This morning, I will pull out of the school parking lot at 6:15 am in a North Shore mini-bus with a triple grande non-fat latte in my cup holder. I am excited that I have been able to persuade 8 athletes and our assistant track coach Jen McQuet to spend the day with me traveling down to the University of Illinois to compete in the first ever Illini Scholastic Open. The meet starts at 10 am. There will be 21 girls teams and 25 boys teams competing from around the state. To my knowledge it will be the biggest indoor track meet (as far as number of schools involved) so far this season.
The meet is a first time partnership between Champaign Centennial High School and the University of Illinois Track and Field program to host a high school meet at the University's Armory facility. I have not been able to take athletes down to a meet at the Armory since 2009. When I discovered this meet, I thought it was a perfect opportunity for some of our athletes. Without a facility of our own, getting into indoor meets for our school has always been a bit of a struggle. We are lucky that through our friends at U-High we get included in a number of meets that they host at the University of Chicago. However, there are few other local co-ed indoor meets that we can attend or will let our small school enter.
Surprisingly, there are also few quality indoor track facilities in the Chicagoland area. The University of Chicago's is one of the best. New Trier High School's indoor track is certainly more expansive than the indoor facility we use, but it is hardly suitable for a school the size of New Trier.
So the draw of the Illini Scholastic Open is partly a beautiful facility and great competition. But there are several other reasons why I am excited to attend this meet today.
Of course, I am excited to see how our athletes perform. After our first meet on February 1st, we have had a number of strong practices, and I am excited to see if we can do a little better.
I am excited to give our athletes the opportunity to travel and see competitors from around the state. We get very few opportunities to see athletes from outside of the Chicagoland area besides at the State Meet. But there are somewhere around 800 schools in the state of Illinois that have track teams. Illinois is one of the best track and field states in the country for producing top athletes. Many of these athletes come from 'downstate.' Familiarizing our team with all the talent in the state -- not just the Chicagoland talent -- will help them throughout the season.
I am not sure why this is, but every time I have had the opportunity to take a group of athletes to a 'downstate' meet early in the season, they come back different. They come back more focused and more committed. And even though not everyone can come with us this weekend since a number are out of town, the experience will positively effect even those who could not come. That will pay off big when the most important meets of the year roll around in May.
So although this involves over 300 miles of driving for me today, I am excited what it will mean for our team.
I will be tweeting how we are doing through @NorthShoreTrack and we hope to return to campus this evening around 7:30 pm. Wish us well!
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