VACATION WEEK/iMPORTANT MESSAGE

12/23 - Practice at 8:00

12/24- Practice at 8:00

12/25 - Off

12/26 - Practice at  8:00

12/27 - Practice at 8:00

12/28 - Relay race at New Balance

12/29 - Off

12/30 - Clinic at 6:45 am in Boston

12/31 - Off

01/01 - Off

01/02 - Practice at 2:00

01/03 - Practice at 2:00

01/04 - Practice at 8:00

01/05 - Meet vs. Central

With the weather always changing it is important that each of you have sweats to wear at practice.

We might go outside, or we might not. 

Also, there is a high incidence of illness with weather changes...dress warmly!

After practices, it is also imperative that you get something to eat and hydrate within 30 minutes of running or competing. You need to "energize" yourself to replace what you may have lost during practice. NO EXCEPTIONS.

As far as muscle pains or shin splints, if you feel the need to take an analgesic, keep in mind we do not dispense them at the school or school event, BUT check with your parents and if you need something like an Ibuprofen PLEASE let them know and supervise what you take.

Proper rest is equally important. Stay OFF the electronic devices, especially at night.

Let's have a safe holiday season as well as a terrific season going into 2025!

 

WINTERFEST 2024 INFORMATION

 

Coaches, Thank you for registering your athletes to compete in this Saturday's Small Schools Winter Festival. Some reminders and general information as we transition to the Indoor season after almost a year away. Please take the time to read this email and reach out if you have any questions. PACKET PICKUP/SCRATCH SHEETS: Pick-up your packet in the gymnasium to your right as you and your team come into the team entrance on Malcolm X Blvd. PLEASE complete the scratch sheet by circling the "S" across from the relevant athlete that you wish to scratch. When you scribble out the athlete's name it makes it harder for us to identify the athlete to scratch. Nothing is worse than races with empty lanes (especially in the hurdles, dash, and 300m) so please help us by completing scratches in a timely manner. Relay scratches are often a later-in-the-meet decision. It is appreciated if you go into the gymnasium and inform the computer operator of those (or any other) scratches after your sheet has been submitted. ORDER: This is a girls before boys season. As a meet without medals/scoring it is seeded best to worst in all events. CLERKING: As usual, athletes will get their hip numbers in the gym (knowing your heat and lane assignment once it is posted on live.mstca.org speeds this process up) and then will report to the infield on the home stretch when their race/heat is called. There will be one call to the gym and one to the infield. Athletes who miss their race can not be added to a later heat. Also, ALL athletes in a field event, regardless of flight, by rule must check in prior to the first flight beginning. SHOT PUT: There will be 6 flights of shot for each gender. The top 3 flights will be in the cage and the bottom 3 in the other sector. Flights 1 and 4 will start simultaneously. The boys follow, in the relevant sector, at the conclusion of the girls. LONG JUMP: The elevated runway has been fixed (thank you Chuck Martin and some Patriot League coaches). All competition flights will be on the elevated and the standard runway will be the free open sign-ups practice runway. Due to the larger than expected field of LJ athletes, we will start girls flight 1 at 10am. If we fall behind schedule in LJ, when HJ concludes we will pull those officials over to the standard runway and use it for competition as well. These changes will be announced over the PA system. Also it would be a huge assist, if your athletes could remove their tape marks from the runways when they are finished jumping. INFIELD/OVAL: There WILL be an overlap between infield and oval events. The first heat of the mile starts at 10:30AM.  COACHING BOXES: There will be coaching boxes for HJ and LJ. With the elevated runway the infield is going to be much more crowded and the location of the boxes is not yet certain.  FOOD/HIP # REMINDER: Please clean up your area in the bleachers before you leave and please ask your athletes to discard their hip numbers into the trash, not the walls, bleachers, etc.  THE RUN HOUSE: Our apparel partner, The Run House, will no longer be located outside of turn one (that will become our new medals/awards area). They now have a full store with shoes, apparel, medal engraving, and pressing services located in the old equipment room across from the basketball gym just before you head down the stairs into the field house. Your Meet Director on Saturday is Matt Castriotta of Quabbin. Please see him if you have any questions or concerns during the meet, or even to provide positive feedback. He can be reached at mcastriotta@qrsd.org

Matt Carr Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association