Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Oregon State Meet featuring Greg Rohr & Scott Jones from Sam Barlow HS

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BONUS: Oregon State Meet featuring Greg Rohr & Scott Jones from Sam Barlow 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 in April and May of 2024 as we
0:54
run through each state with a local state expert.
0:57
So let's get started right now. All right, here we go.
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We are going across the country, all 50 states.
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You know what, we're actually even adding you Washington, DC
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We're going to do 51 championships in 51 days and
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we're kind of kind of getting past the middle point here.
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We're in the OS. We're in Oregon.
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So help me welcome from Sam Barlow High School, Greg Rohr
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and Scott Jones. Greg and Scott, how are we doing
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today guys? Doing well doing.
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Well, so I thought there's going to be a lot of talking and over
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talking with two people doing a state, but obviously we're going
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to just be real. We're good.
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Yes, Sir. No Sir, we're going to be real
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easy today. You know Oregon, if you pay
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attention to track and field, thinks they're so special in all
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things, right. So we had to have two people
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from Oregon. This is the only one out of all
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51, there was only one that I, I, I, I willfully bowed down and
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said OK, we'll have two. So first of all, Greg and Scott,
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let me just say thank you. You know, this project which is,
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you know, if you guys are listening out there and you've
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listened from day one Alabama and you're going to go all the
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way through Wyoming, your your your mind's kind of blown.
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There's some amazing things that we're doing and none of that
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happens without servant leaders like yourself.
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So first of all, from all of us here, Gil, myself, I just want
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to say thank you for stepping up and showing leadership and
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representing this great state of Oregon today.
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So thank you guys so much for being here and doing this.
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Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us Mike.
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Awesome man. Love you guys to death.
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You know we know each other off podcast as well.
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So love you guys to death. This will be a lot of fun.
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Why don't we start with give us kind of some kind of 32nd 30,000
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foot introduction. Why should someone from West
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Virginia trust you guys on Oregon track and field, High
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school track and field. Give us some St. cred here guys.
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Well, I think between the two of us we have close to 25 years of
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coaching in the state, track and field.
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We've worked together for 10 years, 11 years now.
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I think we've spent a lot. We spent a lot of our salary on
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continued education and take a lot of pride in providing the
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best environment we can for our kids.
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And yeah, I think we have a pretty good grasp on track and
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field. There's any names you want to
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drop? Well, of course, we're the
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School of Ryan Krauser. There we go.
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You know it it, it almost got changed from Sam Barlow High
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School to Ryan Krauser High School, I realize.
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So, you know, that's a pretty good alum to have there.
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Maybe someday. Maybe someday you wouldn't.
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All the Track World would support it.
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No one's going to, you know, harsh you for that one.
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So we, we would love to see you. OK gents, let's get into Oregon
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high school track and field. You know, some states, not many
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we're learning, but some states, they have a separate organizing
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body for private schools. They go on their own way and
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create A state championship and then the public schools go this
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way and they do their own state championships.
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Most states we're learning both public and private, are fighting
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after the same state championship titles.
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What are we doing in Oregon? Public and private schools.
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Yeah, we we compete, we're a public school.
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We do compete against the private schools and our
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conferences and at the state meet.
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So they're they're mixed in. There's no there's no
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conferences with just private or just public.
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So there's some it creates some interesting situations at times,
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but that's the way it is in in Oregon.
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So public and private schools? Regardless, we're all going
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towards the same state site, state team titles.
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Yeah, all six classifications. And there's my very next
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question, Scott. Appreciate that.
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So let's talk about how many classes we have.
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So we have six. I hear.
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What do we call them? Some people call them a AA, some
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people call them divisions, Division 123.
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What do we call them there? And which one's the bigger
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enrollments and which one's the smaller?
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We go 1A to 6A. And one A schools are the
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smallest. They usually have like below 100
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kids. A lot of those are private small
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schools and then all the way up to classification 6A and we are
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a big school. So we have just about 1700
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enrollment and we're part of the six A classification.
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Awesome. So one through 6 A.
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So six boys teams are going to earn a state team title and six
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girls teams are going to win a state team title there in
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Oregon. Yes, perfect.
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All right. So let's talk about how they do
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that all around the country. And when we talk about the ways
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to get to state meet, the first round is typically called area
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regional sectionals, All these different names.
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What's the first round in the state series title in Oregon?
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It's our conference championship meets.
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OK, hold on. Now, this is unique.
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So you're saying your conference championship is actually the
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first round to go to State? Yes.
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Interesting. OK, well, I don't think we've
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had that so far. So let's talk about conference
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then. How do I, since that's our first
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stop here towards the state championship, how do I enter
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that meet? And what I mean by that is, do I
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get 2 athletes per event? Do I get one athlete per event?
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But then, anybody who meets a qualifying standard, how do I
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enter into the conference meet? Each team gets.
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Up to three entries, individual entries per event.
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At the at the varsity conference championship, each team gets one
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relay, so it's very limited. There's there's no wild cards
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into the conference meets and sometimes when you have a really
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talented team, there's some difficult decisions to, you
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know, to try to. If you want to balance the the
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team but also have opportunities for as many kids as possible,
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you know within reason. So I'm hearing three and I
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always like to use the mile as as an example.
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So if I have 4 stud Millers, my 4th one I got to figure out the
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half mile or the two mile or relay.
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There's there's no wild card or qualifying to it is hard hard
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stop 3 athletes per event. Correct. 3 athletes per team per
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event, right? Got it.
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OK, so that's conference. What is the next round and what
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do I got to do in conference to qualify for it?
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The next round is state really. OK now you know, so let's hold
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on, let's explore that real quick.
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So cuz so that's a traditional what I'd call A2 round system, a
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preliminary round that you got to qualify out of.
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And then the state meet and like I said all around the country we
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call that meet typically division area sectionals,
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regionals, all these different meets.
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No one is called it conference I think of conference I'll use the
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college example, the pack, that's a terrible example.
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The big kid or you know where I'm from the SEC that's a
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conference meet. So is your conference meet your
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you know teams that are around your area that are similar You
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know what I'm saying like you know SEC is teams that are
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roughly the same, you know Mississippi State and Alabama
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and Georgia and all that stuff. Is that what your conference is?
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Or is conference just the name of what someone else might call
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divisionals or regionals? No, we we are part of the Mount
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Hood Conference. We have 8 schools and so each of
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the 8 gets 3 entries, boys and girls in each event.
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So you're you're not only qualifying individuals and
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therefore that becomes the team to state you're trying to win.
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I assume a conference title as well.
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Yes, Nancy, I'm telling you, this whole state series is
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blowing my mind. No one else up to this point.
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Maybe, you know, we still got a few states to go.
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Maybe someone else will join this bandwagon.
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No one's done that. Love it.
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OK? I'm in common.
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I want, I want to clarify one thing though.
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There are a few. Our conference has been pretty
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consistent over the decades for the most part.
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There are a few conferences. We'll call them conferences, but
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the state calls them special districts and it can vary they.
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Depending on the sport and the the situation they might have
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made adjustments. You know, football might have
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some different things than track and field slightly and depends
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on the level, but where we call our, I mean ours is definitely a
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conference, but some they call special District 5 or stuff like
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that, but that's basically because of geography.
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Geography. Some schools play down in
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football if they've been having some struggles there.
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So there's depending on the sport, there's some some
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adjustments on it. But yeah, there's special
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special district or conference, but it'll be the same thing.
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They'll have their special district championship and then
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they go to state from there and same kind of rules, top three
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probably for that meet and then whatever we're about to talk
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about how we get to the state meet same rules, special
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district or conference on that. Yeah, three are similar.
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Yeah. We I don't know exactly what the
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SO PS are for every conference. You know they might have some if
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they have a small conference they they might take four.
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I don't know about that. But it's it limited.
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You're not taking huge teams to your your conference
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championships. I've coached at the 2A level as
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well and it's the same there. 3 entries per first, per gender
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per event. Perfect.
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All right, perfect. All right, so I'm at the
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conference meet, I get my top three per event and that's it,
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regardless of the event. Except for the relays of course.
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What do I have to do in that conference meet then to make it
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to the next round, which is our statement?
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Top 2 I guess that makes sense because we probably have a lot
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of conferences around the the, the state.
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Just seven. We have 7 conferences in the
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state at the 6A level, OK. So each conference gets 2.
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Top two automatically qualify. That gives me 14, which isn't a
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really good number for tracks. So what are we?
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Are we doing anything? Are we just being out here and
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going 14? Well, we get the the top two
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automatically go and then they they fill out to 16 total
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entries. You know we have 9 lanes at
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Hayward, but. So we could go 18, but we don't.
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But so right now we have 16. So since we have 7 conferences
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in our classification, there will be 14 that that go because
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they're first or second and then they take the next two best from
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their performances at the conference meets.
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Whether there's an auto qualifying timer mark, it's
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usually very. A very strong timer mark.
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It's not often we we've had auto qualifiers that made the mark,
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but it's it. Typically they just take the
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next two wildcards. The top two times or distances
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are marks. The best two out of all 7
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conferences get the 2 wildcards, so I take top two.
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If I'm first or second I'm going I'm going to state and then I
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take all those other times all 7 conferences I kind of created
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descending order list, but I'm only looking for the next two
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anyway. The next two distances or times
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they go on or relays will go on to the state meeting.
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And we have a distinct advantage in our conference.
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It could be a distinct disadvantage, but we're the
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first conference in our state that's done.
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So we go Tuesday, Wednesday. And then the next conference
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doesn't finish until Thursday. So we know after our meet, the
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top two and we essentially just start clicking refresh in
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athletic.net every day trying to see if our two have still
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survived. So you're just like, all right,
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Timmy, so far you're good. On Wednesday comes Timmy, I'm
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sorry, you're third, you're out. Although you know third, you'd
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be like well, maybe someone might scratch.
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So it's possible. And there's there's been years
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in our conference like for us in 2015.
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We are like the girls side of our conference took both wild
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cards in the 100 and the 200 for girls.
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So it's it's possible to finish 4th and still wild card if
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you're in a fast conference like in the state of Oregon.
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The the metro league and PIL league are both very distance
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heavy. So if you're going to take a 815
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hundred 3000 mark, those are the districts you're waiting to.
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The conference meets you're waiting to see, but math tells
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us if I'm 5th place. 5th place you're turning in your uniform.
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Good job. You got fifth.
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You got points for the team though.
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We're OK. All right, all right.
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Right. Yeah.
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You got to be the podium. You're good.
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That's right. So let's talk about this state
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meet. We got essentially 12 state
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meets, six boys state championship meets and six girls
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state championship meets. Where are we hosting the state
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championship? Is it all in the same weekend?
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Do all six of them occur at the same weekend?
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Is it a two day meet? Three day meet?
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Talk us through the actual State meet venue.
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Well, if you're in Oregon, the state meet has to be at Hayward.
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So it's been at Hayward as long as, I mean we both ran track in
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Oregon in high school, we actually both ran here at Barlow
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where we go. So we, you know, so the state
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needs always been at Hayward Field, which is amazing, at
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least for the upper classifications.
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What do you mean by that? For a long time they split
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classifications so like once. 1A2A3A would go to Western
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Oregon University and 456A would be at Hayward.
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And then after. Oh, I I can't even like after
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like early 2000s, Maybe 20. Yeah, I I don't know exactly,
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but at some point they moved all six to Hayward.
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OK. So today all six are at Hayward.
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So how, how do we do you know, essentially 12 track meets?
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Or if you want to think about it in different ways, six track
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meets 6 state championship track meets at the same venue on the
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same weekend. Are we doing a four day meet?
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Are we? How are we doing this?
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It's over. Each meet is 2 days, but it's
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over three days total, so we'll do Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
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SO1A2A3A go. Thursday, Friday and then 4A5A6A
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go Friday, Saturday, so Friday a long day officials.
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Are at the facility for around 12 to 14 hours.
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You're overlapping there. There is a break, yeah.
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So like like Greg said, the one A2A3 meet goes Thursday
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afternoon, Friday evening and the 456A meet goes Friday
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morning, Saturday midday. Awesome.
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Those are long days. Yeah.
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How do they do they So on this let's use the Thursday, Friday.
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So the 1-2 and three when they're running, are they
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running all 1A like for for call it 3 hours, it's all 1A events
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and then two are they like it's the 1A boys, 101A girls, 102A
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girls, 100, you know, are they stacking them by events or by by
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class is probably the question. It depends on the track.
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On the track it'll be, it'll be. They'll do each classification
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in the like say the 100 meters, they'll they'll go from 1
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classification to the next to the next.
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So they'll they'll stay in in the order of events for all
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three of those classifications on the track.
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The field events field events is a little bit different they.
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Each each classification, say long jump, they won't go for us,
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say they won't go for a 5A and 6A.
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It's kind of there. It's kind of mixed up trying to
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get everything in appropriately for each classification and
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trying to have the least amount of overlap.
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So we don't have athletes having to check in, check out, Yeah,
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that's a big scan, makes sense because the facility, the, the
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track is well, you know, 9 lanes, but we're using 8.
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We can run a bunch of hundreds in a row and then go to the mile
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or or whatnot that we're doing that.
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That makes a lot of sense. And.
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It's it's nice too because they split like 2 day meets great.
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So you have like long jump one day, triple jump the next.
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You have discus one day shot put the next.
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Unfortunately for Javelin that's going to overlap at some point,
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but they put like discus really early and then like javelin
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really late or vice versa. So they really try to give each
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of the field events their own time.
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And time to rest in between. So if you have an athlete that
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made it all three throws, you're not going back-to-back to back.
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You do have, you'll have like 2 throws one day and one throw the
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next. Yeah, perfect.
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Good. Well, you know, one thing that
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we do know is that track and field is the most inclusive
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sport. Tall, short, big, small.
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There is some event for you to achieve some form of success in
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our great sport. What we're learning is a lot of
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states actually are also including some type of adaptive
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unified wheelchair type of events, anything like that going
18:28
on in Oregon. Yeah, and last year was the
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first year in our state meet that those events were scored
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and counted toward team titles. Oh really?
18:39
Yes. So up until 2023 those were
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essentially like exhibition exhibition events.
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But we do we we can test 4 events, the 100, the 400, the
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1500 meters and the shot put it is in those go towards if it's a
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Sam Barlow athlete in the 100, that goes towards Sam Barlow's
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team total. Yeah, it's it's interesting.
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It's because not every school's going to have and in in Oregon
19:12
right now and this could change depending on participation and
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and stuff. But right now we have a
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wheelchair and ambulatory. Pair of athlete categories for
19:27
those four events and if numbers grow they can they can make some
19:33
changes but that's how it is right now and how it works with
19:37
the scoring and same thing at our conference championships is
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they score. They score the meets without the
19:45
the para points and then they'll score it with the pair of points
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and since not every school is going to have pair of athletes.
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It it actually works out pretty fair.
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So in case say say we got second place based upon the the non
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para events, so we're in second place we we're just behind the
20:11
1st place team. But then adding in our pair
20:14
points we have more than that first place team.
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So what they do is they will. The the that first place team,
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the team that got first place with just the the non pair
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points, they still get to keep their first place and then we
20:32
also would get a first place as well.
20:35
So we don't knock them down since they don't necessarily
20:39
have a pair of athlete. I like that.
20:43
I'm pretty sure because you know we we're learning that a lot of
20:46
states are including Unified Adaptive Wheelchair, which is
20:49
amazing love that. I'm pretty sure this is the
20:53
first state that is. So inclusive that we're also
20:56
figuring out a way to make them a part of the it's not
20:59
exhibition to your points. Some states are giving.
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Let's say it's a wheelchair 1500.
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The winner of that is a state champion.
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Those points aren't going to the team title.
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I I I'm really encouraged and you know, really kudos to Oregon
21:11
and the Oregon coaches that you're finding a way to actually
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include that person in your team titles.
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Points as well I would be I would I would be at fault here
21:19
if I didn't say you know we are the school Brian Krauser so
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we're kind of known for shot put but.
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Last year first year ever we had a pair of athlete win the shot
21:29
foot state championship and set the state essentially
21:33
established the state rec state meet record in the shot foot.
21:37
So yeah Grant Miller was our shot foot kid came out was great
21:41
to work with just worked his tail off.
21:44
You know, wins the district championship.
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You know goes to state competes against five other athletes wins
21:50
it it's it was a lot of fun to. To celebrate those five athletes
21:54
too, and you know, shake their hands up on the word stand and
21:58
congratulate them. And again, that counts for their
22:00
team. So it's like this isn't just
22:02
like, I hate to say it this way. It's not just a token thing
22:05
where we're getting these kids there.
22:07
These kids matter and these athletes matter.
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And hopefully we have started something.
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Maybe other states will follow and other states will realize
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these kids need this outlet, they need this sport, and this
22:18
sport can help them. That is.
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You know, the major goal when we decided to do this series was to
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create conversation among states.
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And you know, if one state has wheelchair athletes and they're
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like, ma'am, just you know, there's just no way to get them
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into this team title wouldn't be fair, blah, blah, blah.
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The goal is that they now hear you guys representing Oregon,
22:40
that Oregon has figured it out and that means.
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Other states can figure it out, too, so I appreciate that.
22:45
Again, kudos to Oregon coaches, for, I mean, talk about the real
22:49
word, definition of inclusivity. There.
22:51
That's that's awesome. Bravo.
22:53
To you guys and I'm not sure, I'm not sure who who brought
22:56
that to fruition but the Oregon School Athletic Association, the
22:59
people down at OSAA somebody somebody did said something or
23:04
did something and and our, you know, governing body.
23:07
Went forward with it. So yeah, kudos the coaches,
23:10
whoever brought that up to them and kudos for our association
23:13
actually taken the the, you know, the step forward with
23:16
that. Absolutely.
23:17
Love it. OK, let's keep moving forward
23:19
here. So you know, 6 athletes are
23:22
winning a state title for the pole vault and the six girls
23:26
state athletes are winning state title for the the girls pole
23:30
vault. Some states, whether it's
23:32
officially through their Athletic Association or
23:35
unofficially, maybe through a coaches association.
23:37
Will hold some type of meet of champions where we take maybe
23:40
the top two or three per event, put them all together and we
23:43
find out air quotes here. The true state champion.
23:46
Anything like that in Oregon? No, not anymore.
23:52
From 2009 to 2014, we did have a meet, postseason meet called the
23:56
Border Duel, and that was Oregon versus Washington.
23:59
And they invited, I believe it was the top three from every
24:02
classification in each event. So that's 21 kids. 21 girls, 21
24:07
boys from each state. And they had to meet and it was
24:11
essentially who was the best between Oregon and Washington.
24:14
And then they crowned a A champion.
24:17
So like, Washington won the championship or Oregon won the
24:19
championship. But but no more.
24:21
But we do this for cross country still I think, right?
24:24
It's called or no, it's yeah, they still do a border duel like
24:31
border. Clash or something.
24:32
Border clash. Yeah, border clash for cross
24:34
country, but border duel for track.
24:37
I don't remember. I don't know who, who's the
24:40
organized of that event. And I mean, I don't know, maybe
24:42
that's a fundraiser we think about putting on.
24:44
But but yeah, we haven't had it since before the pandemic, so.
24:50
All right. Let's keep moving forward.
24:52
Let's talk about the events that you do.
24:53
We're going to go kind of block by block here.
24:56
So we can assume you're doing the 102 hundred, 400 and 800,
24:59
right? OK.
25:01
And the next two events and you kind of already alluded to this,
25:04
are you doing the 1632, the fifteen 3000, the mile, two
25:07
mile, what are we doing in these next two events 15/3?
25:12
All right, that's unique. Not every state.
25:14
There's some, but not every state.
25:15
So you're doing the 15 and three for both boys and girls?
25:18
Yes. All right, let's move on to the
25:22
hurdles. We're doing the 110 highs and
25:23
100 highs. For boys and girls.
25:26
Yeah, 110 for boys, 100 for girls.
25:29
We're doing the 300 hurdles, boys and girls. 300 hurdles in
25:33
the Oregon. Chip, we know you're doing the
25:34
four by one and four by four because if you don't do those
25:36
events, you're not doing track and field and you wouldn't be on
25:38
this podcast. What other relays might you be
25:41
doing? That's it.
25:44
Just the four by one. I say that you know the 2
25:47
greatest relays. There are no four by two No 4 by
25:49
8, no DM Rs Sprint medleys 4 by 1 there.
25:53
Has been there, has been within the coaching community.
25:57
Some discussion of why we don't either have the four by two or
26:00
four by eight. I think in the state of Oregon,
26:02
you'd probably have a better chance of having four by two,
26:08
then 4 by 4 by 4 by mile. Or, you know, but.
26:12
And I'm really surprised Oregon for some reason doesn't have the
26:15
four by mile. I was really figuring that was
26:17
just going to be an event. There are some schools.
26:19
I mean, I think every school's going to have different
26:21
preferences. There are schools that are and
26:26
have some talent in the distance side and they can fill out four
26:31
by eight or four by mile teams and others like we would if we
26:37
had to choose for our team. We would probably prefer Sprint
26:41
medley or four by two or some kind of combination there.
26:49
Even like a distance medley. I mean, you know, or something
26:51
like that. You.
26:52
Know, trying to remember. You know I've done. 40 roughly
26:56
of these at this point, so I don't remember.
26:58
I'm really hopeful that there is like a data scientist coach that
27:01
listens to all 51 and keeps like tabs of like how many states
27:04
have javelin, how many have 4 by 8?
27:06
Because that's not everybody, things like that, right?
27:08
I'd love to know that what I'm interested in, I I think this is
27:12
the first state that has just the four by one and 4 by 4.
27:16
So it's a little unique and surprising to me.
27:18
Has there been talks of adding another relay or is that just
27:21
far back for now? I think there's been some.
27:25
I mean, there's always people discussing things and I'm not
27:29
sure what goes on at the OSAA behind behind their doors.
27:35
I think that's one thing that I would like to see is some sort
27:39
of like state coaches meeting with our association so that we
27:43
can start talking about different things.
27:45
I mean, it's nice, right? We had the adaptive, unified
27:49
stuff done without. Maybe there again, maybe there
27:51
was coach interpretation, maybe there wasn't.
27:53
But it would be nice to have some sort of like, you know,
27:56
annual or every few years association meeting with all
27:59
coaches so we could start talking about could we add
28:01
events, you know? Yeah, it makes sense.
28:03
All right, let's move to the field events.
28:05
We're doing long jump and triple jump, boys and girls.
28:07
Yep, we're doing shop at Discus boys and girls.
28:10
Yep. We're doing pole vault and high
28:12
jump boys and girls. Yep.
28:14
All right. Anything else?
28:15
Javelin Hammer Steeple 5000 Any multi events, anything else that
28:19
we're doing at the state? Meet Javelin.
28:22
We throw the jab and we throw it without the tip.
28:24
No tip at all, you just don't do.
28:26
Anything. Well, I mean metal tip, but not
28:27
the rubber tip. You know we don't.
28:28
We don't throw the turf jab. You know, I think that's a
28:31
slight at Washington's, I think they throw the rubber tip, I
28:33
think. Oh, we wouldn't slog in
28:35
Washington. All right.
28:37
So we're doing the javelin. Love that.
28:38
Absolutely awesome. You know, much like that meet of
28:40
champions. Some states are doing unofficial
28:43
state meets in some of these other events.
28:45
The hammer you're already doing the Javelin multis.
28:48
Anything like that that you're aware of after the state meet
28:51
for these type, there's there are groups that put on early
29:00
summer meets like there. I think they're Hammer.
29:04
There's a group that does hammer.
29:06
I know that super Throwers track club puts on some stuff with the
29:11
hammer Scott skipper's outfit and so there are some things
29:18
we've had. We've had pole vault groups do
29:22
something similar. There are some decathlete A
29:26
decathlete type type things, but there's not like a a meet org
29:32
hosted by. A lot of little one offs.
29:36
So like there is one school that hosts a spring break,
29:40
heptathlon, decathlon so kids can get a score.
29:42
There's a couple of throws only meets right after early summer
29:46
before, like USATF meets Get Started, but nothing like
29:51
official, yeah? I love that.
29:53
Hey, so before we get to a couple of fun questions,
29:55
anything that we missed. Anything that's unique to
29:58
Oregon. You.
30:00
You score your relay points double.
30:02
You only score 6 places instead of a.
30:04
You run the four by four at midnight because that's an
30:06
Oregon tradition. I don't know.
30:08
Anything extra that we didn't ask.
30:10
You'd be surprised, guys. Anything that we didn't ask that
30:13
we should know. That's uniquely Oregon high
30:15
school track and Field I. Don't think so.
30:19
I I feel like we're pretty straightforward.
30:21
It sounds like I need to start listening to some of these
30:23
podcasts to see what everybody else is doing for some fun
30:26
ideas. But I mean there's definitely
30:28
things that I know for me and Greg we would like to see
30:33
included. But I think that the issue for
30:36
things like Hammer or Steeple, there are very few facilities
30:39
that have that infrastructure and sort of with the state of
30:43
schools in our state that adding that infrastructure would be
30:46
very difficult and cost prohibitive so.
30:50
Unfortunately, yeah. I mean, I guess kind of vanilla
30:52
other than, you know, we just run 2 relays because we're not
30:54
fancy. Not fancy, which we would have
30:57
thought in Oregon we would be fancy.
30:59
Like I said, I'm really kind of shocked, maybe a little
31:01
disappointed that Oregon doesn't run a four by mile for some
31:03
reason. I don't know.
31:05
OK, so gentlemen, help us settle a debate, settle an argument or
31:09
maybe argue amongst yourself since we have two of you here
31:12
when we talk about this state meet.
31:14
At least on your culture, your bus, ride to the meet.
31:17
Are you qualifying for state? Are you qualifying for the state
31:20
meet? Are you qualifying for states?
31:22
What What are we doing here? Help us settle this debate.
31:25
OK, well, I don't. I don't know about other
31:29
schools, but we call it state meet or state for short, right?
31:34
No, SI mean this is this is pedantic stuff.
31:37
But calling calling, it states is like calling JC Penney, JC
31:42
Penney's or Fred Meyer Fred Meyer I.
31:44
Think some people do call it JC Penney's just to put that out
31:47
there. So they do that.
31:48
I mean and same with here we have a, we have a store that's
31:51
owned by Kroger, which people also say Kroger's, but there's
31:55
no S on the end. And you know, it's just one of
31:57
those things like I have friends or family that do it and you
31:59
know, so it's always something that I can give them a little
32:01
bit of a ribbing for, you know, but.
32:04
Is it, is it Nordstrom or Nordstrom's?
32:06
You know, I mean, well, it used to be Nordstrom's way back.
32:08
I. Think it actually is
32:09
Nordstrom's. So but yeah no I mean I don't
32:13
know if that's a kind of a regional thing because like our
32:18
kids we you know we're we hear them talking about it and they
32:21
they say state meet or state and but yet I I do know that there
32:26
are there are people that call it states.
32:29
So I don't know if that's a regional kind of a the people
32:33
just traditionally call it that or?
32:35
Let's make sure we're either together or let's start a fight.
32:38
Scott, are you also on the no S the single state or state need
32:41
bandwagon? Oh yeah, no.
32:43
Greg and I are two peas in a pod on that one.
32:46
I love it. I love it.
32:47
That's another one that I hope someone is listening right now
32:50
that you are listening to every state.
32:51
I would like to know how many people said states, how many
32:53
said state, how many said state me because it is there is
32:56
clearly a line in the stand to your point there Greg.
32:59
There are people that are said exactly what you said on the
33:02
exact other side that they cannot believe.
33:04
Someone calls it the state me that it is states it's awesome.
33:08
I love it. OK, gentlemen, you have been
33:11
awesome. We've learned a lot here about
33:12
Oregon. So you get a prize.
33:13
And you know we got two people here, so they actually get one
33:16
each. So we're going to get two of
33:17
these. You get the magic wand.
33:19
If you could change one thing and only one for each of you,
33:23
please, that you would change in Oregon high school track and
33:26
field to make it better in your opinion, maybe that's.
33:29
Moving the meet to a four day meet.
33:31
Maybe it's adding the hammer. I don't know.
33:33
You tell me, what would you do with that magic wand to make the
33:37
state meet? The overall track and field for
33:40
high school better in the state of Oregon?
33:41
You. Want to go first?
33:43
You want me? I'll go ahead.
33:44
OK, so for me, I would like to see a move to have more kids
33:48
included in the postseason. So moving away from just you
33:52
know our conference meets to state and introducing like a
33:55
district meet onto a regional meet.
33:57
And then on the state and how that would work, right, you have
33:59
7 districts. You send the top 16 from each of
34:03
those to three regional meets or 4 regional meets, figure that
34:06
out. And then the top eight from each
34:08
of those regional meets goes to the state meet.
34:11
So you're getting at least you know 24 to the state meet versus
34:16
you know 16. I mean, it's going to, it's
34:20
going to likely mean an increase in numbers in district meets.
34:23
So maybe you give like 4 kids an opportunity to run versus 3.
34:26
But for me, more kids competing in track is not always a bad
34:30
thing, right? So it might make your meet 30
34:33
minutes longer. But district meets are usually
34:36
run or conference meets are usually run pretty well.
34:39
So, you know, you know, you're not like, oh man, how many 100
34:42
heats are this week? No, it's 4 heats of the 100.
34:45
It's 3 heats of the 100. OK.
34:47
We we can we can schedule that pretty well.
34:49
So for me I'd like to see a a conference or district and then
34:53
to a regional then to state and try to get.
34:56
Because we know that there are great athletes left behind that
35:00
finish third and don't get a wild card or finish 4th and
35:03
don't get a wild card. And so can we really, truly get
35:05
the top 20 four 1500 meter runners to the state meet?
35:11
So Greg, before we go to you and your magic wand, I just want to
35:14
clarify, make sure I'm clear of it.
35:16
Scott, are you interchanging conference in districts?
35:21
Yeah, kinda. It's not a separate meet,
35:23
correct? No same meet.
35:25
But like you do the seven conferences to like a three
35:28
regional format and then to state.
35:29
Yeah I'm I'm just you you said the districts a few times when I
35:34
thought you were referencing conference.
35:35
I just want to make sure someone's listening going well.
35:37
Wait a minute. We didn't talk about this
35:38
district meet you're you're kind of yeah.
35:41
We. Interchange those.
35:42
It's like state and states. Like in Oregon.
35:44
It's district in conference. I knew I've been asking the
35:48
wrong we do have some we have there are there are some what we
35:56
call conference they their technical name is league like
36:02
Three Rivers League. So we're Mount Hood Conference.
36:05
There's three Three Rivers League, there's Portland
36:09
Interscholastic League, but it's the conference or league or
36:15
special district championship. Those are the same.
36:19
It's just it's just more of what they.
36:24
What their leaders end up calling their district meet or
36:26
conference meet. So ours is the Mount Hood
36:28
Conference meet, yeah. Just wanted to clarify that
36:30
because you use that and I I thought I heard you kind of
36:32
interchanging those. I just want to make sure
36:34
someone's not listening, thinking, well, wait a minute,
36:35
we didn't talk about districts. Thank you.
36:37
All right, Greg, you get your magic wand.
36:39
What one thing would you change to make something a little bit
36:42
better there in Oregon high school track.
36:45
I mean I I pretty much agree you know there how we go about doing
36:51
it. You know the how we select from
36:55
there that that can be debated but I would like to see more
36:59
especially from the larger classification SO5A6A you know
37:04
we we have like 6A, we have by far the largest participation.
37:09
We have the largest schools the the most, the highest number of
37:13
teams. We have the I think the most
37:16
conferences or leagues. So like we for example we can
37:20
only take we have 7 in 6A7 conferences or leaks and so
37:25
there's 14 spots out of 16 already accounted for where
37:30
there could be a classification that has A5 and they have
37:35
smaller teams so the every classification takes the same
37:41
number to state and SO1A, you know they're they're 1A schools
37:47
that take darn near their whole team to the state meet and which
37:52
is great and I would never want to see the numbers decrease for
37:56
those classifications. I don't think that would be
37:58
right. I you know, if anything always
38:02
you know do more. But I would like to see though,
38:07
especially 5A6A. You know you could argue for a
38:10
but 5A6A with the larger schools and and such qualify more for
38:19
the state meet whatever that number could be 24 could be you
38:23
know pick whatever. But then you're you're getting a
38:27
better chance of having all of the top athletes or as many as
38:33
possible. You know there there are kids
38:37
that at the 6A level that might miss out barely but would do
38:42
well at the state meet just because their their conferences
38:46
in that event is so strong. If you look back over the last
38:49
few years, there have been 5th place runners in a conference
38:53
meet that would have finished on the podium at the state meet.
38:56
So that's just the hard part when you're in a stacked stacked
38:58
conference. And so I think, I think one
39:01
thing to mention, the magic wand is great, but the relationship
39:05
that the OS AA has with the University of Oregon and Hayward
39:07
Field, we we are. I don't think that anybody wants
39:12
to mess that up. So magic wands are great, but
39:15
the the real magic wand for us and one of the I think at least
39:18
for us, our team and I know a lot of coaches that I know
39:21
personally we don't want that to go away because the magic wand
39:25
for track and field in Oregon is if you make the state meet you
39:28
get to run in the best. I don't care what everybody else
39:30
says, the best facility in the United States and to run on a
39:34
track where world champions, Olympic record holders, world
39:38
record holders have run. And so that's something that
39:42
that sells track and field to high school athletes.
39:44
Like, man, if I'm good, I can go run where Usain Bolt ran or or
39:48
Allison Filitran or whoever you know, or where Ryan Krauser
39:50
throws or whoever jumps like it's a very special place.
39:53
So magic wands are great, but in this state you don't want to
39:56
break the magic wand and take away Hayward.
39:58
So. You will get. 0 Arguments from
40:02
Me is someone who you know, is fairly intimate with that
40:04
facility? Yeah, I'm with it 100%.
40:07
I'm jealous that every state doesn't get to go to Hayward
40:09
Field and run their state meet at Oregon So.
40:12
Well, Hayward probably love to rent it out for the money.
40:15
Exactly. Gentlemen, thank you so much.
40:18
This has been amazing as we continue to go through every
40:20
state here, including Washington DC and learn the uniquenesses of
40:23
each event. This was awesome.
40:25
I really truly, you know, I love some of the uniquenesses in
40:28
regards to like the fifteen 3000.
40:30
The 1632 is the more common doing the javelin.
40:33
I love all that. But I tell you your your
40:35
wheelchair participation and the true like I I just think of the
40:39
true definition of inclusivity and how they incorporate into
40:42
the team score. Man bravo to everybody in
40:45
Oregon. That's amazing.
40:46
And so that was awesome to learn today.
40:48
So thank you so much for representing this great state
40:50
and being here with us today. And thank you guys for being
40:53
here listening. I hope you've started from day
40:55
one. We started back in April.
40:56
We're going all the way through May, started with Alabama.
40:59
We're going alphabetical because that's the easiest.
41:00
And I was not going to get into a debate on who was first and
41:03
last. So Alabama all the way through
41:05
Wyoming. I hope you'll join us every day
41:07
as we continue to learn about all these great states.
41:09
Thanks, everybody. Have a great day.
41:11
Thank. You.