wrsmith

If you're a good athlete in track or field and that is your primary love, that's what you should focus on. If you enjoy football and want to play it, you should try to do that. If the football coach doesn't feel like you can contribute to his team because you have to participate in the Junior Olympics or some other major meet, he can tell you not to play football. That's his choice. If he wants to miss out on having a good athlete on his team, let him do that. My son is a national champion in track and field and this is clearly his sport of choice (even though he really enjoys football). If his football coach ever tells him he must decide between the two, he'll take track and the football team will lose one of its best athletes. Would you give up a sport in which you can go D-I just to participate in another sport? Most people wouldn't and coaches shouldn't force kids to make such a choice.

I'm looking for indoor meets for my son to compete in, hopefully within driving distance of west Tennessee. I will probably need to find meets that will allow athletes to compete as part of AAU or USATF teams or unattached since it seems that TSSAA is dead set against allowing indoor T&F to become a sport in TN (this prevents TN athletes from participating in the nice indoor season that Alabama has since they only allow athletes to participate who are representing a school). I know there's a meet in Knoxville in Feb. and I believe there's one at LSU in January (I don't know if they allow athletes to compete who aren't representing their schools). I'm aware of the national USATF and AAU meets in Illinois/Indiana in February. What about places like the Univ. of Kentucky, MTSU, etc.? Any guidance you can provide will be greatly appreciated. By the way, my son is a freshman jumper (high jump, pole vault, triple jump). Thanks for any help you can provide.

Hardin Co. played in the jamboree at Chester County on Friday against 2A Adamsville and Adamsville won it. I believe the final score was 14-13 but Adamsville also had a long touchdown run called back for holding that in no way affected the play. Even thought Hardin Co. was probably holding back for their Saturday game, they had to be embarrassed to lose to a small 2A school.

There is no question that running track will help a football player. My son was in the Junior Olympics a few days ago and his football coach was very supportive of his missing a day of football practice to go win his medal. I can tell you that with my family, track is #1 is football is just something to do in between track seasons. If our football coach had not been supportive of my son going to the JO's, he would have lost a good football player. Football coaches who don't require that their players run track are missing the boat.

I know that coach Ed Redditt will be taking his club, the West Tennessee Flyers headquartered in Somerville. He has some good athletes since they come from a wide area in West TN (basically anyone not in the city of Memphis). He has some great vertical jumpers (15'+ vaulter, 6' high jumper in 8th grade, etc.) and some good throwers (freshman discus thrower finished 2nd in state), etc. He's building towards Johnson City and should have some fine performances there.

Unfortunately, Bates' point total wasn't high enough to qualify for Worlds. It was a great performance nonetheless. His vault was what really hurt him.

Coach, I don't know about the site of the state meet but I'm very interested since we live 85 miles from Memphis. I was also curious about another question if you might address it. I know you built your track in 1998. I am working with our local school to try to get the board and superintendent interested in building a track (there's not one anywhere near us). I was wondering if you might give me an idea of what an eight lane, synthetic surface track along with the related field venues (jumps and throws) might cost? I know there are vast differences amongst surfaces and if you know estimates of more than one type of surface or even just the one you put down, I'd love to have the info. Thanks for any help you can provide. If I hear anything defininte on the state meet site or the Briarcrest facilities, I'll pass it along.

Just for the record, in the KY/TENN all-star football game, in the 19 games played, Kentucky has won 5 and Tennessee has won 14. This doesn't indicate to me that KY wins the game every year. In fact, it's pretty rare that they do win (even though they did win this year's game). I believe that Kenwoodrun has the facts correct in that Tennessee track athletes routinely have better performances than their counterparts in KY. There can be multiple explanations for this disparity but it does exist.

Any word yet on what facilities will be used for track and field? As someone from the Jackson area, I'm delighted to see the competition in Memphis since it's less than 90 miles from us. However, I believe it would have been better to centralize it in Nashville.

Since folks are also talking about rising freshmen on this thread, my 8th grade son (who doesn't even have a school team to compete for) has high jumped 6 feet and pole vaulted 11 feet this year (he hopes to do this well or better in the AAU JO's in Knoxville in August). His high school just started a "limited" track team under which he must be self-coached and they will take him to a few meets. His personal goals for his freshman year (2003) are 6'4" in HJ and 13' in PV. I think these goals may be possible if he doesn't get hurt and stays motivated in a school environment that does nothing for track and field athletes.

After moving to Tennessee last year, I found out that indoor T & F is not a recognized sport by TSSAA. I wanted my son to be able to compete in the indoor meets in Alabama but the folks in Alabama will only allow athletes who are representing their schools to participate (no AAU clubs, etc.). What is the process of working with TSSAA to try to get indoor recognized as a sport so a Tennessee school can send athletes to these meets (TSSAA start dates for outdoor track practice and meets would preclude a Tennessee school from practicing and participating in track meets in December, January and February)? Does anyone have a guess as to how likely it would be that TSSAA would approve this?

As you probably know, Tennessee is part of the Southeastern Association (also includes Alabama). According to AAU bylaws, an athlete is elibible to participate in the Association meet of any association that borders their home association. For a state such as TN that share so many borders, this opens up a world of possibilities. Just choose the associations that are near where you live, and check on their dates for their association meets. Most are posted on the AAU web site. You should be aware, however, that if you run in an association other than the Southeastern, you will need to go to both the association (place in top 4) and then the regional meets (place in top 4) to make it to the Junior Olympics. Athletes who place in the top 4 in the Southeastern Association meet don't have to go to a regional meet since the National meet is being held in the Southeastern Association's territory (Knoxville). Good luck in finding an appropriate date and I hope to see you in Knoxville.

Is anyone aware of any youth track meets (other than the AAU and USATF association/regional meets) that will be held in June and July in TN or surrounding states? If not, do you know someone I could contact that may have information? Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Some of the problems created by a time standard entry into the state meet would include concerns such as differences in weather conditions (can be very different in east and west TN on the same day) and differences in the level of competition being faced. For example, a kid may never run better than 2:00 all season because he's in an area of the state where there's no competition to push him. When he goes up against the 1:55's he may run a much faster time. I understand concerns from an athlete when it seems as if they're being unfairly excluded from a championship. I guess a different view might be that if what really counts is the championship and you've already finished third or fourth to athletes in your area, it seems unlikely that you will beat them in the state meet. I don't have the answers but there are lots of interesting questions. You have similar concerns for an athlete that has his "bad day" on the days of important meets and if they could use a time (or height/distance) from earlier in the season, they would be in the state meet. Just ask American record holder (outdoor and indoor) pole vaulter Jeff Hartwig about doing great in meets where he can set records and then not performing well in the big meets (e.g., Olympics and Olympic Trials). It is a bad deal but one that has to be dealt with.

Coach, I apologize for the "smart-aleck" manner in which I responded to your post. It was inappropriate and uncalled for. However, in a sense you fired the first shot with the manner in which you responded to my original post with your "yeah-right" wording as you mentioned the historically slow times in Kentucky (this doesn't justify my response, and again I hope you will accept my sincere apology). I had only made the observation that in a number of surrounding states the boys times (I specifically stated that I hadn't checked the girls times) were much faster than in Tennessee this year and I thought there must be some explanation for that. You mention the starter and that can really be a problem. There can even be problems with the FAT systems, as you know. I agree with you that Tennesse isn't the mecca of track, especially when compared to Texas, Florida, and California. Their weather and greater commitment of financial resources to track and field definitely put them in a category by themselves. However, there are as many naturally fast, strong, etc. people here in Tennessee as there are Texas (adjusted for the difference in population, of course), which is what made me question the relatively slower sprint times from this year's state meet. I only wish Tennessee had more committed coaches such as yourself that really want to do the things that allow their athletes to excel. I live in western TN and there is NO commitment to track here. I don't believe there was a point scored in the boys state meet by any of the three Jackson high schools. This is ridiculous when you consider the supply of good athletes in Jackson. The public schools in Jackson don't even have a decent track to run on. I live in Chester County (south of Jackson) and my son is a nationally competitive athlete (8th grader who's high jumped 6 feet, vaulted 11 feet, triple jumped 35', etc.) and we don't have any facilities in the entire county. It's very frustrating for someone who loves the sport. Congratulations on the accomplishments of your track and field athletes this year ( that 4 X 4 is really something) and I wish you continued success as you attempt to get T & F into a higher profile position in the state.

For those who are geographically challenged, Tennesee shares a border with 7 states other than Kentucky. For example, the 100 winner in Mo. ran 10.40 and I seem to recall that in the prelims in Alabama the time was 10.46 (I'm certain it was faster in the finals). Those times stack up rather well against the 10.86 that won the largest classification in Tennessee. I just thought the conditions might not have been so great since Tennessee normally has very fast people.

I wasn't at the meet and was wondering why the times in the 100 meters were so slow. Was it raining, cold? The 100 times in surrounding states were, for the most, part, much better. The fact that there apparently wasn't a single state record broken in any division (for boys, I didn't check girls) for any event makes me think that the conditions were not ideal.

It would be terrible if an event is eliminated because of the tragic deaths earlier this year. I heard of an 11 year old baseball from Kentucky who died in a Nashville hospital a few days ago after being hit in the chest by a baseball in pre-game warmups. Does that mean we should eliminate baseball? Of course not! I am the first to say that most coaches know nothing about pole vault and shouldn't try to coach it. The equipment needs to be improved (including the mandatory wearing of safety helmets) and there need to be more officials in place to assist in the event of a wayward vault. However, this doesn't mean the event should be eliminated.