Important Sectional Championship News

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

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...

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

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/