By Michael Newman

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Hi all! Welcome to another track & field season in Illinois. The first weekend of meets has passed us by. My notepad has plenty of little tidbits that crossed my desk and while at meets. Rather than being greedy and keeping them to myself, I thought I would share. Did you think that I would not?

 

Let’s look at a few things that are going on within the state.

 

Comfort levels

As you know, Luke Winder (Central HS, Plainfield) became the fourth athlete in Illinois history to go over 17 feet in the Pole Vault when he cleared 17-0 ¾ at a USATF Meet at Kenosha on Sunday. He started his day at 15-6. When we are at track meets and watching the Pole Vault, a handful of athletes in the state are going after that mark. Most of the vaulters have already left the competition.

 

As for Winder, he is just warming up.

 

He has competed in four meets this season. In each of the meets, he has been over the 16 foot mark. Last year, he went over 16 feet for the first time on March 7 in Wheaton.

 

The point I am trying to make is that the heights that some are dreaming to hit, Winder is clearing them with ease. His comfort level in the 15 foot range is great. Again, he made 17-0 ¾ on his third attempt of the competition.

 

Ever since the Windy City Summit last March when he finished third with only a 14-11 performance, the future North Central College student athlete is as focused as I have seen in this event. The memory of what happened at the Summit will keep him grounded focusing on each step of the vault. He will stay grounded until he takes off. The sky could be the limit for him.

 

Uncomfortable footsteps 

Jacob Amiri (South HS, Downers Grove) has found a safe haven in the 800 Meter Run. He ran 1:55 last year and could be on the verge of some great things in this event this season. So how do you think he felt last week when his distance coach Brian Caldwell entered him in the 1600 Meter Run for his first race of the year?

 

It is normal for a coach to put an athlete in an event that they are not used to early in the year for workout purposes or even for future experience. Amiri passed this test with flying colors running a personal best of 4:30.

 

He did what usually happens to runners in that race. In the third part of the race, he slowed down from running 67’s the first half to a 72 on that third. He responded with a 64 to cross the line.

 

“That race (the 1600) is so much different than the 800,” Amiri said after the run. “In the 800, all you have to do is make one definitive move and that’s it. In this race, it is a little different. There is more thought that needs to happen.”

 

Amiri shows promise in this event. I would love to see him get in a fast mile sometime during the year. He has the potential of running close to 4:20. Perhaps when he gets to college at the University of Chicago next year, maybe he will find the 1500 a little more to his liking.

 

Different Venue

This weekend, York High School will be competing at the Proviso West Invitational like they have been since the history of the event. They will be missing distance coach Jim Hedman who will not be in attendance at the Proviso West Fieldhouse.

 

He did not get suspended or has a family conflict. He will be at the IHSA Girls Bowling State Championships at the Cherry Bowl in Rockford. You see, Hedman is the assistant coach of the York Girls Bowling Team.

 

Hedman has a little experience in this sport. He was the head coach of the Plainfield Central team that finished third in the state meet in 2006. One of the members of that team, Danielle Belobraydich, won the individual state championship.

 

“I found out that Katie Schroeder would be the new bowling coach at York this season,” Hedman said. "She did not have that much experience. I went to her and asked if she needed help. She asked me if I was part of that great Plainfield team. I found a position to help out.”

 

That has kept Hedman busy after the cross country season this winter. He’s had to split his time between the track team and bowling. Assistant Cross Country Coach Matt Mimlitz has stepped in to help out on the days where there have been conflicts.

 

Last Saturday, York’s team qualified for the state meet for the first time in bowling. Most of that is due to Schroeder. Part of that is Schroeder having Hedman help out.

 

It’s early

I like to watch indoor track meets. It’s not because of the races and the competition in the field events, but sometimes it is for other reasons. While athletes are getting their feet wet in the new season, there are so many other people that are getting warmed up as well.

 

Coaches are in a teaching mode early in the year. They can look at a mistake and talk to the young athlete showing them what went wrong and how to improve on that. One of the meets that I was at in the 4x2 relay an athlete failed to make the pass to his teammate at the first exchange. Even though they were disqualified for being out of the exchange zone, they still could have gone around the track and worked on the exchange of the other team members. I am sure their coach let them know that.

 

At another meet, there was a bobbled exchange between two athletes in the 4x4 relay. One had dropped the baton but they were still in the zone. They were in the lead at that point. If the athlete would have picked up the baton, he still would have been in contention for the lead. Instead, he sat there for a couple of seconds getting mad at himself. Teammates yelled at him to get going. He lost valuable seconds and a chance to win the race. I am sure his coach took him aside to talk to him about that. The next time if it happens, that athlete would be prepared.

 

Athletes are not the only ones making mistakes. At another meet that I was at during the 4x8 relay, one of the finish line people rang the bell with one lap left. The problem was that it was one lap left until the first exchange. It was a little embarrassing for them, but I bet they will not make that mistake again.

 

People who do not get credit early in the year are the starters. They will talk to the athlete on how to line up and simple pointers. There was one instance where an athlete did something that could have meant in a disqualification. The official went up to the freshman athlete and instructed them on what they did. It will prepare the athlete for later in the year in a bigger meet when an official will call that.

 

Kudos to the officials for that.

 

This weekend

The big meet of the weekend is the Proviso West Invitational. It is the first big meet of this season. This meet always gives us big time performances. The distance races should be great with state cross country champion Hinsdale Central there along with Downers Grove North, York, Neuqua Valley, and Lyons Township making each of the races very competitive. We should not forget about four time defending state champion Lake Park that will be ultra-tough in all of the field events.

 

There are other small meets throughout the Chicagoland area. There will be girl’s meets at Bloom, Proviso West (Thursday), Wheaton-Warrenville South, and Downers Grove North. There will be good meets on the boy’s side this weekend at Plainfield South, Thornwood, and Evanston to name a few.

 

It is a prelude to what will be a big next week.

 

And finally…

I was clearing another seven inches of snow off of my car on Tuesday. I had to think how it is effecting the training of some of our athletes. Luckily, the temperatures are on the rise. More athletes, hopefully, will be able to take advantage of getting some work done outdoors.

 

The past couple of months has been memorable. We are close to 68 inches of snow. This season looked very familiar to me. When I was a sophomore and a junior in high school, those years were the biggest snow years in Chicago history. We would find ways to get our miles in when there was a good day. There were not many of those. I know the athletes this season are finding ways to do work.

 

Wheaton-Warrenville South Coach Rob Harvey commented to me that we will probably see slower than usual times in some of the events this indoor season. Athletes have been not getting the quality work done outdoors. Some of the performances will suffer for that. I should know. My junior year I ran 9:39 for two miles. It was one of the top 12 times in the state indoors that year. The following year when the weather was better, that time would have not been in the top twenty.

 

Distance runners will find way to get miles in.

 

It is the spring weather of Illinois that can hurt the sprint athlete the most. That is simply a fact. You can point out other states like Ohio, Michigan, and New York that have great sprint traditions. But just like in Illinois, those great years are hit and miss. When you have a horrible spring season of weather, the times of the sprinter are affected the most. In the three above states, how many of those schools indoors run on tracks shorter than 200 Meters? Not many. Illinois is a state that has a different variety of 160m, 177m tracks to name a few. More and more in Illinois, we are seeing more 200 meter indoor tracks being built. That will benefit athletes more when it comes to racing.

 

“Running inside of a shoe box for half of the season (indoors) and then outdoors in rainy, windy, 40 degree weather doesn’t lead to fast times.  Period,” said Oak Park-River Forest High School Coach Tim Hasso. “To go along with that, that type of weather puts sprinters/hurdlers at the greatest risk of injury.  Many coaches are just praying to get through some of these meets from week to week.  By the time the weather starts turning for the better, it’s nearly May, sometimes early May and there is only so much time to improve before the state meet.”

 

The 2013 track season was one of the worst weather track seasons that I have ever experienced in Illinois. For me, that is over 35 years of track seasons. At last year’s Girls Sectional Meet, I was still wearing gloves. How do you think the sprinters were feeling? Better yet, how do you think coaches were feeling? I would go to meets hoping to see fast times. The weather would not cooperate and I would see coaches take the precaution and not go after the fast times. Why risk injury? At last year’s Boys State Meet, it rained again in the finals. It was a fitting ending for the season. The times were slow in the sprints and the sprint relays. Why? You need to get to a certain level of great sprint competition in regards to handoffs and those fast times by the time you get to a state meet. The sectional weekend for Boys was the best weekend of the year. The weeks before that were a wash.

 

The 2009 season as an example of what potential Illinois athletes have in the sprints. Yes, Illinois does have the talented sprinters and a history of some good sprinters coming out of the state. That season, the weather played a big effect on that. We had 54 inches of snow that winter. The last big snow of that year was at the beginning of January. Most of the indoor season, sprint athletes were able to get good work in outdoors. When it got to outdoors, the weather cooperated. The first meet that I covered that year at the beginning of April, I was in shorts. Every meet that year, the weather cooperated.

 

Good weather gives great opportunities for sprinters to run fast times. The more times you do that, the better your body gets acclimated to running fast. You are able to get great repetitions of exchanges in that good weather. The great workouts come along with the great weather. The weather hampered some of that last season.

 

So what about that great Lincoln-Way East last year and the fast relay times they were running? As yourself, how many times did they run out of state? Lincoln-Way East Sprints Coach Angelo Brown was masterful in taking his talented group out of state to find the fastest competition. It helped them when it got to the state meet. What happens if they stayed at home all of last year? I doubt we would have seen those fast times.

 

As we saw in 2009, we have some great sprint coaches that can get their kids ready to compete. “I will forever respect the hell out of what Jay Ivory has done at Lake Park,” Hasso added. “He takes the resources he has (both in facilities and athletes) and maximizes the product that he puts on the track.  He knows exactly what his teams can and cannot do and funnels his talent over to his top notch coaching staff.  It’s a beautiful formula, designed to win State Titles and it works.” Ivory does not have the indoor facilities, but his athletes always preform when the time is right. Take a look at their sprint squads last year. They found a way to be competitive and successful.

 

Illinois has just as good of sprint athletes as California, Texas, and Florida. The thing that puts them ahead of us is the weather. I was imputing performances into TFX from Texas. Some of the sprint times are great and it is just mid-February. They can get that outdoor work in almost year round to get those great performances. It is simply something that Illinois cannot do on a yearly basis. 2009 is an example. Great training weather = great sprint performances.

 

What do you do as a coach then? Ron McGraw has made it possible within the IHSA guidelines to compete out of state. I like keeping a team together during the year and stay within the state. That is just the way I was brought up. However, when you have talented sprinters that are given the opportunity to run against the best in the nation, you should take that opportunity.

 

So when you go to church this weekend or during the day, stop a minute and say a prayer asking for better weather this track outdoor season. I am hoping my gloves will be put away by mid-April.

 

Weather does effect performances in sprint events in track. Don’t be fooled by those who tell you that the weather has nothing to do with it. Let’s just hope that April and May weather is better than last year. I would like to see some fast sprint event times in 2014.

 

 

 

Have a great week everyone!