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BONUS: Delaware State Meet featuring Mike Tucci from Caesar Rodney HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
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  In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
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  understanding around the country, we're going to be
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  running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
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  school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
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  DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
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  state. We'll be talking with a local
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  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
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  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
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  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
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  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.
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  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
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  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
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  run through each state with a local state expert.
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  So let's get started right now. All right, Let's head to the
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  First State. Let's head to Delaware.
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  And we've got coach Mike Tucci with us today.
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  Mike, thanks for being here. Don't you start with an
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  introduction of yourself, please?
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  Well, thanks Mike. I've been coaching track and
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  field on and off since 2005. I've been head coach.
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  I'm an assistant coach. I can pretty much do it all.
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  St. Cred 2014 Boys Track Coach of
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  the Year for the State of Delaware.
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  I'd love to do it again someday. We'll see how the kids do with
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  that one. And I guess that's it for now.
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  That's good, that's good. St.
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  Craig, you know Coach of the Year means you must have
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  qualified some kids to state. So you've been through this
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  process as we work towards learning every different state
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  and how they they qualify. So let's get with Delaware here.
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  Let's start with in Delaware. Is there a some states have a
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  separate private school track and then a separate public
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  school. Others, they both compete
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  against each other all the way through the state meet.
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  What do we got going on in Delaware?
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  Public school versus private school.
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  It's all combined in Delaware. Public, private, charter,
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  parochial. Whatever it is, it's all
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  combined. We're a small state.
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  Yeah, that's true. I was going to say don't make it
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  complicated in yourself, right? That's a good point.
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  OK. So small state, how many classes
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  are we working with in Delaware for a state meet?
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  Just just two, just a large schools where we take the 17
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  largest districts and then everybody else is in the other
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  division like Division One, big schools and division two for
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  everybody else. OK.
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  That's what I was going to ask. Division One, Division two.
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  That's how you call it. Yeah, I'm always been in
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  Division One. Our schools, usually.
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  Biggest or second largest in the state as far as enrollment goes.
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  So we're we're never going to leave that.
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  So we take the 32 largest districts, they're Division One
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  and then everybody else goes in Division two.
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  We've got kind of a small school, big school.
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  Just 17 districts. Just 1717, yeah.
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  What did I say? Like 27 or something?
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  Yeah, 17. 32 or something like that.
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  That might be all. That might be all you have them
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  in it. Started it was just 15 and
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  overtime with more schools developing, especially charters,
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  they bumped at the 17. Got it.
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  So we have two state meets, then we have a Division One state
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  meet and a division two state meet.
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  How do we qualify? What's the first round?
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  What do we call it? Area districts, regional
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  sectionals? There's all these different
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  names. What do we start with in
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  Delaware? Pretty simple.
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  There's a standard to meet and if you hit it, you're in for the
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  state. Period.
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  Yeah. If you hit it at you go to an
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  Invitational last week of March and you hit it, you're in.
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  So we'll use. That is simple.
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  So there's the whole podcast right there, guys.
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  Thanks for joining us. All right.
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  So in the 100, I'm just going to make up a mark.
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  Let's say it's 11 flat. If a kid runs 11 flat at any
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  point in the regular season, they go to the state meet.
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  As long as it's FAT, yes, we still have a lot of, we have a
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  lot of smaller schools in the state.
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  So when we have dual meets, for example, we still have hand
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  times and then we get into conversion factors and that sort
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  of thing. Are those allowed?
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  Oh yeah, they're allowed. I try to get every kid I can't
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  qualified and Invitational style meet so no one can dispute
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  anything. But if someone runs 11 flat, you
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  know, 1099 rounds up to 11 flat, they can convert it to 1124 and
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  that gets right. That's. 91, also 11 flat.
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  You know how it is. Oh yeah.
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  Well, I do not everybody. You have 1091, 1099 still 11
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  flat if it's a hand time and then we go to 1124 right?
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  And is does that mean if again using that, just saying it's 11
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  flat for right now, if 100 kids run better than 11 flat, 100
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  kids are going to the state meet or do they have a cut off of the
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  top 24 top 50? Theoretically, theoretically,
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  yes. But the standards are set in
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  such a way that that doesn't happen.
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  They look at it every few years and they look at like, I think
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  the top three or the top five times every so many years.
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  And they take the average of that and make that the automatic
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  standard. Now what they have done in the
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  past is have a. You're definitely in standard,
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  like an automatic standard. And they have like a provisional
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  where they want to make sure they fill 2 heats, you know, for
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  the prelims. Yeah, I was going to ask the
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  opposite side of that question. Let's say only one kid makes the
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  automatic time. Do they fill in?
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  Yeah, we'll fill in for the spring.
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  But I noticed, I noticed about spring track, not about winter,
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  but in winter they make it strict enough that they only
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  have their minimum number of heats because that's a one day
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  thing in our winter season, right?
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  Yeah, yeah. Winter can be different because
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  not only the amount of indoor facilities which you know
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  Delaware is trying to to change that by the way, which I know
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  you know about, but then outdoor it's also an outdoor venue.
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  So we can have more athletes does that automatic time and
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  then the fill in time if you will is that for every event?
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  Is there any differences for the distance events or field events?
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  There's there's a few differences.
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  One, no matter how many. Athletes on your team qualify
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  for an event. You can only enter three of them
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  in the actual meet. Oh, interesting.
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  So let's say I had 8-8 guys qualify for the 1600.
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  Why couldn't run them? Mike had to pick three of them,
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  right? That's a little strategic value
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  to it, too, if you're looking at team points for sure.
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  Excuse me. Yeah, we're both we're both
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  coughing here, Mike. That's.
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  All right. I'm sorry, what was the
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  second-half of the question? No, no, that's that's good.
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  And then with those two state meets, are they held at the same
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  venue or they at different venues?
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  It's all same. Two days, same venue and they
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  just alternate between the two divisions and the genders.
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  Yeah, for example, Division 2 girls, Division two boys,
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  Division One girls, Division One boys.
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  Athletes get the recovery that way too, for sure.
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  Is it typically at the same venue, and if so, which which
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  one? Last several years it's been at
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  Dover High School in Delaware. They look for, they try to find
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  a location central to most schools in the state that can
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  handle the parking and handle the spectators.
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  My school used to be host for a long time and then we had a
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  renovation happen with their buildings and adding space, so
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  it went to Dover next because they just built a new facility.
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  So they've been hosting it for a number of years.
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  I don't mind it. It's nice.
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  They're in our conference, so we get to see the tractor in the
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  regular season. Yeah, that always helps.
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  So we've got no, we've got two classes, Division One, Division
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  Two. We have no sectionals, area
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  regionals, divisionals, all that.
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  We have a qualifying standard. If you hit that standard, you're
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  going to the state meet. We do have a caveat.
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  You can only have three from your team and each event, which
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  I like that. That's interesting to help
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  spread it, not spread it out, but be strategic for that.
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  That makes a lot of sense. Yep.
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  And then we're in Dover and we have a two day meet.
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  We're all four meets. The two boy meets and the two
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  girl meets all happen in one weekend.
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  What else do we need to know about the the state meet?
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  Is it? Really.
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  Well, we're a small state. We're small states.
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  So Delaware, I think it's pretty unique in that there's no
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  qualifying standard for relays. Oh wait, hold on.
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  Now that's a. That's a unique one.
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  Yeah, interesting because. The feeling right now is we're a
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  small state. There should be a way to get
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  everybody involved and keep the support growing.
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  So because of that, it's always been that way.
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  As long as I've been in Delaware anyway, Relays.
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  You can enter one no matter what.
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  So do we have? You have a time you put in and
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  they'll, you know, they'll see the heats obviously
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  appropriately. But what what relay events do we
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  have for the state? Meet oh Delaware. 4 by 104 by
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  204 by 404 by 800 Wow. So we're we're four relays,
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  state team and all four of those relays no matter what the there
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  is no qualifying time. If I if I want to give my kids
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  the state meet experience, no matter what their level is, I
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  can enter them in a four by 84 by 1.
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  Going around A4 by 8 and you know first place teams running
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  No 8 flat and the slowest team that stays running 15 minutes
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  while they can still compete. I like.
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  That one, it's it's nice. It's a small state.
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  We can afford to do that. And then it's also filled to the
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  timing of the meat as far as rest between events, that sort
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  of thing. It helps a little bit with that
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  as well. Yeah, I like that with the
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  unique, This is why we started this series was, you know, every
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  state is different for a lot of different reasons, whether it's
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  weather, whether it's the size of the state with it's the size
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  of participation. So I like this extreme
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  uniqueness of hey, if you no matter what, if you want to get
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  a, if you want to put a relay team at the state meet, you can
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  do so. I like that.
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  That's great. That's really cool.
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  I mean, obviously we can do it because they're small, like New
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  Jersey, for example. They have over 500 school
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  districts. They're not going to do that,
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  right? They can't meet with take all
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  day, right? Yeah, that's very cool.
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  Well, Speaking of that uniqueness, when we look at the
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  quote UN quote standard events, the 12484 by 1, 4x4 etcetera,
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  you already mentioned one kind of unique event, the four by
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  two. Not every state runs the four by
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  two. Any other unique events or maybe
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  an event you don't do, I don't let's make sure you do all the,
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  the the standard ones, triple jump pole vaulting and all that
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  kind of stuff. What's unique maybe about the
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  events there in Delaware? Not a whole lot, I don't think.
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  You know, 12481632, no, we don't do a 15 or a 3000, we do 1632.
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  I know it's like some neighboring states do that.
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  I think we have one. No, no Javelin in Delaware.
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  Insurance issues. Too many kids walk in front of
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  them, catch them with their heads.
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  But you do discus. We do discus and shot put.
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  Yes, we have 110 hurdles for the boys and 100 for the girls.
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  And we also have a 300. Yep.
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  OK All right. So pretty standard.
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  Just a long triple, just a four by two.
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  I guess that's the strange one, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Not every state, several states, but not every state on that one.
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  Anything that you do special after the state meet?
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  Some states will hold a multis meet or a hammer meet, anything
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  like that. We have a currently we have a
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  meet of champions where we take the top so many from each
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  division and they go headtohead for Allstate honors.
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  And it's not always a big schools that win, either.
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  So in are you saying it's, are you saying in the long jump they
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  take the four from Division One, in the top four from division
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  two and and run as a meet the next weekend?
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  Well, it's usually, yeah, it's usually probably about a week
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  apart or a few days after the state meet.
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  I forget the exact timing. It's Oh yeah, probably a few
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  days after it, maybe the Wednesday or Thursday after the
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  state meet. But in the past you've taken, I
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  guess, the top two in each division.
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  And then like the fill heat, they'll take the next four best
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  no matter what. Oh, OK, yeah, that makes more,
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  more sense. Just take the two and the two
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  and then the next. So many, yeah, yeah, or less.
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  Show one and one and I just don't remember, but that's how
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  you do it. Do they crown A-Team state
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  champion from that meet of champs as well?
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  Is that all individual base? All individual and athletes can
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  up in or out and they declare ahead of time for that sure.
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  So they can't show up to me and say, well, I wanted to do 16 and
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  the 8:00 and 8:00 looks crowded. Forget it.
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  They all the participants get a T-shirt then too.
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  They like the T-shirts because it shows everybody they were.
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  They were good that year. Very cool.
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  Any hammer throw or unofficial multi meat or anything like
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  that? Nothing, nothing like that.
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  I mean, when I do travel out of state, I mean, if you go to
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  Pennsylvania, they have javelin, right?
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  I mean, I would let a kid, you know, athlete try that event.
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  A little bit of practice, but not a Delaware is a no.
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  No, I just steeplechase on the sides.
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  Yeah, we've been to meet in DC before Washington, DC, and
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  they've had steeplechase. I'll just throw some kids in
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  there that love it. I may have to make up a standard
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  for, I don't know, but they get in there not last.
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  So am I best to get something right?
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  That's right. Good.
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  All right, Well, help us settle an argument.
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  What's the culture there in Delaware?
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  Do you qualify for the state meet or do you qualify for
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  states? I hear people stay with ways in
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  Delaware, actually not being a Delaware native, haven't moved
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  here. I got thinking about this now.
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  Do we qualify for States Coach? I really want to qualify for
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  States Coach. I can't believe I qualify for
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  the state meet. I guess if I say it's qualified
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  for states more than a state meet, yeah, I think so.
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  I think that's what I said with states always.
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  I don't know why it was always a plural states just one word very
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  good. I.
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  Mean I didn't do track and field in high school.
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  Believe it or not, yeah. Did that pick it up in college?
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  So, oh, nice. Love it.
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  OK, Mike, end us out here If you could change one.
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  If you had a magic wand and you could only change one thing
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  about your state qualifying system and state meet, what
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  might that look like? This might be a little
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  controversial. Semi Delaware colleagues, I
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  would separate public and private.
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  You would do that the way we talked about the beginning?
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  I mean, I think. Because we are a small state,
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  it'd be nice to say that every athlete, that student athlete
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  that wins, is a Delaware resident.
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  Sometimes we get some overlap from private schools in other
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  States and you know, maybe we did youngsters from
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  Pennsylvania, but they go to school in Delaware and that rubs
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  some people the wrong way. I'm offered for the best of the
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  best up against each other, but I think.
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  Yeah, I don't know how to record all this, but let's say this.
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  Conflict in the past. How's that?
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  There we go. That's perfect.
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  Well, that's good. If you could change that, that
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  might be the, the change we make out there.
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  Mike Tucci, thank you so much for representing the state of
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  Delaware here. As we continue to go through the
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  50 States and find out the uniquenesses.
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  I love this Meet a champs that you have that's super unique.
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  And I really like this relay thing.
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  I know that might not work for every state, but I really like
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  that it works there in Delaware. So Mike, thank you so much for
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  being here today and representing Delaware.
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  Thanks, Mike.