Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Arkansas State Meet featuring BJ Parrish from Bentonville West HS

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BONUS: Arkansas State Meet featuring BJ Parrish from Bentonville West HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
• 0:03
  In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
• 0:06
  understanding around the country, we're going to be
• 0:08
  running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
• 0:12
  school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
• 0:16
  DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
• 0:21
  state. We'll be talking with a local
• 0:23
  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
• 0:30
  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
• 0:34
  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
• 0:38
  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
• 0:41
  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
• 0:45
  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
• 0:48
  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
• 0:54
  run through each state with a local state expert.
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  So let's get started right now, Okay, Today let's head down to
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  the Natural State. Let's head over to Arkansas and
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  help me welcome Mr. BJ Parish, BJ, How are you doing today,
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  Sir? Good, Mike.
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  How are you? I'm doing awesome.
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  How about we start out, give us kind of a 30,000 foot level
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  introduction of yourself, your experience there in the Arkansas
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  high school coaching scene? Yes, Sir.
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  So born and raised in the national state of Arkansas,
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  proud to be. I ran competing for sports in
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  Arkansas high school, ran track at Arkansas State University and
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  was a decathlete. And then I graduated and I did
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  move to Wisconsin. For two years.
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  I coached throws at Wisconsin, Milwaukee, up there, up north,
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  and then moved back in 2011. I've been in the state ever
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  since. So this is my 13th year starting
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  my 13th year coaching high school in Arkansas.
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  I started at a smaller level. I went to a small high school.
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  I started at class 3A. We have 6 classifications in
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  Arkansas. Started Class 3A and then was at
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  a school in Texarkana for five years and then moved to a
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  school, Jesseville and Hot Springs for two years and then
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  now starting my 6th year at Benville West High School in
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  Northwest Arkansas. I love that you went away from
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  Arkansas and it pulled you back in.
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  That's Arkansas through and through.
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  I love that. Yes, Sir.
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  All right. Well, let's hop to it and let's
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  learn about the Arkansas track and field state qualifying
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  series. Let's start with public.
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  I don't want, I had to say public versus private, but
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  public and private do we? Some states do a completely
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  separate all private schools are in their own division or class
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  or whatnot. Others, they're, they're mixed
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  in with public. How do we do it there in
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  Arkansas? Yeah so we're we're all combined
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  and they do a multiplier. So they take your your total,
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  your student population and they have a 1 1/2 multiplier.
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  And now recently with football it it it all derives from
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  football they started a a point system.
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  So if if you're very successful in the playoffs or you have a
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  state championship run or whatever, you get points for how
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  you finish in conference and you could potentially move up a
• 3:27
  division or down. A division.
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  So it's going to kind of create then this is new, it's going to
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  kind of create a lot of shifting in the upper classes in
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  Arkansas, which has not been the case in recent years.
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  So, and that's just football, not track.
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  That that's in so football. Does football affect all the
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  other sports? So if so football has football
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  is 7/8 through two a, 2A through 786 classes and then other
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  sports. All other sports are 1/8 through
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  6A so. Technically, you'll follow your
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  school's basketball success. Technically, I believe some
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  schools may be a little bit different depending on there's
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  all different types of language in the in the the proposal.
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  So yeah, could change. Very interesting.
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  I like that. Okay.
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  So for track you mentioned there we have 6 classifications, one
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  through 6. SO1A2A5 a 6A is 1 a small
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  school, 6A big school. Yes, Sir.
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  Yes Sir. 1A is small schools and it has the most schools in and
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  then that they actually when they classify they start at the
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  top and they work down. So there's 17 schools in the 6th
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  A there were there were always 16 and there's a private school
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  who who petitioned to be in the 6th A.
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  So they let them 32 in five A. There's 52 in four A, 52 schools
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  in three A, 52 in 2A, and then 63 in one A.
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  Interesting. OK, so in six a 17 schools are
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  battling out for the state championship in Arkansas.
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  Yes, Sir. Perfect.
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  OK, so let's get into how they're going to qualify for the
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  state meet. What do we do?
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  You know, every state's a little different area.
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  Sectionals, divisionals are all different names here.
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  What's our first round here for Arkansas?
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  So Arkansas is one round, that's it.
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  So we're, I believe it's a little bit watered down and so
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  we'll get into that, but so it's one round each each.
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  School is assigned a conference and they qualify for the state
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  meet through that conference meet.
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  So basically it's one round and and and that's it.
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  Back when I was in school there was a regional, there was a
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  district, then a regional and and then the the state meet but
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  now it's just everybody has a conference meet and that's how
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  you qualify there. There is one other.
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  Way that you can qualify and we'll get into that in a little
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  bit. But yeah, yeah hold there
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  because that's interesting. So is your conference you I'm
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  used to let's use the college side you went to Arkansas State
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  let's use that because I went to Troy.
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  So we we are in the Sunbelt conference, but we have to
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  qualify to a regional meet to then qualify for the national
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  meet. Is this conference meet for high
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  school in Arkansas? Is that their actual conference
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  or is that just what they call what other states might call
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  sectionals or divisionals or whatever?
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  Yeah it's it's it's their actual conference.
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  So they they had the pools are in a conference and they call it
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  a district track meet a district meet.
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  So I guess technically district conference but yeah so but in
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  the I printed out our our handbook to make sure I was on
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  point I I do know it but but it does say each conference so
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  conferences so perfect and I do appreciate that you know we have
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  asked 51 volunteers to represent their state.
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  So I'm always appreciative of BJ and all of our other coaches
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  that we have here through this bonus series that we're running
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  here in 2024 to actually let's you know, we know what we know,
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  but let's make sure we know it. All right.
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  This is actually going to help you BJ.
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  You're going to see all these new rules and be like I didn't
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  know that okay. So we have a conference slash
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  district meet and from there they qualify for the state meet.
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  So let's start with first of all how do they qualify for this
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  conference meet? Is this an allcomers they're
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  allowed to enter three or four per event or is there any
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  qualifying standard? How do we get to there first?
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  Yep. So the conference meet each each
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  school is is it's all coming. It's if you're in this
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  conference, you're in the six A W which is our conference.
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  You you get 4 entries per event and then you you go to that,
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  there's only one conference in the state that allows more than
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  that. Everybody does for the three A7.
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  Which is the southwest region of Arkansas 3A class 3A7.
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  They have 5 entries in there and the only reason I know that is
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  because that was a conference I was in at that school at Genoa
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  Central and Texarkana. So why is that?
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  That's odd to have one. They that they have two that
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  they had a coach actually, a coach who hired me at Genoa, who
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  really wanted to get more participation and more kids out
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  and he had a little bit bigger numbers at that point and.
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  So they had gotten allowed five in their in their district per
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  event and so and it just never has changed.
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  I tried to propose and get it changed to line it up with it,
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  but they wanted to keep it the same, so we kept it the same
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  and. It does get a lot of
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  participation. So yeah, it's good.
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  I love uniquenesses, so that's good to learn there.
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  OK, so we're getting ready for whether we're 123456 A to go to
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  our conference slash district meet.
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  We're allowed, except for one little asterisk, we're allowed
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  four people per event. So we're there.
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  How what? How do I get from there to the
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  state meet? Where do I have to place?
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  What time do I have to run? What do we got to do to get to
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  state? Right.
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  Right so in so in the I'm going to start at the bottom class 1-2
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  and three A because they have 8 conferences.
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  It it is the top two at each conference track meet.
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  So the top two finishers in each event qualify for the state
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  track meet. Now The only exception is in the
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  high jump in pole vault if there is a tie outright tie for second
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  place you would take. Both of those competitors, they
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  don't break that tie. They just say okay, you tied,
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  you rolled. Yeah, Okay.
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  And in the class 4A the top three go and they have a little
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  clause. I'm trying, I've been trying to
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  find it in the verbiage in all the the it's a 64 page handbook
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  but they they take the top three but I think they take the next
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  top 4 signatures from all the conference meets combined.
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  So they take the top three from each conference and then the
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  next best four from each conference meet.
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  Combined those go to the state meet.
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  So out of all of those conference meets, this is for
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  the 4-5 and six, the top three. So if I get third place, say
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  that again. Just the four a, just in four A
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  OK, so let's make sure we say it right for 4-5 and six.
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  The top three I'll go, but in four.
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  Just this is just the four. A top three.
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  OK, I'm gonna say it again. Sorry.
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  So just for a All right there we go.
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  Just for four. So 1-2 and three.
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  It's top two of each conference meet.
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  Go to state meet for a the top three in each conference and
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  then also for the four next fastest out of the the rest.
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  Yes, Sir. Yes, Sir.
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  Perfect. OK.
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  What is Five and six doing then? SO5A takes the top 4 finishers.
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  From each they have 4 conferences.
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  They take the top four and then in six A we take the top eight
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  from each conference. I know, roll your eyes.
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  So it's different per division besides the 1-2 and three
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  eighth. I guess it makes sense though,
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  because you mentioned how many schools were in each of these
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  divisions, right? So there's only 17 teams in six
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  A, so you couldn't take top two. You have to.
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  So that makes sense. You're probably only doing 2
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  conference meets, so you're taking top eight.
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  Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So that makes sense in there.
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  And it gets confusing with all these differences when you're
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  looking at them in totality. As a high school coach in the
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  state of Arkansas, though, you're only concerned I'm 3A, so
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  here's my rules. I don't care what 6 is doing
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  because that don't affect me. I have to do with three.
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  Yeah. But from an outside perspective,
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  someone from Colorado is listening because they want to
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  help, you know, improve things at their state meet.
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  And they say, oh, I see why Arkansas does that.
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  Maybe that would work for us in Colorado.
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  So yeah, I get it. Okay, That makes sense.
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  All right. So we go to the state meet in
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  different formats depending on what class you are there in
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  Arkansas, where first of all, where are we typically having
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  the state media? Is it all, all six divisions in
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  one place? Is it rotate?
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  What are we doing? There so this is this is unique
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  And then I I don't we've asked. I've asked around states how
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  they do this. So each classification in
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  January you there's a there's a bidding where they bid on where
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  the state basketball tournament, the state baseball.
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  State soccer, all those events are going to be held at.
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  And then so for track each school you we can go and bid and
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  have the state try to eat at our own school.
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  So each school that you go and bid and normally for our top
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  division it's already kind of predetermined.
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  But for all these other classes they go, they have to make a
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  presentation, they have to bid. So for example, in class 3A, the
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  last school I worked at class 3A, we had a.
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  A really good distance runner. We wanted to host the state
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  track meet his senior year and so we went and made a bid and
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  kind of told his story and background and we were able to
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  host the state track meet at his for his senior year.
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  So Yep, so each class is in a different so and assuming
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  they're all in the same weekend, it is 6 different locations in
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  the state of Arkansas that are hosting the state meet.
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  And sounds different. Just last unique University of
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  Arkansas. Arkansas, Little Rock, these
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  guys, Central Arkansas, they're not hosting the state.
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  The high schools are hosting the state meets.
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  And we've been, we've been fighting to try to get it at one
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  site. So there was 11 difference back
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  in when I was in high school. They used to do like when they
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  had the regional system. All the finals used to be.
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  All classes used to be at Hot Springs High School.
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  On a Friday, Saturday, and they went away from that.
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  It was always affecting graduation, so patient with
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  graduations and and whatnot, and so they went away from that.
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  So like for example, class 1A and 2A and 3A might be on Monday
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  and Tuesday at different sites. A lot of times class 1A is on
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  Wednesday and then class 44A might also be on Tuesday and
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  then five and six A are typically on Thursday or Friday.
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  Of that same week. That makes sense from like an
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  officials standpoint too because you only have so many officials.
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  If you were trying to run all six on one weekend at six
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  different venues that could stretch our officials officials
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  pool because you also have college meet still going on
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  etcetera. So yeah, that makes sense.
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  At risk of you telling me that each one of these is
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  individually different, is the state meet a one day meet, two
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  day meet. How do we do each one of the
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  state meets? Sorry it's a one day meet and
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  and no prelims no prelims in the in the running events so and
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  that's that's that was new just this past year because a lot of
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  the we a lot of the athletes in Arkansas you can do six events
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  four no more than 4 running events and so a lot of athletes
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  were just getting the performances were kind of
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  dipping down so they went away from prelims.
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  And just one one event a time time final.
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  So only eight kids are qualifying for the the mile
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  final. So it's it's one heat 10 points
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  to the. Winner there would be 6 like for
• 15:08
  our division there would be 16 and there is a catch.
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  I'm in a minute I'm there's a catch to that to to 16 but so
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  there are 16. So you you would probably see
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  two heats, they would have a fast heat and a slower heat.
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  What about the 100 then? Are they still doing 2 heats and
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  taking the winter off that or they're they're not, they're not
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  taking the top 8 to a final, they're just saying 2 heats of
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  the eight of the 100. That's interesting.
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  That's that's unique. I kind of don't like it, but but
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  that's my opinion. So yeah, I've heard of, you
• 15:41
  know, like I think it's Texas. When you go to the state meet,
• 15:43
  it's 100 meters, you know, eight top eight kids and that's it.
• 15:47
  And I kind of like that. But here we're, yeah, here we're
• 15:51
  doing something similar. Ask in the sense that we're
• 15:54
  running one race, we're not doing prelims, this is your
• 15:56
  final, but you're running two heat finals for the 100.
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  So in like the long jump, are you running two flights of
• 16:04
  eight? Yeah, yeah, flights of eight,
• 16:09
  but then we we will do 6 jump, we'll do a three jump final with
• 16:12
  all our field events. So we will do a final in the
• 16:15
  field events. Got it?
• 16:16
  Okay awesome. Love that.
• 16:19
  So in Arkansas if we think about the and this is a hard question
• 16:23
  because it's normal to you because you're in Arkansas,
• 16:25
  you're in your state. But if we think of the 124, the
• 16:27
  100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 4 by 1, 4x4, 4 by 8 long jump, triple
• 16:31
  jumps, the high jump stuff like that as quote UN quote normal
• 16:35
  almost every state is doing that.
• 16:36
  Is Arkansas State doing anything unique or doing anything anti
• 16:41
  unique meaning you don't have the triple job or pole vault or
• 16:44
  something like that. What's what's going on there in
• 16:45
  Arkansas? We have all of the those.
• 16:49
  We have all the normal events. The four by two was added two or
• 16:53
  three years ago. It was in it was on the state
• 16:59
  meet 20 years ago they took it out and now it's it's came back.
• 17:04
  The triple jump was not an event when I was in high school and in
• 17:08
  2005 or 6 it it was added but we don't we don't know javelin.
• 17:13
  No, no hammer. Tyler Rackey, We're trying to
• 17:17
  get javelin rolling here, so that'd be nice to to see that in
• 17:21
  Arkansas, just to give more opportunity for kids.
• 17:25
  But yeah, absolutely. We're big proponents of adding
• 17:28
  the javelin 100%. Any after the state meets are
• 17:33
  conducted. Anything happening after the
• 17:37
  state meet, officially or unofficially, Whether it's a
• 17:40
  meet of champs, an unofficial hiptathlon, decathlon, state
• 17:43
  champion, a hammer throw, what Anything after the state meet.
• 17:47
  So, but before I, before I go to that, there's one more way you
• 17:50
  can qualify for state Chinese. So we have.
• 17:52
  Oh, yeah, that's right. Hold on.
• 17:53
  You said you had one more. OK, let's add some confusion
• 17:56
  here. Let's do.
• 17:56
  It that's right, we have auto qualifying standards.
• 18:00
  Each class, each division has their own.
• 18:04
  Automatic qualifying standards. So it it is the third place mark
• 18:09
  at your state meet average over the last five years.
• 18:14
  So that mark if you achieve that mark you automatic qualify for
• 18:19
  the state meet. You don't have to run at the
• 18:22
  conference meet. You could forego and put an
• 18:23
  extra entry in to potentially qualify for state.
• 18:26
  So you could, we could have. We've had years where there's
• 18:29
  been up to 24 in the 3200 or in the 1600.
• 18:34
  So yeah, it it gets like that. So so if the 1600 the 3rd place
• 18:41
  average time over five years, let's just use a number and say
• 18:44
  that's 4 minutes thirty. I run 4 minutes, thirty anytime
• 18:49
  during regular season. I can say Yep, I'm not running
• 18:51
  conference because I'm not already going to the state meet.
• 18:55
  Yes, Sir. And you're still.
• 18:56
  Running one round for your final so you could, so you you
• 19:02
  mentioned in one year you had something like 22 milers, so
• 19:05
  they did two or three heats one times and whoever had the
• 19:09
  fastest time at the end. That's right.
• 19:12
  And they want and they want. I don't the the like in the
• 19:16
  relays, so example in the four by two they want at least six in
• 19:20
  each heat, at least six teams in each heat.
• 19:22
  So for relays, but yeah you could potentially, yeah.
• 19:26
  You could have and at the conference meet or whatever and
• 19:30
  and compete and so yeah. And that that that we've had
• 19:33
  those standards since 1988 I believe.
• 19:35
  Wow. Yeah.
• 19:37
  Now the only the only stipulation there, there's a
• 19:40
  whole section in our handbook it has to be a certified state
• 19:44
  tracking. So you have to have FAT,
• 19:46
  obviously you know your officials high tech scores, you
• 19:50
  have to have wing gauges. So it has to be a legal mark.
• 19:54
  Be able to qualify for state, so you can't have a win dated mark,
• 19:56
  qualify for state meet, etcetera.
• 19:58
  So it gets a little, some of those can be skewed a little
• 20:02
  bit. Yeah, yeah, Okay.
• 20:04
  I kind of I'm, I kind of like automatic times.
• 20:06
  I'm. I'm okay with that.
• 20:07
  All right. Okay.
• 20:09
  What are we doing? Anything officially slash
• 20:11
  unofficially after the state meet?
• 20:13
  So 10 days, 10 days after the last state meet, or maybe it's
• 20:17
  less now, seven or eight days, we have a meet of chance.
• 20:19
  It's the top 16, they take the top 16, I'm sorry, let me back
• 20:24
  up. They take the six state
• 20:26
  champions and then the next best 10 marks.
• 20:31
  So they're trying to get 16 and the participation has been it
• 20:35
  used to be a Saturday meet on graduation.
• 20:37
  They've moved it to Wednesday and the participation is went
• 20:39
  back up. So it's been, it's been really
• 20:44
  good last last two years. Participation has been a lot, so
• 20:47
  a lot of teams. You know they don't, they don't
• 20:49
  go Or now you might one thing, you might have multiple state
• 20:53
  champions in like a 16324 by 8. So maybe a kid is like, hey, I
• 20:58
  really want to go after 1600 times.
• 21:00
  So they don't, they don't. They say hey, I'm not going in
• 21:02
  the 3200 so it would bring like the next next overall time up.
• 21:09
  Do they do a team title at the meet of chance or is this just
• 21:13
  your individuals? Yeah, no points.
• 21:15
  No points. Just individuals.
• 21:16
  Yes, Sir. Yeah.
• 21:16
  All right, that's cool. I like that we also.
• 21:19
  Do have a state heptathlon, Decathlon.
• 21:23
  We get 1/2 after that, so do no javelin.
• 21:29
  We do triple jump decathlon. We do triple jump instead of
• 21:36
  javelin on the decathlon and then the heptathlon.
• 21:38
  We do discus instead of javelin. Awesome.
• 21:41
  I love that a lot. You know, for a not our most
• 21:45
  populous state, right? We're not talking about Texas,
• 21:47
  California, Florida, NY here, but a lot of track and field
• 21:52
  going on on the high school level here in Arkansas.
• 21:54
  We've got the four by two. We had the triple jump.
• 21:57
  That's awesome. We do a meet of champs.
• 21:59
  That's not common. We're doing a state hitathlon,
• 22:02
  decathlon after that. That is impressive.
• 22:05
  From our high school coaches in Arkansas.
• 22:07
  Bravo. Do you guys and gals out there,
• 22:09
  Okay, let's round us out here, give us the culture, settle an
• 22:12
  argument in Arkansas. Do we qualify for the state meet
• 22:15
  or do we qualify for states? For the state meet, I was
• 22:19
  waiting for that one state meet. Yeah, it's a hot topic.
• 22:22
  For such a small thing, that is a hot topic.
• 22:25
  All right, BJ, I'm going to give you one, only one chance here.
• 22:28
  If you had a magic wand, out of everything you described there,
• 22:32
  what would be one thing that you might change if you were the The
• 22:35
  Grand Puba of Arkansas High School State Track and Field?
• 22:41
  Just one Okay. Only one?
• 22:42
  That's right. I would.
• 22:44
  I would definitely change up. The the number of schools in
• 22:49
  each classification. So it it's our our division was
• 22:52
  1617 schools and our top division is it's so watered
• 22:56
  down. I would make that top division
• 22:59
  at least 32 schools and then work down from there for track
• 23:02
  it's. But yeah, just more schools in
• 23:05
  each division. But you would keep the six
• 23:08
  divisions overall, yeah. Oh yeah, if, if it's possible.
• 23:12
  I haven't worked all the way down the list, but I would like
• 23:15
  to start with 32 and then work down.
• 23:16
  But yeah, yes Sir, I love it. All right, that sounds like a
• 23:19
  good place to end right there. BJ, thank you so much for
• 23:22
  representing a really amazing I'm having a a blast getting to
• 23:26
  know all these different uniquenesses in each state.
• 23:29
  I love that. You know, at the heart of all of
• 23:32
  this is our track coaches who are helping kids to.
• 23:36
  Grasp that state meet championship experience.
• 23:39
  It's so important because 99% of them, this is it.
• 23:42
  This is the top they're ever going to go.
• 23:43
  They're not going to go into college.
• 23:45
  Not everyone gets to go to college.
• 23:46
  So I love that you guys and gals out there, specifically here in
• 23:50
  Arkansas, are busting your tails every day to give as many kids
• 23:53
  as possible that state championship meet experience.
• 23:56
  So BJ, thank you so much for being here today and
• 23:58
  representing the great natural state of Arkansas.
• 24:01
  Yes, Sir. Thank you.
• 24:01
  Mike, appreciate it.