Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Louisiana State Meet featuring Brad Womack from Patrick Taylor Academy

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BONUS: Louisiana State Meet featuring Brad Womack from Patrick Taylor Academy · 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
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  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
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  Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
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  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
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  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
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  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
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  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
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  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
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  run through each state with a local state expert.
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  So let's get started right now. All right.
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  Today as we continue to move through, this is your first one.
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  Make sure you go back. We're hitting all 50 states
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  today. We're heading down to LA, not
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  the West Coast one, the South Coast one.
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  We're heading to Louisiana, one of my favorite states.
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  Of course, if you love food, it would always be one of your
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  favorite states down here in Louisiana.
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  So help me welcome Mr. Brad Womack.
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  He's going to talk to us about the Outdoor State meat
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  qualifying. Brad, thanks for being here and
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  thanks for representing Louisiana today.
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  Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
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  Absolutely. Let's start out with the
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  introduction kind of a 30,000 foot level of your coaching
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  background. Well, I I'm originally, I don't
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  know if how many your people know how of Louisiana, but I'm
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  originally from Lafayette, LA. I'm on the Rage and Cajuns.
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  That's where I went to college and I moved to the New Orleans
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  area right after graduation. Didn't really know anybody in
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  the area, kind of got into some high school referee in.
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  Just to kind of get introduced to the schools and kind of meet
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  coaches and things like that. And then a coaching position
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  opened up at the school I'm at currently, Patrick Taylor
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  Academy. At the time it was a brand new
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  school. I think when I got there was
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  their second year of participating in varsity
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  athletics. It's a We are the number one
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  ranked academic school in Louisiana.
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  So we have a little bit of, I would say difficulty.
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  We just have to take whoever comes to our school.
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  So we are. They had the kids have to test
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  in, so they test in to get to the school.
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  So whoever shows up is kind of who we coach.
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  So I've been coaching there since 2006.
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  Seven somewhere around there. I was originally hired as the
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  assistant track coach in the head cross country coach and we
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  had a little bit of success in cross country.
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  We won a state championship in 2013.
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  We are runnerups. In the year before we only we
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  lost that by two points. It was heartbreaking.
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  Was looking to hoping to go back-to-back but ended up just
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  being a you know won that thirteen title.
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  Had some pretty good success on the local level as you know our.
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  For our school, we were at the time we were very small school.
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  We've grown since then and then I've been the head track and
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  cross country coach for the past maybe 1010 to 12 years.
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  This past year I gave up cross country because I'm also the
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  athletic director. So the schedule got a little bit
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  too much to to handle in the beginning of the year because in
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  Louisiana we do cross country in the in the fall, so.
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  It was too much with football and you know everything else
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  going on the beginning of the school year.
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  So I kind of handed my baby over finally.
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  So but we've also we've had in track and cross country, we've
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  had 17 individual state champions.
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  So this past year I had a girl who ended up, she committed and
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  she's running now for UL Lafayette.
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  She won the 100 and 200. The year before that I had a
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  girl win the 800 and track. She's at Creighton University
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  now and she's and she also won the state individual cross
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  country championship. So we've been, I've been pretty
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  lucky to have some kids who enjoy running.
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  They've been good at it. They've I've had some you know
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  luck with some coaches I've had to work with me that I've helped
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  those kids and parents have been supportive of our program.
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  So that's kind of where I stand on the, you know?
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  How I got into this thing and how?
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  What's going on with me? Well, as a Troy Trojan, I
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  appreciate the Raging Cajun. There we go.
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  All right, Brad, let's get into the state of Louisiana.
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  Let's start off with, you know, some states have a different
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  organizing body for private schools and public schools.
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  They do them completely separate.
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  Some people do them all together.
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  I know we have a great mixture of public and private schools in
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  the great state of Louisiana. How do we do it?
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  Private and public schools in your town, your state.
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  Well, we are governed by the Louisiana High School Athletic
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  Association, the LHSAA, and about 10 years ago there was a
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  lot of stink is a good way to put it, between the privates and
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  the public schools. And there was a proposal at the
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  convention to split private and public schools.
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  So it was at the time it was just for football because we had
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  a lot of coaches. They were saying the public
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  schools couldn't compete with the private schools and just
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  because of funding and how things are run.
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  So that passed and then the next year they added basketball and
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  then they add baseball softball. So it's been and since that time
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  it's been a fight to try to get us back together because it's we
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  had we've had like on a first state championship in football
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  there were there's six, there's classes a through five, you
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  know, 1A through 5A. And then for basketball, there's
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  CB1A through 5A, but then when they split it, they were also
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  the vision. So they had.
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  We had about 9 state championships we were doing in
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  those sports a year, so it was very watered down.
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  And so and then we had division sports that are smaller sports
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  like volleyball and things like that that they they still they
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  competed against each other and track and field was the only
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  sport that remained together privates and public.
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  So that was the only one that kind of held strong and we're
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  always very proud of that is track coaches that the track
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  school stayed together because they're you know you can either
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  run or you can throw. You know this doesn't matter
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  kind of what you got. You know, just kind of who you
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  are and you're good and you got good coaches.
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  We're going to get the job done. So.
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  So we think this year that there that looks like there's been a
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  lot of push. We had a recent vote recently to
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  define what a select school was. It's been a mess.
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  Our school is considered a select school because we have
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  selective admissions. But it is a it is a public
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  school, it is a, you know, we get funding from the from
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  federal government, from our local and state government.
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  So the only, you know we're considered select because we
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  have selective admissions. We don't technically like I
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  couldn't say, oh you're you know, you can run a 10.3, you
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  know, once you come to my school it doesn't work.
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  They have to test at a neutral site and there's three other
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  high schools that are select like the same kind of thing as
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  us and they can choose to go into any one of those schools or
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  they can say, you know, our school's full, we don't have any
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  opening. So it's so we're select without
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  that the luxury of actually selecting kids.
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  So, so that's kind of how we do the the the breakdown of how the
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  state does things. But this track is has remained A
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  strictly CB 1828384858 thing. So it's been pretty good as far
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  as that is concerned. Indoor, they just break it up.
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  Indoor track into two divisions. It's like Division One and
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  division two and one is the bigger schools. 5:00 and 4:00
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  and then the smaller of the schools are all in another three
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  through C so private and public we're all going one.
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  You started going into my second question.
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  That's a that's a track coach right there.
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  Let's. Go over that again to make sure
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  we heard that right. So how many classes we're
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  talking about outdoor strict, typically you you explained
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  indoor, appreciate that. Give a little bonus material.
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  I love that. But for outdoor, let's go over
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  those classes again, how many? OK, so.
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  Class C is the smallest one. That's the schools that are very
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  rural. And they might have up to 75
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  kids in the whole school. Then we have Class B and that
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  goes up to about 1:25 and 1:00. A is exact same enrollment
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  classification as B, except the only difference is the 1A
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  schools have football. The B schools who don't have
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  football, they can start their basketball season earlier.
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  So that's why they separate the two.
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  So they they since they don't have any kind of football in
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  their area, their kids aren't waiting till almost the end of
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  the first nine weeks before they can start participating in
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  stuff. So they start basketball earlier
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  in B and then and then it all goes up like 5A is the biggest
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  one. It's it's around 1000 on up for
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  that. And then it just incrementally
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  kind of depends on the number of schools.
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  We always get schools adding and stuff, but we're a 3A school.
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  And we Max like we're having our nine through twelves, we are
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  about 4:50 and 3:00 A goes up to about like 600.
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  So I'm here in class CB1A2345-A. Yes.
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  So what we got 123456. We got 7 class so we're we're
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  giving we're earning 7 boys state championship team titles
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  and seven girls championship team.
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  Alright perfect. Awesome.
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  And class C's are small. We go up to five.
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  A is our large. And OK so let's talk about how
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  we get to that state meet. Every state's a little
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  different. We have 100 different names for
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  these meet sectionals, areas, districts, you name it.
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  What's the first round of the state qualifying series there in
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  Louisiana? The first round is the district
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  championship and that's based on they they reclassify every two
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  years based on enrollment and it's number of schools in your
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  general area who have that enrollment kind of close
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  proximity or in your district. Our district we have six boys
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  schools and we have 8 girls schools in our district.
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  So we have two schools that are all in our district who are all
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  girls. So they we only so we have.
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  We typically one school host the district track meet.
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  My school is typically the one who does it.
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  We don't have a track on our campus, but our, you know, we're
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  parishes in Louisiana, not county.
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  So our parish has a couple of stadiums with with tracks and
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  every and everything we need. So we get it for free.
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  If another school would rent it, they would have to pay for it.
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  So I get designated because it's free for me and I can make money
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  on the gate and the concession. So I have no problem doing that.
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  So for districts, let's stay in districts real quick.
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  How do I, I'm going to say, qualify for districts, but if
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  it's the first round, that means it's the it's an open meet, but
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  you must have you can only put two people in each event or 4.
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  How many can we do there? Okay, so, so it's two
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  individuals from each school per event we seated by based on
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  recorded automatic timing from the season, so.
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  We they have to submit. It's all done through mile split
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  basically. You know, they take their their
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  stuff from there. And my timing guy who I, who I
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  work with for a lot of meats, he sees everything for me.
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  And then depending, you know, we'll have, depending on how
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  many kids we have, it'll be heats.
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  But usually our district isn't very big so we pretty much we
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  usually, unless it's like the 100, we probably just have one
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  heat for everything. But it's seated and then the top
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  4 finishers in each event are the ones who move on to the
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  regional meet. It's top four and a.
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  The 5th place is an alternate okay.
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  So we have these districts throughout the state where each
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  school can enter two per event and then we're going to host
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  districts and top four from each of those districts goes to a
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  regionals. And then you said 5th place is
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  a. An alternate so if somebody
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  pulls out with an injury or something there's a certain date
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  they have to let the the the net that team know that and the
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  district chairperson which I'm also the district chairperson
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  somebody you know somebody so and so's pulled out you know and
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  I'll have to contact the school who's got the the kid who's the
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  alternate let them know they're going to be competing in the in
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  the meet in the regional so districts to regionals and now
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  I've gotten 4 the top four of each event from all these
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  different districts how do we do regionals what what's the what
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  what what's the next round and how many go on to that next.
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  Round, so regionals is the state divides each classification up
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  into three. The states divide into three
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  regions, so in each classification you have region
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  1-2 and three. So we're in we're District 93A
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  and we're in Region 3. So all those schools who are in
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  our region, we whoever hosts whoever, they kind of do it
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  where whoever won the year before is the host the next year
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  unless they have something where like I can't host, you know
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  something and we'll rotate between girls team.
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  Winning one year is the host, boys team the winners is the
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  next host. So that's kind of how everybody
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  does it. It's not really a, it's more of
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  a. Gentleman's agreement, ladies
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  agreement that it's done that way.
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  We've never really had any problems with it, but that's
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  just kind of how it's done. So when we get to the regional
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  meet, same thing every the score, the, the times marks,
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  everything are automatically sent through mile split to the
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  regional host and it's obviously a bigger meet then because
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  you're going to have. Each district is probably
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  made-up of eight to 10 schools. So it's going to be it's an
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  Allday affair. But typically like our our meet
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  is at a high school track. The regional meet has been at
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  different places it's been. I've had regional meets at at
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  Southern University in Baton Rouge, we've had regional meets.
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  It's small little tracks in the middle of nowhere.
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  It just kind of depends on. Host team their facility or if
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  they can manage to rent a facility something like that.
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  So it just kind of depends on the school, but it's kind of
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  when I was in high school in Lafayette, we ran our regional
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  meet at UL. So you know, it just kind of
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  depends on where you're, you know, what your regions made-up
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  of, but what's our goal in regionals to go to the next
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  round and what is that, is that next round?
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  Next round is state, District, region, then state.
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  All right. So how many, what are we
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  shooting for in regionals so that we can go to the state
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  meet? Top three finishers make it to
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  state and then and the 4th is an alternate same as it what like
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  so yeah an alternate. Typically, not many people drop
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  out. Unless it's a severe energy
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  injury before states, that's usually not really a problem.
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  And you're saying alternate, not wild cards, not next three.
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  You are just an alternate. If someone happens and dropping,
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  they take. Probably just going to be there
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  all day watching and not going to get to compete at all.
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  Brutal. Brutal.
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  Brutal. All right, We go to the state
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  meet, so talk to us about the state meet.
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  Is it generally in the same venue every year?
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  Do all, what do we say, seven classes here?
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  Do all seven classes do it on the same weekend, the same venue
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  or they spread out? How are we doing the state
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  meeting? Okay.
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  So the state meet every year is at LSU in Baton Rouge.
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  It's a beautiful facility. I don't know if you've ever seen
• 16:21
  it, but it's very they do. So it's three days, They do
• 16:26
  Thursday. They do class the BC and 1A
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  schools on the Thursday. This is like May around May, the
• 16:34
  first weekend in May pretty much.
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  So they do Thursday to do CB in 1A and then day two they do two
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  class 2A, the para and 3A. And then Saturday is when, like
• 16:51
  the BIG4 and 5A schools compete. When you're saying Friday is CB
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  in one A, are you saying so prelims, finals, the whole like
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  we're giving out? Everything is that State Trophy
• 17:02
  is happening on Friday and I'm sorry, Thursday and Friday and
• 17:06
  Saturday. Oh, wow.
• 17:08
  OK, so you know, when you go there, All right, This.
• 17:11
  Is why he's coming home with a trophy.
• 17:12
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, very cool. So how many for regionals?
• 17:16
  You said there's three. So are we doing?
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  And we're taking top three. So does that mean we're running
• 17:20
  one heat, one flight of every event?
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  Like they have a nine lane track we go.
• 17:28
  You know, all of it's it's really, they don't do prelims in
• 17:32
  state, they just go. They do it in the indoor but not
• 17:35
  outdoor and it's just straight. You got one race to prove who
• 17:40
  you are. That's how they're able to do CB
• 17:43
  and 1A all in one day, because it's got two heats of the 100.
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  There's one and there's your state.
• 17:47
  Now we're going to move to the 200 and there's one.
• 17:50
  There's your state champion and there's your points and we're
• 17:52
  going. To they'll go.
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  So like at a state meet, they'll go.
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  So like our classification is 2A and 3A on the Friday.
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  So if it's the 200 they're going to go, they're going to say all
• 18:05
  right, three, the 200 meters for class 2A girls, then they're
• 18:10
  going to do 2A boys, then they're going to go 3A girls and
• 18:13
  then 3A boys. And as soon as the kids cross
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  the line, they walk over to Ray's podium.
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  They make their announcement, they hand them their medal, and
• 18:23
  then it's on to the net. It's it's quick.
• 18:26
  It's, it really does. You know, you would think that a
• 18:28
  state championship would take a long time, but they've got it.
• 18:31
  LSU does a great job with their They use all LSU officials,
• 18:37
  great officiating crew. So it is not like it's, you
• 18:40
  know, some coaches who may or may not know what's going on.
• 18:44
  It's professionals who would do a great job with it.
• 18:48
  You know it's, it's done first class, awesome.
• 18:50
  You mentioned that was going to be my next question.
• 18:52
  Again, you're ahead of me all the ways I was going to ask, do
• 18:55
  we do, you know it's becoming more and more common and we
• 18:58
  highly, highly encourage this for adaptive or wheelchair
• 19:01
  events. You mentioned that somewhere in
• 19:03
  the three or the two, a 3A group, I think you said.
• 19:06
  Right, 2A and 3A on that day they do a Paralympic stuff.
• 19:10
  It's usually not that many kids. It's a lot of wheelchair stuff.
• 19:15
  But they do do it at that time. Sometimes I've been to it
• 19:19
  sometimes with the kids just competing by them, like a one
• 19:21
  kid doing an event. But there have been times where
• 19:25
  there's been two or three in it in an event.
• 19:27
  And so they do have they cut out a period of time.
• 19:30
  If it's the same event, if it's that they're doing the 200 for
• 19:32
  the for the able bodied people. They do a 200 at the same time
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  for the Paralympics. Not Paralympics, but para
• 19:40
  athletes as well. They incorporated into the state
• 19:44
  championship as well. That's awesome.
• 19:45
  Good for Louisiana. I love to hear that some states,
• 19:48
  especially the ones that have, you know, multiple divisions
• 19:51
  might run an unofficial. I have not seen A.
• 19:55
  Actually. I do know there is one official,
• 19:56
  but mostly it's an unofficial meet of champs a week later
• 20:00
  where they invite the state champ from the CB 12345 A.
• 20:03
  We're going to run one heat and we're going to find out who the
• 20:05
  air quotes 200 meter champion or pole vaulter is.
• 20:08
  Anything like that in Louisiana, They don't.
• 20:11
  They do it, they do a meet, but it's at it's at the beginning of
• 20:14
  the next year. I know it's kind of because some
• 20:16
  people have graduated and stuff so that I know we never said
• 20:19
  Louisiana is smart. They do do a meet of champs
• 20:23
  usually the like I said the beginning of the pre of the
• 20:27
  following year where they I guess it's the kind of see the
• 20:31
  up and coming rising seniors how they are going to compete and
• 20:34
  things like that. I I mentioned my my girl who's
• 20:37
  it now at UL she won the 100 and 200 she had a horrible season
• 20:43
  the year before and wasn't on anybody's radar really.
• 20:46
  She got put in a like in. I think it was in she must have
• 20:51
  been in regionals. She got put in.
• 20:55
  I think some people had not had. They were the timings wasn't
• 21:00
  what they said it was. She got put in the second heat
• 21:03
  and she wanted her heat but her time she was competing against
• 21:06
  like no one and she ended up not qualifying for state and so she
• 21:12
  wasn't really on anyone's radar. And then at the state meet she,
• 21:15
  she hadn't lost the race all season and she's been doing
• 21:20
  really well and you know she won the 100 and 200.
• 21:24
  Then UL coach came up to me and he goes, where is she going?
• 21:26
  And she was only like to a small D3 school and he's like I have a
• 21:31
  scholarship. You know let me talk to her and
• 21:33
  she she's there now. But it's there does need to be
• 21:37
  a, I think an additional meet at the end of the year to kind of
• 21:41
  let some kids see that they, you know, they can compete because
• 21:44
  she ended up having the fastest time in the state and all
• 21:46
  classifications. So that would have been a great
• 21:50
  race to see her compete against the best in the state where she
• 21:53
  could have gone against some of those 5A schools and really
• 21:56
  shown people what she's made of. Absolutely, Yeah.
• 22:01
  Doing the meet a chance the beginning of next year.
• 22:03
  That's that's a good one after you graduated the.
• 22:06
  Next question is a little bit harder because I want to ask
• 22:09
  what unique events you do, but they're not unique to you.
• 22:12
  They are what you do. So I'm going to ask you a
• 22:13
  different way this time. So I'm going to kind of put
• 22:15
  these in groups and some of them are going to be pretty obvious.
• 22:18
  So right off the bat, I know we're doing the 1-2, the four,
• 22:21
  the eight, right? Yep.
• 22:22
  OK, good. Are we doing the 16 and the 32
• 22:25
  or do we do the fifteen 3000? The mile?
• 22:27
  Two mile? What do we do there, 1632?
• 22:30
  1632 you do both hurdles. We do the 300 hurdles, not the
• 22:33
  400 correct 300 hurdles and the 110 or 100 for.
• 22:38
  Yep, perfect. Let's do the relay.
• 22:40
  So I know you're doing 4 by 1 and 4 by 4, because if you're
• 22:42
  not doing 4x4, you're not doing track and field.
• 22:44
  Are we doing any other relays? Yes, we do the let's see what do
• 22:48
  we do now? We do the four by eight now.
• 22:53
  And let's see, we do the 100. We do the four by one, the four
• 22:56
  by two, the four by four, and the four by 8.
• 22:58
  OK. So you're doing a four by two as
• 22:59
  well, which is about, it's probably 6040 on the four by
• 23:03
  two, not everybody, yeah. And you said we're now doing the
• 23:06
  four by 8. Is that fairly new?
• 23:09
  Yeah, it is. It's only been maybe three or
• 23:14
  four years now. We've been doing it one year.
• 23:16
  They started it with just the big schools.
• 23:19
  It was a proposal as a way for because if you had a great, you
• 23:25
  know, district distance program, we really only had two events
• 23:28
  where you could earn points with those distance kids.
• 23:32
  So there was a proposal at the state convention.
• 23:34
  We have crazy proposals every year, but sometimes they are,
• 23:38
  they're good stuff to add the four by 8 to the program for the
• 23:43
  5A schools. And then it was, I guess it was
• 23:45
  kind of a pilot year. You could do it in your in your
• 23:49
  invitationals and things like that on your smaller schools,
• 23:52
  but when you when it was district and district all the
• 23:55
  way up the state you weren't doing it.
• 23:56
  And then the following year they added it to all the school, all
• 23:59
  the levels to do the 4 by 8. I grew up thinking that 4 by 8
• 24:03
  was in every state and quickly finding out that's not true, but
• 24:07
  a lot have been adding it recently in this you said three
• 24:10
  to four year block. There's probably several states
• 24:12
  that have added that. So I love that.
• 24:13
  All right, let's jump to the field events.
• 24:14
  We're doing long jumping, triple jump for boat.
• 24:16
  We got some great triple jumpers.
• 24:17
  Louisiana, of course, we're doing that.
• 24:19
  We're doing the shot put and discus.
• 24:20
  Of course we're doing the pole vault and high jump.
• 24:22
  Yes. All right.
• 24:24
  What else are we doing? Cuz I know we do the javelin.
• 24:26
  They're unique. One Javelin.
• 24:27
  All right. Yeah.
• 24:29
  Long tradition of the Javelin in the state of Indiana.
• 24:33
  Any other I don't want to say crazy unique events Hammer.
• 24:36
  Sprint, medley relay. We're just we're we're staying.
• 24:39
  No, none of those are official like we don't.
• 24:41
  We did it. There definitely is no hammer.
• 24:43
  But we do do Sprint Medley relays at some of our earlier
• 24:47
  track meets just for fun. Not in as far as like you know
• 24:51
  at this, at the state meets and anything like that.
• 24:54
  In some states we'll host kind of like this meet of champs
• 24:56
  idea, but they'll host a unofficial state meet for hip
• 25:00
  tap on decathlon or javelin. But you do that officially or
• 25:03
  hammer anything like that. No, we don't really.
• 25:06
  And we just do like in the beginning, like I said, we kind
• 25:09
  of do a there's a school that that hosts every year a relays
• 25:14
  and we do pretty much Sprint medley distance medley mixed
• 25:18
  relays just to the beginning of the year because you really
• 25:21
  don't know. You know, when it's you're
• 25:22
  trying to figure out what your team is made of and it's fun.
• 25:25
  Kids get to do different things. Sometimes we throw in like a big
• 25:27
  guy relay for the big kids and it's that's, you know, everybody
• 25:31
  loves those. They're funny and and fun to do.
• 25:34
  I'm waiting for the first state to have an official big guys
• 25:37
  related how in the world view police you got to have a weight
• 25:40
  limit a weight classifications. Okay, help us settle a debate in
• 25:48
  Louisiana, at least in your area and your culture.
• 25:51
  Are you, when you talk about it with your team, are you trying
• 25:53
  to go to the state meet? Are you trying to qualify for
• 25:56
  states? Are you trying to qualify for
• 25:57
  state? How do you say it?
• 25:59
  It's said differently everywhere.
• 26:01
  Yeah, I had a one of my old coaches I worked with she's from
• 26:04
  North Carolina and she went to she ran a Coastal Carolina and
• 26:09
  she would always say we're trying to get the States and I'm
• 26:11
  like it's only one state. It's not, it's not, it's only
• 26:14
  and I was like, no, it's just we're trying to qualify for
• 26:17
  state and we would always it was, you know the fun thing back
• 26:20
  and forth. But we just say, you know,
• 26:22
  trying to get the state. State not plural.
• 26:25
  Love it. I love that you had a you had
• 26:27
  someone trying to to throw in, trying to infiltrate our ways.
• 26:30
  I like that. All right, Brad.
• 26:32
  Well, as your reward or maybe your punishment for representing
• 26:35
  Louisiana here, I'm going to give you a magic wand and you
• 26:38
  can change any one thing in the state qualifying system that
• 26:43
  could be an event, that could be venue, it could be order of
• 26:47
  events, if one way you would think that would improve.
• 26:51
  The Louisiana outdoor track and field system, what would that
• 26:54
  be? I think qualifying A qualifying
• 26:58
  mark that you're it may have to it would make the state need a
• 27:04
  longer event than the one day. But we have sometimes you have
• 27:07
  regions that are really slow and those kids get in and it's like
• 27:11
  man my 4th and 5th kid are better than that.
• 27:14
  That kid who's out there and some sometimes you get into
• 27:18
  these meet these districts that are are regions that are stacked
• 27:21
  and like the state champion comes out of those every year
• 27:25
  and you can't quite crack that nut because they've just got a a
• 27:28
  stranglehold on it. And if you could have like an
• 27:30
  automatic qualifier that would get you.
• 27:33
  And I think that would be good to grow the sport and give more
• 27:36
  kids an opportunity to kind of see what the state needs about
• 27:40
  and compete and and be able to be able to compete not just a
• 27:45
  person out there who's, you know, kind of going through the
• 27:48
  motions and it's not, you know, they can just come from a poor
• 27:51
  district or something. I love it.
• 27:53
  That is one of the more common magic wands, if you will.
• 27:57
  There's always a talk about the stacked region, the stacked
• 28:00
  district, etcetera, where we leave a kid behind.
• 28:02
  It's like, oh, that kid could have gotten forth, for crying
• 28:04
  out loud, but we're fourth in the region.
• 28:07
  They stayed. That's a common one.
• 28:09
  Well, Brad, my man, thank you so much.
• 28:11
  This was awesome. Very interesting learning about
• 28:13
  the state of Louisiana and how you uniquely do it.
• 28:15
  I love that you had the javelin and I love that you added the
• 28:17
  four by eight. That is awesome.
• 28:19
  We're just so happy and proud of all the coaches in Louisiana and
• 28:23
  so grateful for you representing that great state with us today
• 28:25
  and this fun little project that we're working on.
• 28:27
  Thank you so much, Brad. Thank you.
• 28:29
  I appreciate you publicizing the sport.
• 28:32
  It's always needs a little bit more pub than it gets.
• 28:34
  That's right. You deserve it.
• 28:35
  Absolutely. Thank you.
• 28:36
  Appreciate it.