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BONUS: Kansas State Meet featuring Aaron Ballew from Blue Valley Southwest HS · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
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In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
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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.
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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
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run through each state with a local state expert.
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So let's get started right now. All right.
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Today, as we continue our high school track and field outdoor
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championship series, we continue to learn how each of our
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different states out there conduct their state meet.
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Today, we're going to head over to the Sunflower State, which I
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have a personal interest here because I used to go to junior
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College in this great state. So help me welcome Aaron Ballou
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from Blue Valley Southwest High School.
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Aaron, how are you today? I'm doing great.
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Thank you so much for having me on.
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I really appreciate it. Absolutely.
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And you can't see this because we don't have video for this,
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but he's wearing a very track appropriate shirt.
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He's got the flash sign on. I I appreciate the dressing up
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for the occasion here. Aaron, why don't we start, give
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us maybe a 30,000 foot level introduction of yourself.
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Yeah, so I've been I've been coaching track and cross country
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at Blue Valley Southwest. That's my first job.
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I actually opened the building as an assistant coach and a
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teacher for both track and cross country and about. 7-8 years ago
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I took over as head cross country and then two years ago
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I've now taken over as the head girls track and field coach.
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But our girls and boys programs are kind of blended together.
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So I split my we split our job duties with our other with the
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boys head coach and while we've been there we've been pretty
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successful. We we just got done winning the
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2022 state cross country championship and the girls team
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got sixth place in track last year and the boys were 8th so.
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We've we've been pretty competitive, pretty successful
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and we've had a lot of fun along the ways and so we've good
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things are to come. Well, congratulations, winning.
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Winning is hard. So any title, individual titles,
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man, that is quite amazing. Congratulations to you and your
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team there. You know nothing but Kansas
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track and field. You said this is your first job
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and you opened up the school. So you've built all the history,
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helped build all the history there at the Blue Valley
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Southwest. I love it.
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OK, let's get into Kansas here, which we're going to learn has
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an amazing culture around the state meet.
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I'm sure we're going to touch on that for sure here.
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But Aaron, why don't we start with some states, Separate out
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the private schools from their public schools.
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They have different organizing bodies over it.
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What are we doing there in Kansas in regards to public and
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private institutions? See, here in Kansas, our publics
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and privates are all under the same Kansas State High School
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Activity Association Keisha for short organization.
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And actually their enrollment numbers are all blended together
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and so they're treated just the same as any other high school in
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Kansas. Big, small, medium, you name it.
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Perfect. Good.
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We got that out of the way. Now let's move on to how do we
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divvy up all these schools? How many classes and what do we
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call them? Okay so.
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Yeah, we in Kansas, we have, we have 6 classifications and the
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way that we do the organization actually begins in September.
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We have a count day I think around September 20th where
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every school essentially interns in their attendance for that day
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and then they're ranked biggest to smallest and the top 36
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schools will be the biggest classification, 6A, next 36,
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five A next 36, four and then I think.
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They go to 64 for 3A and 2A and then everybody else which is
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around 100 ends up being in the smallest class overall.
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There's about 300 something schools in Kansas and they're
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just ranked in order every year they are reclassified.
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So we just got our numbers actually just the other day for
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for what the classifications are and who we're going to be
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competing against at the the state meet.
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So we've got six classes 1A through six, a 6A being largest,
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1A being smallest by attendance and a very organized number
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system 3636366464 everybody else how often is there a lot of
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movement from year to year maybe on the, I mean how much do
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attendances change? Yeah.
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Yeah, it it, it changes a lot more for the smaller classes.
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They'll usually be for between 1-2 and three.
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A there may be on average about two or three, maybe upwards of
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five, five or six. That'll change any given year
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and unfortunate, I feel, for the schools that are kind of on that
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bubble on either side because they're waiting to see.
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And The thing is, is if a new high school, like a a bigger
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high school will open up a new building and split.
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So you have this big 6A school with 2000 kids, it'll split into
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two. All of a sudden that shifts
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everything down one. And even though you didn't
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change your enrollment, the schools around you didn't
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change. Anytime a big high school
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district opens up, it kind of shifts where those lines are.
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So it may not be even you you guys going down or going up that
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causes you to. Change classifications so but
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yeah there's there's a few that happen quite a quite a bit each
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year and and it changes kind of the outlook of what the state's
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competitions going to look like for each class.
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I can see there being frustration.
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You increase your attendance but because of splits you still drop
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down or or vice versa. Or or somebody grows even bigger
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than you. You gained 50 kids, but the
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other school that was just below you gained 70.
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And that happens quite a bit because, you know, there's just
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a lot of movement and changes that happen, especially in.
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In big cities, awesome. So six classes.
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Let's start with the process to qualify for this really
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culturally important meet that we have here in Kansas, the
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state meet. So assuming that we all have a
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conference meet and that doesn't count towards, you're going to
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correct me if I'm wrong there, What's our first round of the
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state series? Yeah, you're correct.
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We we have a conference or league that that means nothing
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other than bragging rights for your for your teams and and then
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you go in the very next week and track and you'll have your
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regional meet and that's what we call ours.
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I know there's a lot of other names out there.
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Regionals, areas, District sectionals, Yeah, yeah, there's
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a hundred different nations here.
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We start with regionals. So we start with regionals and
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that is our only qualifying meet to the state championship.
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So it's just the one meet. And the way the state organizes
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it is again, each year classifications come out, and
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then at some point, usually in the beginning of track season,
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they'll find 4 sites, four schools to host one of the four
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regionals. So there's four regionals in
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each class, 36 teams, so nine teams will go to.
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Each one, and based loosely on geography and I'm using air
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quotes here. They will assign teams to
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different regions, so nine in each based on generally the
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closest ones that they can find. This is all done at the the
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State Acacia offices by an executive director and so a lot
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of times those assignments will not come out until maybe the
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first week of competition shortly after practices start,
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not not around spring break so. Once you are at that regional
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meet, then obviously you got nine teams you're competing
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against. Ours is super simple.
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There's there's not much to it. It is you finish top four and
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you qualify for state. If you're not in the top four,
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better luck next year. No.
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No additional qualifiers, no time Standard, no wild cards, no
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nothing. Perfect.
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You just answered my next 5 questions.
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But let's go back one question. That's all good.
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That's great. How do you, I'm going to say,
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qualify for regionals? Meaning is it at all comers?
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And since you have so many per event or you have been limited,
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what am I doing when I'm entering into regionals?
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With regionals, it's just it. Yeah again, again going you'll
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learn Kansas is very simple. We are just trying to get
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efficiency is what we're trying to do.
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It seems like it at our level, but no, it's each team gets 3
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entries, 1 relay and or one. One relay team, excuse me, and
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three individual entries and all field events, throwing events,
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distance sprints, you name it. So which can be tough if you've
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got some of those bigger classes.
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Now that we've moved to 9 schools in each region, most of
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our tracks are 8 lanes. And so if everybody enters a
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four by four or four by one, they may have to actually do 2,
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actually have an A and A/B heat. So secretly we've been kind of
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hoping that somebody won't run a relay.
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So we don't have to just split those up?
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Yeah, that makes sense. So I get 3 athletes per event in
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regionals. I I run the regionals with 9
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total teams, or eight other teams if I'm the coach and top
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four regardless of the pole vault, 4 by 800.
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Top four go on the state, which means we get 16 per event to the
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state meet. Correct and everything.
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So all field events, throwing events, relays, you name it all
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get 16. To to line up at the state
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championship. No wild cards.
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No automatic cues. No.
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What about fourth place ties on the pole vault?
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Do we break down that tie? We do, we have, we have had to
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go to in the high jump in the pole vault.
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I've been at them jump offs for 4th places.
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So that's very interesting that what they'll do is they finish
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the competition, you know, figure out for 2nd, 3rd.
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And then they go back and then find the 4th and 5th competitors
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and do a jump off from there. Sometime they've had to, they
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did not realize it was a tie in the competition and then had to
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go find the athletes somewhere at their campsite or or running
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other events and bring them back.
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It's it's been a little chaotic but you would think you would
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pay attention to that specifically because you know
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it's only four. So and it's only two events
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we're just pulling in the high jump typically that we're we're
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worried about. That I haven't seen any in any
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other any other. All right, let's.
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So I love the simplicity. 4 regional meets top four go on to
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state that means we're taking 16 per event.
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So we're running two heats of everything in general, two
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flights etcetera to get our top eight or nine.
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And then are we doing the traditional like in the shot
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put, if we get 9 to the finals, are we doing three more so we're
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doing a 3 + 3 for the top? They'll do, they'll do nine in
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finals and we score 8 at the state meets, so they'll just do
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they'll just do 9 to the finals after, so all 16 will get 3
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throws and then the top nine will go final.
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You're talking throws. I didn't ask it very well.
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No. I literally was like, I just did
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not do you any favors. There you are correct, 3, three
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and three and flights and then. Three more in finals.
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Yeah, that's a much clearer way to ask that question.
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Thank you, Okay. So let's talk about the state
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meet. What do we do in Kansas?
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Do we do different venues or all six at 1 venue?
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Do we rotate? What do we do there in Kansas?
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We say we famously do all six classes over 2 days, all at one
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venue over at Wichita State's Cessna Stadium and it prelims.
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So Friday will be prelims and then Saturday will be finals in
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general. The smaller classes 1-2 and
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three A will go in the morning basically from like 7:00 to
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about two and then the 4-5 and six.
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A bigger classes will then go in the afternoon going till maybe
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eight or nine o'clock 2:00 to 9:00 or so.
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And then the next year they'll switch.
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So then the smaller classes will go.
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And so each year they alternate back and forth, which you know
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has an impact on whether you spend the night, if you're
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driving down to Wichita, if you're spending the night two
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nights or if you're only you can get there in the morning.
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Tends to be a big factor to include.
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And then on Saturday they just run through all the finals, just
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one girls 123456 and then boys 123456.
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So you'll watch, you'll watch 12 heats of the four by eights go
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across about the middle of the late afternoon, early morning.
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Excuse me? And then you'll just go back
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through all the events until you eventually finish it.
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Give us a synopsis for people who haven't been or seen or know
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anything about the Kansas State meet.
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And I know I've been to a lot of state meets and obviously it's
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the creme de la creme. I mean, this is where every
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family member wants to go to watch because every kid wants to
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qualify. It's a big deal.
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State meets. I don't care if you're in the as
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we go through all these states, the extremely smallest state
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meet or the world's biggest state meet, I don't care.
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This is. I can't affect how many people
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are in my divisions and things like this.
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I can only compete with who's in front of me and and and what the
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state says. And so every state champion to
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me, bravo. Winning is hard.
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So I love that and they're very typically wellattended.
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But Kansas for some reason extremely wellattended and
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there's it's a tradition like, I feel like when I went there,
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there were people who were not necessarily track people like
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the the holy rail we talk about for track in general, by the
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way. Like there are people like this
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is just what you do on this weekend.
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You go to Cessna and you watch the state meet.
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What if, you know, as you've been there for years now, why?
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What is that culture? It I you know I got to give
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credit to Wichita. Yeah they do a great job and and
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then the other thing too is like if you're a small town you know
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a few hours drive from Wichita and you have an athlete or two
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qualify. We just know some of these small
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towns in Kansas will just pack up the whole town.
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They'll shut down the the one shop and it and at the flashing
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stoplight in the middle, and they'll they'll all drive down
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to Wichita and cheer on their. They're athlete, whether whether
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they're trying to win a state championship or they're just
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happy to be there. And so you'll yeah, we'll get
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there, especially in the middle of the day on Saturday.
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I don't know if you've ever seen Cessna Stadium stands, but
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they're huge and you know we'll get 10s of thousands of fans out
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there. I actually competed as a as a
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high school athlete in that stadium.
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And so when you're standing on the track and you're looking up
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on. Both sides of the stadium and it
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is it's not quite packed to the gills but man you are
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approaching 20 thousand 30,000 people and it is it gives it
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very different environment than your typical you know three team
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triangular that you have on a Thursday or something.
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So now we know and maybe this is news to some people Wichita is
15:02
actually updating upgrading Cessna stadium.
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So is the state meet going to be there this year?
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This is 2024. Yeah.
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And it it plans on being there. I will admit there's some, I've
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got some questions and I'm a little concerned as we go, but
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we're going to, we're going to do our best to make it work.
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A lot of the campsites I think is going to be the most
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difficult thing that the stands for most of the.
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Fans and the parents and everybody are still going to be
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there for this year. But where we set up is has been
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changed drastically. So I'm cautiously optimistic
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things will things will be all right this year.
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Okay, this is next question is a little bit hard because you're
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in it. So I'm going to ask, are there
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any untraditional unique events, but you only know them as
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regular events. But if we think about the 124
15:49
shot put discus, povel, high jump, relayser, usually,
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sometimes some typically different ones, we do anything
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special, unique there in Kansas? Yeah, we we say our most unique
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is probably the javelin. We do throw javelin here the
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the, I mean as far as I know we've been throwing javelin for
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a very long time. We've got records going back
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many years and. Yeah, we also have the four by
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eight. I know some states don't have
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that. The four by eight is definitely
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a big, big deal where we're at otherwise, yeah, we don't have
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anything. We don't do anything too
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special. Guys and girls both do the same
16:21
exact events, obviously with different weights for throws and
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different heights for hurdles. But yeah, otherwise it's again
16:27
pretty simple, 4 by 2. No, Four by two.
16:30
OK Yep. See, that's one that.
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Yeah, that's not, that would be uncommon.
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That's not every state. Yeah.
16:35
OK Yeah. Well, Yep, Anything after the
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state meet. Some states will do a unofficial
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state meet, have Taff on decathlon, some will do javelin,
16:45
but you got that covered in your regular series, which is
16:47
awesome. Anything after the state meet.
16:50
No, it's once. Once that state meet hits, which
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is usually the weekend and Memorial Memorial Day weekend,
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we're. You're lucky to see anybody left
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in a state at that point, they're all going out to the
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lake or something. So no, it it shuts down pretty
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quick after that. And you know, at least for me
17:06
and our program, we we we start focusing on getting ready for
17:09
cross country for distance runners and occasion.
17:11
We'll have some kids go on to do some a a U or USATF stuff, but
17:16
Nope, nothing. Nothing official in the high
17:17
school season, so no meet of champs or anything like that.
17:20
Would be I would. I would love that.
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But no, that would be good in that state.
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All right, Help us settle an argument.
17:27
There's culturally really differences and maybe sometimes
17:29
it's age differences, coach versus athlete here.
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What do we do, at least in your program and in your state there?
17:35
Do you qualify for the state meet or do you qualify for
17:37
states? Or heck, maybe in your state do
17:39
you qualify for Cessna? Maybe that's how you you put it
17:41
there. I would say I am.
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I am a staunch supporter and anybody all right stand.
17:47
I will draw a line in the sand and you know start a fight if I
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have to. It is state.
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We do not call it states. Plural.
17:56
There's only the one so states similar.
17:59
I got to add a third option because so I've been asking is
18:01
it state meat or states? And I've had this answer a
18:04
couple Times Now where you just said state, but you didn't add
18:06
the S but you'd also didn't add meat.
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So you're you're trying to get the state, not necessarily.
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I'm trying to get to the state meat.
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Now that that's a good one, I would say I have.
18:16
I've used them interchangeably. I would say an athlete is a
18:20
state qualifier, but we are going to the state meat, OK?
18:24
That's what I'm saying. When you say one's A noun versus
18:26
or a location versus a qualifier, maybe.
18:30
No, no English lessons here. No clue, OK?
18:34
Adverbs and adjectives? That is not my subject.
18:36
But you are. I heard it loud and clear.
18:38
You are staunch. It is not.
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We're going to states. Nope.
18:41
Nope. Those.
18:42
Yeah. Nope, they're wrong.
18:44
Perfect. All right.
18:45
It's good. Feel free to send them my e-mail
18:47
or my number and I'll we can have a conversation.
18:50
See, I figured we would settle the argument, but I feel like
18:51
we're just going to increase the arguments about, but we're going
18:54
to keep asking. I'm antagonistic on this part.
18:56
On this one. I feel it.
18:58
I feel it. All right, Aaron, to round us
19:00
out here, if I gave you a magic wand and you could change one
19:04
only one thing about the state, state qualifying process, the
19:08
meet, the events you run, etcetera, what would you do to
19:12
make a positive improvement? Well, I'll.
19:17
I've been thinking about this question because yeah, I only
19:19
get one. So one I think and and I'll be
19:22
honest, my opinion for me, I would say does not fit the
19:26
majority of coaches I think in Kansas.
19:29
So I'm, I'm going off a little, a little off to the side here.
19:33
I personally would want to see our state meet separated in some
19:39
way. Whether that is separating out
19:42
in terms of time, maybe having the smaller classes and the
19:45
bigger classes be at the same venue but on different days, or
19:50
separate the venues out entirely, I would be in favor of
19:54
that because any other change can't really be made until.
20:00
We get some wiggle room in that state schedule like we can't get
20:04
additional qualifiers because and I got to give credit to our
20:06
meet management, our meet directors and the helpers at the
20:09
state meet, they do an unbelievable job.
20:11
But that time frame is so tight that they don't have time to fit
20:15
an additional heat of the 100 if we added extra qualifier.
20:17
So I think if we could separate that out in some way, maybe add
20:20
a day, separate out the times that I think we could open it up
20:26
to do more. So your your first move would
20:29
have to be either make it a three or four day meet or 123
20:33
goes to 1 venue, 456 goes to a different venue.
20:36
Yeah. Well as we continue to explore
20:39
state by state here, we've already seen several states that
20:41
kind of do what he's talking about here.
20:43
It'll be interesting to see what other states do and what is that
20:46
an advantage for them in certain aspects, more qualifiers
20:48
etcetera or maybe maybe one's person's magic wand as they say,
20:53
they would rather change that and pull it all into one venue
20:56
and two day meet. So we'll see.
20:57
So Aaron, appreciate you so much for representing the great state
21:00
of Kansas. Love that state very much.
21:02
What a great, great, great culture for track and field you
21:05
have there. And so just thank you for
21:06
helping build out this series as we continue to explore each one
21:09
of our States and Washington DC for their state qualifying
21:13
series. So thanks, Aaron.
21:14
It was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.