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BONUS: Alaska State Meet featuring Melissa Hall from Chugiak 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?
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  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
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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.
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  As we continue our series here, going through every state,
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  including you, Washington, DC, we're at #2 here.
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  We're at Alaska. And I'm super excited by this
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  because I've actually never been to Alaska.
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  So I don't know how you have all these stereotypes of Alaska,
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  right? It's always snowing and it's
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  always dark and everything. But we're going to learn more
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  about the state system there in Alaska.
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  So help me welcome Coach Hall from Chugiak High School.
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  Melissa, thanks for being here. I really appreciate you stepping
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  up and representing the state of Alaska for us today.
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  Why don't you start with an 30,000 foot level introduction
• 1:42
  of yourself? Ah, Okay.
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  My name is Melissa Hall. I have been a track coach at
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  UGAC High School. It's the only high school I've
• 1:51
  coached at here in Alaska since 2011 was my first year.
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  I started out as the assistant coach under a great, great guy,
• 2:00
  and when he moved to Montana, he passed the baton on to me, so to
• 2:05
  speak. And so I've been head coach
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  there since. I think it was 2013, could have
• 2:10
  been 2014, I can't remember, but been been part of the Mustang
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  family for a long time and really love the job.
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  I've been working also as assistant coach and cohead coach
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  at different times throughout the year throughout the years as
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  cross country coach as well. So that's a that's an in
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  addition to the track, I'm also president of the USA Track and
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  Field Alaska Association. So we help run.
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  Offseason meets for most people, you know, they run their all
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  comers and that kind of thing in the summer, but we do most of
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  ours in the winter because we have an indoor track.
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  We're lucky enough to have an indoor track here in Alaska and
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  we get to do some indoor meets in the in the winter.
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  Get kids prepped for the spring season.
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  Awesome. Love that.
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  Very thorough. I love that you're involved in
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  USATF as well as the high school side of things and been doing it
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  for quite a while. That's awesome.
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  Great to have you here and helping us learn us, teach us
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  the Alaskan way if you will. So let's start.
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  Some states not all, have a separate track for private and
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  public schools, a different like organization that oversees them.
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  They go to a private school state meet and we have public
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  school states meets. How are we doing this in Alaska?
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  Private and public schools. Well, the private schools, they
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  have some great runners by the way, and athletes.
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  They actually run with the public schools, so they might be
• 3:34
  in like Region 3, depending on where they are.
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  They might be in different regions throughout the school
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  and then at the state meet they'll compete with.
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  They're competing with equally sized schools as opposed to
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  having their own individual meets.
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  So everybody's going towards the same state title that regardless
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  of your public or private school.
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  Exactly. There's two different divisions.
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  But yeah, say they're both going.
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  It's all happening at the same meet.
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  Yeah, perfect. Okay, you might have answered
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  this next question. So how many divisions or classes
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  or what do you call it do we have there in Alaska?
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  So we have region one and region Division One and division two,
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  sorry about that. And Division One of the larger
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  schools like Chugiac or one of the larger schools and division
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  two or the smaller schools and what's interesting about Alaska
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  is that. You know, by smaller schools we
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  have some of the private schools, but then we also have
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  some of the schools that are in the villages and they might have
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  six kids in their class, but they can also apply or they can
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  also qualify as well. So it's kind of neat to see them
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  be able to compete on a larger stage when you said six kids,
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  six kids on the team or six kids in the school.
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  Sometimes six kids on the team. Some of the the school teams are
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  very small, but we've had some incredible athletes come out of
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  these smaller schools. For example, Delta Junction is
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  one small community and their high school is a little bit
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  bigger, but it's still very remote school.
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  It's on the road system. But Hayley Williams, one of our
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  fastest 100 and 200 meter runners in the state, she's now
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  at Notre Dame. So you get some great athletes
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  who figure out a way to run on. Run airline run airport runways
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  or, you know, in their back fields to make their way to the
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  state meet. So it's kind of cool, awesome.
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  Love that. So we're A2 and we call them
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  divisions, A2 division, state. We got large schools and I hate
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  to say small schools, but large school, small school division.
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  So we're doing two boys state team titles and two girls state
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  team title championship teams. Correct.
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  Okay. Perfect.
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  Now how do we get to that state meet?
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  Before we start talking about the state meet, how do we
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  actually get there all across the country of these different
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  names, areas, sectionals, districts, all these sectionals,
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  all these different names? What's the first round of
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  qualifying for this Alaska State meeting?
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  So I'm going to tell you what we do in region in the Cook Inlet
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  region. So the Cook Inlet conference is
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  made-up of eight schools. And to qualify for regions, you
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  have to be do you just want state or regions?
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  Because it's slightly different for qualifying for regions for
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  each of the region. Yeah, whatever the first one.
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  So if regions is the first meeting out of regions, they go
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  to state or sectionals, whatever next.
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  Yeah, whatever that first round is.
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  So for our region, we have to we take the top.
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  Three, we have it. We have a seven-year average the
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  kids have to meet. So every event has, you know if
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  you meet this average you will qualify for regions.
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  If we get 10 kids who can qualify in that event for
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  regions, then we can take all of all eight of them to regions.
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  For instance, our 400 meter runners Girls Pat this past
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  year. Qualified I believe 6 into the
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  400 in the 800 we had like seven or something like that.
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  So but but in general you can only take three.
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  So if you have say the cutoff for the 400 is 104 for the girls
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  and you have 6 girls that can run 104, you can send six girls
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  in. If you have only two girls that
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  run 104 and one that runs 106, she's our, she's our #3 and so
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  you're talking about per team getting into the actual, yeah,
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  perfect okay. So each team can enter three
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  kids per event, but there's also the seven-year average that if
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  you have additionals 4567 eights, they can also sue.
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  Like you said, if you have eight quarter milers and they all
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  break that seven-year average, they can get to go to the region
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  meet. Exactly.
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  And that average is updated every year.
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  In fact, we're due for an update this year.
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  So then to move on to the state meet.
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  The way it works is you have to win your event so it regions.
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  If our girl wins the 400, then she automatically gets a birth
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  to state. We have 4 areas that can
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  qualify. So we know that the Southeast
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  kids are going to get to that region's going to get to bring
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  their top qualifier. Fairbanks area is going to be
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  able to bring their top qualifier.
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  And then the Region 3, which is the Kenai Peninsula, and some of
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  those areas will bring their top qualifier and then we bring our
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  so that's the top four and it's the next 12 best times
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  regardless of where they come from.
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  So we might have a Juno girl running a 107 and even though
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  her 107 is slower than a 17th place 105, that 17th place kid
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  doesn't get in. That's interesting.
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  Let me make sure I'm gonna say it back.
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  Make sure I'm understanding. So you have 4 regions.
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  We learned how to how we actually get kids to the region
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  meet. We have 4 regions.
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  The winner of each event is going to go to state meet.
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  So that gets us four that locks down four lanes and then they
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  they accumulate all the the data from all four regions and they
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  take I'm sorry I missed it, the next 12.
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  So they take the next 12. That's interesting because one
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  of the bigger complaints I maybe is the best way to say it is
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  when a kid is out of a tough region so they don't get first,
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  second, third or fourth or you know however many, they might
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  take the state there at their state, but they run over faster
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  time than the other people that are auto qualifying and they sit
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  home. That's the far cry.
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  Our best athletes aren't going. This is kind of a way to
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  mitigate that. So winning matters.
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  So our winners are going to go and then time matters.
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  We're going to take the next 12 or play or distances for our
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  field of inners and they're going to go to stadium.
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  So we're taking 16 to the the top 16.
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  Yeah. And the Alaska State Activities
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  Association is the organization that kind of controls the way
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  this is operated at the state level and not I think I'm
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  speaking on on their behalf and saying that this is an effort to
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  represent some of those areas that don't don't have.
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  Clear tracks soon enough. I mean, Fairbanks for instance,
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  they don't get to compete unless they're coming down to Anchorage
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  to compete in our indoor Dome. So the schools that are closer
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  to the Anchorage area definitely have an advantage because
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  there's indoor competition available.
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  SE generally doesn't have as much snow, so they melt out a
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  little sooner. So there's just, you know,
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  Alaska is so geographically huge and has such different weather
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  happening that athletes can be limited by things that are
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  outside of their control. I love that.
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  You know, again, part of the reason we wanted to do this
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  pretty audacious project here, get 50 + 1 DC coaches was to
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  learn just how different you we think of track as just this
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  global. You know, everybody does the
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  same events and we're all trying to get the state meeting yet.
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  Yeah, what happens in Alaska is different than what happens in
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  South Carolina, New Mexico, DC, etcetera.
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  So this is fascinating. Thank you for that.
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  Unless that's awesome. So let's talk about this
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  statement. You're talking about snow.
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  Typically a state meet is in May or June.
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  What is that correct for Alaska? Or do we have to do it earlier
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  or later? Yes.
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  So our season starts at the beginning of March, sometimes
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  end of February, depending on when things are scheduled by
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  ASA, which is the Alaska State Activities Association and.
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  We don't have an indoor season, so even though we have an indoor
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  Dome, we don't technically call it an indoor season.
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  It's just that's where we compete until the snow melts.
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  This past year, for instance, we had outdoor meat scheduled that
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  we couldn't do because the snow snowpack was so high that it it
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  just took a while. So we compete all the way
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  through till regions, which is generally around the third week
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  of May and then Memorial Day weekend is our state meet
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  schools out by then. So, you know, we have to.
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  Big Borrow and steal people's kids and beg their parents not
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  to send them on vacations yet so that they can hang around for
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  the state meet. When you do those indoor meets,
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  do those times and distances qualify for regions as well?
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  Yes, those qualify and we have a six lane indoor track that we
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  use. It's a little bit oversized
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  actually. It's a 400 and.
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  X meters. I can't remember just because of
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  the way it was structured to accommodate the soccer for the
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  indoor soccer field. But yeah, those will count.
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  I wondered if you because you probably have a lot of indoor
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  meets and sometimes can have a ton of indoor meets because of
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  weather, so those times should count for the outdoor state meet
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  there. Yeah, makes sense.
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  OK, so this state meet, where are we hosting the do we do we
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  got two divisions here, Division One, Division two.
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  Do they go to their own separate venues?
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  Do we have one venue? Is it a traditionally the same
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  venue every year? Does it rotate?
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  What? What are we doing here?
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  The way the state meets work out is it's both Division One and
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  division two will compete at the same time.
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  So say the 3200 is the first event on the 1st the first
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  running event on the first day they'll run you know the boys
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  small school and then girls, boys large school and then girls
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  small school, girls large school which would be division two,
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  Division One, Division One is the larger schools that they
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  they're all competing at the same time.
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  So sometimes you know your state champion the person with the.
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  Individual fastest time might be from the smallest school, but
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  both of those people say it's the top boy in the 3200.
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  In each of those, they each get a state title, so it's held at
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  the same time. Hold on, let me make sure I
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  heard that right. For the boys 3200, are you
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  running division two and Division One in the same race?
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  No, you're doing separately, Okay.
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  I just want to make sure I heard that right.
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  But you're saying the small school champion could be faster
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  or throw farther than the the large school?
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  Yeah, perfect. Okay, How many days keep going?
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  Same venue. Is it the same venue every year?
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  And how many days are we doing this over?
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  So it's not the same venue every year.
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  It depends on which school district gets the bid to have
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  that meet, and it's generally. I believe a three-year cycle
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  could could be 4, but I'm pretty sure it's a three-year cycle
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  where they have that meet held at that venue and one particular
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  school within that school district that that put the bid
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  into. ASA will be hosting that meet.
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  It's two days in the past during my coaching time, I believe they
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  tried three day at one point. But two days is what it
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  currently is and that's usually, you know, one of the jumps, one
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  of the throws and then the 3200. And prelims and all of that.
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  And then the next day flips on the field events and then goes
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  to the main running event finals and typically happens at a high
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  school, not, you know, we have Alaska Fairbank with some
• 14:27
  schools up there but not a not a college facility.
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  There is no college facility here at the Dome would be
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  considered University of Alaska Anchorages.
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  That's where they practice, but they don't have their own track,
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  OK. I assume cuz I know about the
• 14:39
  Dome, I assume they had an outdoor facility as well.
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  But I guess when you have that big old Dome, maybe you don't up
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  there, that makes sense. We.
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  Still dream. That's right, exactly before we
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  get into the individual events and see what you do.
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  Unique there. Sometimes after the official
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  state meet whether it's a state of track coaches association or
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  just a group of people get together and they do some
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  unofficial state me to have tap on the cap on or hammer or
• 15:04
  anything like that. Meet a champions.
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  Anything like that in Alaska? We do have something like that.
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  I don't know if the name Trevor Dunbar rings any bells with you,
• 15:12
  but he was he was okay. Exactly so his and his dad as
• 15:18
  well was super accomplished runner Marcus Dunbar and he was
• 15:21
  a long time coach at Kodiak High School.
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  And so we have this annual meet that's called the Brian Young
• 15:29
  Invitational and it's named after Brian Young, who was a.
• 15:33
  Track dad and just showed up at all the Kodiak meets and
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  Kodiak's a big fishing town. He was a commercial fisherman
• 15:40
  and he actually died unexpectedly while climbing
• 15:44
  Denali attempting to summit Denali.
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  So Marcus and he were really good friends and he was such a
• 15:51
  great supporter of the of the track venue and the, you know,
• 15:55
  the whole track culture in Kodiak.
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  Kodiak actually is called Track Town Alaska.
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  That's the everyone's given it. So he decided we were going to,
• 16:05
  you know, he wanted to hold this meet in honor of of Brian Young.
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  So each year what we do is we create 3 championship teams, the
• 16:14
  Cook Inlet conference, because we're kind of the biggest one in
• 16:17
  Anchorage. Those eight teams come together
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  as All Stars and then N SE. We take the schools from the
• 16:26
  Fairbanks area as well as SE and they combine.
• 16:29
  To create super strong team, it's amazing how well how well
• 16:33
  they do and then South Central would be more the Kenai in the
• 16:35
  private schools they get together and they also create
• 16:39
  just a super strong powerhouse team.
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  So what we like about it and what you know Marcus's idea in
• 16:47
  this meet is to get kids to know each other.
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  You know we're so far-flung and all the and we just compete
• 16:53
  against each other but then. During this three day period in
• 16:57
  which generally you take a ferry to get there, you know,
• 16:59
  overnight ferry to get there, overnight ferry to get back,
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  these kids just become friends. So it's really neat.
• 17:05
  It's like a small community in a very large state do, so that's
• 17:08
  awesome. I love this.
• 17:09
  I love this twist on immediate championships.
• 17:11
  By the way, not just the kids show up who were, you know, top
• 17:15
  four in each division or whatnot.
• 17:16
  They they create these teams in their Alaska.
• 17:18
  I love that. Do they give a team trophy out
• 17:21
  of these three? Does one of them earn a team
• 17:23
  trophy, or is it still just combatants on the individual
• 17:26
  side? Well, what's really neat?
• 17:28
  Again, you just have to come to Kodiak because the meat is
• 17:31
  actually it's generally held in Kodiak, but sometimes they'll
• 17:34
  take it to another location. But the winners get a small
• 17:40
  stone that has been like a beach rock.
• 17:44
  That volunteers have hand painted that have their
• 17:47
  placement on it. So everyone gets their Little
• 17:49
  Rock and they stand on the podium with their first place
• 17:51
  second place hand painted rock. And I'm telling you, the kids
• 17:54
  like it more than a baton. They like it more than a trophy
• 17:57
  you know and at the end of the day we do score the meet and so
• 18:01
  one team, you know this past year it was the Cookinlet teams
• 18:06
  team took took home the win but we don't take home a trophy.
• 18:10
  It's just right rights and, you know, camaraderie among.
• 18:13
  Alaska kids and those teams, they're made of both Division
• 18:16
  One and Division two athletes, of course, right?
• 18:18
  Yeah. That's, yeah, we just go by
• 18:19
  time. Yeah, it's really, it gives some
• 18:22
  of those kids that didn't get to compete together because, you
• 18:25
  know, like we had Tristan Merchant a couple years ago, he
• 18:28
  was at Anchorage Christian School and he's this great
• 18:30
  runner at Liberty University now and he was running so fast.
• 18:33
  But we had two really good, fast kids on the Chugiak team and
• 18:37
  those boys didn't get to compete together.
• 18:39
  And you know, come Brian Young, they did.
• 18:44
  That's really cool. I I have to fish around.
• 18:47
  I want to see a picture of the rock because I bet that is
• 18:49
  really good. It's one-of-a-kind.
• 18:51
  It's custom, it's unique. That's that's why they like it
• 18:53
  more than a metal or you know those are special, They're
• 18:55
  awesome. But something that was hand
• 18:57
  painted by. That's cool.
• 18:58
  That's really cool. OK, let's, let's keep moving on.
• 19:01
  I love that. OK.
• 19:02
  This next question Melissa, is a little tough because I'm going
• 19:04
  to ask you what unique events that you do in Alaska, but
• 19:07
  they're not really unique to you.
• 19:08
  You do them. So I'm thinking of you know,
• 19:12
  traditionally we do a 1600 and 3200, do you do that?
• 19:15
  What kind of relays do you do? Do we do all the field events,
• 19:17
  do we do javelin? What might be some unique things
• 19:20
  that you do there event wise? Well, I think it's the question.
• 19:25
  The better question is what don't we do?
• 19:26
  Because unfortunately we don't get to do javelin and pole vault
• 19:31
  and all the things that a lot of the lower 48 schools do.
• 19:34
  No pole vault. No pole vault, no.
• 19:37
  However, USA track and Field supports pole vault and we do
• 19:40
  offer pole vault events and there's actually a pole vault
• 19:43
  club in Fairbanks and they will drive down to to Anchorage to
• 19:46
  compete in that. But there's no state champion
• 19:49
  pole vault there. Wow.
• 19:50
  OK and no jab in which? I'm sorry, back in the day there
• 19:54
  was, but that that. Went away before I came on board
• 19:59
  to start coaching. And with Javelin, we're about 25
• 20:01
  states. We're about 5050.
• 20:03
  So it's not shocking that Alaska doesn't do Javelin.
• 20:05
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:06
  OK, There was no problem. OK, keep going.
• 20:09
  Yeah and we all we also do four by two still there was a short
• 20:14
  brief conversation about taking that away I believe 2-3 years
• 20:18
  ago and. Everybody begged and begged for
• 20:22
  it to stay because we love it. It's one of our favorite races,
• 20:24
  so that has stayed. And we appreciate that you're
• 20:27
  doing, you're doing 4 by 1 at 4 by 4, of course, because I've
• 20:30
  said if you don't hold the four by four, you're not doing
• 20:31
  tracks. Of course you are.
• 20:33
  You doing 4 by 8. That's not in every state.
• 20:36
  We do 4 by 8, and unfortunately it's it's one of those events
• 20:39
  that just comes at such an awkward time.
• 20:41
  It's really hard to put your best four by eighters in it
• 20:43
  unless you're really going for something big.
• 20:46
  But yes, we do that 1632 or do you mile two mile fifteen 3000
• 20:53
  any Sprint medleys, distance medleys.
• 20:56
  No, we have one meet. It's not during the state meet,
• 20:58
  but we have one meet called the Big C Relays and that's held
• 21:02
  early in the season, indoor at the Dome.
• 21:04
  And that is a combination of all sorts of fun Swedish medley, you
• 21:08
  know, mixed relays, LDR's and you know the Sprint relays too.
• 21:14
  So that's kind of fun. High jump, shop at discus, long
• 21:18
  jump, triple jump, and I'm assuming no hammer and we'll
• 21:22
  find out. But I think we only have one
• 21:23
  state that officially does. Hammer.
• 21:25
  No. Hammer No.
• 21:26
  Hammer, we have a lot of kids that would have loved that.
• 21:28
  Yeah, yeah, that would be great. I would love for that.
• 21:30
  Absolutely. Okay.
• 21:32
  That's awesome. So help us settle a argument
• 21:35
  here in Alaska, at least, around your culture, your school, your
• 21:39
  program, when we're talking about this state meet.
• 21:41
  How do you talk about it when you're talking about amongst
• 21:44
  your friends and your team? Are you trying to qualify for
• 21:46
  the state meet? Are you going to states?
• 21:48
  Are you going to state which one are we what?
• 21:50
  How do we say it there? The latter.
• 21:52
  We just say going to state, you know, it's like capital S you
• 21:55
  want to go to state, you're the capital S That's the way to
• 21:59
  think about it. All right, good.
• 22:00
  I love it. I love it.
• 22:01
  All right. OK, Melissa.
• 22:03
  So I'm going to give you a magic wand here and you get to change
• 22:07
  one thing in the Alaska State Outdoor series, whether it's an
• 22:12
  event or venue or how you qualify or how many divisions.
• 22:16
  One thing, if you had a magic wand to change, what would that
• 22:19
  be? Well, boy, I.
• 22:22
  I have to say and I think also does a really good job of
• 22:25
  putting on our state meet. But if I could be someone magic
• 22:29
  or someone with unlimited funds, I would plop down a brand new
• 22:35
  state-of-the-art track facility that has everything you need for
• 22:39
  everyone in the state to use. So that we would have one set
• 22:41
  venue that would be located you know?
• 22:45
  University of Alaska Anchorage, for example, would be great for
• 22:48
  that track team to have a place that they can practice outside,
• 22:51
  but then also we can come together to a spot that is
• 22:56
  neutral and can handle the crowds and can handle the
• 23:02
  events. You know, a lot of our tracks in
• 23:05
  Alaska at at the high school level, the jumps pits are still
• 23:09
  on the track, so you can't really hold a full meet without
• 23:13
  having the jumps affect that. We have one track that the lanes
• 23:17
  are too narrow, they're 36 inches.
• 23:19
  So they're it's really difficult for hurdlers and relays and you
• 23:25
  know and then we just have some of them that are, we do have a
• 23:27
  few that are really good but you know those schools aren't
• 23:30
  necessarily making the bid to have state there every year
• 23:33
  because it's a commitment on that school district's part.
• 23:36
  So you know that's more money and dreaming, but it would be
• 23:39
  great to have some neutral location that we could have long
• 23:42
  term for all schools to use. Reality starts a lot of times
• 23:47
  with a dream. So I like this of having a one
• 23:50
  facility that hosts a year after year you know where you're going
• 23:53
  for that capital S state meet. It has everything you need for
• 23:56
  all the different events and could actually probably then
• 23:59
  maybe hold a few more events as well could bring some change to
• 24:02
  positive change to the culture of Alaska State track and field.
• 24:06
  So that's awesome. I love that magic wand.
• 24:07
  I I root for that absolutely 100%.
• 24:11
  Melissa, thank you so much. You know, as we continue or
• 24:13
  still start here with Alaska, we were this is our second state
• 24:16
  moving through the different states.
• 24:17
  It's going to be just so fascinating to see how things
• 24:20
  are happening and everywhere else.
• 24:21
  And this was absolutely fascinating how you guys do it
• 24:24
  up there and do it very well. Some great athletes that come
• 24:27
  out of this state that we don't really think about for track and
• 24:29
  field but don't sleep on it. There's some amazing athletes
• 24:31
  that come out of there because of the amazing coaches.
• 24:33
  So Melissa, thank you so much for stepping up and representing
• 24:36
  Alaska. I do appreciate you very much.
• 24:38
  Thank you so much.