide that this isn't the best sport for them after all. If this is the case, please let me know and I can start processing you as a "drop." Otherwise, you will lose your volunteer deposit and any hope of a refund.

Second Signups for 2012

2012-01-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

Hello all, just a reminder that that our second signup is tomorrow at Christ the King school, room 222 (the 6th grade classroom) starting at 6:30 and ending at 8pm. If you missed last Thursday's signups, you can still enroll. The CTK Parish bulletin showed an additional signup on Thursday night: this is incorrect.

Our final enrollment will be Monday, February 6 from 6:45-8:00pm in the Christ the King Parish Hall at the parent meeting. (Naturally you were planning to attend that meeting anyway.)

I'm processing the paperwork from the first signup night, and will be contacting some families about missing or incomplete forms. Remember, for every athlete, we need to have:

The two-page medical authorization form from the Diocese
A new concussion information sheet signed by both a parent and athlete, also from the Diocese
A copy of the athlete's birth certificate to be kept on file until they age out of the program
A $70 enrollment fee, plus $10 if you need a new t-shirt

Each family also needs to complete a team form that lists the names of the athletes, parish, and shirt sizes, and leave a $50 check as a volunteer deposit.

There are still coaching jobs open, especially in the middle grades and the jumping field events (long jump and high jump.) If you're interested, there's an additional volunteer form for you, too. Please come to the coach's meeting on Thursday the 26th at 6:30pm in room 222 at CTK (same as signups.) We'll get you set up.

Looking forward to a great -- and hopefully dry -- season!

Signups Tomorrow

2012-01-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

Remember: signups are tomorrow night, January 19 at 6:30pm at Christ the King School. Savvy parents come prepared with their forms already filled out: print off your own from the team website.

All new athletes must leave a copy of their birth certificate with the team.

Although we won't have a finished sample of the new sweatshirts, here's a virtual one:

Sweatshirts are going to be screen-printed on a gray pullover hoodie and are available in both youth and adult sizes. Now you can keep warm, look stylish, and show your team spirit at the same time. (Parents: these are good for those chilly meet mornings up in the stands, too.) Mark your size choices on the family signup form.

2012 Signups and More

2012-01-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone -- the 2012 season is coming. I've been making updates to the team web site: please be sure to let me know if any of your favorite information from the old site is missing. One of the immediate changes is a new team email address. All announcements and other details will now come from:

info@ctktrack.org

If you would like to be on the mailing list, please drop me a note at that address and I'll add you. As usual, I'll also build the list from the signup forms.

Signups

You can get a head start on the process by filling out the forms before you come to CTK. Signups are at Christ the King School (room 222) on Thursday, January 19 and Monday, January 23 from 6:30-8:00pm

Families need to fill out the following:

The health information form from the Diocese for each athlete
Each athlete needs to complete a concussion information sheet (new this year)
Each family also needs to fill out a family form, which includes sizes for t-shirts, parish affiliation, and the fees for the year
We need a copy of a birth certificate for every athlete. I have certificates on file for returning athletes.

We'll have copies on hand if you leave something at home. Be sure to bring medical information and your calendar, too.

Fees for this year are:

$50 volunteer deposit per family, cashed only if you do not complete your volunteer obligations
$70 registration fee per athlete. Sorry, we don't offer sibling discounts
$10 if you need a t-shirt
$30 if you would like a team sweatshirt

The sweatshirts are an idea that we kicked around last season, as we shivered our way through the meets. It's very important that athletes stay warm at practices and meets -- and equally important for parents and coaches, too. If you're interested in a sweatshirt for your athlete(s) or yourself, just note the sizes on the family form. You can see the design on the main page of the team site.

If you're an experienced track family and can spare an adult to help answer questions at signups, please send me a note.

Coaches

We are always looking for parents willing coach or be assistant coaches, and it sounds like we're especially pressed for staff this year. We need coaches!

If you like to run or have kid-wrangling skills, consider being a coach for one of our practice groups. Workouts are planned in advance and we've got veteran coaches on the team who can guide you. We also like expertise in our field events: primarily high jump, long jump, and shot put. (We rarely get a chance to practice softball throw due to the logistics of sharing our practice area.)

We are a recreational league, with an emphasis on personal achievement and progress and fun. The best thing you can offer any of the athletes is encouragement. We want to foster a love of running. We believe being able to shave a half-second off your best time or add an extra inch to your longest jump is more important than winning an event.

Coaches must fill out a Diocese volunteer application, and be fingerprinted (see below.) You must be able to make a good-faith effort to come to practices on Tuesday/Thursday evenings, starting at 5pm, and be able to attend the meets on Saturdays starting in March.

If you're interested, or returning as a coach, please put these dates on your calendar:

Team coach meeting on Thursday, January 26 at 6:30pm, CTK school room 222, the same place as signups
Primary coaches must attend the Diocese coach meeting in the CTK Parish Hall and be fingerprinted on Monday, March 12, registration starts at 6:30pm. Bring last year's badge if you have one.

Just tell anyone working at the signup night "I'd like to be a coach" and we'll get you set up. Signing up for a coach releases your family from registering for any meet jobs.

Practices and Meets

Practices start on Thursday, February 2 at College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, off Viking Drive. At the beginning of the season, practice starts at 5pm, and ends at 5:45.

Make sure your athletes dress warmly, bring water, and use the bathroom before they leave home. (Facilities at College Park are minimal.) Label everything with your athlete's name if you'd like it back.
The track area is located past the baseball field. Park in the large lot, and walk around the fence and down. Please do not climb over any fences, including the gate around the track. There is a gate next to the stands, honest.
Wait in the stands for practice to begin. We're a big team, and practice can seem a little confusing at first. Don't worry.
When practice ends, athletes must be picked up at the track by an adult. For safety, we cannot dismiss any athlete to go up to the lot alone. After we've cleaned up, all the coaches and myself will walk the stragglers up to the parking lot gate.

As we get more daylight, practices will go later, but never past 6:30pm. I'll update the web site and send email as times adjust towards spring.

Meets begin in March. They take place on Saturdays, starting with our "Mini-Meet" at College Park. Since we are a large team, we typically act as the host parish for other teams, meaning that the meets are usually local, but that we also are responsible for the majority of the jobs at the meet. I'll update the schedule when we know final locations. Meets typically start at 9am, and a full meet usually ends around 1:30 or 2:00pm

Cross Country details are up

2011-08-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

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!

CTK Track Picnic Reminder

2011-05-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

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/

End of Season CTK Track News...

2011-05-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

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/

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

2011-05-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

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/

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

2011-04-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

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/

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

2011-04-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

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/

CTK Track News for the week of 18 Apr 2011

2011-04-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

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

More Sectional Championship Details...

2011-04-13T19:36:00.000-07:00

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/

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

2011-04-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

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/

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

2011-04-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

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/

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

2011-03-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

Practice: Tuesday, March 29, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
Practice: Thursday, March 31, 5-6:30pm, College Park High School track
Meet #4: Saturday, April 2, 9am, Ygnacio Valley High School track

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/

Meet #3 volunteer assignments posted...

2011-03-25T16:33:00.001-07:00

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...

2011-03-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

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

here.

See you on the track,

carl

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

Using Athletic.net For DVCL Results

2011-03-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

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/

CTK Track Update

2011-03-11T09:17:00.000-08:00

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/

CTK Track News for the week of 6 Mar 2011

2011-03-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

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:

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=28336

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/

CTK Track News for the week of 28 Feb 2011

2011-02-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Greeting Track Families,

We had beautiful weather for our one surviving "Field Event & Relay Clinic" this afternoon at College Park. About 70-80 athletes turned up and I believe that a good time was had by all. Next weekend we'll have our first meet and that's when the fun starts for the parents too.

Week At A Glance

There's something almost every day this week:

Practice -- Tuesday, March 1, 5-6pm -- College Park HS track
Officiating Clinic -- Wednesday, March 2, 7pm -- CTK School - 6th grade classroom
Practice -- Thursday, March 3, 5-6pm -- College Park HS track
Mini Meet -- Saturday, March 5, 1pm -- College Park HS track

Team T-Shirts

Your athlete's T-shirts should be available after practice on Thursday or at the Mini Meet on Saturday if, of course, you ordered one. We try to get the kids to wear black shorts to make more of a uniform, but it's by no means a requirement.

Mini-Meet
The Mini-Meet starts at 1pm, but all athletes and first shift volunteers should be there by 12:30pm. The setup crew should be there at 12 noon. We will wind up this meet by about 5pm, regardless of where we are in the progression of events.

If your child won't be attending the Mini Meet, please make sure he or she knows that so that they can tell their primary coach. (Sending an email to the primary coach also works.)

Some of the primary groups have the kids sign up for events ahead of the meet. In my group, I find that having the kids sign up ahead of time makes it easier for everyone at the meet and focuses them a little bit. Signing up for events ahead of time is not required nor is it binding since the kids are not really signed up for anything until they register with a clerk of the course for a running event or at a given field event at the meet.

The athletes need to remember that they are limited to two running and one field event or one running and two field events at each meet. (Relay events don't count; kids can always run in all of the relays though of course we always need teams of four.) If this sounds confusing, your kids will be experts very shortly.

As has become a tradition, we've invited the St. Ignatius CYO track team to our Mini Meet. This year, we'll also have at least part of the combined team of St. Perpetua & St. Monica joining us. I am considering renaming it to the Not So Mini Meet.

What If It Rains?

The current forecast for next weekend calls for some rain. We can run meets in the rain, but we all have our limits and I will call off the meet if I think there's going to be so much moisture that it won't be much fun for the parents working or the kids running. Since we have other teams coming, I will post a message on the front page of our team web site by 11am Saturday if the weather is wet.

Volunteer Alert

Expect a reminder phone call from the volunteer coordinator (or one of her helpers) regarding your work assignment late in the week. Please note that they may have assigned you a job if you signed up late or perhaps we moved you from your original assignment to fill a more urgent need. Thanks in advance for your flexibility. The Volunteers on the web site lists all of the volunteer positions. Please recall that this is a training exercise for our "real" meets so we need everyone to help out. Thanks!

Officiating Clinic
We will hold our annual Officiating Clinic this week. It is especially for parents new to the team who will be working at meets though everyone is invited. While most of the meet jobs can be learned on the spot, please try to come to the Officiating Clinic for a preview and overview.

Wednesday, March 2, 7pm at Christ the King School, room 222 (6th grade classroom)

We'll present an overview of how a meet works, and what those filling the various jobs actually do. Consider this the classroom portion and the Mini Meet as the lab portion of Officiating 101.

Which Events Should My Kids Do at the Meet?
The two most frequently asked questions I hear at this time of year are

What is the order of events?
Which events should my kids do?

The first one is addressed on the front page of the web site. I also have little cards to hand out that summarize the same information. I will have a pile of them at the Mini Meet; never fear.

The second question is more subtle but you and your kids will quickly come to your own understanding. Here are our guidelines:

We encourage kids to pick different events over the first 3 meets as far as possible. What we don't want is for kids to decide coming into track that they are sprinters and only ever run the 50m and 100m races. Since each athlete is allowed to do 2 individual running events and 1 field event (or else 1 individual running event and 2 field event) at each meet,they can try out quite a lot of distances. Relays do not count in this -- kids can do all three relays each week if they want.
On the other hand, it is useful for the coaches to find out who is fast for planning relay teams. We usually build relay teams strictly on a merit basis with the fastest 4 kids on the "A" relay team and the second fastest on the next team and so on. However, some kids improve more than others so these things are not set in stone until later in the season. Anyway, I often encourage everyone to do a 100m race in the first couple of meets just so I get all their times.
Every athlete is expected to run in the 4x100m relay near the beginning of each meet. It's important that you alert your primary coach if your athlete is not coming to a meet so that the coach can adjust the relay teams. Please also tell your primary coach if your athlete is coming late and will miss the 4x100 relay.
If a kid just isn't sure what to do, his or her coaches will help. We always have an opinion!

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track News for the week of 21 Feb 11...

2011-02-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

We're beginning week 4 of the track season already. It's also the last week we will accept late sign-ups. I hope the kids are enjoying practice and getting into the rhythm.

Practices this week are

Tuesday 2/22: Practice 5-6pm at CPHS
Thursday 2/24: Practice 5-6pm at CPHS

As usual, if the weather is questionable, I'll post a notice on the top of the team home page by 4pm saying that practice is or is not canceled.

Field Event & Relay Clinic

Next Sunday we'll try again to have a field event & relay clinic. It will take place from 1:30-4pm at CPHS, our usual practice location. All athletes are welcome! We only have limited opportunities during our regular practices to work on relays and field events and we thought this event might help. I sure hope the weather cooperates this time.

Meet Volunteers

Our first meet is less than two weeks away and our volunteer coordinators will be in touch as we fill in work assignments due to the inevitable changes since sign-ups.

Note that volunteer assignments are posted on the web site (under Volunteers) for each meet as the jobs are filled in. Our helpful volunteers will also be making reminder phone calls a few days before each of your assignments.

Mini Meet

Our first meet, the Mini-Meet, will take place on Saturday afternoon, March 5, at College Park HS track. Along with our athletes, we'll have the St. Ignatius team joining us in what has become a pre-season tradition.

Since a few people have asked about T-shirts: We should be handing out T-shirts for those who ordered them starting on the Thursday before the Mini Meet. We'll bring them to meets after that until everyone has received one. (We will probably have some extras if you change your mind about ordering one.)

See you on the track,

carl

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

2011-02-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

Practice Schedule
We'll practice twice this week again, on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 until 5:55pm at College Park. As it's supposed to be rainy this week, please check the web site (or check @ctktrack) after 4pm on practice days to find out if practice has been canceled. The practice status will appear in the Twitter window in the upper right hand corner of the home page.

In addition to two (rain permitting) practices, we're hosting Field Event & Relay clinics on Saturday, February 19 and Sunday, February 27 from 1:30-4pm at College Park HS track. Think of these as optional practices. All athletes from our team are welcome.

Parent Meeting Handouts Posted

Thanks to all who attended the Parent Meeting on Thursday evening. I have posted the handouts from the meeting on the (you guessed it) Handouts page of the web site if you missed it.

Team Roster
Full alphabetical roster with contact info: [Ask Carl]. Or, a roster by

primary group is available at [Ask Carl]. (There is no link to these on the web site to try to protect your contact info.)

Late Sign-Ups
We have 270 kids signed up at the moment, and we will only accept new sign-ups through the end of next week.

Don't Like Track After All?
If our track program is not working for you or your familiy for whatever reason, We are happy to issue refunds for your fees and either return or shred your volunteer deposit check. Please let me know and provide a mailing address where the refund check is to be sent. By dropping formally, we will know to remove you from the volunteer assignments you may be leaving behind. We will provide at least partial refunds well into the season, so there's no hurry.

Miss Past Track News?
If you are joining us late and want to read past email newsletters, please check the News link on the team web site.

Volunteer Listings

All of the volunteer jobs that you selected at sign-ups have been entered and nown appear on the Volunteers page on the web site. If you signed up late, we'll be adding your name to the mix too. Our volunteer coordinator or one of her assistants will be in touch with you when that happens.

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 7 Feb 11...

2011-02-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

We had a great first week of practice and look forward to good weather and five more minutes of daylight this week. All parents, especially if you are new the program but even if you are not, are invited to the Parent Meeting this Thursday evening (Feb 10) at 7pm in the CTK Parish Hall. We usually manage to keep the meeting to 75 minutes or less. Bring your stopwatches -- this is track after all!

Practices
We'll practice twice this week:

Tuesday, Feb 8, from 5pm to 5:50pm at College Park HS track
Thursday, Feb 10, from 5pm to 5:50pm at College Park HS track

I'm reliably informed that there will be College Park HS soccer games both Tuesday and Thursday this week. Between the games and the high school track practice kicking off this week, we may be slightly delayed in starting practice each day. (It's as if it's their track, isn't it?)

Remember to check the team web site after 4pm on practice days if it's rainy. You can even follow ctktrack on Twitter for track practice updates.

Field Event/Relay Clinics

Mark your calendars for two extra (and optional) practice sessions that we'll be offering this season. Field Event and Relay Clinics will be held Saturday afternoon, February 19, and Sunday afternoon, Feb 27. Both events will take place at College Park High School. The exact time will be announced at the parent meeting since we're trying to make sure we have enough coaches available for the occasion.

Running Shoes

...are HIGHLY recommended. We have a number of kids who are wearing skateboard (not good) or basketball shoes (not as bad) to track. They should all be wearing running shoes. Local shoe stores such as Fleet Feet in Pleasant Hill and Roadrunner Sports in Concord will all give you 10% off if you tell them your child is on a track team, but you can buy running shoes anywhere. If your child is trying to talk you into spikes (or if you have already succumbed to the pressure), please note that we don't want to see spikes at practice for a few more weeks, period. We'll discuss spikes at the parent meeting, but suffice it to say that they are optional, no matter what your athlete is claiming.

Team RosterThe team roster is at [Ask Carl] or [Ask Carl]. I have added new runners since last week and fixed a bunch of errors. Let me know if you find any mistakes. There is a second page called "Athlete Counts" that looks at the numbers in each group as well as by parish.

Late Sign-Ups
We have 259(*) kids signed up at the moment. This number moves around a lot and we will still accept new sign-ups for another couple of weeks. Tell your friends, especially if they like crowds.

Old News

If you feel that you want more information or a preview of the season ahead, most of the family emails I've sent out over the past few seasons are archived under News on the web site.

See you on the track,

carl

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

(*) An all-time high-water mark I believe. We stopped sending flyers to the public schools three or four years ago to prevent things getting totally out of hand.

CTK Track News for the week of 31 Jan 2011...

2011-01-31T19:22:00.000-08:00

Greetings 2011 CTK/St.C/St.S Track Families,

And they're off! Welcome to the 2011 CYO track season. You're getting this mail (and will continue to get mails like this on Sunday evenings) because you've signed an athlete up for the combined team of Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen parishes.

Each week's emails will alert you to upcoming practices, meetings, and meets. In addition, there's a team web site with all sorts of information at www.ctktrack.org. And, for the very latest information about late practice cancellations or changes, follow the team on Twitter (where, you guessed it, we're @ctktrack).

Practices
We will be practicing at College Park High School this season, on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5pm. We'll finish up before 6pm until the time changes in March. Please pick your athletes up promptly after practice so the coaches can get home themselves.

Our first two practices will be:

Tuesday, Feb 1 5-5:45pm at College Par High School track
Thursday, Feb 3 5-5:45pm at College Park High School track

Dress warmly for practices at College Park. Even though your kids, like mine, may claim not to feel the cold, PLEASE send them to practice in sweats. It makes the coaches shiver to see them in shorts and a T-shirt in February.

Athletes should wear running shoes, sweats, and bring a water bottle. We would really like it if they brought all of these things home after practice too.

Parents should walk their athletes down to the track and either come to the track for pickup at the end of practice, or meet us shortly after practice ends at the gate to the parking lot.

If there is rain, we often practice anyhow. Since College Park has a fine all-weather track, it's possible to practice no matter what the weather. However, in the interest of keeping all of the coaches from quitting, we cancel practice if the weather is particularly bad. We will post an announcement about practice on the front page of the web site (http://www.ctktrack.org/) by 4pm if practice will be canceled. (We actually do this with a "tweet," which is shown on the front page of the web site. So if you follow @ctktrack, you'll know about such changes instantly.)

We Need More CoachesWe can use more coaches, experienced or not. If you coach twice a week, you are excused from meet jobs during the regular season. (If you are available only once a week, then we still ask you to work twice at meets.) We especially need more coaches for the oldest boys group (6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys). If you have any track expertise that you'd be willing to share, or if you are just willing to help manage the 240 kids on the team so far, please help us out.

Parent MeetingDon't forget the Track Parent Meeting on Thursday, February 10th, at 7pm in the Christ The King Parish Hall. We hope that at least one parent from each family, particularly new families, will come and learn more about the program, meet the coaches, and get their questions answered. If you have friends who may be interested in signing their kids up too, invite them to the meeting. We usually manage to finish up by 8:15pm.

Roster
We don't put a link to the roster on the web site since it seems like that would be a great way to help you get more junk mail. However, there are two versions that we try to keep up to date:

Complete Roster (alphabetical) (ask Carl for the URL)
Coach's Roster (by group) (ask Carl for the URL)

If the elves trying to read the forms have managed to misspell your name or confuse your contact info, please drop a note to ctk_track@comcast.net with any corrections.

Speaking of bad handwriting, the volunteer assignments gathered at sign-ups are posted on the Volunteer page of the web site. Please write to ctk_track@comcast.net with any errors you spot. (The first meet is over a month away and the schedules will evolve. More on that later.)

Mailing ListIf your family uses multiple email addresses, we can add others to this mailing list. Just ask.

Late Sign-upsWe will accept late sign-ups until through February. If you have friends who are interested, please invite them to the parent meeting, or to check out the web site or even to come to practice. Kids not actually signed up for the team are welcome to practice with the team to see if they like it as long as a parent sticks around during practice. (That's because we don't have a medical release and if anything should happen, we'd have a problem.)

See you on the track,

carl

--

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

Track Schedule Updated

2011-01-19T21:36:00.000-08:00

Alert readers may have noticed that the tentative schedule posted on web site changed tonight. Because Easter is quite late this year, the Sectional Meet, usually held a week before the Diocesan Meet, had been tentatively scheduled for the weekend after Easter.

This season the Relay Meet will move from its usual spot in the middle of the season to the weekend after Easter when many schools are on Spring Break.

The location of each meet for the CTK/SC/SS teams will not be announced for about a month as the league coordinator needs more information about team counts and the availability of certain venues in order to complete the schedule. Our meets this season will take place at some combination of DVC, Ygnacio Valley High School, Granada High School, and perhaps San Ramon Valley High School.

2011 CTK/SC/SS Track Sign-up Announcement

2011-01-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

Greetings,

Happy New Year!

Sign-ups for the 2011 Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen CYO track season will take place on Thursday, January 20, and Monday, January 24, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Christ the King School in the 6th grade classroom. The address is 199 Brandon Road, which is at the corner of Brandon and Gregory Lane in Pleasant Hill.

We'll begin practice on February 1st, and we plan to hold the usual Tuesday and Thursday practices starting at 5pm. We'll be practicing at College Park High School track again this season.

There will be meets every Saturday from March 5th until the diocese meet on May 8th, except for the Saturday before Easter (April 23rd). What I already know of our meet schedule is posted on the web site.

The fee this season is going to be $65 for each athlete, or $55 if your athlete's T-shirt from last season will still work for them. (Families finding the fee difficult should contact me privately.) Please bring your calendar to the sign-ups as we will once again expect you to sign up for five volunteer work assignments and leave a $50 deposit to encourage you to follow through.

As usual, we are very interested in having parents (experienced or not) sign up to coach with us. We usually end up with upwards of 200 kids on the team and coaching so many athletes requires plenty of help. We are particularly interested in finding parents with experience in our field events (long jump, high jump, and shot put) . Please contact me if you have any questions.

If you are interested in more information, please contact me or check the team web site, at www.ctktrack.org. If you spot any mistakes on the site, please let me know as I've just updated it for 2011 and have probably made a few errors. The Handouts page, for instance, has the forms you'll need to sign up.

Finally, if you are interested in helping out at one (or even both) of the sign-ups evenings, please contact me. We usually manage to draw quite a crowd and having plenty of experienced track parents on hand to answer questions helps a great deal.

We are looking forward to another great season on the track.

Best regards,

carl

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

Last CTK Track News for the 2010 season...

2010-05-09T20:41:00.001-07:00

Greetings track families,

The 2010 CYO Season is now behind us aside from the picnic. If you and your athlete have not had enough track and field, I have a few ideas for you below.

Diocesan Championship Meet

Our athletes had a very successful weekend at the Diocesan Championship Meet Friday evening and Saturday. As soon as the Diocese posts the results, I'll post a link on our web site. I added the Sectional results to athletic.net today and will add the Diocese results toathletic.net when they are available.

CTK Parish Festival

The Christ the King annual Parish Festival is next weekend. It starts Friday evening and continues Saturday and Sunday. If your kids miss seeing their track teammates, there's an excellent chance that they will see many of them (or even most of them in the case of the middle school kids) at the festival. There are games, food, live music, and lots and lots of people!

Want More Running?

If your child is especially interested in continuing with track, Diablo Valley Track & Field Club might be for you. Please check their web site at http://dvtfc.org/.

If you are interested in a track & field summer camp, De La Salle High School is offering two sessions. See the announcement at http://www.dlshs.org/athletics/summer/index.aspx if you are interested.

You will find a great number of your teammates, coaches, and parents at Pleasant Hill's 4th of July Firecracker 5k race. See the city's site at http://www.phjuly4.com/ as we get closer to the date.

CYO Cross Country starts in late August. It's a lot of fun and pretty low-key compared to track. I'll send an announcement out before the season starts.

This Mailing List

I will send out only about three more emails to this mailing list before retiring. First, I'll send you a reminder shortly before the picnic. Second, I'll send you a CYO Cross Country announcement as I mentioned above. Third, I'll send an announcement in early January 2011 (!!) announcing CYO track again.

Picnic

I hope to see you all at the awards picnic on Sunday, May 30, at Pleasant Hill Park. It's three short weeks away! It's been a pleasure working with your kids all season and of course a lot of fun running the track meets with all of you parents. Thank you for another terrific season!

See you in the park,

carl

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

CTK Track News for the week of 3 May 2010...

2010-05-02T19:36:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

We are entering the last week of the 2010 season already. Seems like it just started! Congratulations to all of the CTK/SC/SS athletes who participated in the Sectional Championship Meet over the weekend. The coaches have a big pile of ribbons and medals to hand out!

Practice

There will be two final practices this week:

Monday, May 3 from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Thursday, May 6, from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track

(As with last week, we've abandoned our Tuesday time slot to yet another home CPHS lacrosse game.)

Diocese Meet

The Diocesan Championship Meet will take place this Friday evening and Saturday. All of the details are on the front page of the web site.

Meet Volunteers

We'll need a few meet volunteers this week for the Diocese Meet. If your child qualified, please contact Katy Simpson, our volunteer coordinator, to volunteer your time. We won't have many slots to fill at the meet but they are all important.

Thank you very much to all of the parents who worked Saturday at Granada HS. A special thanks to the tireless volunteers at the boys long jump pit who worked all day in the hot sun.

Volunteer Deposits

Most families did a great job fulfilling their volunteer jobs this season and I will be feeding my shredder most of your volunteer deposit checks shortly. However, I will be in touch with a dozen or so families who appear to have skipped working their shifts more often than not. To be sure that we don't keep any volunteer deposits in error, I'll be contacting each family whose check I plan to deposit with an individual email some time this week. The subject line will be "Volunteer Deposit in Jeopardy."

On the other end of the scale, many families worked more or MUCH more than they were asked. (Okay, I asked some of you again and again...) We'll recognize these families at the picnic and hold a drawing for gift cards to various local restaurants. We couldn't have done it without you!

Awards Picnic

We'll have our annual track family picnic with more awards than you thought possible on Sunday, May 30, at 11am at Pleasant Hill Park. Please mark your calendars, if only so the coaches can hand out all of the ribbons that have been accumulating in their bags all season. Mount Lost & Found will also appear, and anything not claimed by the end of the picnic will be donated away. Check the "Lost & Found" page on the web site.

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track news for the week of 26 Apr 10...

2010-04-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings Track Parents,

Thanks to everyone who worked hard at the Qualifying Meet on Saturday. We had beautiful weather and fine performances from many of our athletes. On to the championship part of the season!

Qualifying Meet Results

As I sent earlier, the unofficial meet results for our meet Saturday are here:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AupQ1UXElObEdGNka1ZfVE90c2duUVIxbzlzOHFBQ2c&output=html

We are Meet A, so look for your kids there. If you saw"#NAME?" earlier for the 800m

and some 200m results, I have fixed that now so look again. Also as I said earlier,

please get me any comments by 4pm Monday so that I may look up the results at

our Coordinators meeting Monday evening.

If your child possibly or definitely qualified but cannot compete next weekend, please let me

know ASAP. If your child was on a relay team that possibly or definitely qualified but cannot compete next weekend, please let your child's primary coach know ASAP so they can work on finding a replacement.

If you have general questions about the Sectional Championship Meet, please have

a look at the new FAQ page on the web site. Or you can always ask if I haven't explained

something there clearly enough.

Practice Day Change

Due to College Park's lacrosse schedule, we can't practice on the track for the next two Tuesdays (4/27 and 5/4). For that reason, as I announced last week at practice, we'll practice Mondays 4/26 and 5/3 instead. As it stands now, rain is forecast for Tuesday so this may turn out to be a wise move!

Practices are for EVERYONE

If your athlete didn't qualify on Saturday for the championship part of the season, please

be assured that they are still welcome at practice this week and next. We should have

ribbons on Thursday this week and I believe they will go to 5th place.

Picnic Coming

Make sure you've marked your calendar for the Team Awards Picnic on Sunday, May 30, from 11am until 3pm at Pleasant Hill Park. One tradition we have is to salute our departing 8th graders, and recognize those who have been with the team since they were in 2nd or 3rd grade. We will also have our annual drawing for extra-helpful parents. Will you be a winner? I hope you all can come, if only to pick over the Lost & Found collection*!

See you on the track,

carl

* I have not had time to update the Lost & Found collection page for Saturday yet.
--
Carl Godkin
CTK/SC/SS Track & Field Coordinator
280-9748
Visit http://www.ctktrack.org/

CTK Track News for the week of 19 Apr 10...

2010-04-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

We had beautiful weather in Granada yesterday for our final "practice meet." I especially want to recognize and thank the volunteers we pulled from the stands to fill in for some (ahem) no-shows. Thank you very much! Results are not posted yet unfortunately but I'm sure they will appear soon.

Practices

We'll practice twice this week as usual.

Tuesday, April 20, 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Thursday, April 22, 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track

The forecast for this Tuesday is rainy so please remember to check the "Twitter box" on the web site home page after 4pm to see if practice has been cancelled due to rain.

Qualifying Meet

Next Saturday is our Qualifying Meet. The location was finally announced on Friday night:

Saturday, April 24, 9am at Ygnacio Valley HS track

Briefly, the qualifying meet will determine who qualifies for the Sectional Championship meet the following week. This meet will be just like our regular meets except for two differences:

Second graders run as third graders from now on
Relay teams must be gender-pure, parish-pure, and grade-pure.

To save many of you reading about this for the millionth time, I have started a new 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. (Old-timers are encouraged to proofread that page since I just wrote it!)

Lost & Found

The collection continues to grow. Please check the "Lost & Found" page on the web site if you left something at Granada yesterday. If the item is not there, it may be in the snack shack at Granada High School. After the meet yesterday, a coach from St. Michael and I wandered around the track picking up clothing. I took some with me if I recognized them or if there was a name or (say) a local swim team insignia, and she took some with her. We just guessed on the rest.

Picnic Coming

As kids finish their season with us, I want to remind everyone to mark their calendars for Sunday, May 30 when we'll have our annual Team Picnic where we hand out lots of awards. More details are coming on that, but I hope you'll save the date.

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track news for the week of 11 Apr 2010...

2010-04-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

Welcome back to everyone who has been away for spring break!

Relay Meet

The relay meet yesterday was a lot of fun despite the unseasonably windy and cold conditions.

Results are posted on the web site and have been uploaded to athletic.net.

Between our meet at Ygnacio Valley and the other relay meet at DVC, ten new records were

set including one by the 6th grade boys medley team of Marco Monti, Ian Dota-Clemens, Jake

Simpson, and David Phair. (The record they broke was just set by a CTK/SC team last year.)

Our 7th grade girls St. Catherine team of Helene Hollidge, Allie Timbrell, Tara Schueller and

Janean Bell also broke the old medley relay, but alas a St. Joan of Arc team running at DVC

did too, and they were faster.

We will have ribbons for 1st through 5th place (combining heats) this week at practice.

Practice

We will try to practice twice this week as usual but it may be a challenge practicing on Tuesday.

The College Park HS lacrosse team has a 5pm game on Tuesday so we can't practice at the track.

Last season, we moved to the grass field behind the baseball diamond once or twice but the

rain today and tomorrow may prevent us doing even that. Please check the "Twitter Box" on

the web site's home page where I'll post an update by 4pm Tuesday.

On Thursday we'll practice from 5-6:30pm as usual on the track.

Next Meet

Our meet next Saturday will take place at Granada High School in Livermore at 9am which

is 40-45 minutes away. Please plan accordingly to get your athletes to the meet on time!

Granada High School features "fully automated timing" which will relieve many of the timers

and judges of working most of the events. We'll still need volunteers as relay judges and

to staff the opposite side 50m & 100m. Granada even has two high jump pits so the volunteer

schedule has been reworked to reflect all these changes. (We'll give the boys the glory of the

home side this time, and send the girls to the opposite side.)

Granada has a very nice facility and will be hosting the League Championship and

Diocesan Championship meets this season. They feature a big snack bar, which is

a major fundraiser for their track and field team so have a bite of lunch while you're

there! Directions to Granada are on the web site, or plug "400 Wall St., Livermore"

into your navigation system.

That's all for this week. See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track News for the week of 5 Apr 10...

2010-04-08T19:56:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

I know I promised (you PROMISED!) no team email this week but things are piling up here

at CTK Track world headquarters so here goes a mid-week special.

Will You Miss the Relay Meet?

If your athlete will miss the relay meet, PLEASE tell your runner's primary coach. An

email address for one of the coaches in each group is listed on the Staff page of the web

site. The coaches try very hard to put together good relay teams and knowing ahead of the

meet that your athlete is not coming is a lot better than being surprised. Thank you!

(Note: if you've already told me that your athlete is missing the meet and he or she

is not in my group, I passed along the info to the proper authority.)

A whole lot of volunteers are signed up to work the relay meet and, judging by history,

our volunteers making reminder phone calls will find that a number of them are actually

on vacation this week. If you are at the meet on Saturday, and hear us appeal for a few

more CTK volunteers, please step forward and help out.

Fabulous Prizes

I don't believe that I have mentioned our annual drawing for "extra-helpful volunteers"

this season. Our volunteer coordinator keeps track of who has worked extra shifts at

our meets during the season and these volunteers are entered in a drawing at the

picnic at the end of the season. A few rules:

Every shift after your fifth earns you a "ticket" for the drawing.
The Mini-Meet does not count, nor do the League Meet or Diocese Meet
We take into account that certain jobs are full-meet jobs so they count double
You need not attend the picnic to win
Hiring YV students to work your shift definitely counts as a shift worked
Please always sign in so we know when you've worked!

Ygnacio Valley Students for Hire Again

If you are interested in hiring YVHS athletes to fill your shifts at the Relay Meet,

please let me (or Katy, our volunteer coordinator) know by Thursday. A few more

can be hired at the last minute at the meet but it will help the coach plan to know

how many of his runners are likely to be needed.

Marty Mart Scholarship

8th Grade CYO athletes are invited to apply for the Marty Mart Scholarship

every year. If you have an 8th grader and are interested, please see the application

here:

http://www.oaklandcyo.org/IndexDocs/2010_MM_Spring_Scholarship_Application.pdf

Three More Quick Items

The Relay Meet starts at 9am, so please arrive at 8:30am at YV to warm up
If you've seen the missing walkie talkie, please tell me!
Practice resumes tomorrow at 5pm at College Park!

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track news for the week of 29 Mar 10...

2010-03-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

Thanks to all of the families who pitched in to make our meet on Saturday run so efficiently. Results are now posted and will turn up on athletic.net soon.

Missing Radio!

Did anyone accidentally take home one of our walkie-talkies attached to your belt after our meet? I have hunted everywhere but can't find one. Please let me know right away if you have it.

Speaking of lost items, the Lost & Found page on the web site is amassing quite a collection of clothing. Is anything yours?

Spring Break

This week we will begin our Easter break. There will be no practice Thursday, no meet next Saturday (April 3), and no practice the Tuesday after Easter (April 6). There will not even be a weekly newsletter next Sunday evening with which to curl up. (Parents are encouraged to send their kids out running every time they say, "I'm bored" over Spring Break.)

The weather for Tuesday may not cooperate, so remember to check the Twitter box on the home page of the web site after 4pm Tuesday in case rains forces a cancellation.

More YVHS Athletes for Hire

Our next meet, on Saturday April 10, will be at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord. If you are scheduled to work that day, you can again hire an Ygnacio Valley HS athlete to work in your place. Please let me or Katy, our tireless volunteer coordinator, know if you would like to do so and we'll set it up..

Relay Meet

Our next meet will be the annual Mary Chatterton Memorial Relay Meet, named in honor of the late coordinator of the St. Agnes track team. The meet will consist of just three relay races but will involve athletes from seven other parishes and will take about as long as a regular meet.

Since it comes at the end of Spring Break for many schools, we understand that lots of families are away for the week which is completely fine so long as you tell your athlete's coach. (See the Staff page on the web site for contact info for one coach from each primary group.)

The races this year are the 4x100m relay, the medley relay (200/200/400/800m), and either the 4x200m relay (grades 2-4) or the 4x400m relay (grades 5-8).

Have a very happy Easter! See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track news for the week of 22 Mar 10...

2010-03-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

I thought our athletes and our parent volunteers did themselves proud yesterday at our Meet with

the combined St. Isidore and St. Joan of Arc teams. They are used to hosting meets since they

also have a very big team and their coordinator was very complimentary of our efforts. Thanks

very much to all of the parents who worked so hard.

Sprints on Both Sides of the Track

As you may have noticed, we finished half an hour earlier despite having run two sets of relays

at the meet's end yesterday. Yes, we started 10 minutes earlier than last week, but the big

difference was, I think, running the short sprints on both sides of the track simultaneously.

I have to admit I was a skeptical of this practice, but now I'm a believer. And from the rave

reviews I heard from many parents, a lot of you are too. If we can save all the meet attendees

an hour each Saturday, I think we all win.

We are going to try to do it again next weekend at DVC since we have plenty of volunteers

signed up if we can come up with the extra equipment necessary to do so in time. (I am

working on it, rest assured.) The good news is that even if you are an unassigned volunteer at

this point for next week's meet, we'll find you something to do if only for the 50m and 100m

races.

Practices

We'll practice twice as usual this week, on Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6:30pm at College

Park.

Next Meet

Next week we'll host St. Bonaventure at DVC and we'll start at 8:30am. (We intended to do

so yesterday but unfortunately a lot of the SI/SJA families did not get the word. We compromised

and started about 8:50am.)

Results

Results from yesterday's meet are already posted on the Schedule page of the web site

They will be uploaded to athletic.net when I get a chance. I am hopeful we'll start handing

out "Personal Best" ribbons this week to athletes who improve in an event over the course

of this season. And of course we'll have StarBurst awards on Tuesday and regular ribbons

on Thursday as usual.

Lost & Found

The Lost & Found page has been updated with the haul from yesterday's meet. Please

check to see if you recognize anything. I can bring lost treasures to practice if you send

me an email.

See you on (both sides of) the track,

- Hide quoted text -

carl

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

MEET UPDATE: We're at DVC this week

2010-03-14T08:20:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry to fill your mail boxes this week, but we'll be at Diablo Valley College tomorrow instead

of Ygnacio Valley High School.

The meet still starts at 9am. Please arrive at 8:30am if you are a first-shift volunteer, or 8am if

you are on the Setup Crew. Runners who plan to run the 1600m or 4x100m should arrive by 8:30am

as well.

The meet will finish by 1:30pm (earlier if we can manage it!) due to another group using DVC at 2pm.

We'll still have Ygnacio Valley HS student workers as planned.

Thanks for your patience with all the changes this week. See you on the track,

carl

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

IMPORTANT -- Saturday's Meet Moved!

2010-03-14T08:18:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

Due to a conflict with a soccer tournament, the meet scheduled for Ygnacio Valley HS will move

to a different venue. (This is obviously not my idea; it looks to me like a double-booking problem

from the school district.)

Stay tuned for an update later on today. I am sending this email early since I know many of you

get your track emails at work and I wanted to catch as many people as possible.

If you have arranged for an Ygnacio Valley HS track athlete to take your work assignment,

that arrangement is still on -- don't worry.

I will send another email when I have details or you can check the web site or follow "ctktrack"

on Twitter for news on this.

I'm really sorry about this! This season's insurance, lacrosse and soccer surprises are not

typical.

carl

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

CTK Track news for the week of 8 Mar 10...

2010-03-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Greeting Track Parents,

We had beautiful weather for the 2010 Mini-Meet and I thought the meet ran very well. I hope your kids enjoyed themselves and are eager to compete again next week.

The Mini-Meet results will be posted this week. (Actually, results are starting to appear now on athletic.net) We don't award ribbons for the Mini-Meet this year, but we'll be awarding ribbons after all of the rest of our meets. We'll also be awarding personal best ribbons to recognize improved performances throughout the season. And for the old-timers, Starburst awards start Tuesday!

Two Practices This Week

This week practice will go from 5-6:15pm at College Park HS as usual. Next week we'll extend a little further -- to 6:30pm -- which is as late as we'll go for the balance of the season. (We're springing forward next weekend.)

Practices this week are

Tuesday, 3/10 from 5-6:15pm at College Park HS
Thursday, 3/12 from 5-6:15pm at College Park HS

First "Real" Meet Next Weekend

Next Saturday, March 13, is our first regular season meet and it will be very similar to the Mini-Meet except that we'll have more company. We'll be hosting the St. Perpetua, St. Monica, St. John Vianney, and St. Francis teams. The meet will be held at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord.

The first gun is at 9am, but

All athletes and first shift volunteers should strive to be there by 8:30am
The setup crew should be there at 8am
Please tell your athlete's primary coach if your athlete will be absent or late to help in relay team planning
If you cannot make your work assignment for this (or any other meet), please find a replacement or contact our volunteer coordinator as a last resort.

Contact info for the primary coaches and volunteer coordinator is on the Staff page of the web site.

But If You Don't Want to Work...

Ygnacio Valley High School's track coach, George Francis, is a former CYO coach and has an offer for you: Sponsor a YV track athlete who will work your shift(s) this weekend.

Here's how it works. The YVHS track team is doing a fundraiser at all CYO meets held at their track this season. (We'll have at least two.) For a $40 donation, a YV athlete will work two shifts for you next Saturday. Or, for a $20 donation, a YV athlete will work one shift next Saturday. If you are interested, please let me know ASAP so I can contact George and tell him how many of his athletes we'll need.

(By the way, please don't do the math here with respect to your volunteer deposit. This is a fundraiser and donation!)

Event Variety & Late Relays

Please support the coaches as we encourage your kids to try different events at the first few meets. Each athlete will have his or her favorite events but we want them to try longer or shorter distances once or twice. If your child just does the 50m, 100m, and softball throw every week, they are missing out on the full track and field experience!

We normally run two relay races (Sprint Medley and 4x400m) at the end of our meets. If you are working the second shift anyway, please encourage your kids to run these events. We didn't run them at the Mini-Meet, but will do so the rest of the season. These relays are lots of fun since we seem to be left with the more dedicated kids from all of the teams present. And since many of the kids have left, ribbons are often easier to come by!

See you on the track,

carl

CTK Track news for the week of 1 Mar 2010...

2010-02-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

There's less than a week to the first meet of the season. Here's hoping the weather is cooperative next Saturday afternoon!

Practice Schedule
We'll practice twice this week until 6pm. Starting next week, we'll go until 6:15pm.

Tuesday, March 2, 5-6pm-- College Park HS track
Thursday, March 4, 5-6pm-- College Park HS track

A few people have asked if I send an email out when canceling practice due to rain. The answer is no, I do not. Instead, I use Twitter to update a box on the front page of the web site. You can either check that box on rainy days after 4pm, or follow "ctktrack" on Twitter.

Mini-Meet News
Your athlete's T-shirts should be available at practice Tuesday and Thursday or at the mini-meet on Saturday. If not, kids may wear last year's T-shirt or anything they like since this is just a practice meet for our team. We try to get the kids to wear black shorts to make more of a uniform, but it's by no means a requirement.

The Mini-Meet starts at 1pm, but all athletes and first shift volunteers should be there by 12:30pm. The setup crew should be there at 12 noon. We will wind up this meet by about 5pm, regardless of where we are in the progression of events.

Kids will be signing up for events this week at practice. If your child won't be attending the Mini-Meet, please make sure he or she knows that so that they can tell their coach. We have the kids sign up for events ahead of the meet since they are limited to two running and one field event or one running and two field events at each meet. (Relay events don't count; kids can always run in all of the relays though of course we always need teams of four.) We find that having the kids sign up ahead of time makes it easier for everyone at the meet and focuses them a little bit. Signing up for events ahead of time is not required nor is it binding since the kids are not really signed up for anything until they register with a clerk of the course for a running event or at a given field event at the meet.

As has become a tradition, we've invited the St. Ignatius CYO track team to our Mini-Meet. (They teach our sprinters humility, a valuable trait!)

Volunteer Alert
Expect a reminder phone call from the volunteer coordinators (or one of their helpers) regarding your work assignment late in the week. Please note that they may have assigned you a job if you signed up late or perhaps we moved you from your original assignment to fill a more urgent need. Thanks in advance for your flexibility.

Please check the Volunteers page on the web site for the Mini Meet volunteer positions. If you are not signed up already but are available to work (especially in the second shift, and especially if you are experienced), please contact our volunteer coordinator, Katy Simpson (katysimpson4@gmail.com), to let her know where you can help. This is a training exercise for our "real" meets so we expect everyone to help out. Thanks!

Officiating Clinic
We will hold our annual Officiating Clinic this week. It is especially for parents new to the team who will be working at meets though everyone is invited. We often have volunteers from other parishes join us too. While most of the meet jobs can be learned on the spot, please try to come to the Officiating Clinic for a preview and overview.

Wednesday, March 3, 7pm at Christ the King School, room 222 (6th grade classroom)

Which Events Should My Kids Do at the Meet?
The two most frequently asked questions I hear at this time of year are

What is the order of events?
Which events should my kids do?

The first one is addressed on the front page of the web site. I also have little cards to hand out that summarize the same information. (I gave them out at the parent meeting, and there are always more cards available at the meets.)

The second question is more subtle but you and your kids will quickly come to your own understanding. Here are our guidelines:

We encourage kids to pick different events over the first 3 meets as far as possible. What we don't want is for kids to decide coming into track that they are sprinters and only ever run the 50m and 100m races. Since each athlete is allowed to do 2 individual running events and 1 field event (or else 1 individual running event and 2 field event) at each meet,they can try out quite a lot of distances. Relays do not count in this -- kids can do all three relays each week if they want.
On the other hand, it is useful for the coaches to find out who is fast for planning relay teams. We usually build relay teams strictly on a merit basis with the fastest 4 kids on the "A" relay team and the second fastest on the next team and so on. However, some kids improve more than others so these things are not set in stone until later in the season. Anyway, I often encourage everyone to do a 100m race in the first couple of meets just so I get all their times.
Every athlete is expected to run in the 4x100m relay near the beginning of each meet. It's important that you alert your primary coach if your athlete is not coming to a meet so that the coach can adjust the relay teams.
If a kid just isn't sure what to do, his or her coaches will help. We always have an opinion!

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track news for week of 22 Feb 10...

2010-02-26T21:32:00.001-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

Welcome to week 4 of the track season.

Practices

We'll practice twice this week as usual, going a little bit longer:

Tuesday, Feb 23, from 5-6pm at College Park HS
Thursday, Feb 25, from 5-6pm at College Park HS

We'll begin doing different event workouts this week which can be a little chaotic until the kids get used to it.

Looking Ahead

We have two weeks until our first meet, which will be our Mini-Meet. It takes place on Saturday afternoon (our only afternoon meet), March 6, at 1pm at College Park HS. Next week's mail will talk more about this meet.

In advance of the Mini-Meet, we'll also have our annual Officiating Clinic, on Wednesday evening, March 3, in the 6th grade classroom at CTK School. (This is the same room where we held sign-ups.)

We will also hand out team T-shirts to those who ordered them at the end of practice on Thursday, March 4th. Our T-shirt coordinator should have the remaining T-shirts available at the Mini-Meet itself, and for a week or so afterwards.

Volunteers

I've posted the volunteer lists for all of the meets on the web site on the Volunteers page. Katy, our volunteer coordinator, is just starting to fix my mistakes and fill in the blanks with people who signed up late. If you spot errors (especially if I managed to misspell your name, for instance), please email Katy at katysimpson@sbcglobal.net . We will be moving folks around as spots open up and promoting people with some experience into "head" jobs as necessary.

We'll also be providing reminder calls 1 or 2 days before each meet when you are assigned to work.

If you are wondering about the shaded areas on most of the meets, those jobs will be assigned to the other parish teams once the schedule is published. We host most of our meets, but rely on our guests for their help running all of the events.

(First Aid and Ribbon Sorter volunteers -- You don't appear on the schedule yet but your time will come!)

Shoes

Is your athlete coming to practice in skate shoes or basketball shoes? Please try to make sure that he or she actually wears those running shoes you bought! Your children's feet will thank you.

Also, as I mentioned at the parent meeting, please don't send your athlete to practice if they are sick or injured and can't participate. Yes, it's happened already this season a few times. Thank you!

See you on the track,

carl

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

Insurance Crisis Solved

2010-02-17T18:29:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

I'm very sorry that I had to cancel track practice on Tuesday with almost no notice, but it was unavoidable.

The school district now has their insurance certificate so we'll be able to practice Thursday, Feb. 18, from 5pm until about 5:50pm.

carl

CTK Track news for week of 15 Feb 09...

2010-02-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

Practice Schedule
We'll practice twice this week again, on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 until 5:50pm at College Park. If it's rainy, you can check the web site after 4pm to find out if practice has been canceled and replaced by ark building. The practice status will appear in the Twitter window in the upper right hand corner of the main page. (I am told that it's possible to get these "tweets" on your phone or other mobile devices; ask your 6th grader if you need help with such things.)

Team Roster
Full alphabetical roster with contact info: http://tinyurl.com/ctktrack

Late Sign-Ups
We have 250 kids signed up at the moment, and we will only accept new sign-ups through the end of next week.

Don't Like Track After All?
If our track program is not working for you or your familiy for whatever reason, I am happy to issue refunds for your fees and either return or shred your volunteer deposit check. Please let me know and provide a mailing address where the refund check is to be sent. By dropping formally, we will know to remove you from the volunteer assignments you may be leaving behind. I am happy to give back at least partial refunds well into the season, so there's no hurry.

Miss Past Track News?
If you are joining us late and want to read past email newsletters, please check the News link on the team web site.

Volunteer Listings Coming Soon

All of the volunteer jobs that you selected at sign-ups have been entered and will soon appear on the Volunteers page on the web site. If you signed up late, we'll be adding your name to the mix too. Our volunteer coordinator or one of her assistants will be in touch with you when that happens. I'm hoping to make it easy for you to search for your assignments as well this season, but we'll have to see how that works out.

Lost & Found

After Thursday's practice, one of our families found a Plantronics ear piece (apparently for a cell phone) in the College Park parking lot. It is a Steel Blue color and looked to be in good condition. She turned it in to the CPHS office so please inquire there if it's yours.

We will have Lost & Found items galore once we start meets!

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track news for the week of 8 Feb 10...

2010-02-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

Parent Meeting Handouts Posted

Thanks to all who attended the Parent Meeting last weekend. I have posted the handouts from that meeting on the

(you guessed it) Handouts page of the web site if you missed it.

Practices
We'll practice twice this week:

Tuesday, Feb 9, from 5pm to 5:45pm at College Park HS track
Thursday, Feb 11, from 5pm to 5:45pm at College Park HS track

Remember to check the team web site after 4pm on practice days if it's rainy. Or, if you are trendy, you can follow ctktrack on Twitter for track practice updates.

Running Shoes

...are HIGHLY recommended. We're seeing a number of kids who are wearing skateboard (not good) or basketball shoes (not as bad) to track. They should all be wearing running shoes. Local shoe stores such as Athletic Outpost in Walnut Creek, Fleet Feet in Pleasant Hill, and Roadrunner Sports in Concord will all give you 10% off if you tell them your child is on a track team, but you can buy running shoes anywhere.

Team Roster
The team roster is at [Ask Carl]. I have added new kids since last week and fixed a bunch of errors. Let me know if you find any mistakes. There is a second page called "Stastistics" that looks at the numbers in each group, by parish, and this week only, by T-shirt size.

Late Sign-Ups
We have 239 kids signed up at the moment. This number moves around a lot and we will still accept new sign-ups for another couple of weeks. Tell your friends.

Old News

If you feel that you want more information or a preview of the season ahead, most of the family emails I've sent out over the past two seasons are archived under News on the web site.

See you on the track,

carl

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

CTK Track News for the week of 1 Feb 2010...

2010-02-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings 2010 CTK/St.C/St.S Track Families,

Welcome to another fun season of CYO track featuring the combined team of Christ the King,

St. Catherine, and St. Stephen parishes! I'll be sending (at least) a weekly email for the

rest of the season with news about practices, meets, and other team information. Don't

say you weren't warned.

Practices
We will be practicing at College Park High School this season, on Tuesdays and Thursdays

starting at 5pm. We'll finish up before 6pm until the time changes in March. Please pick

your athletes up promptly after practice so the coaches can get home themselves.

Our first two practices will be:
Tuesday, Feb 2 5-5:45pm at College Par High School track
Thursday, Feb 4 5-5:45pm at College Park High School track

Dress warmly for practices at College Park. Even though your kids probably claim

not to feel the cold, PLEASE send them to practice in sweats.

Athletes should wear running shoes, sweats, and bring a water bottle. I would really

like it if they brought all of these things home after practice too.

Parents should walk their athletes down to the track and either come to the track for pickup
at the end of practice, or meet us shortly after practice ends at the gate to the parking lot.

With all of the rain we've had lately, I hope you won't be surprised if some of our practices

are cancelled due to bad weather. Here's our plan: We practice on an all-weather track,
so it's possible to practice no matter what the weather. However, in the interest of
keeping all of the coaches from quitting, I cancel practice if the weather is particularly
bad. I will post an announcement about practice on the front page of the web site

(http://www.ctktrack.org/) by 4pm if practice will be canceled.

This season that announcement will be in the form a "tweet" which should appear

in the Twitter box in the upper right corner of the home page. Or, you can follow ctktrack

on Twitter directly if you are as au courant as all that.

Parent Meeting
Don't forget the Track Parent Meeting on Thursday, February 4th,
at 7pm in the Christ The King Parish Hall. We hope that at least one
parent from each family, particularly new families, will come and learn more about
the program, meet the coaches, and get their questions answered. If
you have friends who may be interested in signing their kids up too, invite them
to the meeting. I dislike long meetings (ask any of my co-workers) and intend
to finish up by 8:15pm if possible, though we'll stay around to answer questions
as necessary afterwards.

Web Site
Our team web site has a map (on the Directions page), a schedule of events

(on the Schedule page), and lots of other information. You can even check your

volunteer assignments (eventually) and view meet results (after we have some meets).

The web site address is at the bottom of every mail you get from the team.

I do not want to help you get more spam or junk mail, so I do not put a link to the

roster on the web site. However, it's always there in case you need it to arrange

job swaps or car pools at [Ask Carl]. If I have managed to misspell

your name or confuse your contact info, please let me know. In attempting to decode

some of the handwriting on the forms, I was occasionally forced to make a wild guess!

Mailing List
If your family uses multiple email addresses, I can add others to this mailing list. However,

it seems more likely that you will ask me to drop an email address. In either case, please

let me know.

Late Sign-ups
We will accept late sign-ups until about February 25th. If you have friends who are interested,

please invite them to the parent meeting, or to check out the web site or even to come to

practice. Kids not actually signed up for the team are welcome to practice with the team to

see if they like it as long as a parent sticks around during practice. (That's because I don't

have a medical release and if anything should happen, we'd have a problem.)

See you on the track and the parent meeting,

carl

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

2010 Twitter Experiment

2010-01-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

I like to try new things to help communications among the team.

This season I'm going to try using Twitter (http://twitter.com/ctktrack) to send out last-minute reminders, cancel practices during bad weather, and so on. There is a little box in the top right corner of the web site's home page that is the team's "Twitter Status." You can follow the team on Twitter in any other way that's convenient, however, which is the point of the experiment.

carl

2010 CTK/SC/SS Track Sign-up Announcement

2010-01-01T15:11:00.001-08:00

Greetings 2009 Track Parents,

Happy New Year!

Sign-ups for the 2010 Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen CYO track season will take place on Thursday, January 21, and Monday, January 25, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Christ the King School in the 6th grade classroom. The address is 199 Brandon Road, which is at the corner of Brandon and Gregory Lane in Pleasant Hill.

We'll begin practice on February 2nd, and we plan to hold the usual Tuesday and Thursday practices starting at 5pm. I expect we'll be practicing at College Park High School track again this season.

There will be meets every Saturday from March 6th until the diocese meet on May 8th, except for the Saturday before Easter (April 3rd). What I already know of our meet schedule is posted on the web site.

The fee this season is probably going to be $65 for each athlete. We will set the exact cost closer to the sign-ups depending on a few factors still to be determined. (Families finding this difficult should contact me privately.) Please bring your calendar to the sign-ups as we will once again expect you to sign up for five volunteer work assignments and leave a $50 deposit to encourage you to follow through.

As usual, we are very interested in having parents (experienced or not) sign up to coach with us. We usually end up with around 200 kids on the team and coaching so many athletes requires plenty of help. We are particularly interested in finding parents with experience in our field events (long jump, high jump, and shot put) or who are willing to join us for distance workouts ("road runs"). Please contact me if you have any questions.

If you are interested in more information, please contact me or check the team web site, at www.ctktrack.org. If you spot any mistakes on the site, please let me know as I've just updated it for 2010 and have probably made a few errors.

(I have your email address from last year's Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen track season. This is meant to be a one-time mailing unless you sign your athlete up again. I know that some of you will receive more than one notice and that some of your kids have passed 8th grade.)

We are looking forward to another great season on the track.

Best regards,

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

CTK Track News for 4 May 09...

2009-05-04T19:25:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Parents,

Can you believe it's the last week of the season?

The Sectional Meet was a lot of fun and there were a lot of very competitive races. Our athletes did very

well and I just finished sorting zillions of medals and ribbons to hand out on Tuesday at practice.

Our volunteers were in evidence all around the track -- thank you all! I would particularly like to recognize

some (I think all) of our double-shift volunteers who braved the elements to work the entire meet: Kent

Sasaki and Dan Wanket worked at the finish line all day; Marc Mitchell and Kelley Timbrell shared the

starter duties all day; Gina Ruotolo (who was at least dry behind her microphone) announced all day;

Carol Monti provided first aid all day long. Special thanks also to Dave Muhlenkamp, who is a clean-up

crew by himself without peer.

This Week

It's our last week of practice (sob!). We'll practice twice as usual.

Practice, Tuesday, May 5, 5-6:30pm, College Park HS track
Last Practice, Thursday, May 7, 5-6:30pm, College Park HS track
Diocesan Championship Meet (1600m & 800m races), Friday, May 8, 6:30pm, James Logan High School track, 1800 H St., Union City.
Diocesan Championship Meet (all other events), Saturday, May 3, 8:30am, Diablo Valley College track

Diocesan Championship Meet

Qualifiers for the Diocesan Championship Meet are those athletes who finished in the top 3 in their

events except for the 4x400m. In every case but the sprint medley, 4th place finishers are

alternates for the Diocesan Championship Meet. Check with the results posted here though

there still may be some errors to correct.

On the web site's home page you can read the section entitled Diocean Championship Meet Preview for

more details about the Diocesan Championships.

Results on athletic.net

I'm having trouble getting corrected results for the Qualifying Meet last weekend so that I can update

athletic.net with those results. I will sort it out one way or another this week, and will upload the Sectional

Meet results. (I know some folks are big fans.)

Volunteer News

We will be assigned a few jobs at the Diocese Meet this weekend, probably in the area of field events. If you

are interested in helping out, please contact our indefatigable volunteer coordinator, Trish Brown, before she

contacts you. We have not yet been told which and how many jobs we'll have to perform.

See you on the track,

carl

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

Important Sectional Championship News

2009-04-30T21:39:00.002-07:00

Hi everyone,

I have three important items of information:

1. The Friday night races will start at 7pm, not 6pm, as previously scheduled. Apparently DVC has their own track meet Friday afternoon which won't be over early enough for the scheduled start. (They didn't tell us until last night.) We hope to be on the track at 6:30pm and racing at 7pm.

2. There will be a $3 admission charge on Saturday for adults. High school students will be charged $1. Seniors, young children, athletes, and coaches with a 2009 CYO Coaching Card are admitted free. (There has always been admission fee for the Diocese Championships, but charging for the Sectional Championship was last year's innovation.) The cost of using DVC has gone up significantly this season, perhaps due to the track and field renovation there. Yes, even meet volunteers have to pay admission, alas.

3. Trish Brown, our volunteer coordinator, is looking for volunteers to help run the Sectional Championship Meet. We have several jobs that need to be filled for Saturday. Please contact her at falcon_crest_2@yahoo.com if you can work. If your child is running and you don't volunteer, please expect a phone call! If you want to see what jobs are available, look for "CTK" or "SC" or "SS" on the overall schedule here . Hearty thanks to all who have already volunteered!

If you are not a weather watcher, you might be surprised to learn that there is a 50-80% chance of rain Friday evening and Saturday. But we all realize that we need it, even if the meet is a little damp. So dress accordingly!

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 27 Apr 09

2009-04-30T21:39:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

We had another beautiful day at the track on Saturday. Once again, many families went above and beyond

the call of duty and volunteered the whole meet or came out of the stands to fill in where needed. Thank

you so much!

Who Qualified?

I have not posted the Qualifying Meet results yet; they will be available late tomorrow evening along with

a list of qualifiers and alternates for the Sectional Championship Meet. The parish coordinators from

the whole league will be meeting tomorrow evening to go over the meets (there were three qualifying

meets, by the way) and deal with various appeals, etc. After that's all settled, the qualifiers and

alternates will be set for next weekend.

As I said before, the top four finishers in the 1600m and field events qualify and compete next

weekend. The top three finishers overall (i.e., regardless of heats) in the other events (including

relays) qualified and 4th place is an alternate. The coaches may substitute runners on relay teams

of the same parish and grade and gender if one of the runners is unavailable next weekend.

If your child possibly or definitely qualified but cannot compete next weekend, please let me

know ASAP. If your child was on a relay team that possibly or definitely qualified but cannot

compete next weekend, please let your child's primary coach know ASAP so they can work on

finding a replacement.

Practices This Week

We'll have two practices this week as usual, and everyone is welcome. We won't have ribbons

ready until Thursday most likely, but there will be ribbons down to 6th place which may be some

consolation to non-qualifiers.

Practice, Tuesday, Apr. 28, 5-6:30pm, College Park HS track
Practice, Thursday, Apr. 30, 5-6:30pm, College Park HS track
Sectional Championship Meet (1600m races), Friday, May 1, 6:00pm, Diablo Valley College track
Sectional Championship Meet (all other events), Saturday, May 2, 9:00am, Diablo Valley College track

Lost and Found Bonanza!

We picked up another huge collection of lost items at the end of the meet Saturday. Please check

the Lost & Found page on the web site for your treasures. It's not just the kids: One team left all their relay

batons behind. (Last year, another team's coordinator left his wallet and keys behind at one of our

meets!) If any of that collection belongs to your family, let me know and I'll bring it to practice or

leave it out on my porch for you.

Picnic Coming

Make sure you've marked your calendar for the Team Awards Picnic on Sunday, May 31, from 11am

until 3pm at Pleasant Hill Park. One tradition we have is to salute our departing 8th graders, and

recognize those who have been with the team since they were in 2nd or 3rd grade. CTK Track Team

trivia: Name this year's four 8th graders who have been on the team since 2nd or 3rd grade. We

will also have our annual drawing for extra-helpful parents. Will you be a winner? I hope you all

can come, if only to admire the final appearance of this year's mountainous Lost & Found collection!

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 20 Apr 09...

2009-04-20T18:46:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

I hope those of you who were away last week enjoyed your break. Now back to your regularly scheduled track season!

Saturday's Meet

Thanks once again to all of our volunteers who helped run our meet so smoothly on Saturday. If you looked up at the bleachers during the meet, you might have noticed (as I did) that they were nearly empty. That's because all available parents had been put to work around the track. We greatly appreciate those who worked double shifts. I especially want to thank the setup and cleanup crew (both of them!) who helped schlep all of the meet equipment across the parking lot Saturday. If you were wondering why the parking lot was closed, informed sources tell me that DVC is hooking up the solar panels now.

As of 8pm Sunday evening, the results of Saturday's meet are still not available so are not posted yet. You'll see them soon after I do!

Schedule

We have only three more weeks of practice! We'll practice twice this week:

Tuesday, April 21, from 5-6:30pm on the grass field behind the baseball field at College Park. (We have to stay off the track due to a CPHS lacrosse game at 5pm.)
Thursday, April 23, from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Qualifying Meet, April 25, at 9am at Diablo Valley College track

Qualifying Meet

Next weekend is our Qualifying Meet. It's called that because athletes must qualify through this meet to advance to the Sectional Championship Meet and afterwards to the Diocesan Championship Meet.

New families interested in the details of this process should check the home page of our web site where I've attempted to explain everything. If your family has been involved in the past, it's pretty much the same this season. If I have failed to make something clear enough, please don't be afraid to ask.

There are three things not mentioned there (now that I think of it!)

Athletes who cannot attend the Qualifying Meet cannot qualify to run in the Sectional Championship Meet. Of course, some athletes have to miss each meet due to other family or personal commitments and there is an appeal process for athletes who feel they would have qualified had they been able to run. However, since this is CYO track, the only acceptable grounds for appeal is attendance at some religious event which is usually their own or a sibling's first communion, but may also be a funeral, wedding or confirmation. (No one's ever asked about a bar mitzvah -- I have no idea how that would play!) Please speak to me in advance of the qualifying meet if you feel this may apply to one of your children.
If your athlete is not able to participate in the Qualifying Meet, PLEASE tell your child's primary coach as soon as possible. There are restrictions on relay teams next weekend (see the web site) so the sooner your coach knows who will be missing, the better.
If your athlete fails to qualify in any of his or her events next weekend, they are probably done with meets for this season but they are still VERY welcome at practice for the remaining two weeks. We may give precedence to the qualifiers who need to practice field events, but all are welcome. Some of the kids like the practices more than the meets and there's no reason for them to stop coming to practice if they still want to.

I want to repeat just one thing that's also on the web site:

If your athlete qualifies (even as a member of a relay team), but will be unable to attend the Sectional Championship Meet, please tell ME right away. Next Monday evening there will be a seeding meeting and knowing who can't make the Sectional Championship Meet ahead of the meet is a great help.

Picnic Coming

As kids finish their season with us, I want to remind everyone to mark their calendars for Sunday, May 31 when we'll have our annual Team Picnic where we hand out way too many awards. More details are coming on that, but I hope you'll save the date.

See you on the track. (Or near the track on Tuesday!)

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 6 Apr 09

2009-04-06T14:23:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

Thanks once again to all of our fabulous volunteers for the efficiently run meet yesterday. It was good running weather

and there were lots of good performances that will translate into lots of ribbons for our athletes.

Schedule at a Glance

This week we'll practice just once and take a short Easter break:

Practice, Tuesday, Apr. 7, 5-6:30pm
No Practice, Thursday, Apr. 9
No Meet, Saturday, Apr. 11.
No Newsletter next Sunday (Can you beat that as an Easter present!?)
No Practice, Tuesday, Apr. 14
Practice, Thursday, Apr. 16, 5-6:30pm
Meet #4, Saturday, Apr. 18, 8:30am at DVC

Lost and Found

I have an enormous lost and found collection this season. Please check out the Lost & Found

page on the web site: http://www.ctktrack.org/lost.shtml and let me know if you want anything

brought to practice. Or I could leave your treasures out on the bench on my front porch if

you prefer

All items in the Lost & Found collection go up for grabs at the end of the team picnic.

Results

The results from yesterday's meet have been updated once and posted on the web site on

the Schedule page. I will upload the revised results to athletic.net shortly Please let me

know if you find problems and I'll do my best to correct them.

A long time ago when my oldest son (now in 11th grade) was a second grader, he ran a

mile so slowly that the timers recorded his three lap time. It took him a few years to

"beat" that time. Don't let this sort of tragedy befall your young runner -- report mistakes

you find in the results!

Happy Easter to all,

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 30 Mar 09...

2009-03-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

Thanks to all of the volunteers who worked so hard to make the relay meet a success.

Meet Results

The results are posted in the usual places. First, complete results are always posted the day after each

meet at http://www.ctktrack.org/schedule.shtml . Second, results for our team (plus some of the other

teams in our league) also appear at http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=28336 .

Ribbons from the relay meet will be awarded for 1st through 5th places by overall place by grade, and not

by heat as at our regular meets. Since we had multiple heats of certain relays in some grades (especially

3rd, 5th, and 6th grade boys!), kids whose team won their race may not receive a ribbon if their team

was not among the overall five fastest in their grade.

Also, we don't award our Personal Best ribbons for relays though we still owe lots of kids Personal Best ribbons

for Meet #2.

This Week

We'll practice twice this week as usual, and our next meet is Saturday morning as usual:

Practice, Tuesday, Mar. 31, 5-6:30pm, College Park HS track
Practice, Thursday, Apr. 2, 5-6:30pm, College Park HS track
Meet #3, Saturday, Apr. 4, 9:00am, Ygnacio Valley High School track

However, our next meet will be at 9am (not 8:30am!) at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord,

and not at DVC. If you go to DVC, you'll find a CYO track meet, but you won't find our team!

Athletes and first shift volunteers should plan on arriving at Ygnacio Valley HS by 8:30am and the

setup crew should arrive at 8am.

No Dogs

I am told there was a dog or two on the field Saturday at DVC. It almost goes without saying that

dog waste on these fancy artificial turf fields is a terrible idea. Please ask anyone with a dog you see

on the track from now on to take their four legged friends outside the fence.

Calling All Volunteers!

We are reaching the part of the season where a lot of our most experienced volunteers have almost

worked their quota which means that I get to remind you of our end-of-season drawing for the extra

helpful. Yes, it's back.

For the past few years we've tried to reward our extra-helpful volunteers who work more than the

minimum number of shifts at our meets by having a drawing at the picnic for gift certificates to a

local restaurant. For each shift you work above the five required, we give you a "ticket" for the drawing

which is held at the picnic. So the more shifts you work, the greater your chances.

Trish Brown, our volunteer coordinator, tells me that she could use some extra help for the second

shift this coming Saturday. If you are available, please send her an email (falcon_crest_2@yahoo.com)

and let her know. If you check the web site Volunteers page, you can even request specific open

jobs when you write to Trish.

By the way, at least a couple of people checked in on Saturday for the second shift but then

left immediately, saying they couldn't stay. If you have to leave, you have to leave, but it doesn't

count as a shift worked unless you check in AND actually work! (I know: we're cruel.)

To further butter you up, we get lots of positive feedback from the other parishes who really

like the way we run meets. As you know, we put a lot of work into making the meets run

smoothly so it's nice that the other teams notice.

Finally, as the weather gets warmer you'll want to bring sunscreen and/or a hat and some

water for yourself to the meets. We can't have you collapsing over your rake in the long jump

pit!

Easter Break Coming

As is our custom, we'll take a break over Easter. There will be no practice on Thursday, April

9 or Tuesday, April 14, and no meet on April 11. (So this week will be a regular week followed

by two single-practice weeks.)

Sorry for the longer email this week, but we gotta have those volunteers!

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 23 Mar 09...

2009-03-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

With the season well under way, and the team population stabilizing at 245, I'm very happy with the way things are going. We have had great cooperation from our parent volunteers at our meets, and I think we ran a pretty efficient meet on Saturday. Thanks for all of your hard work!

This week we'll practice twice as usual and then we'll have our annual relay meet.

This Week

Practice: Tuesday, March 24 from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Practice: Thursday, March 26 from 5-6:30pm at College Park HS track
Relay Meet: Saturday, March 28 at 8:30am at Diablo Valley College

Mary Chatterton Memorial Relay Meet

The relay meet is a fun variation from our normal meets where all we do are three relay events. In order they are

4x100m
4x400m
Medley Relay - 200/200/400/800m

Another difference from the usual meets is that the coaches won't be asking their athletes which events they want to do this weekend since everyone at the meet will get to participate in all three, even if that involves mixing teams from the various parishes present. The number of athletes at this meet will also be 50% larger this week because the league holds two meets instead of three. We'll co-host the meet with St. Mary's, and we'll be running against St. Francis, Holy Rosary, Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Anthony, Queen of All Saints, St. Agnes, St. Monica and St. Perpetua.

A word of warning: You might think that since there are just three events, this meet will be over a lot earlier than the others. With more kids and everyone doing these longer relays, however, it doesn't really work out this way. It's a bit of a circus and a whole lot of fun.

For the quantitatively inclined, the league started keeping records for the relay meets in 2006. CTK holds quite a lot of these relay records. How many will fall this year? Records are at http://www.ctktrack.org/dvcl/records.shtml

Lost & Found

The Lost & Found page on the web site is starting to bulge. Please see if any of the fine things there are yours.

Spikes

I have about three pairs of size 9-1/2 running spikes if anyone is interested. Parents often give me running spikes their kids have outgrown and I try to pass them along to kids who I think might make good use of them. I've mostly given out my spikes from this year but if any of the older kids with feet this size are interested, have them see me.

See you on the track,

carl

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

[Short] CTK Track Update

2009-03-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hi again track families,

Just three reminders:

Our meet is at DVC this Saturday. An earlier edition of the schedule said we'd be at Ygnacio Valley this weekend.
Our meet starts at 8:30am this Saturday. Until two days ago, the schedule said 9am. Athletes and first shift volunteers should arrive by 8am.
If your athlete wears spikes, the spikes themselves must be 1/4" or shorter pyramid spikes. Needle spikes are absolutely not allowed in CYO competition for safety reasons. If you are unsure, ask a coach. I have hundreds of legal replacement spikes that your kids can have. And as I said at the parent meeting, spikes are not required by any means, no matter what your child tells you.

See you on the track,

carl

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

IMPORTANT -- CYO Track - Meet start time changed...

2009-03-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Due to the tight schedule for the DVC stadium/track, our next three meets at DVC will start at 8:30am, not 9am.

All athletes and first-shift volunteers should arrive at 8am.
Set-up crew should arrive at 7:45am
I will adjust the meet volunteer schedule a little later (when I'm not at work -- shhhhh!)

In order to make the meet run a little more quickly, we will make a few changes:

We'll run just two heats of the 1600m -- 2nd-5th grade & 6th-8th grade
Use assistant coaches as extra shepherds to get 4x100 staged more quickly.
We'll use the "waterfall start" for the 800m races to reduce the number of heats

As the season goes on, our new volunteers become experienced volunteers and the meets generally go a little faster anyhow. Let's see if we can run those late relays this week!

Thanks,

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 16 Mar 09...

2009-03-22T16:11:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

If you can believe it, we're entering our seventh week of the track season already.

We'll practice twice this week as usual, and extend practice until 6:30pm. As usual, we're very appreciative if
you pick up your children promptly though we always keep two coaches at College Park HS parking lot until
the last athlete is picked up. Try not to be that last pick-up!

Practices

Tuesday, March 17, from 5-6:30pm, at College Park HS track
Thursday, March 19, from 5-6:30pm, at College Park HS track

Next Meet

Saturday, March 21, at 9am at DVC

Note: We may be moving future meets up 30 minutes to an 8:30am start due to an apparent misunderstanding
about how late we may stay at DVC. Our league coordinator is working with DVC on this right now. In any
event, we'll be taking steps to make the meet move a little more quickly so we have time for the late relays.
More on that later...

Lost and Found
The Lost and Found page on the web site is now open for business has some treasures. Please check it out.

Results
Results for Saturday's meet are now available in two place. First, the complete results are posted on the Schedule

page of the web site (along with the results of the two other meets the league held Saturday). Select the View

button in the results column. Second, almost all of the results except for the relays are available on athletic.net.

Visit http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=28336 to see it all.

Ribbons

Ribbons for Saturday's meet will be available at practice this week, probably on Thursday. Personal best

ribbons will also start to appear shortly, and we'll have Starburst awards again this week.

Remember to keep an eye on your mail box later in the week in case the meet start time

for this Saturday's meet at DVC changes.

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 9 Mar 09

2009-03-08T21:31:00.001-07:00

Greeting Track Parents,

We had beautiful weather for the 2009 Mini-Meet and I thought the meet ran just about as well as we could have hoped. I hope your kids enjoyed themselves and are eager to try again next week.

The Mini-Meet results will be posted this week. (Actually, results are starting to appear now onathletic.net) Remember, we don't have ribbons for the Mini-Meet this year, but we'll be awarding ribbons after all of the rest of our meets. We'll also be awarding personal best ribbons to recognize improved performances throughout the season. And for the old-timers, Starburst awards start Tuesday!

Two Practices This Week

With the start of daylight savings this weekend, we'll have a little more daylight to work with. This week practice will go from 5-6:15pm at College Park HS as usual. Next week we'll extend a little further -- to 6:30pm -- which is as late as we'll go for the balance of the season.

Practices this week are

Tuesday, 3/10 from 5-6:15pm at College Park HS
Thursday, 3/12 from 5-6:15pm at College Park HS

Please note that all of the coaches have a mandatory meeting Thursday evening so please be on time to pick up your kids!

One more request: A number of parents like to walk the track while the kids practice. With all of the soccer players, and the 250 kids on our team doing a wide variety of events, the track is a very, very crowded place. Perhaps you'd consider running bleachers instead as your workout?

First "Real" Meet Next Weekend

Next Saturday, March 14, is our first regular season meet and it will be very similar to the Mini-Meet except that we'll have more company. We'll be hosting the St. Ignatius (again), St. Monica, St. Agnes, and Queen of All Saints teams. The meet will be held across the street at Diablo Valley College.

The first gun is at 9am, but

All athletes and first shift volunteers should strive to be there by 8:30am
The setup crew should be there at 8am
Please tell your athlete's primary coach if your athlete will be absent or late to help in relay team planning
If you cannot make your work assignment for this (or any other meet), please find a replacement or contact our volunteer coordinators as a last resort.

Contact info for the primary coaches and volunteer coordinators is on the Staff page of the web site.

Schedule Being Finalized

If you had written down our schedule on your own calendar earlier in the season, please note that it has slightly changed. We'll be at DVC for every single meet from now on, except for Meet #3 on April 4, which will be at Ygnacio Valley HS (my alma mater!).

Event Variety & Late Relays

We normally run two relay races (Sprint Medley and 4x400m) at the end of our meets. If you are working the second shift anyway, please encourage your kids to run these events. We didn't run them at the Mini-Meet, but will do so the rest of the season. These relays are my favorites since we seem to be left with the more dedicated kids from all of the teams present. And since many of the kids have left, ribbons are often easier to come by!

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 2 Mar 09

2009-03-02T20:26:00.001-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

By this time next weekend many of you will have experienced your first CYO Track Meet. Here's hoping you and your kids enjoy yourselves at next Saturday afternoon's team Mini-Meet!

Practice Schedule
We'll practice twice this week until 6pm. Starting next week, we'll go until 6:15pm.

Tuesday, March 3, 5-6pm-- College Park HS track
Thursday, March 5, 5-6pm-- College Park HS track

Mini-Meet News
Your athlete's T-shirts should be available at practice Thursday or at the mini-meet on Saturday. If not, kids may wear last year's T-shirt or anything they like since this is just a practice meet for our team. We try to get the kids to wear black shorts to make more of a uniform, but it's by no means a requirement.

The Mini-Meet starts at 1pm, but all athletes and first shift volunteers should be there by 12:30pm. The setup crew should be there at 12 noon. We will wind up this meet by about 5pm, regardless of where we are in the progression of events.

Kids will be signing up for events this week at practice. If your child won't be attending the Mini-Meet, please make sure he or she knows that so that they can tell their coach. We have the kids sign up for events ahead of the meet since they are limited to two running and one field event or one running and two field events at each meet. (Relay events don't count; kids can always run in all of the relays though of course we always need teams of four.) We find that having the kids sign up ahead of time makes it easier for everyone at the meet and focuses them a little bit. Signing up for events ahead of time is not required nor is it binding since the kids are not really signed up for anything until they register with a clerk of the course for a running event or at a given field event at the meet.

There will be one difference from previous Mini-Meets in that we won't award ribbons this year since I'm almost out of the extra ribbons we used to give out for this meet. We'll record times and distances though, just like at our regular meets.

As has become a tradition, we've invited the St. Ignatius CYO track team to our Mini-Meet.

Volunteer Alert
Expect a reminder phone call from the volunteer coordinators (or one of their helpers) regarding your work assignment. Please note that they may have assigned you a job if you signed up late or perhaps we moved you from your original assignment to fill a more urgent need. Thanks in advance for your flexibility.

Please check the Volunteers page on the web site for the Mini Meet volunteer positions. If you are not signed up already but are available to work (especially in the second shift, and especially if you are experienced), please contact our volunteer coordinators, Trish or Greg Brown (falcon_crest_2@yahoo.com) to let them know where you can help. This is a training exercise for our "real" meets so we expect everyone to help out. Thanks!

Officiating Clinic
Tom Spain, our meet director emeritus, and I will be putting on our annual Officiating Clinic especially for parents new to the team who will be working at meets. While most of the meet jobs can be learned on the job, please try to come to the Officiating Clinic for a preview and overview that you might appreciate knowing about.

Thursday, March 5, 7pm at Christ the King School, room 222 (6th grade classroom)

Which Events Should My Kids Do at the Meet?
The two most frequently asked questions I hear at this time of year are

What is the order of events?
Which events should my kids do?

The first one is addressed on the front page of the web site. I also have little cards to hand out that summarize the same information.
The second question is more subtle but you and your kids will quickly come to your own understanding. Here are our guidelines:

We encourage kids to pick different events over the first 3 meets as far as possible. What we don't want is for kids to decide coming into track that they are sprinters and only ever run the 50m and 100m races. Since each athlete is allowed to do 2 individual running events and 1 field event (or else 1 individual running event and 2 field event) at each meet,they can try out quite a lot of distances. Relays do not count in this -- kids can do all three relays each week if they want.
On the other hand, it is useful for the coaches to find out who is fast for planning relay teams. We usually build relay teams strictly on a merit basis with the fastest 4 kids on the "A" relay team and the second fastest on the next team and so on. However, some kids improve more than others so these things are not set in stone until later in the season. Anyway, I often encourage everyone to do a 100m race in the first couple of meets just so I get all their times.
Every athlete is expected to run in the 4x100m relay near the beginning of each meet. It's important that you alert your primary coach if your athlete is not coming to a meet so that the coach can adjust the relay teams.
If a kid just isn't sure what to do, his or her coach will help. We always have an opinion.

Slightly Off Topic Department

I worked as a clerk of the course at a big high school meet on Saturday and saw at least a dozen alumni from our team who now run for various area high schools. Athletes from our team now run for De La Salle, Carondelet, Alhambra, College Park (though not at this particular meet), Acalanes, and Berean Christian High Schools. Will your kids still be track athletes in high school?

Pleasant Hill Middle School has been nominated for a complimentary field renovation through a Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes contest. There is a judging period through April 30th where one hundred fields will be selected and then voted on by the general public until May 31. These votes will determine the thirty finalists that receive a rebuilt field. I don't know if they'll rebuild the track too, but the field itself sure could use it. If you're interested in casting a free vote, visit

http://www.frostedflakes.com/PLANT-A-SEED/FIELD/75512/FIELD.ASPX

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 23 Feb 09...

2009-02-28T06:10:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

We're beginning week 4 of the track season already. It's also the last week we will accept late sign-ups which is not a

moment too soon as we now have 243 kids on the roster, a new record. However, I think those who were at practice

on Thursday will agree things were actually less chaotic than they were the first two weeks since we didn't find a high

school soccer game going on and the high school track team was closer to being finished when we got there.

Workouts will start to get more complicated this week. As always, the practice plan is posted on the Practices

page of the web site. (Tuesday we'll introduce field events to a few athletes while the rest do circuit training.

On Thursday we'll work on relays with the younger age groups while the oldest kids do an interval workout...)

Our first meet, the Mini-Meet, will take place on Saturday afternoon March 7 at College Park HS. Along

with all of our athletes, we'll have the St. Ignatius team joining us in what has become a pre-season tradition.

There will be one change this year with regard to the Mini-Meet that I hope won't be too distressing: I am

out of the extra ribbons we usually awarded at this meet so we won't be giving out ribbons this time. But the

ribbons will start flowing the week after for sure!

Mark your calendars:

Tuesday 2/24: Practice 5-6pm at CPHS
Thursday 2/26: Practice 5-6pm at CPHS

Looking ahead to the following week:

Tuesday 3/3: Practice 5-6pm at CPHS
Thursday 3/5: Practice 5-6pm at CPHS
Thursday 3/5: Officiating Clinic 7pm at CTK 6th grade classroom
Saturday 3/7: Mini Meet 1pm at CPHS

CTK Track news for week of 16 Feb 09...

2009-02-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

Practice Schedule
We'll practice twice this week again, on Tuesday and Thursday from 5 until 5:55pm at College Park. If it's rainy, you can check the web site after 4pm to find out if practice has been canceled and replaced by ark building.

Team Roster
Full alphabetical roster with contact info: [Ask Carl]
Coaches roster by grade with less info: [Ask Carl]

Late Sign-Ups
We have 231 kids signed up at the moment, and we will only accept new sign-ups through the end of next week.

Don't Like Track After All?
If our track program is not working for you or your familiy for whatever reason, I am happy to issue refunds for your fees and either return or shred your volunteer deposit check. Please let me know and provide a mailing address where the refund check is to be sent. By dropping formally, we will know to remove you from the volunteer assignments you may be leaving behind. I am happy to give back at least partial refunds well into the season, so there's no hurry.

Help Wanted
I am looking for one more First Aid Volunteer for our meets. In the past, we've had two parents with first aid training share this job and this season I'd like to have a third volunteer to share the duties. You would need to be available at some of the meets (schedule to be worked out) for our first aid needs. Typically, this involves band-aids and ice packs in most cases. The team has a big first aid bag that I bring to every practice and meet. Contact me if interested. Sharing this job would count as your complete volunteer requirement.

Miss Past Track News?
If you are joined us late and want to read past email newsletters, please check the News link on the team web site.

Past Results

Veterans of past seasons might want to explorer 2007 (partial) and 2008 results at our Athletic.net site:

http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=28336

As we begin competition in 2009, I'll do my best to get those results up too. More details about this on the News page.

See you on the track,

carl

Info for Data Entry volunteers

2009-02-15T15:51:00.001-08:00

Hi Data Entry Volunteers,

You are getting this email since you were imprudent enough to volunteer for data entry at our meets this season. Thank you so much!

If I have added you to this list in error, please respond right away so I can remove you from the list.

There are seven of you who are new to the program (or at least this job) and two wily veterans so I will explain how this works.

While the kids think that a track meet is all about running, jumping and throwing, you will soon find that a meet is really an exercise in moving paper around. Very briefly, kids sign up for their events by reporting to the clerk of the course area (for running events) or to a field event when they are called. Volunteers at those venues write down each kid's name and number (4 digits unique to them in our league) on a clipboard. For running events, the completed event sheet travels via a shepherd to the starter (bang!) and then to finish line recorders who write down times and places. The field event sheets stay at the field event until the event closes for a particular grade. After results are recorded, the sheets passed to data entry where you or one of your colleagues will enter the results.

Data entry is done in Excel by entering each athlete's number and time (or distance or height) for each event. You sit up in the press box (at DVC) or in a tent (at Ygnacio Valley or College Park) trying to keep the glare off the laptop screen. There will generally be two data entry volunteers working at once. Ideally one will be from our team and one from another team in the league.

Most of our meet jobs divide each meet into two shifts. With data entry, we'll use slightly later shifts since there's really nothing to do besides setting up the computers until results start coming in so there's little reason to get there early. However, data entry is not usually finished until a little while after the meet ends. Therefore our two shifts are 9-12 and 12-2:30. The second shift is shorter since it is always a little less popular.

As I said, there will be two data entry people working at a time and hopefully only one of them will be a CTK volunteer. Since it's a big problem NOT to have two people going at the same time, I always assign a "lead" and a "helper" for each shift. The "lead" person can expect to work their shift for sure, and the "helper" has about an even chance of working or not depending on the other parishes. At the end of the day, I expect each of you will be on the roster 3-4 times as either the "lead" or the "helper."

For right now, I have four action items for you:

Let me know if you do NOT want to do data entry at our meets.
If you had already signed up for other meet jobs and happen to have the dates, shifts, and jobs handy, please email them to me so I can remove you. We will try to find and remove you from these other jobs in any case, but you'll save us time if you tell us what you signed up for. If you didn't sign up for any other jobs, telling me that will save me time also!
Watch out for another mail from me with an announcement of a data entry training class, probably to be held at CTK one weeknight evening around the beginning of March.
Visit [Ask Carl] and indicate your availability for each shift of each meet. Please try to list as many times you are available as possible, even if you'd prefer all morning shifts in the first couple of meets! I will make the schedule as fair as I can once I hear from everyone.

Please ask away if you have any questions. Thanks again for signing up for this key job!

carl

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

Visit Athletic.net

2009-02-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

This season we'll be using Athletic.net to post individualized results for everyone on the team.

Visit http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/School.aspx?SchoolID=28336 to see our team's page and you can explore last season's results. Let me know if you find any problems with the results. I have already fixed some.

One thing you might find curious is that some of the results posted are (depending how you look at them) either corrected or uncorrected. The gold standard for timing a track event is what is called "Fully Automated Timing" (FAT) while we mostly have hand-timed events instead. There is a slight correction applied to hand times when compared with "FAT" times. If you see a little "a" after a time, it means it's from a meet where FAT was used. Last year we used FAT at the daytime portion of the Sectional Championship and Diocese Championship meets only. (Actually, we also had FAT results from the Relay Meet last year, but I have not loaded up relay results -- yet.)

Welcome (#2) to CTK Track Coaches...

2009-02-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Track Coaches,

(If I've mislabeled you as a track coach, or if you'd prefer coaching-related mail to go to a different address, please let me know.)

One month ago I sent a "Welcome" mail to the coaches who had volunteered (or had been volunteered) before the season began. Since the number of coaches has now swelled to 36 adults and an as yet unknown number of high school helpers, I thought it was time for another one.

First of all, thank you for volunteering your time and talents to the team. I hope you enjoy being around the track as much as I do. If you have never coached track before, welcome aboard. If you have coached before, welcome back!

Requirements

There are three requirements to coach with our team (or, in fact, any team in the diocese):

Fill out a Volunteer Application. I am still missing this form from many of you. The form is available as a PDF from the Handouts page of the web site.
Complete the Safe Environment Training as outlined on the home page of the league web site . If you did this online training in 2007, it's time to do it again. But if you did it in 2008, you're covered for this season too.
Attend the CYO Philosophy Meeting, also outlined on the home page of the league web site . Save Thursday evening, March 12, for this mandatory meeting.

If you have any questions about any of this, please ask.

Coaching Roster

I've put together a roster posted it here: [Ask Carl]. It's sort of incomplete since I'm not sure where we'll all be. But it gives the primary coaches an idea of who is helping out on which days.

Workouts

After some discussion with some of our new (and eager!) primary coaches, we've redesigned the workouts for the beginning of the season to be simpler and to emphasize conditioning. We'll be doing circuit training for the next three Tuesdays and fartlek-style conditioning for all athletes on the next two Tuesdays. We will not be starting field events until week 4 (week after next) this season. We are hoping to lay down a nice "base" of fitness before we start to work on individual events and relays.

Our specific workouts will be posted on the Practice page every week. Week 3 should be just like Week 2 but I'm not posting it yet in case we decide to make changes after actually trying it!

Thanks again for your help. 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 8 Feb 09...

2009-02-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

Greetings Track Families,

I have heard rumors that there are some of you who do not read every word of the exciting weekly track newsletter. While I would never question your devotion, I will endeavor to keep it shorter this season. (I know: you'll believe it when you see it...)

Practices
We'll practice twice this week:

Tuesday, Feb 10, from 5pm to 5:50pm at College Park HS track
Thursday, Feb 12, from 5pm to 5:50pm at College Park HS track

Remember to check the team web site after 4pm on practice days if it's rainy.

Coaches -- I will send you another email tomorrow evening about the workouts we've planned for the next few weeks. We're going to try some different things this season...

Running Shoes

Parent Meeting Handouts Posted
For those unfortunates who missed the parent meeting, or who didn't get a handout since the Parent Meeting Handout Coordinator underestimated the turnout, all of the handouts are posted on the team web site under Handouts. Thank you for coming if you did make it.

For the old-timers, the main news is the DVC will be our home for all but three meets this season. (The Mini-Meet will be at College Park of course, and two of our other meets will be at Ygnacio Valley HS.) So you'll burn a lot less gas getting to track meets this season.

Meet Jobs
I've typed in all of the meet jobs you signed up for before the season began and I will be working with our volunteer coordinators to fill in the gaps with those who signed up late. I hope we'll have all of these posted soon.

Job Openings
There is a key team job that we could use more volunteers for:

Data Entry -- We type in results at the meets into Excel macros using 10-key pads. If you would like to help with, probably working three or four half-meet shifts, please let me know. This job would complete your whole volunteer requirement also.

If you are signed up for something else, we'll remove you from those jobs and fill them
with other parents. Ask me (at practice or via email or telephone) if you have questions. Filling this job with reliable people is among our most difficult challenges. While it doesn't sound particularly attractive right now, you'll be sitting pretty in the shade at meets if you volunteer for data entry!

Team Roster
The team roster is at [Ask Carl]. I have added new kids since last week and fixed a bunch of errors. Let me know if you find any mistakes. There is a second page called "Stastistics" that looks at the numbers in each group, by parish, and this week only, by T-shirt size.

Late Sign-Ups
We have 221 kids signed up at the moment. This number moves around a lot and we will still accept new sign-ups for another couple of weeks. Tell your friends, especially if they are speedy!

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 week of 2 Feb 09...

2009-02-01T19:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings 2009 CTK/St.C/St.S Track Families,

Welcome to another fun season of CYO track featuring the mighty
combined team of Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen
parishes! I'll be sending (at least) a weekly email for the rest of the season
with news about the team, meets, and so on.

Parent Meeting
Don't forget the Track Parent Meeting on Monday, February 2nd,
at 7pm in the Christ The King Parish Hall. We hope that at least one
parent from each family will come and learn more about the program, meet
the coaches, and get their questions answered. There are some changes this
season that you will want to be aware of so I hope even veterans will come. If

you have friends who may be interested in signing their kids up too, invite them

to the meeting. I dislike long meetings (ask any of my co-workers) and intend

to finish up by 8:15pm if possible, though we'll stay around to answer questions

as necessary afterwards.

Practices
We will be practicing at College Park High School this season, on Tuesdays
and Thursdays starting at 5pm. We'll finish up before 6pm until the time changes in March;
please don't be late picking up your athletes after practice.

Our first two practices will be:
Tuesday, Feb 3 5-5:45pm at College Par High School track
Thursday, Feb 5 5-5:45pm at College Park High School track

Dress warmly for practices at College Park. Even though your kids probably claim

not to feel the cold, PLEASE send them to practice in sweats.

Athletes should wear running shoes, sweats, and bring a water bottle. Ideally, they
should bring all of these things home afterwards too.

Parents should walk their athletes down to the track and either come to the track for pickup
at the end of practice, or meet us shortly after practice ends at the gate to the parking lot.

Weather might concern you so here's our plan: We practice on an all-weather track,
so it's possible to practice no matter what the weather. However, in the interest of
keeping all of the coaches from quitting, I cancel practice if the weather is particularly
bad. I will post an announcement about practice on the front page of the web site
(http://www.ctktrack.org/) by 4pm if practice will be canceled. Please check if you have
any doubts.

Web Site
Our team web site has a map (on the Directions page), a schedule of
events (on the Schedule page), and lots of other information. You can even

check your volunteer assignments and view meet results. The
web site address is at the bottom of every mail you get from the team
this year. Please visit http://www.ctktrack.org.

I do not want to help you get more spam or junk mail, so I do not put a link to the

roster on the web site. However, it's always there in case you need it to arrange

job swaps or car pools at [Contact Carl for URL]. If I have managed to misspell

your name on confuse your contact info, please let me know.

Mailing List
For no extra charge, we can add other email addresses to this mailing list if your family
wants multiple copies. Likewise, if you want to drop an email address, please let me know.

Late Sign-ups
We will accept late sign-ups until about February 26th. If you have friends who are interested, please invite them to the parent meeting, or to check out the web site or even to come to practice. Kids not actually signed up for the team are welcome to practice with the team to see if they like it as long as a parent sticks around during practice. (That's because I don't have a medical release and if anything should happen, we'd have a problem.)

See you on the track and the parent meeting,

carl

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

2009 CTK/SC/SS Track Sign-up Announcement

2009-01-10T09:28:00.001-08:00

Greetings 2008 Track Parents,

Sign-ups for the 2009 Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen CYO track season will take place on Thursday, January 22, and Monday, January 26, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Christ the King School in the 6th grade classroom. The address is 199 Brandon Road, which is at the corner of Brandon and Gregory Lane in Pleasant Hill.

We'll begin practice on February 3rd, and we plan to hold the usual Tuesday and Thursday practices starting at 5pm. I expect we'll
be practicing at College Park High School track this season.

There will be meets every Saturday from March 7th until the diocese meet on May 9th, except for the Saturday before Easter (April 11th). The track at DVC is supposed to be available for meets again this season although our meet schedule is not ready yet.

The fee this season is $60 for each athlete, with no multiple child discount any longer. (Families finding this difficult should contact me privately.) Please bring your calendar to the sign-ups as we will once again expect you to sign up for four volunteer work assignments and leave a $50 deposit to encourage you to follow through.

As usual, we are very interested in having parents (experienced or not) sign up to coach with us. We usually end up with almost 200 kids on the team and coaching so many athletes requires plenty of help. We are particularly interested in finding parents with experience in our field events (long jump, high jump, and shot put) or who are willing to join us for distance workouts ("road runs"). Please contact me if you have any questions.

If you are interested in more information, please contact me or check the team web site, at www.ctktrack.org.

(I have your email address from last year's Christ the King, St. Catherine, and St. Stephen track season. This is meant to be a one-time mailing unless
you sign your athlete up again. I know that some of you will receive more than one notice and that some of your kids have passed 8th grade.)

We are looking forward to another great season on the track.

Best regards,

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

2009 Track Team Info for Coaches

2009-01-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Thanks to all of you for volunteering to coach track this spring. (No, it's now too late to get out; the doors are locked.)

I'm happy to say that I've got a bunch of dates set for various things and that we have six primary coaches. In

possibly the best news of all, DVC has reopened so we'll be having a number of meets there as in years

past. It has just 8 lanes, which may not be enough for the league and diocese meets, but we'll see

what happens.

Important Dates

January 22 and 26 6:30-8pm Sign-ups at CTK in room 222 (6th grade classroom)
January 28 7pm Important - Coaches Meeting at CTK in room 222
February 2 7pm Parent Meeting - CTK Parish Hall
February 3 5pm First Practice at College Park HS
March 7 1pm Mini Meet at College Park HS (tentative)
March 12 6:30pm Diocese Training/Certification for Coaches (mandatory)

I usually manage to recruit parents to help out with sign-ups, but it's always nice to have some coaches

there too. If you can make one night or another, that would be great. 90 minutes only!

If you want to have any input into this season's coaching plan, please come to the meeting January

28. I think we could do a lot of things better. I would REALLY appreciate if all of the primary coaches

at least could make it. I would like it if every single coach could come though so we'll all be

somewhere near the same page as far as our general plan of battle goes.

The parent meeting is actually before the season starts this year, as that's the only night I could

get the Parish Hall (or Rooms A & B). I'd really like to be able to introduce all of the primary coaches.

In the past, I gave all of the primary coaches speaking parts but I may not make them do that this

year since three of them are new. While this meeting is vital for parents new to the program, we

have a lot of returning parents come since they always have questions or maybe just like meetings.

The other mandatory non-track event is March 12 and is the Diocese "Certification Meeting" which

is mandatory if you want to get a coaching card which is supposed to allow you onto the track

at meets. If you've ever coached anything before you

know that every youth sports authority (including the Oakland Diocese CYO) puts on something

like this to go over the basics. It's at least at CTK -- the poor St. Michael's coaches have to

come up here from Livermore! More on this meeting later, but please mark your calendar.

Primary Coaches

Val Gebhart will return to coach 2/3 boys again. Thanks!

Mike Stone will coach the 6/7/8 boys. Thanks, Mike!

I will coach the 4/5 boys

Karen Sandri (with Alice Burns) will coach the 2/3 girls again. Thanks, ladies!

Trish Heaney will coach the 4/5 girls. (I think we discussed this...) Thanks, Trish!

Tamara Johnson will coach the 6/7/8 girls. Thanks, Tamara!

Trish & Greg Brown will coordinate our volunteers again. Thanks, team!

Etc.

I am sending this to just those folks who responded to my email and expect more coaches to join us,

both new and used. In particular I understand several veterans of the team (high school students)

may be joining us. Youth coaches have been great helps in the past and I think the kids really

like working with them.

I'll be sending out a general email to everyone from last year's team announcing sign-ups in a

couple of days, so you may get another email shortly. Speaking of email, please let me know if

you want mail to you (in your role as coach, at least) to go to another different or additional

email address. It's the least I can do.

I have updated the web site, including contact info for the primary coaches. In order to cut

down spam, your email address is not on the site in plain text, but is obfuscated. Do "View

Source" on the Staff page if you want to see what I mean. This helps prevent web crawlers

from harvesting your address, or at least that's the theory. If you don't want your phone number

shown, or if you prefer a different number instead, please let me know. I wouldn't worry too

much about unwanted track calls though -- I think I get most of those.

One little detail I need to settle is how much to charge this year since I only have a verbal agreement

from the College Park Athletic Director at this point and no field permt yet. I don't expect a problem

getting it, but you never know.

If you have any questions ahead of sign-ups or our meeting, please let me know.

On behalf of all of the kids you'll work with this season, thank you very much for offering your time

and talent to our program. Happy New Year, by the way!

carl

Web Site Remodeled

2009-01-10T09:04:00.001-08:00

I've updated the web site layout to use server side includes instead of frames. If you find anything wrong on the site, please let me know!

CTK Track News for week of 12 May 08...

2008-05-14T06:46:00.001-07:00

Greetings Track Families,

Thanks to all of the athletes, coaches, and parent volunteers for a great end to the 2008 season. The diocese meet was a lot of fun for all who attended. We had a number of champions, a whole lot of medalists, and many great performances and acts of sportsmanship to finish up 2008.

We have just one remaining event before us: our awards picnic.

Many of you are now wondering if I will ever stop sending emails. I will be sending you exactly four more unless you sign your athlete up for track next season:

Picnic reminder shortly before the picnic (June 1)
A survey, if I can get it together
2008 CYO Cross Country announcement (in August)
2009 Track announcement (in January)

Here is some final business:

Diocese Meet Results
Meet results should be available on the Oakland Diocese CYO Track & Field website by midweek and I will update our site as soon as I notice them. Don't worry -- I won't send you an email about it.

Awards Picnic
Our annual team picnic takes place Sunday, June 1st, from 11am to 3pm in the group picnic area at Pleasant Hill Park. (P.H. Park is at 147 Gregory Lane.) This is the same location as in previous years.

For the new families, here's what we do: The team supplies drinks and hot coals. You bring something to grill for your family if you like and also something to share with others like a salad or cookies or appetizer. After some time for eating, we recognize many of our athletes for their accomplishments and hand out quite a few awards. We also bid farewell to our graduating 8th graders. Coaches will also be handing our remaining ribbons and season summaries.

Lost & Found
One of the annual highlights of the picnic is the re-emergence of the 2008 Lost & Found collection. Items not claimed by the end of the picnic will be donated or discarded. Everything I've picked up at meets this season is listed on the web site under Lost & Found.

CTK Parish Festival
If you and your family are already missing their track teammates, I can guarantee that you will find most of them at the annual Christ the King Parish Festival which takes place next weekend (May 16-18). The festival is extremely popular with the families of the parish and features food, games, entertainment, a book sale, bingo (we're a Catholic parish, so it's a requirement!) and other activities. The festival runs Friday from 6-10pm, Saturday from 2-10pm, and Sunday from 10am-2pm. I'll see you there.

Firecracker 5K
There's a 5 km race around Pleasant Hill's downtown area on the morning of the 4th of July every year. I can never believe how many CTK/SC/SS track families I see there every year. If your child is not tired of running yet, come on down. Money raised supports local schools.

CYO Cross Country
If your child is still not tired of running, consider signing up for Cross Country in the fall. Cross country is a distance running sport with races on trails instead of around a track. Get more information at the picnic or by checking out the Oakland Diocese CYO Cross Country website.

Volunteer Deposits
I will be reviewing our Volunteer Coordinators' records from the regular season meets over the next few weeks and mostly shredding your volunteer deposit checks if you worked all or most of your required meet shifts. If your deposit is in jeopardy, then I will be contacting you to offer you a chance to appeal before depositing any checks. We did have some folks not hold up their end of the bargain this season and quite a few parents had to work extra shifts to fill the gaps left by the few. Those who worked more than required during the regular season will be entered in a drawing to be held at the picnic. (No, you need not be present to win, but we'd love to have you there!)

Have a great off-season and I'll look forward to seeing you at the festival, the picnic, and at the Firecracker 5K!

carl

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