MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

 

February 22, 2021

 

 

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

 

I drove home from the Gately Park Indoor Track Complex Saturday afternoon with a smile on my face, music at its highest volume singing like a fool. I had just seen two great days of track & field meet. It had been 11 months since we have seen anything like this in the state of Illinois.

 

Yes, Gately Park hosted an event two weeks ago and it was great. But not at the standards that we saw this past weekend.

 

The question that should be asked after this weekend is why can’t this type of meet happen this season?

 

There were coaches at this new facility that were asking the same thing. This could be done but on smaller levels. A comment was heard that the Athletic Directors and administrators were too narrow minded and were blind to the fact that big meets could not happen. Announcements were made by other coaches around the state that they were stuck to doing dual meets.

 

To the Athletic Directors and administrators of schools that dual meets are the only track meet that we could hold this spring, I say bull. Families were coming from across the United States, from New Hampshire to the east, to California from the west, that came to compete at this new facility. There have been meets in buildings in Virginia and Alabama that have been completed with no outbreaks. What needs to be understood is that a track meet in this COVID-19 pandemic can be held safely. It can be held in an invitational form.

 

Administrators in schools and conferences across the state of Illinois cannot see that. Those officials need a seeing eye dog to find a good idea to hold meets. There are some AD’s that get it, will find that solution. There are others that would not find an idea if it hit them in the face in the middle of a blizzard.

 

What meet organizers in Chicago, Virginia Beach, Birmingham, and in Fayetteville with the American Track League is that they are visionaries. They have looked outside of the box to find a solution on how to hold a track meet.

 

What needs to happen in this state is that the track coaches need to be the visionaries. They need to be the people that present this information to their higher ups in an informed and well-organized presentation. You just cannot say “We can hold a big meet” without informing your AD on how it will work. Be the seeing eye dog and present them with facts on how an invitational at your facility can succeed.

 

I hear coaches say all the time I got this workout from this coach or I stole this idea that I am using now in my workout routine. We need to be the visionary. We need to be the bandit and take the ideas from other meets to make this season the best we can four your athletes.

 

This is not any normal year so why not try new ideas instead of being stuck in three inches of snow going nowhere. It is time for innovation. It is time to try something new. It might be too late next year when we hope to be back to normal. Being rigid in our ideas may set the sport back five years.

 

It worked this year so far at the three big facilities is holding sessions for events and allowing a limited number of spectators in the building along with a limited number of athletes. At the end of the session, the parents and the athletes left. The stands were sanitized, and the next session was brought in. If it can work in a huge meet like we saw at Gately Park, it should work in a smaller scaled invitational meet.

 

Two coaches that attended this meet were in consultation on how this could work for their schools. Partner with another program that you are similar with to hold a two day meet with one day at one school and the second day at another school. You minimize the number of athletes that will be there. Hold the weight events at one time. When it is over, fans need to leave and continue that procedure.

 

This idea will work. You just must plant this seed and let this grow into a beautiful meet. Our kids deserve it.

 

I did not really talk about holding a state meet in last week’s article. I think now is the time to do dig deep on how a state meet can work in Illinois this June. Last Thursday the OHSAA (Ohio High School Athletic Association) announced that their board of directors approved that they would have a state track meet on the weekend of June 4-5. Instead of having it at their usual venue at Jesse Owens Stadium on the campus of THE Ohio State University, the OHSAA announced that each of their three classifications would be held at different venues. All venues are in the middle of the state near Columbus at three different high school facilities.

 

Let us face it. We all will not be meeting as usual in Charleston. The Ohio idea is a good model to work off.

 

It is going to be different in 2021 so why not try different ideas. Now is the time to do that.

 

Our sectional qualifying meets will be held in June where most of our schools will hopefully be out of session. There have some people that have mentioned doing Co-Ed sectional meets. You could have all day to do it. We could have sectional meets that stretch out over six days. Monday could be Class 1A Girls ending with 3A Boys on Saturday. Hold each sectional meet at the same venue for Boys and Girls. A 1A Sectional could be held on Monday for Girls and then Tuesday for the Boys teams. Do the same for the next two classes.

 

For the state meets, three different locations would be used. Maybe at two high school venues in the middle of the state. Maybe Class 3A held in the Chicago area. Nine lane tracks would be beautiful! Hold the meet in sessions dividing up the meet keeping it safe for fans and athletes.

 

The three state meets would have no prelims. Only finals races. Take the top 16 individuals and relays to state. Hold sprint events, relays in two sections to determine a state champion. Two sections for the horizontal jumps and weight events. One section for the distance races and for the Pole Vault and High Jump. If you limit the qualifiers to 16, sectional for each gender, each class need to be on the same day.

 

We saw how successful how the meet worked in Chicago over the weekend. We saw genuine emotions from athletes that ran huge personal bests. I loved seeing that. We need to see more of that in 2021.

 

I gave you the seeds to plant. It is not for me to push the issues from my office. Now is the time to work as one, to be informed, and to give informed ideas to people that will decide what road we will travel on this spring.

 

Be one. Be the message takers. Be the idea. Be the team. Be the difference makers.

 

Gately Park Indoor Track and Field Facility: What did you think?

 

I walked into the track facility and the wow effect hit me. The next question I had is how fast is this track? I think I had a good answer when I left late Saturday afternoon.

 

Roisin Willis of Stevens Point, Wisconsin perhaps summed it up the best after she ran the second fastest high school time ever for 1000 Meters on Saturday. “This place is amazing. It is so close to home,” Willis said after her race. “This is the best track in the Midwest by far. It is just a great opportunity for me. I will be coming here every year.”

 

Right now, it is the only opportunity in this state for athletes to compete in. It will be a magnet for so many distance runners to come to this facility and run great times. Look at Luke Wiley of Warren Township did in his 3200 Meter Run race when he dropped his personal best from 9:31 to 9:02. Audrey DaDamio of Birmingham Seaholm HS in Michigan came to get away from her treadmill to run a “workout” and left with a personal best and fastest time in the United States for the 3200 Meter Run.

 

That is the effect that this track will have on athletes that step to the line on this 200-meter banked oval.

 

Parking is a problem. They opened a high school lot across the street to give more spaces to park at on Saturday. What happens when the restrictions are lifted? This facility will be rocking with fans hanging from the roof.

 

Can you imagine what it would have been like it there was a capacity crowd in this place to see some of the record performances. It you build it, they will come. It showed on Saturday. It should show that in the future.

 

Is it the fastest track in Illinois? That is hard to determine with this the only facility open in the state in 2021. We see so many fast meets in the state in a regular season. When you have iron sharpening iron in one facility, of course you are going to see fast times. We will have to look at the leaderboards at the end of the 2022 indoor season to compare. Right now, Gately Park has the monopoly in this state.

 

What I missed the most in the last year?

 

I did not mind much getting only 3.5 hours of sleep on Friday night and having an alarm on my phone waking me up. I have missed Saturday mornings like that. I know I am in better physical condition than I was a year ago. I am not in “track-meet” condition where you are standing up for eight straight hours. I felt that sitting at my desk on Saturday night with my calves cramping up. But how could I sit down when so many great things were happening right in front of me.

 

I love seeing the emotion at the end of an event. The biggest one that hit me the hardest was at the end of one of the sections of the Boys 3200 Meter Run. Mathew Olech from Harvest Christian Academy had a 9:51 personal best for the distance entering this race. He took the lead with 400-meters left in his section. His eyes glanced at the scoreboard with the time entering the final lap. It is a cool feeling when you know you are going to smash your personal best. That showed in Mathew’s face.

 

He crossed the line in 9:28.67 after running 4:28 for 1600-meters the night before. He crossed the line in tears it seemed. When you smash a barrier that is blocking you, things like that happen.

 

Mary Grace Hegberg of St. Viator is running her first full track season. She decided as a freshman to go out for the school’s LaCrosse team. She missed last year because of COVID-19. She missed last fall’s cross-country season due to an injury. All she did on Friday night was lower her personal best in the 1600 Meter Run from 5:15 to 5:04. She also had a great race on Saturday in the 1000 Meter Run.

 

“I just felt good and relaxed in the race,” this junior said afterwards. “I did not expect 5:04 when I saw the clock.”

 

It is good sometimes to step out of your comfort zone in a meet. That is what happened with Ava Parekh on Saturday in this meet. The Latin School junior may throw some speed into her races but will either have a 1-Mile or 2-Mile race in her meet repertoire. She got ready for next week’s meet in Virginia by throwing some speed int her legs.

 

Parekh finished second in the 1000 Meter Run clocked in a personal best by 16 seconds with a 2:53.64 time. She told her mother after the race “I could have kept going. That felt so easy!”

 

She followed that up later in the meet also finishing second in the 600 Meter Run with a quick 1:36.33 showing. “I just wanted to mix it up a little today. It was also great to have my teammate (Marianne Mihas) in both of those races also,” Parekh said. “I think it was great to be in a race that I have never run before or how to run it. It gave me an opportunity to be concerned about splits or how fast I needed to go out in. It was good to push the pace the entire time.”

 

It was cool to see what happened in the final session of the Boys 3200 Meter Run. Six runners ran times that were the top 11 in the country. Four of those runners in the top 10 are Illinois juniors. Luke Wiley has flipped the switch after going through last fall after the loss of his Coach Bill Dawson. He has an angel watching over him. Drew Rogers of Herscher showed me that he has the stuff to go after the Detweiller Park record. He ran 4:11.77 for #3 in the country in the 16600 Meter Run and then came back smoothly to run 9:05 on Saturday for 3200-meters. He is focused, runs smart, and lets his running do the talking. It will be interesting to see what his feet say in his next race. Micah Wilson of St. Charles East and Nick Falk of New Trier were also outstanding running under 9:10. Both juniors.

 

I missed the most talking to the runners afterwards either on or off camera. Their excitement in running keeps me young. It was also good to catch up with friends and coaches not on the phone but in person. They give me the “crap” to keep my feet on the ground.

 

We have until June to watch meets and go through those experiences again and again.

 

How fun!