Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Montana State Meet featuring Blaine Pederson from Bozeman HS

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BONUS: Montana State Meet featuring Blaine Pederson from Bozeman 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,
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  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 at 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, OK.
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  Today you're back. We are about halfway through.
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  We're in the Mississippi as we go around the country with all
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  50 States and even you Washington, DC, we're even going
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  to make sure we include you guys and gals out there.
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  So today we're at Montana and we've got Blaine Peterson from
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  Bozeman High School with us. Blaine, thanks for being here,
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  man. I really do appreciate you
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  stepping up and being the leader here for the great state of
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  Montana as we go through this state track meet project that
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  we're working on. Yeah, absolutely.
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  Thanks. Thanks Mike.
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  There's tons of great coaches in our state so I feel glad to
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  maybe represent and and hopefully it paint us all in a
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  good light here in the state. Yeah, no, no pressure, no
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  pressure at all. Well, why don't we start, Why
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  don't you give us kind of an introduction, a 32nd, 30,000
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  foot level of your experience there in Montana?
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  Yeah, so I've been at Bozeman High.
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  For this to be my 14th year here in the spring, I spent just nine
• 2:04
  years solely as our javelin coach.
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  Had a couple of state state champs, lots of state placers,
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  lots of kids go on to throw collegiately, which I'm take a
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  lot of pride in helping those kids get there.
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  And then this is my fifth year as the head coach.
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  I still coach some javelin but the last three years I've taken
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  over our sprints and relays and that's been a big change
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  learning process for me so. This last summer when did my
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  USATF Level 2 in the sprints, Turtles relays, which was a
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  great experience feeling, feeling good rolling into this
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  season. That's awesome.
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  I'm a huge coaching education advocate, so bravo to you to
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  going out and getting your level two, man.
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  That was a it was a big pivotal change in my when I coached in
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  my coaching career as well. So I'm.
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  I'm happy and proud of you for doing that, man.
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  That's awesome. Yeah, OK.
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  Montana, let's start with some states have a separate
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  overseeing body for public schools and a separate one for
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  private schools. Most states that we're learning,
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  everybody competes together. What do we do in Montana?
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  Private and public schools. So there are some.
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  Public you know faith-based schools in the state that do
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  compete with under the MHSA sanction which is our our state
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  state body. Then there are some that do not
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  but in the last few years with a with a push on you know
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  educational choice that parents and families have that we're
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  we're getting more you know home school athletes can compete in
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  in some states. And events and some some meets
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  and and waivers for that they can compete with our public
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  school track team and we're adding more more possibilities
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  for those those private schools and and and homeschool kids that
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  that can compete. A lot of times they will have to
• 3:56
  compete with an MHSA if their if their school is not MHSA
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  sanctioned, they would have to completely join our track
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  program to be to be. Competing at that level, but for
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  the most part, there's there's not a whole lot of of private
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  schools in the state. They're mostly mostly just a
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  bunch of public schools. Perfect.
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  Awesome. So let's get into how we qualify
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  for the outdoor state meeting. Actually, before that, how many
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  classes do we have? Typically, they're broken up by
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  size of school enrollment. How many do we have going on
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  there? We've got four in Montana, so we
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  go AA. AB and C are our
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  classifications, and so AA has 16 schools in it, A has 24
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  schools, B has 43, and then C is made-up of 100 schools.
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  So I'm gonna guess the AA are your large schools and your C
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  are your smaller enrollment schools.
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  Yeah, any. So this is interesting.
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  You know, some states go Division One, division two,
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  Division Three. Very common is A, AA, AAA,
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  quadruple A. You go double AABC.
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  Any reason that you know of? I have.
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  No, I've got. No, it's interesting.
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  I love it. OK, so we've got four classes.
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  So at our outdoor state meet, there are four boys teams that
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  are winning a state team title and there are four girls teams
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  that are winning a state team title.
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  All right, well, let's talk about how we get to that.
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  All around the country we have all these different names,
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  sectionals, area districts, regionals.
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  What's the first round that we have in Montana?
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  So it it kind of switches between so AA and A.
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  We only have divisional meets, so each AA and A have two
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  divisional conferences. They go to compete and then B&C
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  they each have a district round and then a divisional round and
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  then state. So the advancements through
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  those? Classes are different as well.
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  Each each class has kind of has its own autonomy to make
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  decisions for its class, which is nice.
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  This last year we as a AA conference decided to move our
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  top 8 placers at our divisional meets.
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  We'll go to State and then for the AB and C they have all got
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  the top six advance is the is. The is the reason why the B&C
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  have an extra rounds. They've got districts,
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  divisionals, State or A and AA have divisionals and State is
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  the extra round because they have more schools.
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  You said there was 43 and B and and 100 and C Is that to help
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  cut it down, if you will? Yep, exactly.
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  And so if we look at the divisional meets and B&C, the B
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  division has. There's three divisional meets,
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  so you'll have a guaranteed 18 kids in each event.
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  It'll go there and then. Class C has four divisional
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  meets, so you have a guaranteed 24 kids in each event there.
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  So talk to us about the first round first, so divisional for
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  the A and AA and then district for the B&C.
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  How do I not qualify? I'm typically allowed to enter
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  so many kids per event, or maybe as many as I want.
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  How many kids can I enter to to start working on the State
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  series? Yeah, absolutely.
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  You know, I'm not 100% sure on like the B&C for their.
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  And how they move through from their district meets the
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  divisional. For our AA, we can enter 5
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  athletes in in each event that each event that can can move on
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  and then some some other things that we do weird with our event
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  limitations. I know that the NFHS bumped up.
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  You know how many events an athlete can can participate in,
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  but in Montana, we've had. We've had higher entry limits
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  that has been governed by our our state body for years and
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  years. So at the state meet an athlete
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  could potentially compete in seven events, 55 individual and
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  two relays. And that goes goes for for all
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  four classes. That's interesting.
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  How is that? You know, I've heard when the
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  NFHS made their change, I actually heard more.
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  I'm going to call it negative towards that change.
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  Typically when the FHS changes, it's a positive, like
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  everybody's like, oh good, finally we can do XYZI heard
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  more pushback of like, hey, these kids are running too many
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  events already, yadda yadda. Montana has been doing this for
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  a while, it sounds like. So 5 individuals and two relays.
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  How's that been working out for the state of for your own
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  personal opinion? Yeah.
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  And and I guess I should clarify, we have that rule for
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  if it's a two day meet, so since state is a 2 day meet they can
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  do seven. If we're single day we can only
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  do do 5. But it for the most part it's,
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  it's good Our our state meet is a little condensed.
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  So I would like to see that expanded a little bit to give
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  some of those, you know, high level athletes who everybody
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  shows up to watch, you know the opportunity to compete in as as
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  many. Events at A at a high level as
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  possible with adequate rest and recovery and and that sort of
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  stuff that that seems like an important distinction there
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  though that that 5 + 2 is only open for a 2 day meet that
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  that's I think that's a it's a you know a lot of times we
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  asterisk stuff that seems like a big asterisk like hey you can
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  but it's got to be a two day that's that's interesting cool.
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  OK so divisional meet for the A and AA.
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  We can do 5 athletes per event. So I can enter 500 meter
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  runners, five shot putters, 5 javelin throwers, which that
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  must. And you were taking top eight
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  per event to the state meet to get 16.
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  So that must mean my all five of my kids could if we went one
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  through 5, all five would go to the state meet.
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  Correct. Yeah.
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  And we just have a little bit different on the B&C group
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  because they have districts first.
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  So when they get to divisionals, they're taking top six because
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  they have more divisional meats. Correct.
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  Yeah. That makes sense.
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  That makes a lot of sense. OK.
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  So let's talk about the state meet itself.
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  Where is it typically at? Is it held at the same place
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  every year? Traditionally, does it rotate
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  around? Is it a college facility, high
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  school facility? And you already said it's a two
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  day meet, so that was one of the other questions already.
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  If I could, sorry if I can go back and qualifying as well.
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  We do have qualifying standards as well to OK.
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  Get a LED with that. I'm sorry.
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  But yes, we've got qualifying standards that if you hit that
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  qualifying mark at any meet any point in the year, you know you
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  go to state. And so it's it's possible that
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  even though we in the AA are going to advance, you know a
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  total of 16 athletes from divisionals, we might have eight
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  more that are pre qualified in the 100 that might not run in
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  divisionals and so we could end up with 24 kids.
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  And that so and that's one thing that's kind of been contested
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  here and there. You know whether you get a a day
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  with a 23 mile an hour tailwind on the home stretch, you know
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  that makes a big difference for those, for those Marks and as
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  far as Wayne implements and and that sort of stuff.
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  But so every division has qualifying marks you can hit.
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  Those are examined every two years and they kind of base it
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  off of, you know? What makes finals at State so
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  kind of like 10th place at State and they get adjusted so, so we
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  have a let me make sure I'm stating that back.
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  So we're just to make up numbers.
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  We're going to say in the 100 that they have a time qualify
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  for the state of 1070. Let's let's just say it's 1070.
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  So if I run 10 better than 1070 anywhere in the quote UN quote,
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  regular season, I'm guaranteed to go to the state meet.
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  So that means I don't even have to run divisionals if I don't
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  want. Right.
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  OK, so that also means if I run better than two 10-70, but I do
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  run divisionals and I just have a bad day whether I fault, start
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  or trip in the middle, whatever. And I run 11 flat, but I already
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  ran better than 1070 so I'm still going to the state meet.
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  Still going Awesome. And that's and that's all events
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  pole vault, high jump, jab, all the yeah, that's cool.
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  That's an A distinction that's been coming up a lot as in our
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  series if you've been listening to all of them as we continue to
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  roll through all 51 here is how do we make sure the the more
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  talent it's hard to say stuff like this the more talented the
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  the better kids however you want to put those words still make it
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  to state meet if they have a a mix up at divisionals or prom or
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  AP testing. There's a lot of things that are
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  going on in this spring time for us.
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  All right, cool. And and you said all divisions
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  have that A all the way AA, all the way down to C.
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  Yep, Yep. They've all got individual
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  standards, obviously, because our, our, you know, bigger
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  schools are going to have some faster hunger kids, but not
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  always. But yeah, yeah, each each
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  division has their own qualifying standards.
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  Very cool. Now, time to go to the venue.
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  Yep. Perfect.
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  All right, what do we got? No good.
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  What do? We got, we rotate around.
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  Typically two classes will be at a state meet, so we will have
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  two state meets. It's typically always Memorial
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  Day weekend, so. Typically we'll rotate AA will
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  be either with B or C and then Class A will B with the other
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  one. Two years ago we had AA and A
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  together. We tried it out which it worked
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  just fine. And those venues kind of rotate
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  around the state. You know our tourism dollars
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  here in Montana are important and and getting events in on
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  weekends or you know fill in hotel rooms and you know.
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  Having busy restaurants and stuff is a is a big thing for
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  some of the bigger bigger cities in the state.
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  So we kind of rotate around and the state meets are awarded to
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  different different communities every you know there's usually
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  five that would host the AA state meet and then those kind
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  of rotate through. But we've got a lot of great
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  venues in the in the states. All of them are held at high
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  schools. You know, we've got University
• 14:34
  of Montana, Montana State. Here as well, but we don't host
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  the state championships there all at all at high school
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  venues. Yeah, very cool.
• 14:43
  A lot of states are adding adaptive or wheelchair events.
• 14:47
  Anything like that yet in Montana?
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  Yeah. So we have you know started
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  COVID year it was my first year we've MHSA has a partnership
• 14:57
  with Special Olympics Montana. So we us Bozeman the two Bozeman
• 15:02
  high schools and two Great Falls high schools were kind of the
• 15:05
  first ones to jump in with with unified track and field.
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  So we we run unified 4 by 1 relays.
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  So we have two unified partners and two two Special Olympics
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  athletes that get to go out and compete and then at the state
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  meet this year we've also they can run the.
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  Have a unified open 100 and have the long jump and the shot put
• 15:30
  as well too and so, so our practices we will have our all
• 15:38
  of our unified partners. We had six this last year that
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  will come to practice every Friday and then we had two, two
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  of our Special Olympics athletes that came to practice for this
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  every day, which was great and incredible and and for those.
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  Special Olympics athletes to kind of take off their, you know
• 15:57
  special Special Olympics uniform and to be able to put on their
• 16:00
  high school colors and compete on the same track and and be in
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  the same practice with you know their kids they've grown up with
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  is just so important to them. And it's really, really proud of
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  our state for for adding that and and continuing to to improve
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  that. I would agree that is extremely
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  cool. I love that you know track and
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  field is the most inclusive sport there is.
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  So I I love that. Bravo to the state of Montana.
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  The coaches there, that's awesome.
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  With our four classes we have 4 individual 100 meter state
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  champs, 4 individual pole vault champions and maybe they don't
• 16:39
  always. They don't get to compete
• 16:40
  against each other at the state meet some states are doing,
• 16:43
  whether it's an official or sometimes a coaches association
• 16:46
  will do an unofficial meet of champions where you know maybe
• 16:49
  the top two in each event from all the four classes get
• 16:52
  together. You find out who the quote UN
• 16:54
  quote real state champion is. Anything like that there?
• 16:57
  We don't. The state used to do that.
• 17:01
  It was an an unofficial one. But I I don't, I couldn't tell
• 17:06
  you the last time that it was held.
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  And just the tricky part with Montana is you know how huge we
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  are. It takes, you know, 11 hours to
• 17:16
  drive across the state and so to to get all those.
• 17:21
  The kids that sometimes have to travel from way the northeast
• 17:24
  corner of the state in for for another meet could be could be a
• 17:28
  tough thing. I don't know if it's, you know
• 17:31
  us as a coaches coaches group for a AA.
• 17:33
  We haven't really talked about that at all.
• 17:35
  But it it would be something that would be be really cool,
• 17:38
  really fun. That's a great point.
• 17:40
  Yeah, we, we tend to think that, you know, we have 50 states, 51
• 17:44
  associations with Washington, DC It's like, well, they should all
• 17:46
  do the same thing. Well, what works in little Rhode
• 17:49
  Island and what works in Montana because of just the just for the
• 17:52
  size, not even population, just the sheer area of the meet would
• 17:57
  not necessarily work. So I appreciate that reminder
• 18:00
  there. That's awesome.
• 18:01
  OK, let's talk about the individual events.
• 18:03
  I want to ask you, what are the unique events that you do, But
• 18:06
  they're not unique to you, you just do them.
• 18:07
  So we're going to kind of go through them in little bunches
• 18:09
  and groups here and get see what you do there.
• 18:11
  So we can assume you're doing the 102 hundred, 400 and 800,
• 18:15
  right? OK.
• 18:16
  What about in the mile two mile? Are you doing the 16, the 32,
• 18:19
  the mile two mile, the fifteen 3000?
• 18:21
  What are you doing there? 16 and 32 OK?
• 18:24
  That's the most common for the hurdles.
• 18:26
  You're doing both the 110 highs and the 100 highs for the boys
• 18:30
  and girls. We're doing probably 300 hurdles
• 18:33
  for boys and girls. All right, perfect relays.
• 18:35
  Now here's where we get a little sometimes special.
• 18:38
  We're definitely doing the four by one and four by four because
• 18:40
  I'm going to make the same. If you're listening to all fifty
• 18:41
  of these, you're going to hear this same joke every time.
• 18:44
  Because if you're not doing the four by one and the four by
• 18:46
  four, you're not really doing track and field, and you
• 18:48
  wouldn't be on this podcast. You're definitely doing those
• 18:50
  two. Any other relays?
• 18:53
  Not officially. So we we have gotten an OK this
• 18:57
  last year to start running the four by 8 at.
• 19:01
  Our hosted meets, but it won't be a state, a state meet event
• 19:04
  or anything like that. Just to kind of give it a slow
• 19:07
  roll out, but with the idea to eventually add it I assume to
• 19:11
  the state meet. Plan.
• 19:15
  Yep. So yeah, just working on the
• 19:17
  four by eight this year. So we officially got the four by
• 19:19
  one and four by four, and we're working on the 4 by 8.
• 19:22
  That's it. That's awesome.
• 19:23
  I love that. All right, let's go to the field
• 19:24
  of its we've got long jump and triple jump.
• 19:27
  Yep. Shot, put and discus.
• 19:29
  Yep, pole vault and high jump. Yep.
• 19:32
  And you gave us a preview because you told us you were the
• 19:34
  javelin coach, so we know we got javelin.
• 19:36
  Yep. What other events might we have
• 19:38
  that I haven't mentioned for the state meet?
• 19:42
  That's it. Yep.
• 19:43
  OK. No hammer steeple.
• 19:44
  There's a couple of us doing some things like that.
• 19:46
  OK, what about, you know, I mentioned the, you know,
• 19:50
  possibility of a meet up champions.
• 19:51
  Some states do an unofficial state meet for these unique
• 19:55
  events, like Alabama does the heptathlon and decathlon after
• 20:00
  anything like that in Montana. No, no.
• 20:05
  OK, that makes sense. Again, you know, I as soon as
• 20:07
  you say that, I think about the big state again, I'm like, well,
• 20:09
  no, that'd be truly hard even for that.
• 20:11
  I get that. All right.
• 20:12
  Before we move on to some fun stuff, is there anything that we
• 20:14
  missed? Anything that's unique?
• 20:16
  Especially you've got all the other states listening to you
• 20:19
  right now. What else might we have missed
• 20:21
  that you do there uniquely for track and field in Montana.
• 20:26
  You know maybe maybe nothing crazy unique but I just love our
• 20:31
  state meet where we get to go and see all the best athletes in
• 20:34
  the state. You know kind of put on a pestle
• 20:37
  and give it an opportunity to shine.
• 20:38
  And and we've had some incredible athletes come out of
• 20:41
  our state of a of a million population and I love to see it
• 20:45
  from my own my own athletes and athletes all across the across
• 20:49
  the state. Just to see them come from a
• 20:52
  place for Montana where you know we've got 20 inches of snow on
• 20:55
  the ground the third week of of spring practice and and still be
• 20:58
  able to come out and persevere through hard stuff like that and
• 21:02
  and you know, having incredible seasons and just be incredible
• 21:05
  athletes all the way around. That that alone is amazing, my
• 21:09
  friend. Right there alone.
• 21:11
  All right, let's have a little bit of fun.
• 21:12
  Help us settle an argument, at least in your area, your region,
• 21:16
  your culture, maybe your team. When you're talking about the
• 21:20
  state meet, do you talk about we're qualifying for state?
• 21:22
  Are we qualifying for states? Or are we qualifying for the
• 21:25
  state meet? How?
• 21:26
  How do you say it? We would say qualified for the
• 21:29
  state meet. State meet OK qualifier yeah.
• 21:33
  All right. Love it.
• 21:34
  Good. I hope.
• 21:35
  I know someone is going to keep a tally of all 51 of this and
• 21:38
  see who who wins of this. OK, man.
• 21:41
  Blaine, you've done an amazing job.
• 21:42
  Appreciate you very much for stepping up and representing
• 21:45
  Montana. So you get a little bit of a
• 21:46
  reward here. I'm going to give you a magic
• 21:48
  wand if you could change one and only one thing.
• 21:52
  Blaine in the system for Montana.
• 21:55
  Whether it's at an event, make it a three day meet, whatever.
• 21:59
  Don't want to put words in your mouth.
• 22:00
  What would you change for the positive there in Montana?
• 22:05
  Outdoor track and field. If I'm only getting one thing I
• 22:08
  can change it would be to expand the time frame of our state
• 22:13
  meet. To start we we host pole vault
• 22:18
  on a Thursday night and that's the only thing that goes there
• 22:20
  just for weather, just to make sure we have enough time to get
• 22:23
  vaults in. But I would love to see some
• 22:25
  other events added that night, like the 3200 or maybe long
• 22:30
  jumps of those jumpers and sprinters aren't overlapping and
• 22:34
  you know, coming off the 200 and having to go jump finals in the
• 22:36
  long jump. So it would be to expand expand
• 22:42
  the time frame we have for our state meet.
• 22:44
  You're already doing something on Thursday and you have this
• 22:48
  rule of five individuals +2 relays.
• 22:50
  So why don't we use that Thursday a little bit more?
• 22:53
  It doesn't have to be half the meet, but why don't we throw a
• 22:55
  few extra events in there, Especially maybe when you add
• 22:58
  that 4 by 8 in there as well. So Yep, absolutely.
• 23:02
  That makes that makes a lot of sense.
• 23:03
  That's very that was very reasonable of you.
• 23:06
  There was no, you know I want to add the 10K or anything like
• 23:08
  that. So I appreciate that very much.
• 23:11
  Blaine, thank you again so much. Really do appreciate you.
• 23:14
  Very grateful for you stepping up for the state of Montana.
• 23:16
  As you are listening along, join us tomorrow.
• 23:18
  We're going to continue all the way all through April, April,
• 23:21
  all through May. So this is your first one.
• 23:23
  You got states A through M to catch up here on Montana.
• 23:27
  But we're going to continue learning and finding out the
• 23:29
  uniqueness of each state and join us every single day.
• 23:32
  Thanks everybody.