Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Georgia State Meet featuring Jonathan Gambrell from Marietta HS

Transcript

BONUS: Georgia State Meet featuring Jonathan Gambrell from Marietta 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
• 0:27
  schools, what events and what is the process?
• 0:30
  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
• 0:34
  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
• 0:38
  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
• 0:41
  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
• 0:45
  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
• 0:48
  meet or do you qualify for states?
• 0:50
  So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
• 0:54
  run through each state with a local state expert.
• 0:57
  So let's get started right now. All right, now, this week, this
• 1:12
  day, let's head down to the Peach State.
• 1:15
  Let's head down to Georgia. And we've got Jonathan Gambrill,
• 1:18
  who's gonna talk to us about Georgia, how we do things down
• 1:21
  there. And we're just gonna learn about
• 1:23
  the great state of Georgia. Jonathan, thanks for being here
• 1:24
  today. Yep, no problem.
• 1:26
  Happy to be here. Awesome, man.
• 1:28
  Thank you for stepping up and representing Georgia for this
• 1:30
  really unique project that we're doing.
• 1:33
  You know, we want to increase conversation and empathy for
• 1:35
  other States and see how everybody does things just a
• 1:37
  little little differently, little uniquely.
• 1:39
  So we're excited to learn about Georgia.
• 1:41
  Why don't we start maybe at a 30,000 foot level, introduce
• 1:44
  yourself, what you done there in Georgia?
• 1:47
  Let's make sure we know you're actually in Georgia and know
• 1:49
  what you're talking about today. Absolutely.
• 1:52
  Yeah. No, I actually born and raised
• 1:54
  in Georgia. I graduated from high school.
• 1:57
  Probably about 5 or 6 miles down the road from where I'm actually
• 2:01
  coaching now. Actually competed against the
• 2:05
  school that I'm at now and the current cross country coach and
• 2:10
  don't know if the by the track coach but I know the current
• 2:12
  cross country coach. That I help with now.
• 2:15
  He was actually at Marietta, so I actually competed against him
• 2:19
  and his kids in high school. So yeah, no, I met Marietta, now
• 2:23
  high school in Marietta, GA. We're in the largest
• 2:26
  classification in Georgia. We have about 2400 students.
• 2:32
  So I spent. This is my second year there.
• 2:35
  I spent the previous nine years at Hill Grove High School.
• 2:40
  So right out of college was hired at Hill Grove to be head
• 2:43
  cross country assistant track coach and teach chemistry.
• 2:48
  Then recently about a year and a half ago had a baby and kind of,
• 2:53
  you know, had an opportunity to open up at Marietta to be able
• 2:56
  to take a step back from head coaching.
• 2:59
  And you know when I left Hill Grove I had, I was two years,
• 3:02
  for two years I was the head cross country and the head track
• 3:04
  coach. So just never a break.
• 3:09
  You being in the college coach, you can kind of understand that
• 3:12
  it's cross country in track. It's you're never in an
• 3:15
  offseason. It's always go, go, go.
• 3:17
  So yeah, absolutely. You know the interesting part
• 3:20
  about that is that Marriott High School is 2400 students.
• 3:25
  Holy cow, that's a big school. Yeah, we're not.
• 3:28
  And we're not even. We got a we had a few schools in
• 3:31
  the close to 3000 in 7-8. Yeah, so.
• 3:36
  Big schools, but yeah. So then an opportunity open at
• 3:39
  Marietta just to be an assistant coach with cross country and
• 3:42
  track, take a step back from all the behind the scenes stuff that
• 3:46
  goes with head coaching. And just so, I still get my
• 3:49
  coaching fix and still very involved with the program, but I
• 3:53
  am able to be more present, more of a dad at home, which has been
• 3:58
  a very big blessing and just something that I.
• 4:01
  Nessa didn't know I was going to need her look for.
• 4:03
  But right opportunity opened up at the right time.
• 4:07
  Absolutely. And you know, we have spoken
• 4:09
  about this on the Guild Connections podcast, our regular
• 4:11
  Monday episodes where you know, we we know coaching is
• 4:15
  important. There's, you know, there's no
• 4:16
  bigger fan of coaches than this guy right here and yet that's
• 4:20
  not your number one role. And to this point about you
• 4:22
  being dad, man, dad first and foremost, all that you choose
• 4:26
  dad, husband, son. You know, there's a lot of other
• 4:29
  roles or coaching. So, so glad to have you today.
• 4:32
  So let's start getting into Georgia here.
• 4:34
  First question, the kind of unpack here in some states they
• 4:38
  take public schools and private schools in different
• 4:42
  classifications or divisions or ruling body if you will.
• 4:45
  What are we doing in Georgia? Are we separating those?
• 4:47
  Are we everybody competing against each other?
• 4:49
  What's going on down there? Yeah.
• 4:51
  So we have our GHSA, which is the Georgia High School
• 4:55
  Association. That's the main, I guess the
• 4:58
  large one that all your public schools are in.
• 5:01
  There are a number of private schools mixed in.
• 5:04
  We also do have our, there's a couple separate, I guess you
• 5:09
  could say, governing bodies where there's other private
• 5:11
  schools in those that they've chosen for whatever reason not
• 5:15
  to be members of GHSA. So, yeah, we kind of have a mix
• 5:18
  of both. But GHS says the main one.
• 5:21
  And there are, there are a number of private schools that
• 5:24
  are mixed in the different classifications.
• 5:26
  Perfect. OK, well, let's talk about those
• 5:27
  classifications. How many and what are they
• 5:30
  called? A, AA, AAA.
• 5:31
  Everybody has a little bit different name.
• 5:32
  How many we got going on in Georgia?
• 5:35
  Yeah. So we're actually about to
• 5:36
  change next year. So right now we have the largest
• 5:42
  classification is 7 A. So we go 7A all the way down to
• 5:46
  single A but the single A. They divide up into so in years
• 5:52
  past it's been called private and public 1A Nat.
• 5:57
  This past three class. So we reclassify in Georgia
• 5:59
  every two years. So every two years they relook
• 6:03
  at FTE counts and reshuffle the schools.
• 6:06
  So with the most recent reclassification, they actually
• 6:09
  changed it to the one A. They broke up into Division One
• 6:13
  and Division 2. Not 100% sure why.
• 6:19
  But there's kind of been the debate in Georgia about private
• 6:23
  schools and their attendance zones and not necessarily
• 6:28
  recruiting, but having kids that come in maybe from so like in
• 6:33
  the metro Atlanta area were pretty big area and you can have
• 6:36
  some private schools pull students way outside of their
• 6:40
  attendance zone for whatever reasons.
• 6:43
  And so the GHSA was kind of. Trying to appeal to, I don't
• 6:49
  know, complaints or points brought up by, you know, member
• 6:53
  schools about an unfair advantage due to them pulling
• 6:58
  from, you know, not a traditional attendance zone that
• 7:01
  we public schools can pull from. So they kind of added a
• 7:04
  multiplier in or they increased the multiplier to three.
• 7:08
  So an out of zone kid would count as three, not one.
• 7:12
  So that shook things up a little bit as terms of where the
• 7:15
  private schools fell, But next year, so when we reclassify next
• 7:20
  year, we're going back down. Hold on before you go to next
• 7:22
  year, let's make sure I got this right for today.
• 7:25
  We've got, I want to call it eight classes.
• 7:28
  So we have 7A which is our largest and we go 6543211 is 1 a
• 7:33
  D11 a V2 Division One division two.
• 7:38
  Now what are we going to when you say going to 2024 or 2025?
• 7:44
  Yeah, 2020, 2024-2025, school year, Yeah.
• 7:48
  OK, so because when we published this, this is April of 2024.
• 7:52
  So we're in that system today. But in the fall, we're going to
• 7:55
  move. To we're going to move.
• 7:57
  So they're going to get rid of a classification, essentially,
• 8:00
  they're going to get rid of that 7A drop back down to six we
• 8:03
  were. When I was in high school back,
• 8:06
  let's see, I graduated in 09, we only had five classifications,
• 8:11
  then we went up to six and then seven, and now we're going back
• 8:14
  to six, A being the highest. So they'll redistribute the
• 8:18
  schools. 6A The biggest classification will probably get
• 8:22
  bigger, add more schools in and the main reason is.
• 8:26
  When you have more classifications, there's less
• 8:29
  and I know we'll get into like how we qualify for state and
• 8:32
  everything. So there's less, we divide up
• 8:34
  into regions, there's less teams.
• 8:36
  So one thing was the travel, you know, trying to look at why are
• 8:40
  schools traveling this far to play, So trying to.
• 8:44
  Make more sense of the travel that kids are doing on school
• 8:47
  nights and that to compete within the region, that's kind
• 8:50
  of a big push to get back down to 6.
• 8:53
  And that's a great point for for a guy like me because I'm a less
• 8:56
  classification guy like I like a, you know, I love A1 class but
• 9:01
  you know can understand A2 class, A small, big if you will.
• 9:04
  But to your point that's a great point actually.
• 9:07
  You know we are first of all we're talking about high school
• 9:08
  athletics. So the travel component has to
• 9:11
  be considered and so more classes helps with that.
• 9:13
  Great, great point. So next year 6A large 5432, are
• 9:18
  we still doing two in the one, is it 1A D?
• 9:21
  One Yeah, not sure they're still meeting and talking.
• 9:24
  Probably if you look back, history will tell us they'll
• 9:27
  probably keep. And it again they called it
• 9:30
  private public 1A, then they changed it.
• 9:33
  It is a predominant private because like you look at a small
• 9:37
  private school versus small public school, there's going to
• 9:40
  be a difference in resources and just things available.
• 9:44
  So I I think they try to get away from calling it that.
• 9:47
  But when you look at the schools that are in those divisions, it
• 9:50
  is. It is.
• 9:52
  It is a heavy public, private split.
• 9:55
  Got it. OK, so let's get into how we're
• 9:57
  qualified. So we have our state meet, but
• 9:59
  before we get to the state meet, what's our first round?
• 10:02
  Everybody's little bit area, district sectionals and some 3-4
• 10:06
  rounds. What's our initial round for the
• 10:09
  Georgia State series? Yes, our initial round, I guess
• 10:12
  you would call region. So in in every classification is
• 10:18
  divided up into eight regions. Now, the reason for the way it's
• 10:23
  set up is mainly for your football playoffs, so that's
• 10:28
  probably going to be true of a lot of states is that's what
• 10:32
  runs it. Yeah, football pushes a lot of
• 10:35
  things that then like and you know, cross country and track
• 10:38
  and field is a lot different. We don't necessarily need.
• 10:41
  To qualify the way that football or other sports do, but
• 10:45
  nonetheless so we have region. So like for example our region
• 10:50
  is made-up of five teams. So to start with region, how do
• 10:54
  I qualify for region? Is it in all comers you get to
• 10:57
  have three in each event or is there any kind of qualifying
• 11:00
  standard for region? Yeah, every team.
• 11:02
  You can enter three kids per event, so whatever you're in.
• 11:07
  We kind of changed the rules a few years ago to where now you
• 11:11
  can have a kid entered in four events and it can be it used to
• 11:16
  be a little more complicated in terms of like, well you can have
• 11:19
  a kid in four events but two individual 2 relay or three.
• 11:23
  Like it was very there's a lot of moving pieces.
• 11:27
  So they kind of simplified it and said hey, an athlete can
• 11:30
  compete in 4 events. Total it can be for field
• 11:33
  events, for relays, for running a mix, but you only get for you
• 11:39
  know once you when you go from our Park State Qualifying
• 11:42
  series. So yeah, the first one would be
• 11:43
  region. We have five teams in our
• 11:45
  region, each team can enter three.
• 11:47
  So you're looking at a Max of 15 kids per event at the region
• 11:52
  meet and what's the next one called and how many from region
• 11:56
  get to go to that next one? So our next meet is called the
• 12:00
  sectional meet. And so from region you have to
• 12:04
  be in the top three places individually to qualify.
• 12:11
  Wait, let me think. Top three?
• 12:14
  No, sorry, top four, top four region.
• 12:18
  So ideally you could have a team.
• 12:22
  Have their three athletes finish in the top four and the all
• 12:25
  three would go on to the sectional.
• 12:26
  That's right because they can put in three and say the
• 12:28
  hundred. They could go 1-2 and three and
• 12:30
  so all three are going to sectionals.
• 12:32
  Right. Sectionals.
• 12:35
  You said there was 8 regions. How many sectionals are we
• 12:38
  doing? Two.
• 12:39
  So each sectional meet puts 4 regions together.
• 12:43
  So I'm assuming if we're doing 2 sectionals, the next round is
• 12:47
  the state meet. Correct.
• 12:48
  OK, good. Let's see if you try to throw
• 12:50
  one else in there. So sectionals we we have 16,
• 12:55
  four from each region and so four regions per site and so
• 13:00
  it's 16 total entries per event at the sectional meet.
• 13:04
  OK, how many from sectionals are qualifying the state in each
• 13:07
  event? Top eight, top eight.
• 13:10
  So you're taking 16? So we're taking sixteen, Yeah,
• 13:13
  on the line at the State meet, any AT larges, wild cards,
• 13:19
  anything like that. Just top 16 from, I'm sorry,
• 13:21
  top. 816, yeah. Top eight from each section,
• 13:24
  yeah. And I mean, I don't know,
• 13:26
  different states are probably different.
• 13:27
  One thing the GHSA is big on is representation.
• 13:33
  So, kind of. You know, even some coaches in
• 13:37
  our state will argue that region is.
• 13:40
  Part of the state championship series, therefore everybody is
• 13:45
  represented. So it shouldn't matter at the
• 13:47
  state meet. But GHSA still in some ways
• 13:50
  tries to keep because like in Georgia there's a really you can
• 13:55
  see big differences in our like metro Atlanta schools versus our
• 13:58
  like rural South Georgia schools that some of them are still you
• 14:02
  know compete in seven days. So they try to make sure that
• 14:06
  you know at in some way they're trying to.
• 14:09
  You know, make it fair, make it to where we at least have some
• 14:12
  more equal representation across, you know, not only the
• 14:16
  region, the classification, but like across the state.
• 14:20
  Now you're probably going to have a more predominant, you
• 14:23
  know, representation from the metro area just due to the sheer
• 14:26
  population. But they do want to try to get
• 14:30
  some of those more rural regions still represented at the state
• 14:33
  meet. So Georgia, we go regionals, top
• 14:35
  four out of there, go on to a sectional meet where the top
• 14:38
  four from there go on to, No, I'm sorry, top four go to from
• 14:42
  regions, go to sectionals, from sectionals are top 8, go to the
• 14:46
  state meet, there's two sectionals.
• 14:47
  So we're taking 16 athletes per event.
• 14:50
  Are we doing a call it a semifinal final, or do we just
• 14:56
  run 2 heats of the 100 and the fastest time is the state
• 14:59
  champion? Yeah, so we do semifinals in the
• 15:03
  in the one, the two, in the four, and in the 816 and 32 are
• 15:12
  straight finals, 4 by 1. We'll have prelims and I believe
• 15:18
  this next year. I'd have to go back and they
• 15:23
  were talking about getting rid of some prelims in the four by
• 15:27
  two and four by four and just running those straight sections
• 15:30
  versus time. Just because when you start look
• 15:33
  because we do a three day state meet and if you start looking at
• 15:36
  the kids entered in four events and if they're trying to run
• 15:40
  prelims for their, it's just a lot.
• 15:43
  So they're kind of looking at, hey, we could probably
• 15:46
  consolidate some of this down. And go straight finals.
• 15:50
  So you gave away a little bit of the next question.
• 15:52
  So all seven, call it eight classes are we?
• 15:57
  So it's a three day meet. Are all of those held at the
• 15:59
  same venue and what venues are you choosing?
• 16:02
  Are you typically going to a college?
• 16:04
  Are you rotating amongst high schools?
• 16:05
  Is there a set every year the state meet is at XYZ venue?
• 16:09
  What are we doing there for the state meet?
• 16:11
  Yeah, so for the longest time we were boys and girls separated.
• 16:17
  All the the girls teams, all classifications went down to
• 16:21
  Albany and the boys all classifications went to
• 16:25
  Jefferson High School separate weekends.
• 16:29
  Separate weekends and yeah, and so like as a coach, you're
• 16:34
  missing because Thursday, Friday, Saturday, back-to-back
• 16:37
  weekends in May, you're missing 4 days of school at the end of
• 16:42
  the school year, which. Finally, so then they combine
• 16:46
  and you know, depending on the coach, some programs here are
• 16:49
  split boys and girls, some programs the head track coaches,
• 16:53
  the head boys, head girls coaches.
• 16:55
  It just depends on the school and the district, how they do
• 16:57
  that, how they break the stipends up.
• 17:00
  But then you know a lot of coaches are like, you know,
• 17:02
  we're, you know, our teams, you know the energy they feed off of
• 17:06
  each other and now we're separating them.
• 17:07
  This is the only need of the year.
• 17:09
  We would separate them for and just.
• 17:11
  The logistics of being out of school is just was just a lot.
• 17:15
  So a while I don't know maybe it's been maybe six or eight
• 17:18
  years ago they actually. So they combined it to boys and
• 17:23
  girls at the same site but then they they broke it up into
• 17:27
  different sites. So we don't have everybody at
• 17:30
  the same site. Some of them, like Barry College
• 17:34
  is one that hosted for a while and then.
• 17:37
  COVID happened and so we couldn't go there and we haven't
• 17:40
  been back yet, but they have a great, great facility, great
• 17:45
  venue. I always love going up there.
• 17:49
  We had like Mceachern High School is right around the
• 17:51
  corner from us. They've hosted the state track
• 17:53
  meet. So kind of the way I I don't
• 17:55
  know all the inner workings, I'm sure there's politics involved,
• 17:59
  but you know a school or whoever applies to be a host.
• 18:03
  They go through that process and then they select.
• 18:07
  Host based off that, it could be a high school, it could be a
• 18:12
  college, it could be. But there's no real focus to say
• 18:15
  we want to go to all the college campuses or kind of and I think
• 18:18
  they kind of look at geography, they try to pair classifications
• 18:24
  to reduce travel. You're not always going to do
• 18:27
  that, but you know, they try to look at that as well.
• 18:31
  But yeah, I think this past year we had four different state meet
• 18:34
  sites each hosting 2 classifications and now we're
• 18:38
  doing boys and girls at the same.
• 18:40
  Weekend correct. Yeah, yeah.
• 18:42
  So boys and which is good. Now coach is only giving up that
• 18:44
  one weekend. It is kind of like you do miss
• 18:48
  out on some of like the big performances that happen at
• 18:51
  other sites. So that's kind of, but I think
• 18:54
  the switch to you know, boys and girls combined was for was for
• 18:57
  the good any kind of meet of champions after the state meet.
• 19:02
  There is Atlanta track Club. They host like a wingfoot night
• 19:06
  at champions. It's hit or miss though it's
• 19:09
  not. I think I know like New Jersey.
• 19:11
  I feel like I hear all the time like the meet of champions is
• 19:14
  like the like everybody who can go goes kind of thing.
• 19:18
  And in Georgia, the meet of champions for us is just.
• 19:23
  I mean sometimes you get the top in the state to compete,
• 19:26
  sometimes you don't. It just depends on where they're
• 19:30
  at in terms of burnout or ready to be done or a lot of your
• 19:34
  summer. A lot of your summer track kids
• 19:35
  will go to it because they're you know they have the whole
• 19:37
  summer to compete or it's like distance wise it's hit or miss
• 19:41
  because you know kids are getting ready for summer
• 19:43
  training for cross country and things like that to the culture
• 19:47
  is just not there yet for Georgia that hey Yep state meet
• 19:50
  that was awesome. That's great.
• 19:51
  We gave A-Team trophy. That's what we're after.
• 19:53
  But now there's a meeting like like you were mentioned in New
• 19:55
  Jersey. The culture there is, Oh yeah,
• 19:56
  that's a that is on your schedule regardless, as long as
• 19:59
  you. Call it the state meet is the
• 20:00
  the state meet like for us kind of is the end all be on track.
• 20:04
  And so it's like it's hard for kids to you know go to state one
• 20:09
  weekend and turn around the next weekend and try to just
• 20:11
  emotionally get hyped up for it. It's just.
• 20:14
  You can't like you can't match the nerves and the whatever the
• 20:19
  state means. So that's why and you don't you
• 20:21
  don't really. I mean I I used to send kids for
• 20:23
  a few years and it's just you you never see the performances
• 20:27
  or we didn't really always see the performances we thought.
• 20:30
  So we're just like if a kid wants to go by all means you
• 20:33
  know we'll if they qualify we'll enter them.
• 20:35
  But yeah there isn't that culture of life like an all an
• 20:39
  all class state champion is not. Didn't have that yet.
• 20:43
  Makes sense. All right.
• 20:44
  Yeah. Let's talk about your events.
• 20:46
  You mentioned one, this is a hard question because I'm going
• 20:48
  to ask you what are some unique events that you may be doing
• 20:51
  Georgia that aren't the quote UN quote standard, but they're just
• 20:54
  normal events for you. So this is a little bit of a
• 20:55
  hard of a question. You already mentioned one,
• 20:57
  you're the four by two is unique in the sense of not every state.
• 21:00
  I don't think most states will find out do the four by two, but
• 21:04
  what about and you mentioned the 1632, so you're not doing
• 21:06
  anything there. What about?
• 21:09
  Javelin pole vault triple jumps. What about what are we doing?
• 21:12
  Anything different or unique there for Georgia high school?
• 21:16
  Yeah, I would say probably the two unique would be 4 by two and
• 21:20
  the four by 8. OK.
• 21:22
  Yeah, that's right for me. We run, we run the four by
• 21:24
  eight. We've, I don't know.
• 21:26
  We've had the big argument in Georgia all the time.
• 21:30
  You know us quote UN quote distance coaches.
• 21:33
  We wanted to add the four by eight you know and then you know
• 21:36
  we can get in. The argument is the 800 of
• 21:38
  Sprint or is it you know what side do you approach it from
• 21:41
  kind of thing. So we were advocating for the
• 21:44
  four by eight Sprint coaches kind of said, well if you're
• 21:48
  going to add a distance event, you need to add a Sprint event
• 21:54
  and we're like, well, I don't know if you do the 800 right, it
• 21:57
  is a Sprint event and I'll tell you our in a couple years.
• 22:00
  But Sprint coaches are starting to figure out that the 800 is a
• 22:04
  Sprint. And so we're we're seeing the
• 22:07
  four by eight really get competitive because you know
• 22:09
  you're taking some of those kids who would not run it and running
• 22:13
  it. So but yeah we don't do javelin.
• 22:16
  We do this traditional long jump, triple jump, high jump
• 22:21
  shot, put discus pole vault. But yeah, I would say the four
• 22:25
  by two and four by eight are probably.
• 22:28
  Are not going to be. I mean, some states do them, but
• 22:30
  then some don't. What about?
• 22:32
  After the state meet, some states do unofficial state meet,
• 22:36
  so have Taff on decathlons or a hammer event or anything like
• 22:39
  that. Anything like that going on now?
• 22:41
  The state meet is the end of all of our sanctioned events.
• 22:45
  Awesome. I like that.
• 22:47
  All right, let's let's settle an argument here.
• 22:50
  What's the culture like, at least for you and Georgia?
• 22:53
  Do you qualify for the state meet or do you qualify for
• 22:56
  states? Yeah, I don't know.
• 23:00
  I don't know. I I've heard both in Georgia.
• 23:02
  The one that's probably more common would be qualify for the
• 23:05
  state meet or just say qualify for state.
• 23:09
  I would lean towards that. I don't like.
• 23:12
  Yeah, I don't like the qualifying for states.
• 23:15
  That's I don't just personal. Some people are very.
• 23:18
  Passionate one way or the other. That's why we're going to settle
• 23:21
  this. We're going to fit the Yeah, I
• 23:22
  wouldn't say I wouldn't say I'm passionate, but whenever I like
• 23:26
  scroll on Twitter and see states, I'm just, I just like
• 23:29
  cringe just a little bit. Fair enough.
• 23:33
  Fair enough. All right, Jonathan, you get
• 23:35
  one. Only one.
• 23:36
  You get the magic wand. If you were going to change one
• 23:38
  thing about the Georgia high school state qualifying system,
• 23:42
  what would you do? Yeah, probably back to something
• 23:45
  you mentioned earlier. I would have some sort of like
• 23:50
  time or mark like a minimum that if you met that you could go to
• 23:56
  stay looking and I mean not just any random one but looking at
• 24:00
  past performances. Ideally we're not wanting to
• 24:03
  load it up and just go crazy. But and it's probably true.
• 24:08
  It's true in every state you got some regions that are just
• 24:11
  loaded, like you got kids who finish fifth at their region
• 24:15
  meet don't go to state, but could have been top eight at
• 24:17
  state. Now our competition has at the
• 24:20
  state meet has gotten a lot better once they let 3 entries
• 24:24
  per team, that kind of thing. But we there's still some kids
• 24:27
  and you know I look at, you know we do 16 athletes at the state
• 24:31
  meet. But when we only have two
• 24:33
  classifications per site, we do have a lot of downtime where we
• 24:36
  could throw in another heat or something like that.
• 24:38
  So whether you say, hey we're going to take eight more kids
• 24:42
  that didn't qualify that met the mark or whatever that would be.
• 24:45
  I think some at large or or something could could be
• 24:50
  beneficial and just help. I I don't and we always had this
• 24:53
  argument in Georgia amongst the coaches.
• 24:56
  I don't think we're leaving the state champ at home by any
• 24:59
  means. So that will be some of the
• 25:01
  arguments against. I mean and so I don't think
• 25:04
  we're leaving a state champion at home per se, but we might be
• 25:07
  leaving you know a 6th, 7th, 8th place at home that could help in
• 25:12
  the team you know helping the team points.
• 25:14
  So that's kind of that's what I would probably change that makes
• 25:17
  a lot of. I think we're going to see
• 25:18
  through out the state series here in April and May of 2024.
• 25:22
  I think that's going to be some states do and I think some
• 25:25
  states don't. So that'll be interesting to see
• 25:27
  who and how and what their drawbacks might be for the ones
• 25:29
  that do that as well. Jonathan, it's always hard to
• 25:33
  represent an entire state, but you did a great job.
• 25:36
  I'm so grateful for you staying up and leading there to help us
• 25:39
  learn more about the Peach State and what you guys do there in
• 25:41
  Georgia. Thank you so much for being here
• 25:43
  with us today. Absolutely.
• 25:44
  Thank you.