Phoenix,
I hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for the next week. There is quite a bit of info here so please look it over. There is info about Simplot, the Pole Vault Academy, and the weekly workouts.
Indoor track is about to ramp up. There are several upcoming meets, as you can see on the meet schedule. You will be responsible for signing yourself up for all but the Simplot games, and I can help you with that if there is any confusion. When it comes to runnercard, don't create an account, just login as a guest. The accounts are just for coaches entering teams, which is basically for outdoor track meets.
As a team, we are encouraging everyone to attend the two meets at the Olympic Oval and the Simplot Games. The Weber and BYU meets are good options too, but they are all day affairs so our coaches are going to try to be at the Oval and Simplot, when there is enough interest.
The Simplot Games
The pinnacle meet of the indoor season is the Simplot Games at Idaho State University.
The
Simplot Games at Idaho State University is one of best indoor track meets in
North America. People from all across the country, and some international
athletes, come to this meet to race against the best and set records.
The
meet is 3 days, 2/16-18 beginning Thursday afternoon with the 1600m and 3200m
and ending Saturday evening. Thursday is trials for those two events, Friday is
the trials for field events and all other running events, and then Saturday is
the final for everything. Qualifying for finals is no easy feat (Simplot marks to make Finals),
so having anyone compete on Saturday is an awesome accomplishment. I believe
that we can have multiple 4x800 teams make it to the final on Saturday in
addition to a bunch of individual qualifiers, which would make Saturday a lot
of fun.
The
track at ISU is banked, which makes every running event (besides the 60m/60H,
which are on the straightaway, of course) much more efficient and fun. The
track is constructed inside Holt Arena, which is their indoor football stadium.
It is 200m around like most indoor tracks, and all "official" indoor
tracks. The throwing events, HJ, and PV are competed on the infield inside the
track "oval" and the Long Jump is on the end of the arena. There are
tons of athletes and spectators, which makes the experience unlike any other.
Each
person is allowed 1 individual event at Simplot, and can run in up to 2 relays.
Those who are "unlikely" to make a final, would probably be put into
2 relays, and those who are likely to make a final would probably only be in 1
relay.
Here's
what makes Simplot so awesome: the TEAM. We hang out together in the arena and
support your teammates when they are competing. The energy in the stadium is
unmatched, and a team our size makes it all the more enjoyable. The beauty of
an "8-lap" mile is that you get to run by your teammates 8 times for
additional support.
Because
this isn't a school sponsored event, we'll need to arrange our own lodging and
transportation. Therefore, I'll need parent volunteers to who would be willing
to drive groups of kids up, and stay to shuttle to the meet, or return on
Saturday to bring kids home. I know it is a big time commitment, but it is such
a good experience it's one I feel good about asking for. So, parents, if you
would be willing to drive a group up or drive a group back, or both, or stay
for the few days, will you send me an email letting me know? Once I know about
how many kids are wanting to come I can confirm a room for you, but we should
have enough rooms.
We
have hotel rooms reserved at La Quinta 1440 Bench Road, Pocatello, ID. We
should have room for those who want to attend, and I'm hoping we have enough
rooms for parents who would like to attend and help transport kids around. In
order to know how many rooms we need, athletes, will you please fill out this form if you have any interest in attending? This isn't binding, but will help
me know what our needs are.
The
cost to attend is likely about $200, give or take 50. This cost will cover
hotels, meet entries, dinner Thursday night (Jimmy John's Boxed lunch like we
did at nxr). Any left over would go to gas money for those driving kids around.
Pole Vaulters
For anyone interested in pole vaulting, Coach Halls will be teaching workshops during practice Monday through Wednesday in preparation for a trip to the Utah Pole Vault Academy in Riverton at 3:15 on Thursday. The Academy has been kind enough to allow our team to come and use their indoor facility for a couple hours. Since we will be using our own poles and coach they are giving us a discount. Each participant will need to Venmo $10 to the academy (details to come). Also, each participant will need to make their own arrangements for transportation. It is located at the Kojo Sports Training Complex, 12472 S Meadow Spring Ln, Riverton, UT 84065. We will be going in the back door by the big garages. Many of the vaulters from previous years have been to the Academy if you wanted to talk to them about what it is like.
Workouts/Practices this week
This week is the final week of Term 2, and therefore is the last week we will be holding practices after school on B-days. This week we will meet after school Monday-Thursday. You can find the workout plans here.
If you have any questions please let me know.
Coach Jacobson
