Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Arizona State Meet featuring Airabin Justin from North Canyon HS

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BONUS: Arizona State Meet featuring Airabin Justin from North Canyon 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
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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?
• 0:34
  Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
• 0:38
  a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
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  maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
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  And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
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  meet or do you qualify for states?
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  So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
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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, This is exciting.
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  We are on our second state right here in the great state of
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  Arizona as we continue our project here in April, May of
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  2024. Going through each and every
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  state and even you Washington, DC and just learning and
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  conversating about how the outdoor state track and field
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  meet qualifies for athletes for their state meet, how they host
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  it and just kind of the interesting unique ways they do
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  things. And I bet we're going to find
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  some unique things today here in Arizona.
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  So help me welcome a JAJ first of all.
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  Thank you. Thank you so much for stepping
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  up and representing this great state.
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  I'm very grateful for you to be here today.
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  Why don't you take us through kind of a 30,000 foot 32nd
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  version introduction of yourself, please?
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  Thank thank you for having me. Like you said my name is A J
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  Arab and Justin everyone calls me coach A J out here in
• 1:58
  Arizona. I've been here coaching.
• 2:01
  I'm guessing now it's going on the 11 or 12 years now.
• 2:04
  Can't remember it's it's kind of going all together.
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  You know, you know, we won our coach over at North Canyon High
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  School where we won about state 7 state championships.
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  Yeah, so we won about 6 girls, state champions, one guys.
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  Yeah. And I just still wish we could
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  get that 2020 season back because that was probably the
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  best thing we've ever had. But yeah, so yeah, there we go.
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  Awesome. Well, you've definitely been
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  through the system. And by the way, I 2020 must have
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  was going to set like every national record because
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  everybody says it was our best team ever.
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  So I don't know. I couldn't imagine how it would
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  have actually played out. You know what, we had three,
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  three Gatorade athletes a year. You know in three years in a row
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  they were all on that same team and we had a ton of kids go
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  Division One off that team. They just, you know, unfortunate
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  they kind of all aligned together finally in that one
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  year. Where they were seniors and
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  freshmen. And, you know, like you said,
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  yeah, I wish we could have that one back also.
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  All right. Well, let's Start learning here
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  in Arizona. Let's start with kind of an easy
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  question. You know, some states have a
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  separate governing body for private schools and a separate
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  one for public others. Most others do it all together.
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  What are we doing private school and public schools in Arizona?
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  So they're all together, We're under something they called the
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  AIA and they're all together. We have about, you know, 4
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  divisions. So they're kind of all put
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  together. They're all public.
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  We have public and private schools.
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  We have some of the private schools that are in there as
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  well, Okay. So no, no separate private
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  school state meet or whatnot. Everybody is competing against
• 3:44
  each other, Okay. We have another, like I think
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  it's a charter school type of state championship also.
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  And I think maybe you slipped this answer in already.
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  How many classes are we doing in Arizona?
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  Yeah. So we have 4, four classes.
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  We have Division One and two usually those are the big
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  schools and then we have three and four.
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  Some of the smaller schools are are three or four.
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  So big starts with Division One and we go smaller as we work
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  through Division Four. And you tell them divisions, not
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  one, A 2A3A division, one division two.
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  Exactly, Yeah. But they kind of changed it.
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  We did do the 5A before and it was.
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  The other way around and then they change it to Division One
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  down for the I think it was the last maybe, I don't know, five
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  years or so. So maybe a little longer.
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  So when we go to the state meet, four boys teams are winning a
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  state team title and four girls teams are winning a state team
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  title. Yes, sort of, because that's how
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  it started off. You can win it like that, but
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  last year they kind of changed the division because we do have
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  an open also now. So we do have a divisional
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  championship and then we have an open state championship where
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  everyone goes there together. All right, We'll get there
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  because that's we got that meet of questions, meet of champions
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  question. That sounds like.
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  Yeah. OK, good.
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  All right, perfect. We'll get there.
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  That's good. I like that.
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  But we are. But for the state meet, we got 4
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  divisions, Division One more Division One big Division Four
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  small. Perfect okay.
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  So how do we qualify for the state meet?
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  All across this country there meets called divisionals and
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  areas and sectionals and regionals, all these different
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  names. What's the first round in
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  Arizona? Okay.
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  So the way that you qualify is by time, right?
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  You can open qualify by time. And so you would have to run a
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  certain time. We have, we used to have a list
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  of provisional qualifying and then automatic qualifying.
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  Last year things changed. So that's why it was kind of
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  hard to answer that question. It changed a lot from last year
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  where now it's the top 24 best marks in the state qualify for
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  this the state meet so we're doing a a descending order list
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  like we do for NCAA indoors is what I'm hearing.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we we have to you have to hit
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  these times and then they kind of look at overall and say okay
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  this is the top 24 mark and then you qualify for the state meet.
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  So there's no districts region. You do like a maybe like a
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  conference meet for for a conference title, and then a
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  week or two weeks later you've already got a list that's been
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  going on the top 24 go on for each event, one relay per team,
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  I'm assuming, yeah? Yep.
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  So we do have the district and the regional meets, things like
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  that, but those are just like other invitationals as well,
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  right? So you can only qualify based on
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  an Invitational that is sanctioned, right?
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  So, So whatever that may be, whatever Invitational there is,
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  you have to run at that. So you can't qualify from dual
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  meets or anything like that, but but did you say there is a
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  districts and regionals but that's not part of the, that's
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  just the name of the name of the meet?
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  Yep, Yep. So we have a district meet that
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  like for instance, we, you know in our district, we have about 5
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  teams in our district where we just compete for the district
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  championship. But it's the same thing.
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  So you can qualify from state from there.
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  It's just like I said, it's it's pretty much like another when it
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  comes to qualifying for state, just like another Invitational.
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  But it's not the the winner of districts goes on to state, it's
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  purely on time. Wow, that's interesting.
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  So you have a conference champ, a district champ and a regional
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  champ, but that has nothing really to do with the state meet
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  because it's all on time. Exactly.
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  And you're taking 24, so you're when you go to the state meet,
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  you're doing for like the running events, 3 heats of
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  eight, and maybe you're doing for the field events 2 flights
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  of 12 or something. Like that?
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  Exactly. All right.
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  I just send your order list. I'm a big fan of that, so I do
• 7:51
  like that. Let's talk about the state Meet
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  itself is the same venue every year.
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  Does it rotate? Is it at a college facility?
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  Two day, three a three day. Okay.
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  So prelims they were. So it's kind of, it's kind of
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  hard to see what how we're going to go this year, right.
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  In the past, what it was was the division.
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  One and two were at the same meet and they were at Mesa
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  Community College. So the finals are always going
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  to be at at a Community College. So the finals are always at Mesa
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  Community College. Here we don't really rotate
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  that, but prelims could be somewhere else, so prelims could
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  be at different venues. So it's kind of weird because
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  last year. And we'll get to the because you
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  asked another one of those questions about that later and
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  I'll explain how it kind of went in together this this past year.
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  So. So when you're saying prelims at
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  a different place, are you doing so those 24 kids in each event
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  are going to a meet on one weekend and then the weekend
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  later is the final eight or? No.
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  So it's the. It's the very next, so it's the
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  same week. So for instance, it could be, it
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  could be on in the past, We'll talk about the past.
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  It could be Wednesday and a Saturday.
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  So that's how the meet will be. OK, so that's why it's different
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  venues. Prelims are on, 24 kids are
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  going on a Wednesday to a venue and we're going to chop that
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  down to 8, I'm assuming, and eight go to Mesa Community
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  College for the finals on Saturday.
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  Yes, yes. It's kind of hard to explain
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  just because like I said in the last three years there's three
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  different different ways that we've we've changed it three
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  different times. So three times.
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  So it was where Division One and two was at the same venue
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  Wednesday and then Saturday they were all at the now one 2-3 and
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  four were all at the same place. So Division Three and Four was
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  at a different venue for prelims.
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  And Division One and two was at Mesa Community College.
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  Then the finals would come and then we'll all be there together
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  123 and four. So prelims for D1 and D2 at
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  Venue X, prelims for Division Three and Division Four Venue Y.
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  But then all the finalists, those top 8, go to Mesa venue
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  venue Z Mesa for the finals, all four happening at the same
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  weekend the the. OK, but you sound like we're
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  changing this again, or we're not sure.
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  Yeah, we're probably going to change it again.
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  Cool. All right.
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  I love this. All right.
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  Arizona, Arizona. Still figuring it out is what
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  I'm here. They're trying to figure out
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  what is the right way to qualify.
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  OK, keep the descending order list, though.
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  Big fan here in this. OK.
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  And we are we traditionally at Mesa Community College.
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  You said for the state. Yep, for the state finals
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  usually at Mesa Community College.
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  Very good. Any some states are adding and
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  we're highly encouraging with this adaptive or wheelchair
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  events anything like that your state.
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  Championship, I believe we have something like that before, but
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  we, I don't recall doing that last year, but we have done
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  something like that before. But I don't know.
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  Like I said, I'm not sure if they're going to add that back
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  in, but. Since the kind of like COVID
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  year, I think it kind of changed a couple things that could be
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  something because we do have you know some meets like that where
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  we we do have that. So I can see that happening, but
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  I we didn't have that last year. Okay.
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  Now let's get to this meet of champion.
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  So some states have an official and some states have an
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  unofficial meet of champs where they take these four different
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  divisions and they would invite, let's just say the top two from
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  each event in all four divisions and they would have a meet of
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  champ. So you'd have 100 meter
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  champion, 1 poleball champion, 14 by 1 champion.
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  What are we doing here in Arizona?
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  So that's why it was kind of hard.
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  So I could explain. I can explain that now all
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  together. In the past, that's exactly what
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  we did what you just said with the one and two, three and four,
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  we go to prelims and then we'll do the finals and then we would
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  have the meet of champions and the top, you know, kids in each.
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  Division kind of go there and compete.
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  They add that actual into our state meet this year or this
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  past year so that we didn't have a meet of champions anymore.
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  It was the actual called the state champion and it was
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  sanctioned by the AIA as well. So we have a divisional, state
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  championship, right, where you can win a divisional state
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  title, divisional state champion and then now after you have
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  that. You go and they take the top 16
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  into the Open State Championship.
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  So instead of having the Meet of Champions is 16 or at in the
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  top, you know that they take to the Open State Championship and
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  there's a team title awarded for that.
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  A team title for that as well? Yeah, I love that.
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  Pretty cool, pretty cool. Pretty awesome to see.
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  Finally, everyone getting to compete against each other.
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  Absolutely. I meant to ask kind of hop back
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  here just a little bit on that top 24, Is there any limit per
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  school? So if a school had 12 milers
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  that all ran 4 flat, could they enter all 12 in the state meet
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  or do they say dope? You got to chop it at two or
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  three. You have to do 4 so you can have
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  four per per team be able to make it.
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  So whatever your up for is that's who who goes.
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  If I'm the 5th miler but I'm 15th in the state, I got to go
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  find the the two mile or the half mile or Yeah, exactly.
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  Yep, the book has to decide. You know who they want in those,
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  those events to, you know, usually try to win the state
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  title. Yeah.
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  OK, so let's recap this real quick.
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  There's four divisions, Division One, be in the big schools all
• 14:07
  the way down to Division Four, which is the smaller schools.
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  We have a state champion in each one of those, a divisional,
• 14:12
  state champ, boys and girls team.
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  But then we take and we put them all together and we do the six
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  top 16 out of all those and we do a meet of champs where there
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  is a grand state champion boys team and girls team.
• 14:27
  Yep, that's it. And is that you're not calling
• 14:30
  to meet the Champs, you're calling the open state
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  champions? Is that a traditional that's
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  been for a while and we'll stay for a while or is that something
• 14:36
  new? That's something's going to stay
• 14:38
  for a while. We started it last year.
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  So you know, that's why I was kind of hard talking about it
• 14:43
  earlier is just because. A lot of kinks and things that
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  we're working out, but that is how it's gonna be now, where
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  they wanted to have an overall state champion and have these
• 14:54
  different divisional teams compete against each other
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  because some of them are winning constantly, so they just kind of
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  want them all to go together. Is that a week later after the
• 15:04
  state meet? Yes, it was one week later.
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  So right after the state track meet we would do that the the
• 15:09
  following week and last year we were doing it like back-to-back.
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  So we didn't have the Wednesday and Saturday.
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  We would go Friday, Saturday and then the open was Friday,
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  Saturday, then the following week after that.
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  And is it at Mesa or where is it at?
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  Work so the Open State Championship is at Mesa
• 15:33
  Division. Two and Three were at Deer
• 15:39
  Valley High School and then we had, I think Division One and
• 15:43
  Four was somewhere else. I don't recall where they were,
• 15:47
  but they could have been at Mesa as well.
• 15:48
  I'm not. I'm just not positive that they
• 15:50
  were at me. Yeah, very cool.
• 15:52
  I like that. All right.
• 15:54
  So let's talk about your events. And it's kind of a hard question
• 15:57
  because I want to ask you what's unique in Arizona, but you don't
• 16:00
  know what. It's just what you do.
• 16:01
  It's common in Arizona. Let's, let's break these events
• 16:03
  up here real quick and you intercede where we need to make
• 16:06
  a change. We're definitely doing the 1-2
• 16:07
  and the four, right? We're doing that.
• 16:09
  We're doing the eight. Are we doing the mile, two mile,
• 16:11
  the 1632, the fifteen 3000. What are we doing in those
• 16:15
  events? 16 and 3216 and 32 we're doing a
• 16:22
  both hurdles, both high hurdles, the one 10s in the one hundreds
• 16:26
  you doing 300 or 400 hurdles. 300 hurdles.
• 16:29
  Awesome. We're doing the four by one and
• 16:31
  the four by four, because if you're not doing the four by
• 16:33
  4:00 and you're not really doing track, so we would just cancel
• 16:35
  you. Are we doing the four by two?
• 16:38
  No, we're doing the four by eight, though we are doing 4 by
• 16:41
  8. Any other relays?
• 16:43
  Sprint medleys. You don't like that four by
• 16:46
  miles? Nope.
• 16:47
  Good. All right, let's get to the
• 16:50
  field events. Long jumping triple jump.
• 16:53
  Yes, shot and discus, pole vault and high jump, of course any
• 16:59
  javelin hammer. We have the javelin have the
• 17:02
  javelin fairly new correct. Yeah, within the last maybe four
• 17:08
  or five years they started going the Jave here, which has been
• 17:12
  Dawson, I say you've been successful quickly like some
• 17:15
  really good Java throwers immediately out of that state
• 17:18
  when we added that event. That's a lesson for all our
• 17:21
  other states who don't have Javelin yet.
• 17:22
  Let's there's a lot of your state.
• 17:24
  Yeah, every year they just got better and better and better,
• 17:27
  being harder to qualify just because, you know, not too long
• 17:31
  ago, like if you go back and look at the girls, it wasn't
• 17:34
  that many in the hundreds and then all of a sudden, you know,
• 17:38
  they're all in the hundreds. So it's pretty cool.
• 17:40
  It's amazing what happens when you give kids an ability to
• 17:42
  compete. They they compete.
• 17:45
  Oh, by the way, that means the coaches are stepping up and
• 17:47
  becoming better javelin coaches as well.
• 17:49
  They're learning how to coach javelin and then learning how to
• 17:51
  coach it better. So kudos to the great state of
• 17:54
  Arizona with the javelin. Some states after the state meet
• 17:58
  or the Open state championship will do an unofficial state meet
• 18:01
  for some unique events. Maybe they have tap on or the
• 18:04
  cap on or the hammer, anything like that in Arizona.
• 18:08
  We do. We have the we have the multi
• 18:10
  meet so we do have the decathlon and the they have pathlon state
• 18:13
  championship following the next week after the state track meet.
• 18:19
  Awesome. Let me guess, is that at Mesa?
• 18:22
  No, actually that's at Red Mountain High School.
• 18:26
  That's kind of where we do that one.
• 18:28
  But yeah, yeah, awesome. We learned that Alabama also
• 18:31
  does that. So that's kind of two states
• 18:33
  almost back-to-back here that do really.
• 18:35
  She'll have tap on decathlon state meet.
• 18:37
  That's awesome. I love that.
• 18:38
  Yeah, pretty. Cool.
• 18:39
  It's awesome for those kids that, you know, those really
• 18:42
  good athletes because sometimes those kind of athletes, we have
• 18:46
  a limit of how many they can. Events, they can compete at the
• 18:50
  state track meet, you can only compete in four.
• 18:52
  So those athletes are, you know, those special type athletes that
• 18:55
  can do a lot of different things.
• 18:57
  So awesome to be able to give them the opportunity to go the
• 19:00
  following week where they can compete in, you know, multiple
• 19:03
  events. Yeah, it's very, very cool.
• 19:05
  I love that. OK, AJ, at least speaking for
• 19:09
  you and your team's culture or maybe your region, help us
• 19:12
  settle a debate here. When you're talking to your
• 19:16
  team, are you talking about qualifying for the state, meet
• 19:19
  the the state or you qualifying for states?
• 19:22
  How do you say it there in your neck of the woods?
• 19:26
  We say qualifying for state, so not plural, just singular.
• 19:30
  All right, just all. Right.
• 19:32
  Yeah. All right.
• 19:33
  For State, yeah, I love it. I love it.
• 19:35
  I love it. All right.
• 19:36
  A J, you've been such a good sport and we're really grateful
• 19:38
  for you helping us navigate the little bit ever changing.
• 19:41
  But we're getting on a great course here in Arizona, the
• 19:44
  qualifying system. If you had one magic wand and
• 19:47
  you could change one thing for the state qualifying series that
• 19:51
  you think would improve for everybody, what would that be?
• 19:54
  I think more rest time I think because last year we did
• 19:58
  back-to-back days and our division did back-to-back days
• 20:00
  two weeks in a row. And if you were going to do
• 20:03
  that, I would like to have a week out and then so that we can
• 20:08
  do it the following week after. After that, just because our
• 20:11
  kids were extremely tired and I think it's very tough to go
• 20:14
  back-to-back two weeks in a row. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 20:17
  A lot of teams are doing that and sometimes the quality
• 20:21
  suffers there a little bit. So more rest is what your magic
• 20:24
  wand would be. More rest?
• 20:25
  Absolutely. We could all use that, my
• 20:27
  friend, but there's no rest for us because we're pushing through
• 20:30
  all 50 states. Join us every day here in April
• 20:33
  and every day in May 2024 as we press on and we have other A J's
• 20:37
  from other states walking us through their amazing state
• 20:40
  series. A J, thank you again so much for
• 20:42
  representing your great state. We're very, very grateful for
• 20:45
  you and thanks for teaching us today.
• 20:47
  Thank you for having me.