Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: California State Meet featuring JT Ayers from Trabuco Hills HS
Transcript
- 0:00It's bonus time here on the Gill Connections podcast.
- 0:03In an effort to increase communication, empathy and
- 0:06understanding around the country, we're going to be
- 0:08running a new episode every day interviewing a coach, a high
- 0:12school coach from every state, and yes, even you, Washington,
- 0:16DC with explaining how the state qualifying system works in their
- 0:21state. We'll be talking with a local
- 0:23state expert on how many classes, private versus public
- 0:27schools, what events and what is the process?
- 0:30Is it areas, districts, regionals, state meet?
- 0:34Is it a descending order list? Are there fun things that you do
- 0:38a little differently? Like maybe you, I don't know,
- 0:41maybe you do double points for relays looking at you Texas.
- 0:45And then we're also going to get to the bottom of is it the state
- 0:48meet or do you qualify for states?
- 0:50So check us out every day here in April and May of 2024 as we
- 0:54run through each state with a local state expert.
- 0:57So let's get started right now. All right, today let's head over
- 1:11to the West Coast. I promised myself I wasn't going
- 1:14to do any kind of like LL Cool J intro for this one, but we're
- 1:18going to the Golden State. So help me welcome as we learn
- 1:20California's outdoor track and field qualifying system.
- 1:24The head coach of Trabuco Hills, Mr. JT Air JT, How are you, Sir?
- 1:27And start maybe with an introduction of yourself.
- 1:30Yeah, I'm doing fantastic. Thanks for having me on.
- 1:33Let's see. I've been coaching for 17 years
- 1:36of 15 years as a head coach. I'm at Tribucal Hills High
- 1:38School. It's a public school in southern
- 1:40Orange County, California. And I was telling you off off
- 1:44podcast off Mike that I am part of the governing body.
- 1:48I'm in. I'm the Advisory Board.
- 1:50I host a major qualifier at my school for this, the postseason
- 1:55process, the California State meet director.
- 1:58Him and I are like best friends and I'm constantly.
- 2:00On the phone with him, trying to ensure that we're doing
- 2:02everything correct, including, you know, what the governing
- 2:06body of California wants, but NFHS and all of that stuff.
- 2:11So, yeah, I hope that gives a little credibility into what's
- 2:15going on with this podcast. But I would love to shed light
- 2:18on what California does and all the craziness we do.
- 2:21And I'm not even sure it's all good.
- 2:24All right, well, let's get into it.
- 2:25We're quite enjoying as we're moving towards through our
- 2:27series here of all 50 States and 51 because we have Washington,
- 2:30DC here. So we we're doing an athletic
- 2:33order. So we're in the seas.
- 2:33We're in California. Let's start here at the Golden
- 2:37State. Let's start with some states
- 2:39have different governing bodies for private and public schools.
- 2:42What do we do in California? We all together, we separate.
- 2:45What's going on? All together, those private
- 2:48schools and the public schools, we compete with one another.
- 2:51And now there's different classes which we'll get into,
- 2:55and it all has to do with the actually the number of bodies
- 2:59that are at that school. So modern day #1 football school
- 3:02in the nation. I have dual meets with them and
- 3:06they're all they're yeah, they're they're four by one and
- 3:08they're all those kids are going to do an SEC school and my kids
- 3:12are all going to go to the Community College and become
- 3:13accountants. So we have to compete with one
- 3:16another. It is one governing body for all
- 3:19of that. We call it CIF.
- 3:22The Yeah, what does that stand for?
- 3:23The California? Interscholastic Federation
- 3:27because that's usually like most of them are like, you know, the
- 3:30state no C or A or L, whatever. And then high school athletic
- 3:34associates. So it's I HSA, it's a HSA.
- 3:36This California's different, the CIFA Federation.
- 3:40Perfect. OK.
- 3:41So well let's get into those divisions in California.
- 3:44What are we doing? How many divisions and what do
- 3:46we call them? A, AA, Whatever.
- 3:49This is where it gets a little complicated.
- 3:50So there is one, just one California State track meet with
- 3:56one division. Everyone's together.
- 3:58And this is where you can see someone like Jenna Prandini who
- 4:01went to Clovis, which is the Central Valley.
- 4:04She can get second place on her own because she got three first
- 4:06place and scored thirty points. There is no other.
- 4:10So there is a little jealousy when I see Colorado State title
- 4:14and the kid and you know the team was from some like third,
- 4:17you know? Class 3 or whatever.
- 4:19It's just one for us which has its downfalls.
- 4:24However, it's really kind of fun for everyone to come together
- 4:26and you could be a very, very small school in the middle of
- 4:29nowhere and you could be a very, very large school like Long
- 4:32Beach Poly. And they compete against one
- 4:35another. So this has become a rarity.
- 4:39So hold on, I'm going to make sure we're here in this.
- 4:40So if your school cause normally it's by the student body, right?
- 4:44So let's say there's a school that has 100 students, nine
- 4:47through 12, and there's another student school that has 2009
- 4:52through 12. They're competing against each
- 4:55other at the state competition. Right.
- 4:57They're competing against one another at the state level, but
- 5:00we have to go back a little bit because there are 10 CIF
- 5:04sections in California. The southern section is the
- 5:06largest. That's everywhere from.
- 5:08Long Beach to San Clemente. Back to Temecula.
- 5:11It's humongous. That's where I actually happen
- 5:13to be. There's a San Diego section, a
- 5:15San Francisco section, a Central Valley section.
- 5:18There's ten different sections. They're all varying in size.
- 5:21So the way they break it down is those individual sections have a
- 5:26qualifying process to get to the state meet, and that starts with
- 5:30league prelims to league finals. Then they go to their individual
- 5:34CIF prelims. Now the southern section, let me
- 5:38talk about this one because this is the largest one.
- 5:40This is where Michael Norman with the Vista Marietta, I'm at
- 5:44Trabuco Hills. We actually host the CIF
- 5:47division. One, there's four individual
- 5:50divisions in the southern section.
- 5:52CIF, they're the only one that has more than one division, four
- 5:56divisions. All those divisions are based on
- 5:58student population. And so my school has 2500.
- 6:03Students Roosevelt in the Corona, Riverside area, they
- 6:08have actually 5000 kids. So all that that demographic I
- 6:13think it's between 20, it's 2250 and five whatever thousand
- 6:18that's Division One, then the next group is division two.
- 6:22That's what we'll see like modern day they actually have
- 6:24quite a lot of kids. Our tribal down the street they
- 6:27don't have, they have 1800 kids. They're in division two as well.
- 6:31Then D3D4D4 is a very, very small, typically private schools
- 6:36because they have just not a lot of kids.
- 6:39Sarah of Gardenia actually is a very small private school in the
- 6:42Long Beach area. That's where Roger Pleasant went
- 6:45last year. He was the fastest kid in the
- 6:47United States. He ran 1014, almost breaking
- 6:50Matt Bulling's record. He there in Sarah like they they
- 6:54won a California State title, but they're a very, very small
- 6:56school, so. Recap.
- 6:59There's four divisions in southern section.
- 7:02Those four divisions at their prelims top nine out of all the
- 7:07heats. They go to the CIF, Division,
- 7:09One, Division, Two, Division Three, Division 4 finals.
- 7:12Those divisions all in those finals.
- 7:15Basically those are the four heats.
- 7:17At the finals, there's nine teams or kids per race or flight
- 7:22and they compete. Out of those four divisions, 4
- 7:25flights, 4 heats. The top 9 or 12 for a field
- 7:30event will then go down to something called a Masters.
- 7:34Then that gets you to state prelims.
- 7:36So let me let me break it down a little more.
- 7:38It's a very couple. We went very simplistic of all
- 7:42one class. Love it?
- 7:43Oh yeah, Podcast is. Buckle up.
- 7:45Hold up. All right, let's start back with
- 7:48the first round. Did you say the first round of
- 7:50our state series is is Leeds? Yeah, so let me.
- 7:54Let me do two things. One, let me break it down for
- 7:57what it looks like for everybody and then let me break it down
- 8:00what it looks like for an example, Trabucal Hills High
- 8:02School trying to get to the state prelims or finals.
- 8:06And it is very difficult because you're in the Southern, so
- 8:08there's some uniquenesses in the Southern is what I'm hearing.
- 8:11Yeah, there's four divisions in the Southern were the only ones
- 8:14with multiple divisions, just because there's so many teams,
- 8:16so many kids. Break it down.
- 8:19And how does that one mess it all up?
- 8:22Every single division. There's 10CI F sections.
- 8:26Every section in California has a qualifying way to get to
- 8:31State. Basically they're narrowing it
- 8:32down the way they do it. Every team has to go to their
- 8:37league prelims. Every team has to go to their
- 8:39league finals, and there's a number set.
- 8:42Typically it's three. Let me ask you real quick.
- 8:45You keep, you've done this twice now.
- 8:46You said league prelims and league finals as if that was two
- 8:49different meets. I'm thinking of prelims and
- 8:51finals are in one meet. Is this one meet or these?
- 8:54No, no. These are two.
- 8:55These are it's the same. Meet two different days, Okay,
- 8:59but it's a so. Ours is ours is a Tuesday,
- 9:03Friday. Sometimes teams do it Friday and
- 9:06then the following Friday. They just basically are
- 9:09narrowing it down to get to the heat, get to the race, get to
- 9:13where the IT matters for points gets matters for qualification,
- 9:17league prelims on Tuesday, league finals on Friday.
- 9:21That's how my league does it. But most would be like leagues.
- 9:25It's Friday and Saturday we're these are two separate meets.
- 9:28Interesting. Same meet, and that's important
- 9:31because you can't. You only get 4 events per per.
- 9:35Meet so same, meet two different days so I can't run, you know,
- 9:38one kid and six races in the prelims and then decide to do
- 9:41five other races on the finals. No League prelims League Finals.
- 9:47That goes into the the sectional whatever section it is that goes
- 9:53into their prelims. They have multiple heats from
- 9:56all these different leagues. That narrows down to a finals,
- 10:00separate week, separate meet. And then they from there will go
- 10:04to a another qualifier. They'll get them eventually to
- 10:10state prelims. So I there's a very important
- 10:12aspect, but I will come back to it.
- 10:15This is how, as an example, a southern section team, my team,
- 10:19this is our journey. It's the most complicated
- 10:22because we're in the southern section that has the most kids.
- 10:26Trabuco Hills High School. Let's just take their best 100
- 10:29meter runner, OK, we go from. League prelims should be easy
- 10:34for him. Top nine out of all those heats,
- 10:36all those kids, everybody goes to a league finals.
- 10:39There's one heat 100 meter runner.
- 10:42He needs to be top three or make a qualifying time.
- 10:46That's impossible. Nobody ever makes it to get to
- 10:49state or to the CIF D1 prelim. So top three, the So I like you.
- 10:56You added the time qualifier. We had that in some of our
- 10:59states. You said it's impossible.
- 11:01Is it a average of the 3rd place over five years?
- 11:05What? What makes it impossible?
- 11:07Yeah, it's it's the mark is going to be an average of what
- 11:10the state or what the Divisional 1 prelims was or finals was the
- 11:15previous year. It's analgamation of basically
- 11:18looking at that. It's very, very hard.
- 11:20Like very tough. So let's say my prelims league,
- 11:24prelims, league finals. Now we're at.
- 11:28Well, let's say my kid false starts.
- 11:30He's out. No, no.
- 11:31Let's not complicate this. Let's make it easy.
- 11:33Your kids are stunned. He goes league free limbs league
- 11:35finals, then he goes to. Division One prelims.
- 11:38There's going to be about 5 heats of that from all these
- 11:41different leagues. They're at trippy Goals High
- 11:44school cuz I'm hosting it and this is premium.
- 11:46So this is where we do for southern D1D2D3D4.
- 11:50No. So yeah, those meets are in
- 11:52different places. We're just in D1 right now.
- 11:57I'm just going to walk you through D1.
- 11:59So the kid that's 100 runner, he's at D1 prelims, it's a meet.
- 12:05It's on a Saturday. He needs to make top nine heat.
- 12:08Winners go. He needs to get to the next
- 12:11week. So he runs.
- 12:13He wins his heat or he runs one of the best, you know, next best
- 12:15times. They only take nine kids.
- 12:18They go to the next week. That's D1 finals.
- 12:22Now that that meets. You have D1D2D3D FOUR, We're all
- 12:25at the same place. There's four heats, 4 divisions,
- 12:29they all run one after another, and you're trying to score
- 12:33points to win a big cool trophy and title for your team.
- 12:38So that's all southern section. Everybody's there, my kid runs,
- 12:42and they don't care about heat winners, they care just about
- 12:45the next best time. So D2.
- 12:48To be quite frank, stinks. Like, they're just not very
- 12:50good. I don't know why.
- 12:51I mean, they're just kind of the lower end public schools and D2
- 12:56typically won't have a lot of kids make it like they can win,
- 13:01but they won't make it because they're not one of the best nine
- 13:04times. So they need to be at that meet.
- 13:06You have to be the next, you have to be the top nine time out
- 13:10of all those divisions, all those heats.
- 13:13This is where it gets complicated because.
- 13:16Well, I'm just saying college and some States and including
- 13:20college and swimming, if you make a mark, you're in.
- 13:23You don't have to worry about the rest of here.
- 13:25Not us. You have to make it through
- 13:28123456 different weeks of qualifiers.
- 13:32So you could be the best four by one, but you mess it up, you're
- 13:35out, you know? So my kid, let's go back.
- 13:39He wins, runs great, runs A10 four, makes it through.
- 13:44He goes to something called a Masters.
- 13:47Masters Those D1 in southern section.
- 13:50Now we're going to a meet called Masters.
- 13:52Yep, we just went through D1 finals.
- 13:54The next week is called CIF Masters.
- 13:57The reason they call it Masters. This meet only exists as a
- 14:00qualifier. To state every single 10
- 14:04sections has this. My section gets six kids
- 14:08automatically through top six no matter what.
- 14:10Because we're the biggest one, we get the most to go.
- 14:13So like the San Diego section gets 2, San Francisco section
- 14:16gets one kid. Unless they make a qualifying
- 14:19time, which is an agamation average of last year's state
- 14:23finals, they look at all like who what they ran and they come
- 14:26up with a number. It's very possible that every
- 14:31kid in that race, in this Masters race is going to make it
- 14:34through. Because means my section is the
- 14:37best. It's it's where the most
- 14:39competition comes from. There was a year where I mean I
- 14:43ran the 7th best time to state it wasn't good enough and ended
- 14:47up being the 7th best time we didn't get to go to state.
- 14:50That happens. It masters only exist to narrow
- 14:54down the field to get to state. So there's not 25 heats of 100.
- 15:00You know Masters is the last meet before the state meet.
- 15:03Yep, Everybody has them and everybody's together.
- 15:06No, once we get there, we're not, there's not A1A champion, a
- 15:10Division One champion. There is a champion.
- 15:12Right. So there is 10 different masters
- 15:15races throughout the state for the 10 different state sections
- 15:18from Northern Cal, SoCal, Central Cal.
- 15:22Then everybody gets to. Once they figure all that out,
- 15:25it all gets sent to Brian Weaver at at Buchanan High School in
- 15:30the middle of central California, which is kind of the
- 15:32middle for everybody. It's a 5 hour drive for me.
- 15:34It's five hours from north. It's, you know, it's kind in the
- 15:38middle, but they have the unbelievable, unbelievable
- 15:40facility. He runs the best meet in the
- 15:42nation and that's where we have state prelims Friday, state
- 15:47finals Saturday. How do you figure this all out?
- 15:52What I mean by that is like if you're a new coach in the
- 15:54California, you didn't run through the system.
- 15:56Heck, if you ran through the system, I'm not sure you could
- 16:00know it by heart. There's a lot of complexities
- 16:02there. Like you got to really, you got
- 16:04to have that rule book with you. I'm assuming like OK and this
- 16:06meet with Y&Z. They sent out all the qualifying
- 16:10marks. We know what we have to do.
- 16:11We know what we're running for and towards.
- 16:13And you, it's not even who's the best, it's just who survives the
- 16:17long. So yeah, it's like a Survivor
- 16:20Series, OK? The kid, the athletes have to
- 16:22learn to be very smart and what's a qualifier?
- 16:25What am I going to do? We make decisions like.
- 16:27You're not going to do 4 events because you can't you it's we're
- 16:30going to have to pick and choose.
- 16:33It is if you're a absolute stud, if you're Jenna Prandini, if
- 16:36you're Michael Norman, you can jog your way through to get
- 16:39through. But some of us have to we have
- 16:42to PR out of control and run the We ran, we ran Orange County's
- 16:47fastest time ever and that got us 4th place at the state
- 16:51finals. You know, so it's like what are
- 16:53you going to do? So you go to Buchanan high
- 16:56School for the state meet. Everybody's there.
- 17:00Tell us again 2 day meets, prelims and finals for all your
- 17:05races and your. Friday is prelims.
- 17:08You're going to find 4 heats, possibly enough, you know, four
- 17:14different flights. They're just narrowing it down.
- 17:17You can do 1 jump. I mean I had high jumper that
- 17:18was clearly the best in California.
- 17:20He took one jump on Friday, qualified because he was the top
- 17:239. See on Saturday took two jumps.
- 17:26One it again, because he was a freak.
- 17:27He was 7. Four kid.
- 17:30It is all about just getting two state finals.
- 17:34So if you're a very, very good runner, don't mess up.
- 17:39I think they should rename this instead of the State Meet the
- 17:42Survivor Series. I mean, this is, it's not
- 17:46convoluted, there are some complexities here, but it's just
- 17:48it's long. There is a lot of steps here to
- 17:53get to the state 100 meter final, the state long jump
- 17:55final, the state 1600 meter. If a kids coming through this
- 17:58system, heck of coaches are going through the system, you
- 18:01got to be I like that. You said you got to be smart.
- 18:03You got to know what to do, when to do, where to do it.
- 18:04You got to be thinking always through this process.
- 18:09Survive in advance. So all we ever say, it's just
- 18:11survive in advance. And you know, that's that's what
- 18:16you have to do. And so, I mean, you're going to
- 18:18ask me later and I'll just tell you right now, I wish they would
- 18:20get away from the masters meet. I feel like, you know is the big
- 18:25joke is this is just a moneymaker for CIF.
- 18:28There's doing it to make money. But I understand they're trying
- 18:30to narrow down one, you know, one of the largest states, most
- 18:33competitive states into one cohesive good, very good track
- 18:38meet where some of the best marks in the state are going to
- 18:41come from. And I mean there's it's a crazy,
- 18:44crazy meet. It's so fun too and there's not
- 18:47one, there's not many classes. There's one California State
- 18:50finals. So to be caught on, I'll never
- 18:52win. My team will never win a state
- 18:53title, but it's a really fun meet because you know, you get
- 18:59to watch the best compete and you're not there to win a state
- 19:01title. You're there to see, you know,
- 19:03how good am I compared to everybody else?
- 19:05Like let's get and let's compete at the highest level at the the
- 19:08time that it matters the most. But yeah, I mean wait to go
- 19:13back. I would get rid of the masters
- 19:14meet because it's just another qualifier.
- 19:17I feel like if you ran really, really good at you know the
- 19:20finals like and you made a certain qualifying time, they
- 19:23should just get you through. So an example, you might team
- 19:26ran whatever the qualifier was and they ran the time, just let
- 19:30them in. But you have to do that again
- 19:34the next week. Just another moment to try to
- 19:37qualify and you see. The tons dropped.
- 19:39You see nerves happen, you see false starts.
- 19:42It's just it's a bummer to watch.
- 19:43These kids just have like, I mean, their kids just have like
- 19:45a quick little hiccup and then their entire season is gone.
- 19:49It's over. If we can just get rid of one
- 19:52more qualifier, I think that'd be great.
- 19:54OK. So this next question is a
- 19:56little bit of a hard question, right, because you're in it on a
- 19:58daily basis. So when I ask you what unique
- 20:01events California might run, they may not necessarily be
- 20:04unique to you, right? The Jablin is not unique to
- 20:06Kansas cuz they do it every day. So it's kind of a hard question,
- 20:08but if you think about the quote UN quote standard array of
- 20:12events at the average high school meet, does California do
- 20:15anything different? Any unique relays, any field
- 20:18events, etcetera. We don't have javelin cuz we
- 20:21feel like giving kids Spears is probably child abuse and so we
- 20:25don't have that. We instituted the four by eight
- 20:28that was new. Last year it was experiment,
- 20:32seemed really cool. We do not have the four by two,
- 20:35which I'm a huge advocate for because I'm also a Sprint coach.
- 20:38So I'm kind of biased. That was is in the works.
- 20:42I would say. We're very, very slow to adopt
- 20:44things. The one thing that our state
- 20:47finals does have is we have a unified section that's really
- 20:50unique. So unified track and field,
- 20:52which is like kids with special needs, they can run.
- 20:56And you know, our school is a big champion of that.
- 20:59So we partner them unified means.
- 21:01They have an athlete that is an athlete with special needs and
- 21:05they partner with someone that does not.
- 21:07And it's really cool. And we also have like the
- 21:09ambulatory type of Paralympics. There's also those elements and
- 21:14they have their own qualifiers for those things as well.
- 21:16But the state meet has those sprinkled in throughout the the
- 21:20two days at Clovis or Buchanan High School.
- 21:23That is awesome that you are so far the second state that does
- 21:27that and I, I highly incur, I love that California leads the
- 21:30way there. That's that's awesome.
- 21:31I love that. What about, you know, something
- 21:34that changes sometimes from state to state?
- 21:35Do you the 16 and the 32, or do you do the mile to mile?
- 21:38What are you doing there, 1632? Yeah, we're pretty standard, you
- 21:42know, like 4 by 1, 4x4, 124800, sixteen, 132, both hurdles short
- 21:49and long. So yeah, nothing.
- 21:52Nothing crazy. Yep, anything.
- 21:54Some states after the state meet, the official state meet.
- 21:57So we're giving out a team trophy and you're giving out one
- 21:59team trophy. That's amazing in California.
- 22:02Any quote UN quote unofficial state meets Have tap on
- 22:05Decathlon, javelin, Hammer, anything like that.
- 22:08Meet of champion, Anything after the state meet?
- 22:10Well, your state meet is the meet of champions, actually.
- 22:12So no. No meet of chance.
- 22:14No. No unofficial state meets events
- 22:17after. No, nothing like that.
- 22:19In fact, if you want to continue to compete, now you're talking
- 22:22about nationals. When you say nationals, you mean
- 22:25summer track au USATF? Yeah.
- 22:28I mean, you're gonna find these things in like, I mean, there's
- 22:30a bunch of them, right? Eugene had One North.
- 22:31Carolina had one. Gotcha.
- 22:32Yeah. Nike, Adidas, New Balance.
- 22:34Gotcha. Yep.
- 22:34Right. All right, well, help settle us
- 22:37a debate here at least. You know, knowing that you don't
- 22:40speak for every coach in California, at least speak for
- 22:43your culture there, maybe at your school and around your
- 22:45circle of network. What do we do?
- 22:47Do we qualify for the state meet?
- 22:49Do we qualify for states? Do we qualify for state?
- 22:52It's not plural. What?
- 22:53How do we say it there in your neck of the woods, qualifying
- 22:55for states? Yeah, we're there's only one
- 22:58California. You qualified for state.
- 23:00It's qualified for state. That's.
- 23:02It state very good. And you know I'm going to give
- 23:05you one more chance. You gave us your one thing you
- 23:07would change. You would get rid of masters one
- 23:10level of qualifying. There anything else here in the
- 23:12last 60 seconds? If you could magic wand change
- 23:15anything in the California system, what might that be?
- 23:18It's a great question to be honest.
- 23:21I go back and forth if having different classes would be
- 23:24smart. I mean the the rules are
- 23:27different for everybody. Some school districts have open
- 23:29school districts. So I mean the private schools
- 23:31out here are just out of control, offering all kinds of
- 23:35opportunities. And yet my school with a bunch
- 23:38of other public schools, you have to live in the attendance
- 23:41area and you have to show up. So I mean I don't know if it's
- 23:43equal representation, but also I think California does a good job
- 23:47not looking at success as only who won the state title.
- 23:52I like to look at the the coaches and the programs that
- 23:54are constantly at these high, high level qualifiers over and
- 23:58over and over and over again. I'm not so much interested in
- 24:02who had Michael Norman. I'm more interested in possibly
- 24:05who had, you know, who got 4 kids run 48, not who got one kid
- 24:09run 45 in the quarter. So I think, I think California
- 24:13is a really, really good job making sure that it's equitable
- 24:18to the best it could be with such a high populated state.
- 24:21The one thing I would love to see, we do not have a California
- 24:24Coaches Association. Unlike Texas, which is
- 24:27humongous, California has nothing like that.
- 24:30And that's a real bummer because collaboration and just being
- 24:34connected to other coaches, that's a more like grassroots
- 24:37kind of thing. And that only is by
- 24:39relationships. But like what you have and the
- 24:42group text you're on and the Twitter accounts that you have
- 24:44and I think it's a bummer. So I'm not sure that answers
- 24:46your question about the state qualifying process.
- 24:48However, it is definitely something that needs to happen
- 24:51if CIF is not going to do it either way anyway, so it needs
- 24:54to be its own kind of governing body.
- 24:56Yeah, we would 100% be in favor of that.
- 24:59As we look at the states of Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Texas
- 25:02that have Louisiana have strong track and field coaches
- 25:05associations there, things are stronger that way.
- 25:08We'd highly encourage California to to grassroot it up and and
- 25:12start there. JT, this was awesome.
- 25:14You know, we are in a quest to. Interview a coach from every
- 25:17state and explore the uniquenesses of that state in
- 25:20California certainly stepped up and did some uniqueness there
- 25:23with A1 class state championship for one of the, you know, top
- 25:27three states as far as population specifically with
- 25:29participation in track California, Texas.
- 25:31In Florida. So JT, thank you so much for
- 25:33joining us. And hey, don't forget down in
- 25:35the show notes. JT, he had a pretty good voice,
- 25:37right. He's actually the host of the on
- 25:40track and field podcast as well. Does an amazing job.
- 25:43I'm so, so happy and proud what he and on track do for our
- 25:46sport. So go you listen to this
- 25:48podcast, you should be listening to their podcast as well.
- 25:51So go check it out in the show notes.
- 25:52I've got a link right there for you.
- 25:53He's amazing. You got to go check him out.
- 25:55So thank you again for being here.
- 25:57Check out us tomorrow. We're going to do a whole
- 25:58another state tomorrow. JT.
- 26:00Thank you, Sir. My pleasure.