kepdawg
04-29-2009, 11:51 PM
Track protest was swift
11:28 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The University Interscholastic League's decision Wednesday to suspend high school competition until May 11 is related to the swine flu outbreak. But the impact of that decision caused an outbreak of anger in the track and field community.
The UIL, the governing body for public school sports in Texas, announced Wednesday morning that regional track meets would be canceled. But there was so much response from coaches, athletes and parents that the decision was reconsidered later in the day.
UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said in the afternoon that he expected regional meets, which had been scheduled for this weekend, to be rescheduled for May 15 and 16. The state meet, originally scheduled for those days, will be pushed back at least one week and possibly two.
A new schedule could be announced later this week, Breithaupt said.
"It blindsided me," Lancaster boys track coach Greg Williams said of the cancellation. "When I first heard about it, my heart just jumped."
A lot of coaches and athletes probably felt that way when they heard that the results of each region's eight district track meets would determine state qualifiers. In lieu of regional meets, where athletes normally qualify for state, the UIL planned to combine all the district meet results and award state berths to the top four performances in each region in each event.
The problem with qualifying athletes for the state meet based on district meets is simple:
Most of the top athletes do not perform at their best in the district meets, and more important, they don't attempt to. Athletes only need to finish in the top three in an event to qualify for regionals, so they often hold back to avoid injury.
"Some kids are in a weak district, so they're not going to most likely run at the potential they can run at because they're not being pushed," Skyline girls coach Chris Mitchell said. "Of course you're going to let up if you know you're winning."
Phones at the UIL offices in Austin were jammed most of the day with people expressing concern and asking for regionals to be rescheduled. But rescheduling won't be an easy task for UIL officials, who Wednesday evening were checking the availability of regional sites for May 15 and 16. The bigger problem might be rescheduling the state meet, which relies on the help of 300 volunteer workers and typically attracts crowds of nearly 20,000 to Mike A. Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
The event cannot be held at Myers Stadium on May 22 and 23 because that would bump into graduation ceremonies on campus. That means the state meet might be pushed to the last weekend in May unless it's moved to another stadium.
It's a logistical mess for the UIL, but preserving the regional meets will be more fair to athletes.
"If they go and do that, I think it will be a big relief," Williams said.
"I've been taking calls all day from coaches, and there's just been an uproar."
Staff writers Brian Davis and Brandon George contributed to this story.
LINK (http://www.hsgametime.com/dfw/sharedcontent/dws/content/topstories/stories/043009dnspouilwixon.239f8d2.html)
11:28 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 29, 2009
The University Interscholastic League's decision Wednesday to suspend high school competition until May 11 is related to the swine flu outbreak. But the impact of that decision caused an outbreak of anger in the track and field community.
The UIL, the governing body for public school sports in Texas, announced Wednesday morning that regional track meets would be canceled. But there was so much response from coaches, athletes and parents that the decision was reconsidered later in the day.
UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said in the afternoon that he expected regional meets, which had been scheduled for this weekend, to be rescheduled for May 15 and 16. The state meet, originally scheduled for those days, will be pushed back at least one week and possibly two.
A new schedule could be announced later this week, Breithaupt said.
"It blindsided me," Lancaster boys track coach Greg Williams said of the cancellation. "When I first heard about it, my heart just jumped."
A lot of coaches and athletes probably felt that way when they heard that the results of each region's eight district track meets would determine state qualifiers. In lieu of regional meets, where athletes normally qualify for state, the UIL planned to combine all the district meet results and award state berths to the top four performances in each region in each event.
The problem with qualifying athletes for the state meet based on district meets is simple:
Most of the top athletes do not perform at their best in the district meets, and more important, they don't attempt to. Athletes only need to finish in the top three in an event to qualify for regionals, so they often hold back to avoid injury.
"Some kids are in a weak district, so they're not going to most likely run at the potential they can run at because they're not being pushed," Skyline girls coach Chris Mitchell said. "Of course you're going to let up if you know you're winning."
Phones at the UIL offices in Austin were jammed most of the day with people expressing concern and asking for regionals to be rescheduled. But rescheduling won't be an easy task for UIL officials, who Wednesday evening were checking the availability of regional sites for May 15 and 16. The bigger problem might be rescheduling the state meet, which relies on the help of 300 volunteer workers and typically attracts crowds of nearly 20,000 to Mike A. Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
The event cannot be held at Myers Stadium on May 22 and 23 because that would bump into graduation ceremonies on campus. That means the state meet might be pushed to the last weekend in May unless it's moved to another stadium.
It's a logistical mess for the UIL, but preserving the regional meets will be more fair to athletes.
"If they go and do that, I think it will be a big relief," Williams said.
"I've been taking calls all day from coaches, and there's just been an uproar."
Staff writers Brian Davis and Brandon George contributed to this story.
LINK (http://www.hsgametime.com/dfw/sharedcontent/dws/content/topstories/stories/043009dnspouilwixon.239f8d2.html)