CTK Track News for 4 May 09...

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

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/

CTK Track News for the week of 30 Mar 09...

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...

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/