Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Washington State Meet featuring Eric Hisaw from Walla Walla HS

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BONUS: Washington State Meet featuring Eric Hisaw from Walla Walla 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.
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 at 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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Well, you know, if you are listening today that we're at
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the WS, we're at Washington, so all good things must come to an
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end and we are getting close with just a couple more states
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to go. Well, as we travel around the
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country to learn all about the outdoor state track and field
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series, we're excited to learn today about Washington.
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Help me welcome from Walla Walla High School.
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Mr. Eric. Hi, Saw.
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Eric, how are you today, Sir? I am great fun to be here today.
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Appreciate the time. Hey, you know, I I have to tell
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you, you know this is an ambitious project 51 coaches
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from all different states in Washington DC, but it doesn't
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happen without servant leaders like yourself.
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I'm really grateful. You were actually one of the you
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were one of the first ones to volunteer and I felt bad because
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I'm like, oh man, I'm doing these alphabeticals.
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So thank you. We'll get to you.
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We're going to go to the debuts. I got to get through the
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Alabama's and the Georgia's and a worries thing.
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Glad. To be here, no worries at all.
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So really grateful for you. So Eric, before we get into
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actual Washington, why don't you give us kind of a 30,000 foot
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level, 32nd introduction of yourself.
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Why should someone from South Carolina be listening to you
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about Washington? Well I don't know if it goes to
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me percent, but I'm I'm the vice president of our Track and field
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coach association. This is my 27th year coach in
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our school. Two time NFHS Boys coach of the
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year after he won the state title until 19 and 22.
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I don't know. We've done done pretty well
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since I've been in in 27, we won 21 league titles and we've been
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OK, so I can't complain too much in this end, but got great
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friends on the board and we do, I think, a really good job
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trying to promote Washington State track and field dank your
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kids. And I have to because I know
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this about you. I have to brag a little bit.
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You have a son that is now running collegiately, man.
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That's that's a big deal. It is a big deal.
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Obviously proud of that young man.
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He worked his tail off to get there and he's a hurdler, so
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he's automatically cool. To me, I'm the biggest hurdle
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geek in the world, so I. Amen, my friend.
3:06
Amen. Yes.
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All right, Eric, let's hop into Washington.
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You know, what we're learning is not many states, but some have a
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separate organizing body for private schools, a separate one
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for public schools, and they don't compete against each
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other. They have their own state needs.
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More commonly, public and private are battling out for the
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same state titles. Let's start there.
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What are we doing in Washington? Public and private schools.
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We are combined right in the whole middle of thing.
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We've got a pretty good private sector as well.
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I think there seem to be more coming every year, but we don't
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have more public schools as well too, you know.
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We've combined both those together for every season, for
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every sport, too. Awesome.
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Perfect. Thank you.
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Now let's start talking about how do we chop up the state,
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though? How many classes do we have in
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Washington? Yeah, we have a different
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system. We go 4A, which is our largest
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and then there's 3A2A1A and then we have a 1B and A2B.
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So our 4A schools are 1200 and above for just the 10 through 12
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grades. Then it drops down for 3A and
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for two A1, and then our 1A and 1B schools are the one they're
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the small schools of. Schools like less than 100 kids
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in their classrooms, so it works out pretty well in that way.
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We're in, we're in a reclassification coming up this
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year where every two years we recycle.
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And so this last year we had 79 teams that were 3A and only
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funding 41, Nine to fifty that were 4A.
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And so I know they're trying to to lose that discrepancy and
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make it more 60 to 60 to 60 all the way down 4A to 2A or 1A.
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Rather than 79405836. So they're trying to make that
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more even playing field. So I counted up six classes,
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4321-A and then we have a 1B and 2B.
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So there's six boys teams that are going to work towards
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earning a state team title and six girls teams that are going
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to earn a state team team. I do believe though in the BS
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that they they combine for just one, at least for track.
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I know there's a different level for I think for football, but I
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think track is the same. But I.
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Should look to see for sure. I'm sorry, we didn't take that
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one. OK.
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All right. So we think maybe 1B and 2B are
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for track were combined together.
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Yeah. Got it.
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OK. All right.
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Well, let's talk about how we get to that state meet.
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Let's start with the first round.
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All around the country, we call this first round divisional
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sectionals, regionals, areas, all these different names.
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What's the name of the first round in Washington?
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We just have our conference championships.
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Where would that may be So conference like we would think
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you know instead of lay guys like our?
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League, Our League Championships.
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All right, so. Quaker season then we have our
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league champions meeting and from there at least look in our
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in our district here the top five to 8 least smart conference
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go to our next to the district qualifying meet.
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So every every conference has their own way they qualify kids
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to their state qualifying meet. OK, let's stay with the
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conference here first. So the conference is the first
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round. I have to qualify at a
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conference to the next round. OK.
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So let's talk about how do I get into conference?
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And what I mean by that is, are you can I get 2 per two athletes
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per event? Is there a qualifying time?
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Is it as many as I want in each event?
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How do I enter my kids in a conference?
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Most of the the the, the leagues around in the city of Washington
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have a a top 16, top 20 is how it works.
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They see the kids through you can drop kids out at your CD
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meeting and then from there they take the kids to roll through
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and and whatever how they seed it their top 16 or top 24.
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We do a top 16 in the mid Columbia conference.
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So does our corresponding league in Spokane, the West side,
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because they have more school then we have it and they
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sometimes they combine a little bit.
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They may have the 24. There's some leagues there that
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have, you know, 8 to 12 teams in them and so like we only have, I
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think it's 43A in our conference, but there are six
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4A. If you go to the West side,
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there are some leagues that have, you know 8 to 10 teams
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that they they'll probably have a little bit bigger system to
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get more interested in their commerce championships.
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So I heard you say there's a descending order list.
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So that's built throughout the season and then we take that for
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your conference, the top 16 get into that conference meet.
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Yeah, I was liking it for our conference.
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For example, we'll have our seating meeting.
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We see who we want to see it in and you can drop to there,
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whether whether scratched, they're scratched for forever.
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And then we see from there the top 16 injuries that are seated
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by the coaches. And so if I have 7 great 200
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meter runners, if they all making the top 16, I can get all
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7 going in. Yeah, awesome.
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OK, so I'm at conference. I'm at conference.
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What is the next round called? And well, let's start there.
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What's the next round called? For most, it's called our
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District Championships, or dare I say you're regional.
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In Washington, are we mainly culturally calling it districts?
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Yes. So what do I got to do in
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conference to make it to district?
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Again there's it depends on the number of of of schools.
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So like again in our area we get the top because Spokane isn't
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there. The the British Spokane League
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versus Mid Columbia complex are for example because they have
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63A schools compared to our 4A. When we go, they get nine kids
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in automatically and then we get 5 and then we fight for the last
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two best bursts in the 3A level because we have 16.
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They're going to go into districts and so.
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Every league or every conference, this has their own
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little qualifying pecanors in that aspect of it, but I can't
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say exactly for sure because there's enough of them.
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But that's kind of how it rolls too.
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So depending on the size of that conference, it could it, it
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could be a little bit different but but the the key here I'm
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hearing is that it is a top whether it's five or eight or
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again depending on the size there is A and then did you say
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and is this based off of only certain conferences as well
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there is some wildcards as well. And I know in ours, I don't
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think in most there aren't. But because we have such a
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discrepancy in three schools in each league, we have to have
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that there are others that just they they are where they're at.
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They just have eight that qualify through no matter what
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or maybe 16 that qualify to their next round to qualify for
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state. Got it.
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OK. So, so we'll we'll we'll use
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your conference as an example, top five in conference shop
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putters, full vaulters etcetera, they go on to districts.
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Right. At least at the three level.
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Yep, Yep, Yep, with one level. Yeah, it's but the same idea.
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Yet there's enough correspondingly a relationship
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of how many you have in conference with the other
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league. We compete again.
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Qualifies through for districts, Yes.
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Perfect. OK, now we get to districts, so
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now we have the same amount per event that we got.
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What's the next round? And we'll start there.
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What's the next round? Yeah.
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So that's our district meet. So from that and this is our
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state qualifying me all around the state of Washington.
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So district is to state. Correct.
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Yep. All right.
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I'm at districts. I got through in my conference
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or my league meet. What do I got to do, man?
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What I got to do in conference or districts to make it to?
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State and work depends on the number of teams in the state
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that are around versus number teams in the conference.
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So I'll use the three again for example, because there are only
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10 three A schools in the state of Washington on the east side
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of the mountains. The other sixty are on the other
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side. We only get at times two or
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three bursts out of our district to go to the state meet.
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Out of the 16 toll allocations, every every, every four schools
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each equals another birth in the state of Washington.
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So if you have 16 schools in district meet, you get four
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teams automatically. If you have 11, you're going to
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fluctuate between 2:00 and 3:00 kind of thing.
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And so we've always kind of paired off back and forth where
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we're at with the West side. So last year we got two, this
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year we get 3 in any wild cards from that or is it the numbers
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work out till 16? There's an automatic qualifying
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mark the state of Washington has and it's the average 6th place
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finish the last five years and they throw the high and the low
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out. And so if you hit that mark and
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it's going to have to be at the district qualifying district
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championship meet, it can't be during the season, then you've
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hit that mark. Then you have a chance to go to
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the state meet. Last year they let everybody in
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for the first time. In the past, if you hit that all
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qualifying mark, you're going to a pool and then in that pool,
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the top eight kids in that pool earned the right to go to the
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state need. So if you were #12 or 13 hit the
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mark, you're going to stay home. So in your district, top three
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are automatically going. If I'm third place in that 400
11:35
meter dash, punch my ticket, I'm going for sure.
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If I'm 4th or 5th or 6th and I hit a qualifying standard, I
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kind of didn't start creating a descending order list from
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everybody who beat this leader, and then I take more to state
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that. Yes, Yep.
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So how many total are we trying to get per event at state?
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Then what is it? They've tried to keep as close
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as 16 as possible in the past, but we got as high as 24 last
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year and it doesn't happen all the time.
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But last year because of COVID 2, they had a great discussion
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where they silent. Everybody qualified in.
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More kids had a chance to be part of the state meet and it
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would absolutely flawlessly. It was terrific and you had an
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extra heat on the one and the two and the four and maybe a
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hurdle race didn't affect the distances.
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Relays were easy. It was a great thing for kids.
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I'd also love to hear that. OK, let's talk about this State
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meet. You've got 123455 or six,
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depending on what this one B2B ends up doing.
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State meets. And really, So that means let's
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use the numbers, 510 state meets, right?
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Five boys, 5 girls. Are we doing all five of these,
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all ten of these championships at the same venue on the same
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weekend? Do we rotate them around?
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Do we have them in different venues?
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Where is it typically held? Talk to us about the state meet.
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Yep. So it is all the exact same
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weekend. It's the weekend right before
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Memorial Day for us. But this is where we do separate
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out. The 2A3A4A goes to Mount Tahoma
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High School in Tacoma, WA. And the One and the BS and the
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and the one As stay. And they lasted there in Yakima,
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WA before. They've been at Eastern
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Washington University in Cheney, WA.
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They have a new they changed. It went to Eisenhower High
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School last year. Two separate venues, same
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weekend for the the classifications.
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So we kind of split them up to have these, if you will.
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OK. So let's talk about this.
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Meet is we're doing 3 and really six state championships.
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Are we doing this in two days, three days?
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When you talked about that venue, does it rotate around or
13:30
is it typically in that same place?
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We have been at this venue for a long time, at least with us.
13:35
So it was in Cheney for the for the small school.
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Then with it's been in Eastern Washington for a long, long
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time. Like a like a decade or so.
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Maybe longer? We were at a different high
13:45
school in Lincoln, High School in Tacoma for a long time as
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well, but that changed and then we went over to Mount Tahoma and
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then they brought it back to Pasco, WA in the tri-cities for
13:54
about 6 years. And then they bounced it back to
13:57
the Tacoma area again. And there's talk of trying to
14:00
come back to Pasco with this side for come just kind of
14:03
bounce up a little bit. But the Mount Tahoma is an
14:06
absolutely beautiful setting for our track meet.
14:09
And how many days does it take to do this meet?
14:11
Free for us, Yeah. So when you do a, when you do a
14:14
three day meet with three and really kind of 6 state
14:17
championships, are you doing, let's let's use that 234A.
14:20
Are you doing 2A like on Thursday and Friday And so a
14:25
state champion is won on Friday and then the three A4 a Friday,
14:28
Saturday or you doing them where everybody gets their team
14:31
trophies on Saturday? Everybody gets team trophies
14:34
Saturday and so the whole schedule's out where it's if
14:36
it's 100 meter prelim, it's 2A3A4A prelim.
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Guys. Girls.
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Guys. Guys.
14:41
Guys are going, then there will be field event finals.
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That's the final that day on on all three days of the week.
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Yeah, for sure, but it's a 28384.
14:49
Ever go same time? I like when you schedule out
14:52
like that and everybody earns their team title on the same day
14:54
because it's kind of like Championship Saturday.
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A lot of fun earning titles all together on the floors.
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Awesome. Well, we know Eric, that track
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and field is definitely the most inclusive sport in the country.
15:07
In the world. Tall, short, big, small, there
15:10
is some event for you to have some form of success in our
15:13
great sport. We've learned that around the
15:15
country a lot of states are adding some type of adaptive,
15:19
unified wheelchair type events to their state meet series.
15:22
Anything like that going on in Washington?
15:24
Yeah, we have wheelchair and ambulatory.
15:26
And Ambulatory Falls anyway, that got a prosthesis too.
15:29
We had a young gal that was legally blind.
15:30
She ran for F last year. It's it's an awesome event and
15:33
the kids everywhere, the one that are competitive, they work
15:37
their tail off and tremendous volunteers and that the
15:40
community just supports the headcount.
15:42
It's a really, really neat deal. Awesome.
15:44
Kudos to you coaches out there in Washington.
15:46
That's awesome to include that in that state series.
15:49
Love to hear that. Love to hear that.
15:51
So we talked about these five meets these five state
15:53
champions. That means we're, you know,
15:54
we've got five boys disc estate champions and we've got five the
15:58
girls disc estate championships. Some states, whether it's
16:01
officially through your Athletic Association or unofficially
16:04
maybe through a coaches association, we'll have like a
16:08
meet of champs where we invite the top two or three per event.
16:10
We kind of put them all together and we find the air quotes, true
16:14
state champion, anything like that.
16:16
There is not. No there.
16:17
There was kind of talk a while ago, but it kind of fizzled at
16:20
one point. There was the Oregon, Washington
16:22
media champions and they kind of brought more.
16:25
I don't see an invite, but you could submit kids if they're in
16:27
the top three or so. And that's kind of died away the
16:29
last probably four or five years, actually a little before
16:32
COVID happened. But, you know, there are so many
16:35
invites around. We just haven't got no, Yeah,
16:38
Make sure it makes sense. All right, let's talk about your
16:40
events. Let's go kind of group by group
16:42
here. We can assume you're doing the
16:43
one, the two, the four and the 8:00.
16:45
Yep. And the next two events are you
16:47
doing the 1632, the fifteen 3000, the mile, Two mile.
16:51
What are we doing those next two?
16:52
We are 1632 State of Washington, All right.
16:54
That's the most common. Love it.
16:56
We're doing that. Well, you know, we already
16:57
talked about your son's a hurdler, so we know we're doing
16:59
the 110 high hurdles for sure. We're doing the 100 high hurdles
17:02
for girls as well. Yes, we're doing 300 hurdles.
17:06
Yes, let's talk about relays. We know you're doing the four by
17:09
one and four by four because if you weren't, you weren't really
17:12
doing track and you wouldn't be on this podcast.
17:14
What other relays might you be doing?
17:16
We have the four by two of the state meeting.
17:19
We do do a DMR at some big invites and something to do a 4
17:23
by 8, but it's not a WIA sanctioned event yet.
17:25
So No 4 by 8? Nope.
17:28
Yeah, OK, that's that one surprised me.
17:30
And if you've been listening through all 50 states here, I
17:33
thought it was at every state. And we found out that not only
17:36
is it not a lot of states here in the last few years seem to
17:38
have added it, but it is definitely not batting 100%
17:42
right now. So No 4 by 1, four by two and
17:44
four by 4. And four by two is just girls.
17:47
Our boys don't run it. We Why did that as a pole vault?
17:53
Because the girls had to have a different event to make it equal
17:56
for number of events. And then the girls got pole
17:58
vault. They just kept four by two and
18:00
there's been talk about going out, but the coaching
18:02
association can do to keep voting in by a vote of all the
18:05
coaches. And so we have one more event
18:07
for girls and boys. See, This is what's.
18:11
It's interesting, as we've traveled these 50 states, man,
18:14
this is the kind of stuff that just blows my mind.
18:16
So I want to make sure we repeat this.
18:17
You're doing the four by one 4x4 for boys and girls, and the four
18:20
by two. You're only doing girls.
18:24
Correct. Yeah, keep it interesting,
18:26
Washington. Love it.
18:27
All right, let's go to the field events.
18:31
We're doing. Long jump and triple jump for
18:32
boys and girls. Yes, we're doing shot put and
18:35
discus, boys and girls. Correct pole vault and high jump
18:38
for boys and girls. Anything like Javelin Hammer
18:41
Steeple 5000. Anything else?
18:44
We do have the jab. Had it, had it for a long, long
18:46
and we are awfully good javelin state.
18:48
I will say that you're awfully good there.
18:51
Hammer's more of an exhibition of big invites, but is not again
18:54
a state neat event. Northern 55000 orange people now
18:58
sort of like that meet up champs.
18:59
Some states will do for sure, an unofficial state meet after the
19:04
state meet. For these I don't want to call
19:06
them odd events, but these non traditional events.
19:09
So you already have javelin, but the hammer, the multis, anything
19:12
like that going on where there's an unofficial kind of state meet
19:14
going for those? Good friend of mine Judd Hunter
19:17
Orland High School. He and Lake Team TICKLE.
19:19
They run a true multi championship like.
19:22
Not quite the last weekend in June and they get about 30
19:25
halves and 30 decks to come in to heck up a competition.
19:28
It's really cool. That's great.
19:29
I love that. You know, I kind of understand
19:32
why it's not in the State meet series, although we've had,
19:35
we've learned that there are some states that have multis in
19:37
the state series. But if there's a great Ave. for
19:41
them though after to get that experience, I love that you guys
19:44
are doing that. That's really.
19:45
That's really cool, that Judd worker's talent.
19:46
They do a great job with it. That's awesome, man.
19:48
Before we get to a couple of fun questions here, Eric, anything
19:51
that we missed, Anything I didn't ask.
19:53
Anything that's unique to Washington.
19:55
You. You double up your relay points.
19:57
You run the four by four at midnight because that's a
19:59
Washington tradition. I don't know.
20:01
You only score 6 places at the state meet.
20:03
Anything that we should know additionally for Washington?
20:06
Oh, not like that. It's I'm guessing pretty
20:08
traditional other than like it. And we don't run the four by one
20:13
first like some some states do. They really.
20:15
It's right in the middle of things, but it's No 4 by 4 is
20:18
last, which is awesome. Better, Yeah.
20:21
Yeah, it is. We we actually, we we go short
20:25
hurdles 100 mile 4 by 1400 long hurdles 802 hundred two mile 4
20:32
by 4. You've been to a few track
20:35
meets. You you rattle that off pretty
20:36
fast. Yeah.
20:38
We we we do like at our we do do the four by two, the first event
20:42
of day two at our state qualifying meet in our district
20:45
at least and then give the kids a chance for a break to come
20:48
back. But it's works out pretty well
20:50
that way and. It's worth repeating, you only
20:52
do that for the girls, correct? It's a bugger to feel three
20:57
really good relay teams. Sure.
20:59
Absolutely. All right, let's have a little
21:01
fun here, man. Help us settle a debate, at
21:04
least in your culture. Your school, your bus ride to
21:07
the meet. When you're talking about this
21:09
state meet, are you telling the kids you qualified for state?
21:12
You qualified for states? You just use the more
21:15
traditional qualified for the state meet?
21:17
Help us out here. How are you saying I say qualify
21:20
for state? No, no S, right?
21:22
I heard no S you know, we're we're qualifying for a singular
21:25
state meet. We're not going to two of them.
21:28
I love it. I love it.
21:29
Well Eric, man, you've been awesome.
21:31
We've been having a lot of fun here learning about Washington.
21:33
So you win the prize, you win the magic wand.
21:36
If you could change one thing and only one thing, my friend,
21:39
that you feel would help elevate the athletic and coaching
21:43
experience there for outdoor track and field.
21:45
It could be at an event, taking away event.
21:48
The state meet should be a a four day affair.
21:51
You you tell us what would you add if you had the magic wand.
21:55
I think it'd be really neat to find a way to qualify for state
21:59
like swimming does where if you hit a mark on it's like on the
22:02
first meet then you're in. Because we have so many big
22:07
invites now like the Pasco invites say to Washington has an
22:11
102 team 103. It's huge, it's massive.
22:13
It takes all day but it's a high quality meet people get people
22:16
from Montana and I don't come over.
22:18
You know Oregon Relays is on a lot of maps now it's we have an
22:22
invite with 2017 so there's a lot of things.
22:24
Everything's F18 now most of the big time meets are wind gauge.
22:27
So I just feel like there's a way that we could use those big
22:32
invites as a you hit a mark in those big things.
22:34
Not only League meet because you don't know who's marking the
22:36
disk isn't who's on a backup timer, but something like that
22:40
works a big deal. I think it'd be neat to have
22:42
kids qualify now so if the rain's crappy or like two years
22:45
ago and we had four different lightning delays, that if they
22:48
qualify me on day two and kids could get a rhythm.
22:52
You're not hoping and dying and living on one day.
22:55
It's worked out really well on the path.
22:57
I just think it'd be neat for kids to hate not a qualified
22:59
April 15th. If I get hurt, I can afford to
23:03
get healthy again and not rush back because I just think that'd
23:06
be really cool. But what we've done is worked
23:09
really well, honestly. People know the rhythm and the
23:12
routine of it and and kids get up for it that that one day meet
23:14
or two day meet is it's a big deal for us, you know, it's
23:17
going to wash in. So that'd be my one thing I
23:19
guess. You know, the genesis of this
23:21
series, as we've traveled from Alabama and we go all the way to
23:24
Wyoming, was to create conversation amongst coaches
23:27
amongst these states. In what you'd are describing
23:30
there, if you've listened through all of our podcast here
23:33
so far, lots of states do something like that.
23:36
So there's a lot of great information for you to take in
23:38
as you listen to this series as well that we can maybe have some
23:41
conversations amongst our States and continually improve what we
23:44
do for these these young kids. Because what you do is an
23:47
amazing positive impact for these young kids.
23:49
So we're always trying to iterate and how do we become
23:51
better for them and their experience.
23:53
I have not done this out of all of the, like I said, we're at
23:56
4849 or something here. I'm going to use a magic wand
23:59
for the first time because my ADHD of I like.
24:03
I like symmetry. My magic wand would be to add
24:06
the boys four by two. Please, please, please.
24:09
I could not handle there being one more event than the than the
24:12
boy. I just couldn't.
24:13
It would it would just I'd see it every time and it would greet
24:16
me every time and now it will greet me.
24:18
I will now every result I see in Washington I'll be like, well,
24:20
there's no boys four by two, so we don't want.
24:23
That my magic wand. All good.
24:27
Eric, thank you so much man. Again, this does not happen
24:29
without servant leaders like yourself.
24:30
So, so grateful you would join us here as we, you know we're
24:34
coming to the tail end. But this is your first one
24:36
listening here with Washington, I just highly recommend go back.
24:39
We started in April 2nd. We're going all the way here to
24:42
the end of May. Alabama, down to Wyoming, all 50
24:45
States and even Washington DC And we'll learn more and we'll
24:49
see if there's other states that don't have the four by two.
24:51
Thanks everybody. Have a great night.