Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #127: Gill1918 Presents David Mitchell “Why Try a Frosh-Soph Meet?” Powered by Coach O

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#127: Gill1918 Presents David Mitchell “Why Try a Frosh-Soph Meet?” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  There's a very positive trend in athletics right now that is
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  raising both awareness and opportunities for female only
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  competitions in track and field. We recently heard this on the
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  podcast about the Pink Spike Festival in South Carolina and
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  the reasons why it began. Today I'd like to raise, I'd
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  like to raise awareness among those involved in leading high
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  school track and field programs or events about another
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  important way to build up athletes that's not about
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  gender, but instead it's about age.
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  A freshman, sophomore only competition.
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  Hi everybody. I'm David Mitchell, a track and
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  field and cross country coach at the high school level for over
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  20 years in Michigan, and a recently retired teacher school
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  counselor after 39 years of working in public schools in
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  Michigan and South Carolina. Currently, I remain a track and
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  field announcer and I'm serving with coacho.com as Director of
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  Client Relations, including working on all aspects of the
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  Coach O Indoor Track and Field Youth Series at Tryon
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  International and Clemson University.
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  I just returned from 4 days of announcing the 2026 Nike Indoor
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  Nationals in New York City, a meet I've announced since 1999.
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  Once again, I got to enjoy witnessing many of the very best
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  athletes in the country from middle school all the way up
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  through graduating seniors, and it really added to my
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  perspective on this topic. Here are a few reasons why high
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  school coaches should strongly consider attending and are
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  hosting A freshman sophomore only competition during their
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  season. Reason #1 The developmental
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  differences between the span of 14 to 18 or even 19 year olds
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  competing in high school 2. The potential to provide
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  encouragement for the younger athletes to stick with the
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  sport, thereby building your program 3 The useful insights
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  gained by both coaches and athletes from Frosh soft
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  competitions. And four, they're really a lot
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  of fun. In my years as head coach of the
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  boys track and field of boys track and field plus boys and
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  girls cross country at Pinckney High School, I quickly learned
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  the value of Frosh soft meats. We began by attending a well
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  established 9th 10th grade meet at Holly High School in Trek.
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  It was very eye opening to me as a coach before, during and after
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  the meet. Eventually as our program grew,
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  we were able to enter both an A-Team and AB team each year at
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  Holly, providing additional competition athletes
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  opportunities to young athletes. Later, we even expanded the
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  concept by hosting our own 9th and 10th grade meet called the
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  Pirate Frost Soft Relays, again entering an A and AB team.
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  We'd later go on to attend a freshman sophomore meeting cross
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  country as well. For the purpose of this talk,
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  we'll focus on the track and field side of things, but the
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  benefits apply to cross country too.
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  The Holly meet was very efficiently run despite having a
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  large number of teams each year. At our meet, we limited the
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  number of teams to a maximum of 16 in order to manage the time
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  well and to keep everyone's interest.
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  We learned a lot from the great stuff done at Holly, but also
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  personalized our meat in a few ways we'll mention later.
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  Let's start out talking about that first reason, the
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  developmental differences. It doesn't take more than a few
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  seconds to begin to notice some of the physical differences
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  among the athletes on a high school track team.
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  We had baby faced boys who were 5 feet tall and 90 lbs and some
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  who were six feet plus gangly and 115 lbs as young athletes.
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  But we also had some big dudes with beards and physiques that
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  had clearly been shaped by years in the weight room.
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  Now, there are always exceptions when the late rumors in 12th
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  grade still look like 9th graders, or when the 9th graders
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  are the big dudes with beards and beach body physiques.
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  We're going to stick though, with the general truth that most
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  9th and 10th graders haven't developed the strength,
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  endurance, and physical maturity that their older team mates
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  have. Mentally, the older athletes
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  have had more opportunity to learn how to manage both success
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  and struggle. And also of great importance,
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  most of the older athletes have learned how to compete at their
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  personal best level. With that in mind, competition
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  between those age groups is more often than not slanted to the
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  advantage of the upperclassmen. I mean, why wouldn't it be?
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  There may be certain 9th and 10th graders that make an
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  immediate impact on the varsity level.
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  Those are the kind of athletes I just saw at Nike Indoor
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  Nationals. But most do not and cannot make
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  that kind of impact yet. So along with the differences in
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  the physical development and the technical skill development from
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  more seasons and years of your excellent coaching, most young
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  athletes don't know how to compete yet.
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  They're used to relying on the older athletes to be the ones
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  who plan ahead, make the sacrifices, leave the warm ups,
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  and then go out there and score the points to help the team.
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  A 9th and 10th grade meet helps the young athletes learn to lead
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  and to compete. It becomes more real to them
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  when they are matched with opponents of a similar
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  development level and often they find out that they can do more
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  than they ever thought possible. That discovery is a key to the
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  second point of providing encouragement to stick with the
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  sport and building the program by keeping them there to allow
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  you to coach them to new levels. The encouragement that can come
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  from the faith that you show them, show in them by putting
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  them into a competitive situation is one way.
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  It also comes from the opportunity to win medals and to
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  look good in front of their peers and parents.
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  As another means of encouragement, I also awarded
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  varsity letter points for scoring in the freshman
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  sophomore meets. Maybe I didn't fit the mold of
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  some coaches who intentionally make it difficult to earn a
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  letter. My athletes still had to earn
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  it, but it was more reasonable than in some programs.
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  I wanted to see varsity letter jackets on young athletes as
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  billboards advertising the program.
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  Plus, it helped form track as part of the athlete's identity,
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  again making it more likely he'd stay with the program.
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  Some of that was influenced by my own high school experience.
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  I didn't earn a varsity letter until I was a senior in high
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  school. It limited my time wearing my
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  varsity jacket with pride, and I didn't want that to happen to
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  others. I was always on the lookout for
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  ways to encourage the young athletes because it was not only
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  good for them, but it was great for our program and I didn't
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  make it too easy. I didn't want the wrong people
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  wearing the varsity jackets. I made them earn it, but they
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  earned it in a way, maybe differently than some others.
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  The third reason to compete in or host freshman sophomore meets
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  is the insights gained by both coaches and athletes.
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  The meets we attended and hosted always had a shuttle hurdle
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  relay. The first year we went to Holly.
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  It really opened my eyes in planning when I realized I only
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  had two hurdlers in that group that I was really honestly
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  developing to be competitive varsity athletes in those
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  events. There should always be more
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  athletes in the pipeline for any event, but at that point I was
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  lacking in that area of developing my team.
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  Never again. Another coaching insight is to
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  see the leaders shine. Some young athletes are just
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  waiting for the opportunity to shine and be a positive
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  influence in a bigger we in a bigger way.
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  Frost soft competitions provide that opportunity.
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  We'd also practice separately from the older athletes on the
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  day prior to the meet, so that was another chance for the
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  athletes to lead and grow. Coaches learn who the clutch
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  performers are in those settings too.
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  It was very common to see athletes burst through plateaus
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  in their performances in those freshman sophomore meets, and
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  that was one of the athlete insights to be gained as well.
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  They learned a lot about themselves as a competitor and
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  as a teammate. They learned how to handle the
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  pressure of stepping up to the line or onto the runway or into
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  the throwing circle. When you're are you are the one
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  everyone's counting on to do his best.
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  That's a lot different than stepping up there hoping to get
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  a PR but lacking other motivation or pressure.
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  And then executing under that pressure also leads to great
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  personal insights and in the best case scenario, a big boost
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  of self-confidence. The final reason I mentioned was
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  fun. 9th and 10th grade meets can really be a lot of fun when
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  approached by the coaches with the right attitude.
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  It leads to a deeper. It leads to deeper relationships
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  with the young athletes who might not get as much of your
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  personal one-on-one or small group attention when the older
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  athletes are present. Building great relationships is
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  definitely fun in the moment and beneficial in the future.
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  Hosting this meet also served as a fundraiser for us, and as all
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  coaches know, having money available when you need it is
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  more fun than having an empty account in the lack of ability
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  to get what you need for your team.
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  We did a few things when we created the Pirate Frost Soft
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  Relays to increase the learning and the fun.
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  We held an individual running of the 300m hurdles at the start of
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  the meet during the field events so that those athletes could
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  shine and be developed. Normally in a dual meet or other
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  settings, they've already run a couple of events before they get
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  to the 300 hurdles. This was a chance to run it
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  fresh and it also made it more manageable within the structure
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  of the meet. Field events are also relay
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  style, adding up the best effort of each of a pair of athletes.
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  We borrowed the brilliant plan from Holly to run the two mile
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  cross country style, finishing on the track.
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  Each team entered with four athletes with three scoring and
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  4th being the tiebreaker, again forcing deeper development by
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  the coaches in that training group.
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  It was also a good introduction and a recruiting tool for the
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  cross country team. With 16 teams Max on an 8 lane
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  track, there'd only be two sections of time final of each
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  relay, so it moved quickly from one event to the next.
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  Once that portion of the competition was underway.
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  The biggest fun boost playing came from placing the Co Ed
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  Sprint Med or Co Ed Sprint medley at the end of the meet.
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  400 meter girl lead off, 200 meter boy, 200 meter girl and a
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  400 meter boy anchor leg. I worked with the girls coach to
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  make sure that each of us saved our top athletes for this event.
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  It really lit the atmosphere up as the top male and female
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  gladiators entered the ring against their opponents with all
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  of their team mates cheering them on.
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  In the years that we hosted that meet, we never lost that race,
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  so it became a point of pride for the program, athletes and
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  parents. It was a very fun way to finish
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  and again, it gave young athletes the opportunity to
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  compete and a high energy, higher expectation competition.
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  Hopefully hearing about this topic gives you some motivation
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  to attend or host a Frost Soft meet soon.
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  I appreciate you taking the time to listen and I welcome your
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  feedback or suggestions or questions.
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  Please consider this your official invitation to
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  contribute an episode or two to for yourself here on the Gill
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  1918 Youth Series powered by Kocho.
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  becoming a presenter for this podcast, send an e-mail to
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  kocho.com. Thanks.