Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: North Carolina State Meet featuring Andy Sparks from Marvin Ridge HS

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BONUS: North Carolina State Meet featuring Andy Sparks from Marvin Ridge 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,
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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
• 0:54
  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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  Welcome back as we traverse the country looking and learning all
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  about outdoor state meets and just the uniquenesses.
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  And if you've been following along with us from the very
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  beginning, so Alabama and if you're going to carry on with us
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  all over to Wyoming, you're going to see a lot of
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  differences. And today we're going to head
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  still going to be in the East Coast here.
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  So help me welcome from Marvin Ridge High School.
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  Mr. Andy Sparks. Andy, thanks for being here
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  today, man. Oh, thanks for having me, Mike.
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  I'm always listening to your podcast.
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  Thank you, man. That really means a lot to me.
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  Thank you so much for that. Andy, you're going to help us
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  learn about North Carolina today.
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  So super excited about that. Before we get into some of the
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  intricacies of North Carolina, why don't we start by
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  introducing you? Why don't you give us a 32nd,
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  30,000 foot level introduction of you, How long you've worked
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  in the state, things like that. I believe I've been coaching
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  track for 17 years now. I started out at Eastburg High
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  School as an assistant. Helping with pole vault, just
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  'cause I wanted to help with something and I just fell in
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  love with track and I became a head track coach at Mooresville
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  High School my alma mater about, man, it's all runs together
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  after you've been in this many this long.
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  But about 10 years ago and then my family needed to come further
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  South to be near my wife's work. So found an opportunity at one
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  of the best schools and anywhere I think Marvin Ridge High School
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  six years ago and. So I'm.
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  I'm here and it's a wonderful place to be.
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  I love it. Thank you for that.
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  Awesome man. Well let's get into North
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  Carolina and let's learn. Appreciate you being here to
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  help teach us this. What we are finding is that most
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  states don't have this, but some states do in so some will do a
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  separate organizing body for public schools, a different one
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  for private schools and they have their separate state
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  championship meets. Most of them we're learning or
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  together. What are we doing in North
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  Carolina? Private and public schools.
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  There's a there's a private division called the Inside
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  NCISAA, which has nothing but private schools obviously in it.
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  Then there's also the NCHSAA, North Carolina High School
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  Athletic Association, which has a combination.
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  I mean, mostly public schools, but there's also some private
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  parochial schools and there's some charter schools in there as
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  well. So let me make sure I heard that
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  right. So we're we're together, we're
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  pretty much all going towards the state championship.
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  But there is there are some schools, some private schools,
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  that operate under a separate organizing body.
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  Yeah, And we can compete against them and and play, but they're
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  never in the same conference. But then there's private schools
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  that are in our conferences, like one of our local Charlotte
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  Catholic is an NCHSAA school, but Charlotte Latin is an NCISAA
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  school. Which so it definitely confusing
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  if you're out of state. I never even thought about how
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  confusing that is. That's what we started this for,
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  was to help people see how different things are in each
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  state. So we love that.
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  That's absolutely awesome. All right, well, let's get into
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  how many classes are there and what do they call Division One,
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  Division 2A, AA. Talk to us about that.
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  So as I'm I'm a North Carolina native, the only way I've ever
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  known it to be one A2A3A4A ascend.
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  As the number goes up, the the enrollments go up.
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  Got it. So I went to a 2A high school
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  that became a three a while I was there.
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  And since I've been at Marvin Ridge, we've climbed from 3A to
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  4A. So we're now we're in the
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  biggest division, SO4A is the biggest.
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  And so we go 1A2A3A4A1, small enrollments for larger
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  enrollments. Yeah, awesome.
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  OK. If I'm trying to get to the
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  state meet, what is my first round that I have to compete in?
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  All around the country, we call them divisional sectionals,
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  areas, all these regionals, all these different names.
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  What's our first round there in North Carolina?
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  North Carolina breaks up the four classes into four regions,
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  so it'll be regionals 1A2 or the.
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  So there's going to be A1A W, A1A Midwest, A1A Mideast and A1A
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  E and then. Of course.
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  So that means there's 16 separate regionals and you know,
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  sometimes some are harder than the other ones.
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  But, and now also they usually take, there's qualifying
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  standards. If you hit the qualifying
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  standard, they'll take as many kids as hit the qualifying
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  standard, which some regions might be like 33 kids or
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  something, and then some regions they don't have 16 kids hit it
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  and then they'll take provisional qualifiers.
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  So are you talking about qualifying indoor regionals or
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  qualifying for the next? To get into regionals.
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  To get into the regionals. OK, so that's what I was going
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  to ask. How can I indoor athletes?
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  Do I get 2 per event? But you're saying it's a time
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  qualifier for regionals? Are we on outdoor indoor now?
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  Sorry, Outdoor. Sorry all.
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  OK. OK.
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  Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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  So yeah, you got to hit a certain standard to qualify for
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  outdoor, except you might not because.
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  If you if nobody else in your region hit that standard if only
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  I don't know if somehow in one A E only and this this happens
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  sometimes in that small division like if regional qualifying 7
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  feet for girls pole vault or something.
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  No girl in the whole 1A E might vault 7 feet in spring 2024 and
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  so a girl who had the stand some nice gill extensions and got 5
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  feet. She'll qualify and she might
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  even get through the state. Well, we'll get to that in a
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  second, but might even get through the state meet, if only.
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  So there's a qualifying time. But there's also, hey, we're
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  going to have a minimum of certain athletes.
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  We're going to take up to 16 kids in every event unless
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  there's too many at the. This is this is another thing
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  that gets confusing even to me year to year, unless there's too
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  many kids tied at the same height.
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  So like high jump, that'll happen a lot.
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  Like, you know. Five feet might have been the
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  qualifying standard, and seven girls are tied at 4:10 and all
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  their coaches entered them. They'll kick out those seven and
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  only keep 14 or or whatever instead of taking what's 14 plus
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  7/21/21 high jumpers is there even with that time qualifier
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  and you know minimum of 16 ish. Is there a cap on the number of
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  athletes I can have per event? So if I have five Amazing Boy
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  Millers, they all run 410 or better, can I put all five in or
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  just do they say, you know you can only have two or three per
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  event? Oh yeah, You're only allowed to
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  get 3, three per event. So, like, that affects us
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  sometimes. And like, down here in this
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  southwestern corner of Union County, there's at least three
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  really, really, really good school.
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  Well, four really, really good schools, at least.
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  And I know like one of our one of our rivals has a ton of girls
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  distance runners who could score points in the 800 and 1600 but
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  they can only put three ends. They got to figure out a Plan B.
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  So even if so in my in my 4 Miller example, that 4th Miller
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  is, we're going to figure out the two mile or the 800 or
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  something for for him, yeah. He could be and he could be the
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  6th best in the state. It doesn't matter.
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  Oh, yeah, OK, No, no super time qualifier.
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  It's sorry, three is the maximum.
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  Yeah, if you can qualify. From your school?
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  Yeah, Yeah. OK.
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  And is our and so is our next round state.
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  Yes, OK. So how what do I got to do in
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  regionals to get to states? You have to finish top four in
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  your region and that's it. And you said there's four
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  regions, so we're taking 16 to state and that's it.
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  No time qualifiers for this only place.
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  Yep, you could be top 20 in the nation, but you're not getting
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  to states in North Carolina and which.
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  I mean that's been obviously interesting and controversial
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  here. I mean I've proposed and I'm not
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  the only one to propose this because when I proposed it, they
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  said oh, we've thought about that before, but take the top
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  three, then the next four times and we'll still end up with 16.
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  But I mean one of the arguments, and I don't know if you've heard
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  this on other ones, is like sometimes the weather,
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  especially in like North Carolina, they're going to be
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  having Watauga High School in Northwest corner.
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  They might have, they might have had snow in the morning and.
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  In May and in Wilmington in the southeast corner might be 75 and
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  and it's they're not competing in the same condition.
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  So we're just going to take top four.
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  But I think at some point like the next like if you can finish
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  top three, you deserve to get through no matter where you are.
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  But then I feel like we're excluding a lot of really,
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  really talented kids when that is certainly a theme is how do
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  we get the best kids to the state meet.
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  Yeah, that's a definitely a common theme as we've, you know,
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  gotten about 25 states in, that's that's for sure.
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  So talk to us about the state meet, about the venue.
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  Is it normally at a college, a high school?
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  Do all four classes, boys and girls go one weekend, one venue?
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  Do we split it up? Tell us about the the state
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  meet. There's you.
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  It's usually on a Friday or a Saturday, and for either they'll
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  either put. Two of the divisions, and it's
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  all boys and girls. Two of the divisions will be on
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  Friday and two of the divisions will be on Saturday and of
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  course that takes a long time, that's all.
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  So a one day meet. Yeah, one day meet.
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  Wow. So we're going, we're going to a
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  boys and girls all on Thursday. Or yeah, or a Friday.
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  It's it's always, I think we're usually paired with the 4A,
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  we're usually paired with 2A Interesting and will either be
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  Friday and Saturday and they'll do you know.
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  And the only two events that have prelims are the the hundred
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  110 hurdles in the 100 meter dash.
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  I don't think we have that in the 200 even anymore.
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  Everything else is done on time or or placement in their field
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  events. So you got two heats, good luck
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  and you don't have to worry about doing rounds and in the
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  400 or anything like that typically held at the same place
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  or do we? Yeah.
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  North Carolina A&T, which is a really, really nice facility,
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  nice mondo track. I think they have Gill Gill
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  equipment as well. It's a great facility.
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  Yeah, absolutely. That's a great, great one there.
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  We we we love green, the NCA and T for sure.
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  Absolutely. Yeah, awesome.
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  We're learning all around the country.
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  You know track is one of the most if not the most inclusive
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  sport there is a lot of states are doing adapted, adaptive,
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  unified wheelchair events at their state meet.
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  Anything like that going on in North Carolina?
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  Yeah, we have. We have wheelchair events.
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  If you it's you got to you got to kind of know the process.
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  But if you have a kid interested, they have to qualify
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  just like anybody else, and they'll they'll interview and
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  you can score points at the state meet.
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  Awesome. Love that.
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  I love that. North Carolina's doing that.
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  We had Adam Smith last year when when the 100 and 200 and outdoor
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  wheelchair event, so we're proud of him.
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  Awesome, man. I love that.
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  I love that. All right, so we've got 4 boys
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  100 meter state champions, and four girls 100 meter state
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  champions. Some states do either, whether
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  it's official or unofficial, do like a meet of champions after
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  the state meet. So we can find out air quotes
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  here, who the true 100 meter state champion is, and, you
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  know, insert different events there, of course.
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  Anything like that going on? I think there's been attempts at
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  that before and they like there is no official NCHS A1 or NCII
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  mean and yeah like sometimes the fastest kid in the state.
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  Might be a NCIISASAA runner, but I think people have tried to put
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  it together and I don't know what it is, but maybe it's
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  because we're in mid-May and graduations coming up and people
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  are looking forward to the national meets and saying prove
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  it there or something. But we've never really had a
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  successful Meet of Champions, at least since I've been coaching.
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  Makes sense. Let's go through the events that
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  you do there. So we know you're doing the 124
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  and the eight, right? For sure.
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  Are you doing in the mile two mile?
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  Are you doing mile two mile 1632153000?
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  What are you doing in that area? We just do the standard events
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  standard in the NFHS events and I've heard people talk about
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  maybe adding. Javs and South Carolina has it
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  now, but well let's let's keep going through the events because
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  when you say standard, that's not trust me, I definitely have
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  learned now it ain't standard. So it's talk to me about the
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  1632, are you doing the 1632 or the mile two, mile 16?
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  132 hundred Perfect 110 highs and 100 meter hurdles for boys
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  and girls. Yes, doing the 300 meter hurdles
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  for boys and. Girls, yes, we got 300 hurdles.
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  We don't have 400 perfect relays.
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  You're definitely doing the four by one and four by four any
• 14:00
  other. We do have the four by two.
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  Yeah. There we go.
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  OK. 4 by there's something unique no No 4 by 8.
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  We do have the four by eight as well.
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  You do have 4 by 8, OK, that's the one that's not everywhere.
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  Just, yeah, there's been a lot of states that have added it,
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  but it's not 100%. Any other relay Sprint medleys,
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  anything like that? No.
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  It'd be fun if they did add some, but we learned, you know,
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  Spoiler alert since we're already past this, but we
• 14:23
  learned in Iowa they have 7 relays in their state meet.
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  I I couldn't name 7 relays until we spoke to Iowa and learned the
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  seven relay. So how many of them are Sprint
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  relays? Most.
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  That would my blood pressure on handoffs.
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  Don't think I can handle that. Please don't change that, North
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  Carolina. Let's keep moving.
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  Long jump in triple jump for boys and girls.
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  Yes, for both shot put and discus.
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  Yes, pole vault and high jump. Yes.
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  And you said we're not doing javelin.
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  Are we doing any kind of multis? We're not doing Hammer,
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  unfortunately, nothing like. No I'd I'd love if we had a hep
• 14:57
  and deck but like you said they have a one day meet.
• 15:00
  I don't. I don't see them changing that.
• 15:02
  That's a good point. Now, some states do an
• 15:04
  unofficial, so if they don't do a meet at champions, they'll do
• 15:06
  an unofficial state meet for the multis or hammer or javelin.
• 15:10
  Anything like that? Anybody putting on?
• 15:12
  No, that'd be awesome. I mean, I I think I have a girl
• 15:14
  right now that would definitely compete for the hep.
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  So if anybody wants to put that on, we're in.
• 15:19
  I love it. I love it.
• 15:20
  Anything that we didn't ask Andy, something that you know,
• 15:24
  you're right. You right now have the audience
• 15:25
  from New Mexico, Washington, Florida, Illinois.
• 15:28
  You have every other state high school coach and even some
• 15:31
  college coaches listening. What's something that we might
• 15:33
  be missing in North Carolina that we didn't ask you?
• 15:35
  You only scored a six points. You double up the field event
• 15:39
  points. I don't know what's what's
• 15:40
  something else that we, we should know from North Carolina.
• 15:44
  Something special about us, I guess.
• 15:49
  Just the, I think the weather, the weather differences that
• 15:52
  really do affect performances because we had pole vaulters in
• 15:56
  a downpour one year up in the mountains and now we're in the
• 16:01
  sorry, good. Job and and then down in the
• 16:09
  beach they had absolutely clear weather, but I think we still
• 16:12
  had. Like the pole vault was still
• 16:15
  better in the mountains than it was most other places And and
• 16:17
  that that really does affect it and I understand the the state's
• 16:21
  perspective on that but I think we should maybe take the next
• 16:25
  four because I had I think just like last year I had the two
• 16:28
  years ago I had the 5th best thrower in shot and disk and he
• 16:34
  didn't make it through I mean in the state and he didn't make it
• 16:36
  through. So well what about I do we don't
• 16:39
  we're not we're certainly staying focused on outdoor but I
• 16:43
  believe I know this you correct me you mentioned indoor for
• 16:46
  North Carolina and we do it a little uniquely.
• 16:49
  We don't really we do indoor but sometimes it's not indoors.
• 16:51
  Correct. Tell tell us a little bit about,
• 16:53
  just give me kind of a 32nd preview of what indoor looks
• 16:55
  like for North Carolina. Oh yeah.
• 16:57
  Well, we have two indoor tracks in the state that I'm aware of
• 17:00
  and one really not used right now.
• 17:02
  But the JDL fast track in Winston Salem is.
• 17:06
  It's a flat track, but it is fast.
• 17:10
  That's where we do most of our indoor meets and we we're about
• 17:13
  an hour and a half from Columbia here.
• 17:15
  So we can go to South Carolina sometimes and and North and
• 17:18
  Virginia, Virginia Beach and Liberty and Virginia Tech, but
• 17:21
  most things we're going to do. At JDL fast track in Winston
• 17:24
  Salem facility, that's where our state meet is.
• 17:28
  But if you're not going there, you're doing polar bear meets in
• 17:30
  North Carolina. Yeah, as I say, didn't we do the
• 17:32
  state meet at least for a while or sometimes we do it outdoors?
• 17:37
  Yeah, we do the 60 meter and things like that.
• 17:39
  And that of course like messes with the times and they've been
• 17:43
  trying to change the qualifying stuff some this year and and
• 17:47
  make some alterations because. When obviously when a kid runs a
• 17:52
  300 outdoors, it's going to be faster than a 300 on an indoor
• 17:56
  track, unless maybe they're good at a bank track, but on the flat
• 18:00
  track, that's that's hard to to and especially like the four by
• 18:02
  two, that gets worse than anything.
• 18:05
  You might as well add 3 seconds to an indoor four by two when
• 18:09
  we're running four by twos outdoors in North Carolina and
• 18:11
  trying to translate that to the polar bear meets.
• 18:14
  I've seen some wacky, wacky things when when we're trying to
• 18:17
  simulate the indoor meets. And I guess it hits distance
• 18:21
  pretty hard too when they're when they're trying to hug those
• 18:24
  turns. I wanted to make sure we touched
• 18:26
  on that though because what I do like about North Carolina, I
• 18:29
  know there's obviously some issues to overcome the indoor
• 18:32
  versus outdoor conversion and things like that.
• 18:34
  But what I like about it is it does North Carolina coaches
• 18:38
  don't doesn't let that stop them from having an indoor series and
• 18:41
  an indoor state meet. So I just love that that you
• 18:44
  know nothing's going to stop me type attitude when I think about
• 18:46
  other States and even yours. Andy, with North Carolina, with
• 18:49
  the Javelin and Multis and other events, it's like, hey, you
• 18:51
  know, there are ways to make this happen.
• 18:53
  We just got to get together and and make it happen and there
• 18:55
  might be some concession. So I just want to make sure we
• 18:57
  pointed out that indoor uniqueness there in North
• 19:00
  Carolina. Yeah, and indoor is more fun
• 19:02
  than outdoor for me because I don't know and I I love all the
• 19:07
  other sports, but you know, track, the track facility is
• 19:09
  also usually the game facility for everybody else and we get
• 19:13
  out of school at three O 5 here and sometimes it's hard to
• 19:16
  squeeze in the productive practice before.
• 19:19
  Some other balls start flying around and indoor we can
• 19:22
  practice and we can make our kids better and safely.
• 19:25
  And I love it, especially since we're almost in South Carolina
• 19:28
  here. The weather's pretty good till
• 19:30
  for most, for most of the season.
• 19:32
  That's right. Hey, so help us settle a debate,
• 19:35
  Andy, at least in your area, your culture, your program, All
• 19:39
  around the country, we talk about the state meet.
• 19:41
  We say it differently. It's a small, subtle change.
• 19:43
  We say we're qualifying for the state meet.
• 19:45
  We say we're qualifying for states.
• 19:47
  We say we're qualifying for state.
• 19:49
  Help us settle the the debate here.
• 19:50
  What are we saying in your neck of the woods?
• 19:53
  I absolutely say we're I see I see we're qualifying for
• 19:56
  regionals because that is qualifying and then I said you
• 19:58
  make it to you made it to states because you got to you got to
• 20:02
  survive in advance through regionals and and our Midwest
• 20:06
  region is is loaded I would say some of the names of the schools
• 20:09
  but I don't want to forget anybody and insult anybody but
• 20:11
  but right next to us Cuthbertson high school and Weddington High
• 20:13
  School are are superpowers and and track and.
• 20:17
  If we're good enough to compete at our conference level, we know
• 20:19
  we're good enough to compete at the state level.
• 20:21
  That's right. So we're going to states in
• 20:23
  North Carolina, at least to your your culture.
• 20:26
  Yeah, made it. I say made it to states.
• 20:28
  I love it. I love it.
• 20:31
  All right, Andy, you have been awesome today.
• 20:33
  We're really so grateful for you.
• 20:34
  Really, really grateful for you. You're going to get the magic
• 20:36
  wand if you could change one and only one thing.
• 20:40
  Only one thing I continue to remind everybody that you think
• 20:44
  would make the state qualifying series better, whether that's
• 20:47
  through the series, what events you have one day versus 2 day
• 20:50
  meet, things like that you get one magic wand.
• 20:53
  What would that be for North Carolina?
• 20:55
  Well, apart from the the 3 + 1 system, I already said that was.
• 21:00
  Sorry. If I'm doing two things, you're
• 21:01
  good. You got a freebie in there?
• 21:03
  I heard it. I I was waiting.
• 21:05
  I I think the I would love to go to two days and and like make it
• 21:10
  more like a college setting and I'd like to like survive rounds
• 21:15
  with my kids. I just think that that'd be more
• 21:17
  fun but like higher stakes and let's see really see who's the
• 21:22
  best. Yeah like she got you yesterday
• 21:25
  you can get her today. We're going to make these small
• 21:27
  changes like that makes the the fun of coaching and it doesn't
• 21:29
  go by so fast maybe. I mean, like I said, the States
• 21:32
  is a long day. But I'm I'm trying to, as the
• 21:35
  head coach. I'm trying to walk over and at
• 21:37
  least make let the discus throwers know I care about them,
• 21:40
  wave at them, watch a couple throws and.
• 21:41
  But then I'm trying to hurry back and try to get my hurdlers
• 21:44
  ready and it's I feel stretched thin and I'd rather be able to
• 21:48
  enjoy the moment that those kids aren't.
• 21:50
  Yeah, one day meets are tough for coaching.
• 21:53
  They're tough for to try to get fans and that's a long day.
• 21:56
  It's tough for athletes. That would be one I I like that
• 21:59
  magic wand. That's a good one there, man.
• 22:01
  Really good. Andy, thank you so much, man.
• 22:03
  Again, we are so thankful for you stepping up and representing
• 22:06
  the great state of North Carolina.
• 22:07
  It was awesome to learn about the uniquenesses and be able to
• 22:10
  start comparing them to all the other states.
• 22:11
  So again, thank you so much Andy from Marvin Ridge for being here
• 22:14
  today for North Carolina. Thanks for all you do, Mike.
• 22:17
  Thank you, Sir.