Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Virginia State Meet featuring Jeff Fanale from Centreville HS

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BONUS: Virginia State Meet featuring Jeff Fanale from Centreville HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
• 0:03
  In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
• 0:06
  understanding around the country, we're going to be
• 0:08
  running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
• 0:12
  school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
• 0:16
  DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
• 0:21
  state. We'll be talking with a local
• 0:23
  state expert on how many classes, private versus public
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  schools, what events and what is the process?
• 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?
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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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  Hey, you know, we're getting towards the end.
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  All good things must come to an end.
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  We started with Alabama back in April and now as we head into
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  the end of May, we're getting to our WVS and YS and I guess no
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  ZS, but you know, we'll see today.
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  Help me welcome from Centerville High School.
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  Mr. Jeff Finelli, as we talk about the great state of
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  Virginia. Jeff, thanks for being here
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  today, man. Well, thank you for having me.
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  Super excited. You know, this is this series as
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  we're going through 51 championships because we're
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  including new Washington DC we're learning a ton.
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  And you know, this doesn't happen without servant leaders
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  such as yourself stepping up and volunteering.
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  So just so grateful for you being here with us today and
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  excited to see the twists and turns and uniquenesses and
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  commonalities that we have here in Virginia.
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  So why don't we start, Jeff? Why don't you kind of give us
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  like a 30,000 foot level 30 second version?
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  Just tell us who you are. Why should we be listening to
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  you for the state of Virginia? All right, so I'm the I'm the
• 2:06
  head cross country coach at Summerville High School in in
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  Clifton, VA up in Fairfax County and I'm the distance coach for
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  the track and field teams for indoor and outdoor.
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  I've been coaching for about 14 years, pretty much in the same
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  area. This is the third different high
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  school in Fairfax County that I've been at and also spent two
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  years coaching at Paul the 6th and which is a private school.
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  It's Catholic school up here in the area, so a little bit of
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  knowledge about that. But also just grew up in this
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  area. I'm a product of anyone out
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  there listening has ever heard of Lake Braddock Secondary
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  School. I'm a product of that program
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  which is usually one of the stronger ones in the state.
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  So I graduated in 2005 S Over 2 decades of knowing how this this
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  thing works as a as an athlete and as a coach, well, it sounds
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  like we got the right guy. For.
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  I hope so. So yeah, appreciate that you
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  made me feel old too, by the way.
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  You say you graduated No 5 and I was like, I graduated 10 years
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  before him. And you say I've got two
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  decades? I'm like, oh man, that means 3
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  decades. Right.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  It's it's it's weird. I look at, you know, my kids and
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  I'm like. I don't look at myself as old,
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  but I'm like, no, you're I'm not old.
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  You're just super young. That's how I work at it.
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  That's right. I wear it as a badge punter.
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  Well, Jeff, you mentioned public schools and private schools.
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  That's great because that leads us to our very first question as
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  we go through Virginia, here is some states, not many that we
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  have learned, but some states have a separate track, a
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  separate organization that runs private school, have a private
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  school state meet, and then we have a public school track, if
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  you will, that goes all the way to a public school.
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  And most commonly both public and private schools are working
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  towards the state, the same state title.
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  What are we doing in Virginia? Private and public schools.
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  It's pretty separate. So the public schools in
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  Virginia are governed by the Virginia High School League or
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  the VHSL, and the private schools there are, I think
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  there's two or three, but the main one that I am.
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  Familiar with is is Visa, which is it's VISAAI think it's the
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  Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association.
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  I think I have that right. So they each kind of do their
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  own thing. They each have their own rules
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  in terms of advancing and qualifying.
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  But a lot of the same things are going to be the same.
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  Like you'll still need a physical and things like that to
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  participate. So, but they're separate.
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  They have their own state meet. They don't.
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  Correct. Oh, yeah.
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  OK, All right. Cool.
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  Not many. We haven't learned very many of
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  that way. So that's unique that Virginia
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  does that. Appreciate that.
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  OK. Well, let's talk about how many
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  classes are we doing in Virginia when it comes to track and
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  field? We have.
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  We currently have 6 classifications.
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  The VHSL dividement has six classifications based on school
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  size and the private schools. For the longest time when I
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  coached with private schools, there were two divisions.
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  I think now there's three and I just found that out recently.
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  So I think that's what we're dealing with with the VHSL for
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  In 2013, they went to the current 6 classifications.
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  So I think prior to that for you're probably looking for at
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  least 40 years, we were three, there were three classifications
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  and it moved from 3:00 to 6:00. Yes.
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  And what do we call them in Virginia?
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  Are we a AA all the way up to six?
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  A You know for the you know for the longest time it was like 6A,
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  it was like 1A2A3A so on and so forth.
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  Now I think it's just class one, class two, class 3 because what
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  you got right now and I just. Kind of switched my vernacular
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  to that. I used to say 6A for the longest
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  time, but now I just started saying class 6, and that's
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  because in between you've got the regions and there's usually,
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  and I believe there's four regions per class, and the
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  regions are letters. So in class 6 you've got region
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  6A, region 6B6C6D. And so it just it it gets
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  confusing, be like, wait a minute, it's the class 6A, but
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  this is region 6A, so that gets a little confusing.
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  But when we were three, back in the day when we were three, it
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  was single, A, AA, AAA and on that class one through 6.
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  Which one's the big school enrollment and which one's the
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  smaller? Six is the biggest.
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  Got it. OK.
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  So we go class 6A, big down to class one, smaller enrollments.
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  And so you're telling us that each spring, six boys teams are
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  going to be earning a Class A state championship title and six
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  girls teams are going to be earning a state championship
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  title? Yes, perfect.
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  All right, let's learn how we get to that state title.
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  You mentioned regions. Is that the first round as we're
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  working towards state, or what is the first?
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  Round. So the first round is your
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  district. OK, all right.
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  And I can really. I want to say we are the same,
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  but I think. At least my experience in class
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  6 and even back in the AAA days, in each region there's four.
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  So you have 6 classifications, right?
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  You have four regions in each and in each region there are two
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  districts. So the district's the first
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  round. So talk to us about district.
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  How do I enter kids? And what I mean by that is, am I
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  allowed two entries per event? Is there a time qualifier that I
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  could enter 10 as long as they need the ten time qualifier?
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  How do I get those kids to start this journey?
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  The. So the answer is both.
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  Each school and there's different schools in each one.
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  So for example, our district, we are in the Concorde District and
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  there are six schools in it. There's us.
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  There's Centerville, Chantilly High School, Westfield High
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  School. James Madison High School,
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  Oakton High School and South Lakes High School.
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  Each of us for each of the events and track and field, we
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  are entitled to three entries per event.
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  But we also have qualification standards and if you have an
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  athlete, if you have more than three athletes that have earned
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  A qualifying standard in. In a certain event you may enter
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  that that athlete. So for example when I coached
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  before coming to Centerville, I coached at Westfield, one of our
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  district rivals and our jumps coach at the time, he's he's one
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  he's one of the best in in our state.
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  I think he had, he'd know the answer for it you'd be able to
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  tell you. But he had, I think one year he
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  had six girls entered in the long jump because they had
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  reached that standard. And the standard is, I believe
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  it is the average of the 6th place finisher, which is the
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  last finisher that scores, I want to say from the previous
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  eight years, I want to say I I can't remember.
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  I'd have to look it up. But that's how we determine.
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  So it fluctuates each year, but it doesn't really deviate.
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  So we always go into each season before the standards are
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  released of of a general idea of what they're going to be is that
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  that average of six place, is that the six place from the
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  state meet or from the district? The district meet but but each
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  level will use the same basic formula, right?
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  Got it. So I've got district meet.
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  I can enter three per event. However, if I have a a bunch of
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  super stud girl quarter milers and whatever that let's just say
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  the standard is 58 seconds, we'll just make up a time here
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  And I have 4 girls that run 58 and better.
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  I can enter four or five or six, however.
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  Many. That's correct.
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  That's correct. And you know, the more darts you
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  have, the better chance you have at hitting that bullseye.
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  Absolutely. Exactly right.
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  You've coached for a while. That's a great coaching analogy
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  right there. All right, So from district and
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  we're going to go to regionals. How do I get out of districts to
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  go to regionals? So from the district to the
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  region. You have two options.
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  Number one, you can hit a regional qualifying time or you
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  can be in the top six at the in in your event at at the district
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  meet. So for example, we have a young
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  man, he is a sophomore this year and as a freshman last year we
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  went into districts. He didn't have any qualifying
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  times. He runs the 3200, he gets
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  second, so that's how he punches his ticket to the regional meet
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  the next week. Can't.
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  I can't, I can't remember what the regional standard is to save
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  my life right now. I can't remember it or not, but
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  because he had that place standard, he got in, you know,
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  and you can. It goes the same way for the
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  state meet as well. So I'm in district.
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  If I get top six, I'm automatically going under
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  Regionals. Yes, let me let me clarify.
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  It's the top 6 individuals and it's the top three relays, got
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  it. So because at least in our
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  district we we're not going to advance all six relay teams, top
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  three relays, top six and all the other events pole vault,
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  high jump shot, put. If I'm 7th or lower, I do have a
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  shot at hitting a qualifying standard.
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  Yes. And and that and that has
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  happened before. That's happened before in both
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  the the individual events and the relays where you know if
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  it's a fast heat, you know sometimes you'll get a 7th place
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  finisher that will hit a time standard.
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  It doesn't happen most of the time.
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  It's happened a lot in the relays.
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  I mean we've been, you know the regional meet and at the
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  district meet we've been at the very lucky end where you know,
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  we didn't get the the place qualifier which is always
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  preferred. But we did reach, we did get the
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  time. So you know that that happens a
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  lot too. OK, so I've qualified at
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  districts. I've top six, or I hit my
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  qualifying time, or I'm top three in the relays or hit my
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  qualifying time to get on the regionals.
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  I get to regional meet. Is the next, is the next round
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  after regional State? Correct.
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  All right, So what do I got to do in regionals to go to the big
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  dance? All right.
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  So this is where things get a little bit complicated.
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  OK, so now you got to be. In the top 4 finishers.
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  In the top 4 finishers or you hit that time standard.
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  But it's weird. We still score I think all the
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  way out to sit. So the the young man I was
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  referencing, he had one of the grittiest, gutsiest races I've
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  ever seen at the regional meet. He runs, I think.
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  The second fastest freshman time over 3200 meters in the
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  Commonwealth of Virginia last year was definitely top five,
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  but he was the 5th place finisher, did not get the time
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  standard so his season was over. We brought him down to the
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  statement anyway because we had a relay and he was an alternate
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  so but he got fifth, which means he would have had to hit the
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  qualifying Standard Time. Right.
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  He missed. He missed the time.
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  He missed the place and. But, but he still scored and he
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  was still technically an all region finisher, which is
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  strange and you know, and on the flip side we had another young
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  man in the 800 last outdoor season.
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  He was very, very close. He was like a.
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  A couple tenths of a second away from state qualifying and our
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  region was stacked in the 800 last year it it most likely will
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  be again this year, but on any given day I think any of those
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  boys be like six or seven boys that qualified for the state
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  meet by hitting the time standard.
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  So Elijah hit the time standard. But I think he was like 5th or
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  6th. So again, that's just being in
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  the right place at the right time.
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  Running the right time too, you know, as we've gone through all
• 14:27
  these different States and I came out of Virginia, now we're
• 14:29
  at 4748. We're getting near the end of
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  these 5051 championships. The number one concern has been
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  how do we get, how do we not penalize?
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  Someone who lives in a region wasn't their choice that they
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  lived there wasn't their choice that six of the best 800 meter
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  runners in this example also decided to live there.
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  And a one I'm making numbers here.
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  A 152 guy stays at home because he was fifth because it just
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  happened that year, you know, and he he might be #5 at State
• 14:53
  as well. So I like that Virginia has this
• 14:56
  qualifying center that's really interesting.
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  That's good and it's. Fun.
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  And it's funny you bring that up.
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  Like my assistant coach and I were talking about this the
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  other day and you could probably speak to this because I'm sure
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  you probably interviewed a coach from that state.
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  But supposedly I I heard like in Pennsylvania they'll do this
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  thing where like, you know, if one region is weaker, this was
• 15:12
  for cross country. They won't like advance.
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  As many teams from a region, if it's a weaker one and they'll
• 15:21
  give another spot to a stronger region, well, you'll have to go
• 15:26
  and listen to the Pennsylvania episode to see if that's true.
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  I'll have to, I'll have to check that out.
• 15:31
  So if you're listening right now, you you already know
• 15:34
  because you already went and listened to, because that comes
• 15:36
  with four V We're doing these alphabetical.
• 15:37
  Orders. Gotcha.
• 15:38
  Yeah. OK.
• 15:39
  So state out of regionals, the top four plus that qualifying
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  standard. I love that.
• 15:43
  So let's talk about the state meet in in address.
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  You said this a couple of times times.
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  This is unique. So first of all, tell us about
• 15:49
  the state meet in regards to are we doing all 12, you know, so
• 15:53
  six boys, 6 girls state championships at the same venue.
• 15:57
  Is that venue typically a college or high school or does
• 15:59
  it rotate? How many days is the meet?
• 16:02
  And then also as you're talking about the state meet itself, now
• 16:06
  you keep saying we're scoring 68 is the most typical.
• 16:10
  So address that as well please, Jeff.
• 16:12
  Yeah. So the easy question, rather, is
• 16:16
  the scoring. We score 8. 88 So 8 athletes
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  score and that's what is considered Allstate.
• 16:23
  That's what gets medals. You You've been saying score
• 16:26
  six, though, so are you saying you score 6 until you get to
• 16:29
  state? Correct.
• 16:31
  Oh. OK.
• 16:32
  Yes it makes it makes more sense at the district level just
• 16:37
  because it's it's smaller at the regional meet and again we've
• 16:43
  Virginia's gone through a bunch of different.
• 16:45
  Reorganizations especially at the regional level the last 10
• 16:49
  years. So it is kind of hard to keep up
• 16:51
  a little bit. For the longest time we did can
• 16:53
  score out to 8 at the regional meet.
• 16:56
  Now we just we just do 6 and it's fine.
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  And it's fine because I'm fine scoring 6 at the regional
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  because it's, believe it or not it is smaller than it used to be
• 17:09
  10 years and 20 years ago. So you score 8 at state that's
• 17:12
  that gets you back stepping lock with nearly almost not every
• 17:16
  state out there. So OK, all right.
• 17:17
  Talk to us about the state meet venue.
• 17:19
  We do it more. So, so yeah, so with the so
• 17:24
  there aren't six. There are technically six
• 17:27
  different meats, but they're all happening at three different
• 17:30
  locations. So the five, the Class 5 and
• 17:34
  Class 6 state meats will be at the same place.
• 17:39
  And we have ours at Todd Stadium down in Newport News, I believe
• 17:45
  class three and four. I want to say they're at
• 17:49
  Liberty, the tradition they've been at Liberty University in
• 17:51
  Lynchburg. And I want to say one and two,
• 17:55
  gosh, sorry if there are any listeners out here.
• 17:59
  If I get this wrong, I want to say they're at Eastern Mennonite
• 18:02
  University in Harrisonburg. So we're doing 3 different
• 18:06
  venues, one and two at 1:00, three and four, and another five
• 18:09
  and six, all on the same weekend.
• 18:11
  All around the same weekend? Yeah, I believe so, yes.
• 18:14
  Usually we're like first week of June, like right after Memorial
• 18:17
  Day. So are those three, sorry to
• 18:23
  interrupt there, Jeff. Are those two meets when you're
• 18:25
  mentioning, you know, maybe Eastern Midnight and Liberty and
• 18:27
  Todd Stadium, Is that traditional, meaning every year
• 18:30
  you're at Todd or does that alternate?
• 18:32
  Usually, usually we are. We've been at Todd.
• 18:37
  For the past, about the past 10 years, and I think before that
• 18:47
  when I started coaching, we were at Sports Backers Stadium, which
• 18:51
  is in Richmond. I believe that's BC US.
• 18:55
  Home turf. And I think that's also where
• 18:57
  the private schools hold theirs. They'll hold theirs at at at
• 19:00
  sports backers. That's right because we're doing
• 19:02
  separate private that's a thanks for reminding us that we're
• 19:05
  doing it on this maybe same weekend or around the same
• 19:07
  weekend. We're also doing private school
• 19:09
  state meets as well. So for the public schools, talk
• 19:12
  to us two day meet. Three day meet.
• 19:14
  How? We it's it's a 2, it's a 2 day
• 19:16
  meet and it's it can get confusing, especially if you're
• 19:19
  a spectator. Or if you're one of those
• 19:21
  parents that have come down to watch a kid, you technically
• 19:24
  have two meets going on at the same time.
• 19:27
  So the way they'll do that is they'll run the class 5 girls,
• 19:31
  then the class 6 girls, then the class five boys and class six
• 19:36
  boys. So, so when you say that, are
• 19:39
  you talking about by event or by meet?
• 19:42
  Meaning are they running the 5A girls, 32106 A girls, 32105 A
• 19:47
  boys or are they doing all 5A girl events?
• 19:51
  Maybe there's, you know 10 because you know we're doing 2
• 19:52
  day meet. Yeah, if they did.
• 19:54
  So it's the former, not the latter.
• 19:56
  If they did the former, If they did the latter, we gosh, we'd
• 20:00
  still be there. But you know you can imagine
• 20:04
  just your anxiety that you get as a coach, especially as an
• 20:08
  athlete to where you're looking at, you know a time schedule.
• 20:12
  And you know we've been very fortunate.
• 20:14
  We've had boys 4 by eights, you know qualify the last two years.
• 20:18
  And you know you look at the the sheet and it says 1:00 there are
• 20:24
  two heats for everything. But that 1:00, if you're a the
• 20:27
  class six boys 4 by 8, that's actually closer to three, right.
• 20:32
  So and you know, you never know how these officials are going to
• 20:35
  be where they're going to be like do you want them at check
• 20:38
  in like right now, you know first, second or third call
• 20:43
  'cause I mean like that's not very it's it's not that's not
• 20:46
  being fair to the athletes if you want them down there.
• 20:48
  So normally we've been very fortunate with our officials.
• 20:51
  You know my assistant coach and I, we are very we're talkers.
• 20:55
  So we've been, we're always good about like getting that
• 20:58
  information from the officials and be like, hey, you don't like
• 21:01
  the coach. You ask that question.
• 21:02
  The coach would be like, hey, like when do you want everybody
• 21:07
  there, everybody at check in, they'll tell you, hey, but
• 21:12
  really it's B, what happens? I mean, just as long as you're
• 21:15
  there before the event, they're going to let you run.
• 21:17
  So, so they're running both. All four meets.
• 21:22
  There's two girl meets two boy meets all at the same time.
• 21:24
  So when they say 1:00 is the start of the shot put that is
• 21:28
  maybe the five a girl shot put and then yeah so a girl shot
• 21:31
  field events and let me clarify for field events usually like if
• 21:39
  you'll have boy shot put going on one day they'll have girls
• 21:43
  discus probably for the other class going on.
• 21:46
  Because like, you know, if you're a throws coach for
• 21:51
  example, and you've got a like a say a boy shot put thrower and a
• 21:55
  girl discus thrower, that means they're not next to each other.
• 21:59
  Like a Todd Stadium shot and disk are not next to each other.
• 22:02
  So like. You like shot is literally down
• 22:05
  at this end of the stadium and discus is all the way over
• 22:07
  there. So like discus is technically
• 22:10
  not even in the stadium. So they're.
• 22:12
  Scheduling them so that right they flip the likelihood.
• 22:14
  Of concurrent is not happening right.
• 22:16
  So throws coaches, you know, they they get a little bit of a
• 22:20
  reprieve and usually with the jumps they'll have like the
• 22:27
  opposite, like the same thing like long jump.
• 22:29
  They'll have a different long jump and different triple jump
• 22:31
  going on and if you got it, someone high jumping, hey coach,
• 22:35
  you're just going to have to they are pretty close to each
• 22:37
  other. But coach, you're just going to
• 22:38
  have to move from one from one place to another and pull bolt
• 22:43
  the same way. I mean, the pole vultures are
• 22:46
  pretty much just like the kickers in football.
• 22:47
  They're kind of left to their own devices anyway, so.
• 22:50
  You either just made every pole vaulter happy or angry.
• 22:54
  Hey, I coached the event too. And I can tell you, yeah,
• 22:58
  especially you know, your pole vultures and your distance kids
• 23:00
  are some of the more interesting characters you have on your
• 23:02
  team. So.
• 23:03
  Well, Jeff, we know in track and field it's the most inclusive
• 23:07
  sport there is tall, short, big, small.
• 23:09
  There is some event for you to achieve success as an athlete in
• 23:12
  this, in the this great sport. A lot of states we've learned
• 23:16
  have some type of adaptive unified wheelchair events at
• 23:19
  their state meet. Anything like that going on in
• 23:21
  Virginia right now? You know not there is, you know
• 23:25
  Special Olympics and things and things of that nature.
• 23:28
  We don't have those events just at our state meet.
• 23:32
  You know, one of the things I have to say and you know here's
• 23:34
  my plug right now, Fairfax County Public Schools.
• 23:38
  You know, if you're listening I'll take some extra money you
• 23:41
  know, from the pub I'm gonna give you.
• 23:43
  We just started a a middle school sports initiative this
• 23:47
  year. So for the first time ever
• 23:49
  really in Fairfax County public Schools history we had middle
• 23:52
  school cross country in the fall and you know someone that
• 23:55
  teaches middle school PE at the theater that goes into our high
• 23:59
  school. I I thought it was great.
• 24:01
  I thought it was very well organized.
• 24:02
  I thought the middle schools did a tremendous job helping to grow
• 24:07
  the sport and this spring we will be offering a track and
• 24:11
  field as well. So we're still working through
• 24:15
  the logistics of what that is going to look like, but it's you
• 24:21
  know it can if done correctly, it can be a really big boon for
• 24:25
  for us. And right now, you know, I do
• 24:28
  know that there was Virginia did have a middle school cross
• 24:31
  country championship a couple weeks ago, Fairfax County, we
• 24:34
  did not participate obviously being our first one.
• 24:36
  We just wanted to try to just start small and just kind of go
• 24:39
  from there. I assume we're going to do the
• 24:41
  same thing with track and I think it's really good because
• 24:45
  and you know, not to knock the AAU circuit or anything, but
• 24:48
  it's nice that you know, you give a little bit more I guess
• 24:53
  control or more say back to the back to the high schools or and
• 24:58
  back to the schools themselves. Absolutely.
• 25:00
  So with a little bit more stakes in that.
• 25:02
  Absolutely. So it's six classes. 6 athletes
• 25:06
  are earning high jump state titles for the boys and six are
• 25:09
  earning high jump state titles for the girls.
• 25:11
  Some states, whether it's officially through the
• 25:13
  association or unofficially through maybe a coaches
• 25:16
  association, are running a meet of champions.
• 25:18
  So we bring those six champions and maybe the 2nd placers
• 25:21
  together to find air coats here, the true state champion.
• 25:24
  Anything like that in Virginia? Unfortunately, no.
• 25:28
  When? And here's a quick story when
• 25:30
  this when we first moved to six classifications back in the
• 25:35
  2013, 2014 school year. Our version of Mile Split Mile
• 25:41
  Stat, the founder Brandon Miles as he was and Brandon if you're
• 25:48
  listening, I'm about to give you your flowers here.
• 25:50
  As Brandon was growing Mile Stat and was going to go on to bigger
• 25:54
  and better things nationally. With Mile Split kind of his, the
• 25:59
  the last thing he tried to do and I thought it was a heck of
• 26:01
  an idea. He tried to get an A meet of
• 26:04
  champions organized for indoor track and when I was coaching at
• 26:09
  Paul the 6th, we wanted to go and it was incredibly,
• 26:16
  incredibly small. There were not a lot of schools
• 26:18
  that went. He had it the week after the
• 26:21
  public schools had the state meet and it was in between the
• 26:24
  week of New Balance Nationals. So what he was hoping was it's
• 26:28
  like another tune up for some people to, you know, get to
• 26:32
  Nationals or run a last minute qualifier for Nationals.
• 26:34
  But I will say, you know, unfortunately, you know we never
• 26:38
  in Virginia, we never got it to go quite off the ground like we
• 26:41
  wanted it to. But I will say I will remember
• 26:44
  in 2014 the one thing it did give us was that was really the
• 26:50
  first time Drew Hunter how to have one of his faster races and
• 26:56
  I think he ran he was just AI think a sophomore in high school
• 27:00
  at the time he had, he ran like 9/29/30 indoors pretty much
• 27:05
  solo. So that was pretty much the
• 27:07
  biggest thing that came out of that meet where it's just like,
• 27:09
  hey, like you guys might want to look at this kid going into the
• 27:13
  outdoor season and the rest was history after that he.
• 27:16
  Turned out pretty good. He did, yeah.
• 27:18
  Let's take a look at some of your events here and let's see
• 27:21
  what maybe uniquely you're doing.
• 27:23
  We will do it in groups here, so we can assume you run the one,
• 27:26
  the two, the four and the eight in your state meet in the next
• 27:29
  two. Are you running the 1632, the
• 27:31
  fifteen 3000? The mile?
• 27:33
  Two mile, what are you doing this next we're we're we're a 16
• 27:36
  and 32 all. Right.
• 27:37
  Most common perfect. You're running the 110 highs and
• 27:39
  the 100 highs for boys and girls, Correct.
• 27:42
  You're running the 300 hurdles for boys and girls.
• 27:44
  We are 300 hurdles. Yes all.
• 27:45
  Right. We know you're doing the four by
• 27:47
  one and four by four because if you weren't doing those two
• 27:49
  events, you wouldn't be doing track.
• 27:50
  And so you wouldn't be on this podcast.
• 27:52
  You mentioned 4 by 8 already. Any other relays?
• 27:55
  Those are the Those are the three.
• 27:56
  Yeah, 4 by 1, 4x4, 4 by 8. No four by two.
• 27:59
  No Medley relays? No. 4 by Yeah, four by two is a
• 28:04
  it's a Maryland thing. That's also WCAC things.
• 28:07
  Got it. All right, let's go to the field
• 28:08
  events. We're doing long jump and triple
• 28:10
  jump for boys and girls, shot put and discus, boys and girls.
• 28:14
  Pole vault and high jump for boys and girls.
• 28:17
  Any javelin Hammer Multis 5000 Steeple?
• 28:21
  No. No.
• 28:23
  Pretty standard, yeah. Some states in those events, the
• 28:26
  javelin, the hammer, the multis will do kind of like that.
• 28:29
  Meet a champions, an unofficial state.
• 28:31
  Meet a week or so later. Yeah, like New Jersey I know
• 28:35
  does does a big one. Anything you're aware of in
• 28:38
  Virginia for no, no. Right.
• 28:41
  No problem. Before we get to a couple of fun
• 28:43
  questions, Jeff, anything that we missed, Anything that you're
• 28:45
  like, man, we need to make sure people know about this.
• 28:48
  About Virginia, Anything I should have asked that we should
• 28:50
  know Virginia. Nothing that I can really think
• 28:55
  of. You know, I know I said I had
• 28:58
  some experience with the private schools.
• 28:59
  I didn't really get a chance to touch on that.
• 29:02
  The school that when I coached at PBI, we did not go to the
• 29:06
  Virginia Private School state meet because it was always the
• 29:09
  same weekend as the WCAC conference championship.
• 29:14
  So I can't really speak to that from an outdoor perspective on
• 29:20
  what that was like. I do remember we did have a
• 29:23
  very, very, very, very small quote, state championship meet
• 29:28
  with the other Catholic High schools in Virginia.
• 29:30
  And it was like, it was very small.
• 29:34
  It was like us Bishop O'Connell, John Paul the great Bishop
• 29:39
  Ironton and like a bunch of others would come up from down
• 29:42
  South. So it's like you didn't really
• 29:44
  get every like school. So it was, it was very small,
• 29:47
  but it was, you know, it's just another meet.
• 29:49
  It was kind of fun, so. Awesome.
• 29:51
  All right, Jeff, you've been great.
• 29:52
  Help me settle an argument, a debate, if you will.
• 29:55
  This is, you know, come straight from social media.
• 29:57
  I just did a poll on this as well.
• 29:59
  So it'll be interesting to see at least on your bus to the
• 30:02
  track, meet your culture. When we talk about the state
• 30:05
  meet here, are we, did we make it to state?
• 30:07
  Did we make it to states? Do we just qualify for the state
• 30:10
  meets what? How are we saying this help us
• 30:13
  out here most, myself included, Most of us, we say states.
• 30:20
  States with an S, states with an S at the end.
• 30:23
  Yeah, sometimes I'll say qualify for the state meets qualify for
• 30:27
  states. I don't know this is this is
• 30:31
  just what it's just I think this is what you do around here.
• 30:33
  You just people are always adding s, s to things that may
• 30:36
  not always need an S. So it's been interesting to ask
• 30:39
  that question because some people have been very you're
• 30:41
  you're a little bit, you know States and then but of course
• 30:43
  some of the state you're not, you know.
• 30:45
  Knocking down the hammer on them.
• 30:47
  There are people that are. Draw a line in the stand.
• 30:50
  The sand. If you say states, you're wrong
• 30:53
  or the opposite if you say the one.
• 30:55
  And it's funny you mention that because the one thing I am a big
• 30:57
  stickler of is is pen relays. I like, I will lose my cool.
• 31:03
  If someone says pens, I'm like no, it's like it's not called
• 31:08
  pens like it's like no, there's only one University of
• 31:11
  Pennsylvania like it's it's it's it's pen is the school, it's pen
• 31:16
  relays. One pen mini relays, Correct.
• 31:20
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 31:21
  This guy gets it all. Right Jeff, Man, you have been
• 31:23
  awesome. We are so thankful for you being
• 31:25
  here, helping us learn the great state of Virginia.
• 31:27
  You win the magic wand my friend.
• 31:28
  So you get one and and only one. If you could change something in
• 31:32
  Virginia for outdoor state track and field, it might be at an
• 31:35
  event, maybe taking away event. Maybe you want a a four day
• 31:38
  state track meet. Whatever you would want what
• 31:40
  would that be to in your opinion would help a little bit better.
• 31:44
  You know the I I'm not the only one that is going that would say
• 31:48
  this. I I I have yet to meet a single
• 31:51
  coach at least in our area that is a is that is the biggest fan
• 31:55
  of the six the six classifications and everyone was
• 32:01
  just like can we just go back to three or can we go to four.
• 32:03
  But here's the thing that's not we want to make my wishes
• 32:06
  because that's the one everybody wants me to say you know if if I
• 32:12
  could and this is going to be a this is one that's kind of out
• 32:15
  of left field being a distance coach I'd love to add you know a
• 32:19
  DMR. You know I I'd love.
• 32:23
  I'd love to add that even though that would be another big
• 32:26
  challenge for us as to you know you know stretching our kids out
• 32:31
  because you know you'll my goal is to have you know is always
• 32:34
  get our 4 by 8 and to get as many individuals in as possible.
• 32:38
  And you know a lot of those individuals are on the relay so
• 32:41
  you don't always want to tax them.
• 32:42
  But I think that'd be something that'd be really cool to go for
• 32:46
  because to me the Holy Grail is winning the DMR at Penn Relays
• 32:53
  or so. I mean we, I mean, I mean me and
• 32:57
  our and my assistant coach and our kids we fantasy book that
• 33:00
  all the time. They're like, all right hey,
• 33:02
  who's running the 12? Who's running the mile?
• 33:04
  Who's running the eight. Who who we going to get the to
• 33:07
  to run the four. So that's yeah, yeah, I I think
• 33:12
  that'd be something that'd be cool and that'd be cool and
• 33:16
  that'd be, you know, something that we would like to that I'd
• 33:19
  like to see done. I like it and I like how you
• 33:21
  make it work, but. I like how you snuck 2 magic
• 33:24
  wands in there, my friend. I'm not going to say this one
• 33:27
  that I just said, but here we go to the DMR.
• 33:29
  Yeah, you deserve it. You earned it there.
• 33:32
  Jeff, man, thank you so much. This has been fantastic.
• 33:34
  As we, you know, start getting towards that finish line here
• 33:37
  with all 51 championships. It's just been amazing and it's
• 33:41
  so awesome to see. I love the the three kind of
• 33:44
  rounds. The district regionals and state
• 33:45
  meet there, gets kids prepared of you know you got to you got
• 33:49
  to do it to go on or you. Yeah, and definitely from a
• 33:53
  coaching perspective it is definitely.
• 33:56
  You definitely got to be smart with how you structure your
• 33:59
  training and your practices. The because it's like you know
• 34:03
  you don't just got all these beats in April and May that you
• 34:07
  got to run. They got to be progressive.
• 34:09
  You got to make sure you're leading up to something because
• 34:11
  as we just saw with cross country, I mean yeah, they might
• 34:15
  only, we might only go to three or 4 invitationals, run kids in
• 34:18
  three or four invitationals, but you know those kids are running
• 34:21
  all those invitationals. There's a good chance that we
• 34:24
  need them to run in the district regional and state meet.
• 34:26
  So that's three more meets you got to prepare for, so.
• 34:29
  Well, you guys are doing a great job in Virginia.
• 34:30
  We appreciate all our high school coaches there in the
• 34:32
  great state. And Jeff, just thank you so much
• 34:35
  again for being here, man, and helping us learn about Virginia
• 34:37
  track and field. All right.
• 34:39
  Thank you, Mike. Have a great day.