Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Rainy-Day Reading

Hello all -- a little rainy-day reading for you as we wait for the sun to come back.

* Practice

I am hoping for practice tomorrow, but I'm keeping an eye on the weather channel, too. Check the web site or Twitter for practice status.

http://twitter.com/ctktrack

My kids were bonkers last night, how about yours?

* Saturday's Meet

Right now, I am cautiously pessimistic that we will be having a meet on Saturday. I am preparing as if it's going to take place, and I will be up early Saturday morning to check the forecast and consult with the other coordinators who are attending. Please check the web site first thing on Saturday for updates.

With damp weather, our options are:
  • Hold the meet anyway and do as much as we can
  • Delay the start of the meet
  • Reschedule the meet if possible
  • Cancel entirely
Stay tuned to figure out what we've chosen.

Based on conditions at the track, we may not hold certain field events if we determine they are unsafe.

All of the track surfaces that we run on are synthetic and tend to drain well, so it's very rare that we cancel a running event, though we may drop some later events if we're conducting a meet and the weather turns bad.
 
* Mini-Meet Results

I have them all typed in, but I have a question for the folks who worked shot put. If you worked the shot area, could you please send me an email right away? I want to make sure I understand how you recorded the distances. Nobody's in trouble, honest.

One piece of track trivia this week: did you know that all the running events are measured in metric units (meters), but all the field events are measured in English units (feet and inches)? It's true! And strange. So, if you're working a field event, take extra care that you are using the proper side of the measuring tapes, and that you're measuring to the correct precision: usually this is to the nearest 1/4". We were not super precise about this at the Mini Meet, but starting with out first actual meet -- whenever that may be -- we all need to be careful about correct measurements, which means bending down and reading off the tape. Please don't "eyeball" results starting with the next meet. The clipboards at each event explain how to run them in excruciating detail.

You can also read each of the clipboard sheets from our web site:

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

* Meet Hosts and Jobs

Starting with the first meet, you'll also notice a lot of additional strangers on the field. Because CTK/SS/SC is one of the largest teams in the league, we act as the "host" team for many meets -- all of ours this year, including the relay meet. We have a reputation for running efficient, fun meets, and that's a good reputation to have.

Starting with the first meet, we farm out volunteer slots to other parishes based on the total number of athletes on each team. It's very likely you'll find yourself working with someone from another parish. Introduce yourself, and find out about their kids.

For the first meet, the teams running with us are:

Christ the King, St. Stephen, St. Catherine (hosts)
Holy Rosary (HR)
Immaculate Heart of Mary (IMH)
St. Anthony (SANT)
St. Mary (SM)
St. Francis (SF)
St. Agnes (SA)
Queen of All Saints (QAS)

Katy has gone through the volunteer sheet and assigned empty slots to these parishes to fill. If you worked a key job at the mini-meet (head timer, starter, head clerk) please make sure that we have your name in that position. I have made some Executive Decisions and moved a few of you without warning. :-) Before you show up at my door with pitchforks, remember that you're doing this for the athletes, and that having experienced people in key jobs means we all go home sooner. I've never heard anyone complain about a meet ending too quickly.

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

* Away-Side Short Sprints

Starting with this meet, we begin our away-side short sprints (say that five times fast!) We learned this trick a few years ago from another team: during the 50m/100m event, either the girls or the boys run on the opposite side of the track. We alternate who gets the honor of running across the regular finish line, and who gets to run on the opposite side.

This week, it's the boys running on the away side. Families of the boys are welcome to walk around the outer fence to the away side for these events and watch the finishes. Running sprints this way can shave an hour off the total running time of the meet, but it does mean that boys need to pay attention for the calls so they know when and where to line up. Parents who volunteered for this shift will be called during the girls' 400m event.

* Stickers and Badges

With the extra people at meets, it's doubly important that all parents who are not working a volunteer shift be up in the stands. There are safety issues (softballs in the air!) and it's harder to conduct the meet if there are extra folks hanging around. Unless you're wearing a volunteer sticker and working a shift at that moment, please stay off the track and field areas during the meet.

All the coaches and coordinators from our league had a mandatory certification meeting on Monday night so we should all be wearing our new 2012 badges on a CYO lanyard at every meet. The only people who should be on the track and field at any time are adult volunteers with stickers, coaches and coordinators with badges, and athletes waiting in the clerk area for the next running event or waiting at a field event after their grade has been called. At full strength, we expect over 400 athletes at this meet, so please help us maintain the illusion of control and wait in the stands.

Thanks all, and think sunny thoughts.

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