Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Maine State Meet featuring George Mendros from Thornton Academy

Transcript

BONUS: Maine State Meet featuring George Mendros from Thornton 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
• 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.
• 1:10
  Welcome back. Here we are.
• 1:11
  We're about in the middle of our 51, you know, including you
• 1:15
  Washington, DC journey here around the country.
• 1:18
  Today, we're going to go to the very, very Northeast.
• 1:20
  We're going to go to Maine. Help me welcome from Thornton
• 1:23
  Academy, Mr. George Mendros. George, how are you today?
• 1:26
  And thank you so much for joining us.
• 1:29
  I'm doing quite well and you're welcome.
• 1:31
  Thanks Sir. Excited to learn more about
• 1:34
  Maine and how we do the outdoor track and field system.
• 1:37
  Why don't we start? Why don't you give us a 32nd
• 1:40
  30,000 foot level introduction of yourself and your interaction
• 1:44
  with Maine High School, Track and field?
• 1:47
  Well, I've this is my going to be my 31st year coaching as the
• 1:52
  head coach outdoors. It's my 29th year indoors.
• 1:56
  I actually graduated from Thorne Academy back in 1976.
• 2:01
  Went to college and then ended up being an assistant coach and
• 2:06
  then taking over for the programs.
• 2:09
  I love it. So you've got Maine high school,
• 2:11
  track and field all through your veins.
• 2:14
  I do. And I several of the coaches
• 2:17
  that I interact with now are coaches.
• 2:19
  I either coach for me, I coached or they were athletes and I
• 2:25
  remember telling them, Oh yeah, you did this in this event,
• 2:28
  etcetera. That's pretty cool.
• 2:31
  I like that. Well, let's get to it.
• 2:32
  Let's learn more about Maine. Let's start with some states
• 2:37
  have a separate governing body for private schools and a
• 2:40
  separate governing body for public schools.
• 2:42
  Other states put them all together.
• 2:44
  How do we do in Maine? Private and public schools for
• 2:48
  track and field. The Main Principals Association
• 2:52
  is the governing body basically for the entire state.
• 2:55
  There are very few. True private schools in the
• 2:59
  state of Maine thought an Academy is a what is called a
• 3:05
  public Academy. It started off as a private
• 3:08
  school back in 1811. We actually got our chatter
• 3:11
  before, but was still part of Massachusetts.
• 3:16
  And then it was mainly all private students with dorms or
• 3:22
  people staying at homes or whatever.
• 3:26
  And then very quickly then, right around the turn of the
• 3:31
  previous century, it became a public the public school for the
• 3:36
  with Saco ME around a couple of surrounding communities.
• 3:40
  And then about 12 years ago, we started getting dorm students
• 3:43
  again. So we have the students from all
• 3:45
  over the world, as well as students from Saco.
• 3:50
  Dayton, Arundel, Maine, they they have what is called a
• 3:53
  voucher program. They pay.
• 3:54
  They don't have their own high schools.
• 3:55
  They pay and then we have other school, other students from
• 3:58
  around the state, nearby areas who pay for their parents, pay
• 4:02
  for the kids to go here and. Going back, the MPA, it's all
• 4:07
  one. Bollywick got it perfect.
• 4:10
  And so how many classes? Or you might call it a different
• 4:14
  thing, but how many classes do we separate our high schools
• 4:17
  into there? In outdoor track, St.
• 4:20
  AB and C OK, so we call them Class A, Class B and Class C.
• 4:25
  Right, with class AB and the largest, I'm sorry, say that
• 4:29
  again, which one's the largest? Class A is the largest.
• 4:32
  Yep, there we go. And.
• 4:33
  Then schools can actually apply up a class if they wish in
• 4:37
  different sports, but not down. Not in track.
• 4:44
  All right, so we've got three classes, Class AB and CAB in the
• 4:49
  big, CB in the smaller. So that means we are that three
• 4:53
  boys teams are earning A state championship title and three
• 4:56
  girls teams are winning team title at the end of our state
• 5:00
  meet. That's correct.
• 5:02
  Perfect. OK, now let's talk about how do
• 5:04
  we get to that state meat all around the country.
• 5:07
  Some people call them areas, Districts, regional sectionals
• 5:10
  are a whole bunch of different names.
• 5:11
  What's the first round? What's the 1st way to start
• 5:14
  qualifying for the state meat? Well, we have.
• 5:19
  We used to have regional meats, two regions top sticks from each
• 5:23
  advance. We no longer have regional
• 5:25
  meats. It is.
• 5:29
  You have up to 8 meats. To qualify your athletes, your
• 5:35
  regular season meets your league championship and then couple
• 5:38
  invitationals or whatever. Any performance in there counts
• 5:42
  towards qualifying and we have an automatic standard and a
• 5:47
  provisional standard. So we used to do regionals, now
• 5:54
  we go to a standard. You said you have an automatic
• 5:57
  and a provisional. Does that mean let's use the 100
• 6:01
  meter dash? Let's say the 100 meter dash is
• 6:03
  11 flat for your auto. No matter how many kids hit that
• 6:07
  automatic in these up to 8 meets, they're going to the
• 6:10
  state meet. So if 100 kids break the auto,
• 6:13
  they're going, If two kids qualify in the auto, two kids
• 6:17
  are going. And I assume that's what our
• 6:18
  provisionals for at that point? That's correct.
• 6:22
  And how many are we? How many are we?
• 6:25
  What's the minimum? We're taking the state in each
• 6:27
  event. So if only two of those kids hit
• 6:29
  the auto qualifier, how many are we filling in with provisional?
• 6:33
  We we actually the provisional standard is designed well we we
• 6:40
  can go up to 32. So if like you said, if 34 kids
• 6:46
  reach the automatic standard, they all go if 25 kids.
• 6:50
  Will go to the seven next 7 Fatwell who choose to qualify.
• 6:54
  Obviously you could run the qualifying the 100 and be doing
• 6:56
  other events, right? Now if you get to the
• 7:01
  provisional cut off, let's say it's 11/3 O and you have less
• 7:07
  than 32 kids. That's what goes if you have
• 7:11
  less than 32 all the way through your provisionals.
• 7:14
  That's correct. So you could have 28 that only
• 7:17
  go because yeah. Certain events it's can be
• 7:21
  smaller, yes. Do you know what was this
• 7:24
  recently and recently? Could be in the last 20 years
• 7:29
  why they moved from regionals to this qualifying standard system.
• 7:34
  Yeah, I was actually on the committee that went to the
• 7:38
  standards and. You know, you get to the
• 7:43
  regional meet and it was at at the time it was just a regional
• 7:47
  meet. There was no ribbons for the
• 7:49
  athletes, no point scoring or whatever.
• 7:52
  And the theory coming out was only bad things happen at the
• 7:56
  regional meet. A kid could actually, a kid
• 8:01
  could set a state record, but if the following week of the state
• 8:05
  meet they don't do it, they still get credit for the state
• 8:08
  record but they don't score. So the idea was to.
• 8:12
  Keep the best athletes in the meet.
• 8:15
  You know you don't want one. Granted, you can have a bad day
• 8:18
  at the state meet, but the idea is that one bad day where you're
• 8:23
  not necessarily at 100% because you're you think you're going to
• 8:29
  just cruise through and follow the start or a bad throat.
• 8:32
  You know, don't get into the don't get illegal throw, you're
• 8:36
  out. So that was the main reason a
• 8:39
  kids running 1050 all year goes to regionals and false starts.
• 8:43
  Well now that 1050 kid is not going to state because of 1 bad
• 8:47
  thing and they may be the best kid by 1/2 a second.
• 8:50
  They shouldn't be at the state meet there.
• 8:52
  If you fail it's like OK, well that's your final the state meet
• 8:54
  that's you know if you false start there, well yeah that
• 8:56
  makes a lot of sense. That's interesting.
• 8:58
  I think there's a that's a big topic amongst all of our states
• 9:01
  is are we leaving good kids at home because of regional
• 9:06
  districts, areas, sectionals etcetera.
• 9:08
  So it's interesting that main goes to the auto standard and
• 9:12
  provisional standard. About how long ago was that?
• 9:16
  To me it seems like, yes, I think it was actually 20
• 9:23
  something years ago. O3O4IN that area.
• 9:27
  OK, perfect. OK, so let's talk about the
• 9:31
  state meat. Do you have it at one location?
• 9:35
  Is Class A at one place, Class B at another Class C Talk to us
• 9:39
  about how many days it takes for the meat or meats.
• 9:42
  Talk to us about the actual state meat venue.
• 9:44
  Yeah, we used to years ago. Like back when I was in high
• 9:48
  school, we used to go to one site, whether it was Bowden
• 9:51
  College, University of Maine, Well.
• 9:54
  Separate sites for boys and girls.
• 9:56
  And we had a couple years where we did everything together on
• 9:58
  one day, all three classes, both genders.
• 10:01
  Yeah, that was one. And then we decided to start
• 10:08
  going separate sites, Boys and girls A at one site, boys and
• 10:12
  girls B at one site, boys and girls C at one site.
• 10:16
  And we basically went about that.
• 10:21
  Time started in the late. 70s, early 80s we started going to
• 10:27
  high high schools. A lot of tracks like the track
• 10:32
  of Thornton Academy up until 1979 was a Cinda slash dirt
• 10:38
  track, four lanes. We got a new track in 1979.
• 10:43
  We ran our first time in 1988 lanes. 400 meters was the first
• 10:48
  eight lane, 400 meter track in New England.
• 10:52
  High school or college. They told us brown was also
• 10:55
  brown was only 6 lanes around so we and since then there's
• 10:59
  probably easily a dozen if not closer to two dozen schools that
• 11:06
  are 8 lanes 400 meters. So wave you go to a different
• 11:13
  high school and basically the Class A schools will go to an A
• 11:17
  track BBC to C and you rotate it through.
• 11:23
  What we call South, central and N.
• 11:27
  So normally A is in the South, B is in the central and C is in
• 11:31
  the north and then you rotate through.
• 11:32
  So. So every year Class A is going
• 11:36
  to be at a different venue, Class B is going to be at a
• 11:38
  different venue, etcetera. Yeah, perfect.
• 11:41
  OK. And how how many days do we is,
• 11:44
  is the meet now with these separate sites.
• 11:46
  One day, it's still a one day. OK.
• 11:49
  Every a, A is. I got three separate sites,
• 11:52
  eight boys and girls. The first set, it's not only the
• 11:55
  1st Saturday in June. So if it's one day again, using
• 12:01
  that 100 meter dash as an example, if you're taking 32,
• 12:04
  that means you're running 4 heats to start.
• 12:06
  Are you doing 4 heats and getting your 8 finalists from
• 12:10
  that? Are you doing another round of
• 12:11
  saying? The 100 and the higher hurdles
• 12:14
  have trials and finals all on time, 200 on up.
• 12:20
  Is sections on time the high hurdles in the 100 that you
• 12:24
  qualify by time you could win your heat and not get through
• 12:27
  right The the other ones have a win your heat component to it.
• 12:33
  What? No, the hurdles.
• 12:34
  In the 100, you run let's say 4 heats, the eight fastest times,
• 12:40
  get to the finals and then you run the final.
• 12:43
  What what about like the you said the two and and other
• 12:46
  events 4. 100 and sections on time.
• 12:49
  So they could all with the fast fastest qualified as being the
• 12:53
  last section. Gotcha.
• 12:56
  OK, I'm with you now. All right.
• 12:59
  Some states do they're adding adaptive events wheelchair
• 13:04
  events. Main Anybody doing anything like
• 13:06
  that in Maine? We do have wheelchair events,
• 13:10
  roughly half the half the running events, like I want to
• 13:15
  say the hundred, the 400 and the 1600.
• 13:18
  And shot put discus. Awesome.
• 13:22
  Love that. Love that more states are
• 13:23
  included. It's what's great about track
• 13:25
  and field. It's the most inclusive sport
• 13:27
  out there. So I love that states are doing
• 13:29
  that. Some states do, either
• 13:32
  officially or unofficial. When you have, say, three
• 13:35
  classes like we do here in Maine, they'll do maybe a week
• 13:38
  later a meet of champions, whether it's sanctioned by the
• 13:41
  state or coaches association is putting it on.
• 13:44
  They'll invite the top athletes from each event in Class A,
• 13:47
  Class B, Class C put them all together and let's see who the
• 13:50
  quote UN quote true state champion is Anything like that
• 13:53
  going on in in Maine. No, in Maine we actually the we
• 14:00
  have a New England championship the following week with the six
• 14:04
  states in New England and you can send 6 athletes for a state
• 14:09
  and we know we take the AB and C champion to automatic and then.
• 14:15
  And the next three best performances regardless of the
• 14:18
  state. But we do have alternate so 4th
• 14:20
  kid doesn't go and that's what they're supposed to do.
• 14:24
  They're supposed to e-mail in to me.
• 14:26
  Actually if the athletes want to go or they aren't, we let's say
• 14:32
  you got a distance runner with the mile and 1/2 in the state
• 14:34
  meet. They only want to do the mile
• 14:36
  and things like that, and then we try to fill it to six.
• 14:41
  So you're doing a meet up champs, not within your state.
• 14:43
  You're doing it within New England's, which is 1/6 state.
• 14:47
  Call it meet up champs if you will.
• 14:48
  That's interesting. Yes, perfect.
• 14:54
  OK, Let's talk about your events.
• 14:55
  This question is a little hard because what I want to ask you,
• 14:59
  George, is what events are unique to Maine, but they're not
• 15:02
  unique to you, you just do them. So I'm going to ask it a little
• 15:05
  differently. We're going to go through the
• 15:06
  different segments here. So for sure you're doing the 102
• 15:10
  hundred, 400 and 800, right, because that's part of track and
• 15:12
  field. What are you doing around the 16
• 15:14
  and 32? Are you doing the 1632?
• 15:17
  Are you doing the mile, two mile, the 15103 thousand?
• 15:19
  What are you doing in those two events?
• 15:21
  We do the 1600 and the 3200, all right.
• 15:23
  So it's pretty standard. On the windows we do the mile
• 15:26
  two mile. Don't ask me why, I was just
• 15:29
  about to say, OK, not confusing at all.
• 15:30
  We'll move for the high hurdles you're doing the 110 high
• 15:33
  hurdles and the 100 high hurdles for the girls.
• 15:37
  Are we doing 300 or 400 hurdles? We're.
• 15:39
  Doing 300? Yep, it's pretty standard.
• 15:40
  And for our relays we're for sure doing the four by one and
• 15:42
  the four by four, because if you're not doing those two
• 15:44
  events, you're not really doing track and field.
• 15:46
  What about other relays that you might do for the state meeting?
• 15:49
  4 by 800 Yeah, perfect. Good.
• 15:52
  No Sprint medleys. No 4 by 2.
• 15:55
  That's those three. There's been talk about adding
• 15:59
  the four by two, but that really never went anywhere.
• 16:02
  Yeah, it's about what we're finding out is maybe around just
• 16:04
  under 50% are doing the four by two and actually the four by
• 16:07
  eight is probably over 50%, but not every state, which surprises
• 16:12
  me. OK, let's move to our field
• 16:13
  events. We're doing the long jump and
• 16:15
  the triple jump. Yes, yes, awesome shot put in
• 16:18
  discus before so we doing pole vault and high jump.
• 16:21
  Yes. Are we doing any other field
• 16:23
  events? Hammer.
• 16:24
  Javelin. Javelin awesome.
• 16:26
  Yeah, you're one of our almost. We're getting about 50%.
• 16:30
  We're getting right around 2526 states.
• 16:32
  Now mainly East Coast I think the Javelin it it is but it's
• 16:36
  it's adding we found out a couple weeks ago that Idaho is
• 16:39
  adding that's awesome Florida added here recently Missouri a
• 16:43
  few years ago. So it's it's growing man.
• 16:45
  We're we're proud of that. It's a great event some states
• 16:48
  so you're doing your I'm call your meet of champs as the New
• 16:51
  England meet of champs. But some states will also, again
• 16:54
  usually through a track coaches association or just a a coach
• 16:57
  with passion will host some kind of maybe a hammer state
• 17:02
  champion, you know, unofficial state championship or a
• 17:04
  heptathlon, decathlon, state championship, anything like
• 17:07
  that. No, but going back to the state
• 17:09
  meet we do do the 1600 meter race walk you oh hey there we go
• 17:16
  now that is. That is a full schooling event.
• 17:19
  Yeah. I think New York does it.
• 17:24
  And they may have stopped and I think at one time they stopped
• 17:28
  just they stopped. The men were just doing women's,
• 17:31
  which makes no sense. But anyway, so the 1600 race
• 17:35
  block. Yes.
• 17:37
  How? How popular is that?
• 17:38
  What I mean by that is I'm not sure any other state does it.
• 17:41
  We'll find out 19 events. It is the 19th most popular
• 17:45
  event. OK, sure, sure, sure, sure.
• 17:49
  But that's awesome, though. That's great, 'cause there are
• 17:50
  opportunities to race walk not only collegiately, but all the
• 17:53
  way up to the Olympics. For crying out loud, They're
• 17:55
  doing a mixed relay race walk now in the Olympics, so that's
• 17:58
  really cool. Good kudos for Maine.
• 17:59
  That's awesome. OK, George, help us at least in
• 18:04
  your culture, in your school or program, maybe let's settle a
• 18:08
  little debate, little argument here around the country we call
• 18:12
  the act of qualifying to that state meet differently.
• 18:15
  Everywhere we call it. Sometimes we say we're trying to
• 18:17
  get to the state meter. We're qualifying for states or
• 18:20
  we're qualifying for just state. What do you say?
• 18:23
  What's the nomenclature for you? Well, it's.
• 18:28
  I think we say qualifying for states, but we also in our
• 18:32
  league, we also have a qualifying standard.
• 18:36
  So I list the three standards at the beginning of the season,
• 18:39
  standard for our league, the Southern Maine Activities
• 18:43
  Association, the SMAA and then I have provisional and state.
• 18:47
  So, so with me, I say you've qualified for this and so yeah,
• 18:53
  so you got to qualify for your league championships.
• 18:56
  We do. Is that every league or just
• 18:58
  yours? Some leagues, the leagues with
• 19:03
  the largest schools, you have a standard.
• 19:05
  Yeah. Wow, that's pretty cool.
• 19:08
  And the difference is there you have an automatic standard and
• 19:12
  then the provisional, you feel the field to 16.
• 19:19
  All right, George, you have taught us a lot here about
• 19:21
  Maine. I really appreciate you.
• 19:23
  We're going to give you a little gift here.
• 19:24
  We're going to give you a magic wand.
• 19:27
  If you could change any one thing in the state of Maine for
• 19:31
  outdoor track and field, it could be adding an event, taking
• 19:34
  away an event, It could be maybe you add regionals back.
• 19:37
  I don't want to put words in your mouth.
• 19:38
  What one thing would you do, in your opinion, to help improve
• 19:42
  the state of Maine's outdoor track and field qualifying
• 19:46
  system sport in general? It's funny, I thought about
• 19:49
  this. I think to be honest with you,
• 19:53
  32 people is too much for the state meet.
• 19:56
  I would probably cut it to 24. Have you seen that make the
• 20:01
  meet? I don't want to say drag on but
• 20:03
  some track and field meets do drag ONS.
• 20:04
  It just adds. Yeah, I mean, I mean starts at
• 20:10
  10, probably finishes with awards around 5:00.
• 20:17
  And The thing is it's the field events that the running events
• 20:20
  are merely stretch around to make sure they don't you know
• 20:25
  the field events end before that.
• 20:27
  But of course we've had some very good pole vault as in the
• 20:32
  past and like I I have a one of my students who's at UConn right
• 20:38
  now went 69 and a quarter is that the mains Allstate record
• 20:42
  and of course that pole vault. Wet longer.
• 20:45
  I mean not only 1314 feet once the state meet in Maine.
• 20:50
  So that event took longer than normal, right?
• 20:56
  Well, I think with the system you have in place since you
• 20:58
  don't have a regionals because you know if you start cutting
• 21:00
  down people at state, you got to figure out how you're doing your
• 21:02
  regionals or districts, whatever you're qualifying by automatic
• 21:06
  and provisional standard would make that a little easier.
• 21:08
  So I appreciate that, George. That's a good insight to have.
• 21:10
  And you know, we started this project to interview a coach
• 21:13
  from every state, including Washington, DC to create
• 21:16
  conversation. And I think what we've learned
• 21:18
  today will help do that tremendously.
• 21:20
  So, George, thank you so much. I would do appreciate you
• 21:23
  stepping up and representing the great state of Maine and
• 21:25
  teaching us all about Maine track and field.
• 21:27
  Thank you, Sir. You're welcome.