Quotes

Here are some quotes about kids:

" Today's young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude & impatient. They have no self control. "

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders. They disobey their parents. They ignore the law. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

"The world is passing through troubled times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves"

What adjustments do we need to make as coaches to deal with this 'shift' in behavior or attitude? I can tell you my philosophy. I give them plenty of room to make decisions on their own and guess what most of the time they make the right decisions. Sure some take advantage of it and take extra days off, but If all we do is tell the kids what to do at what point do they learn? By the way this was sort of a trick question. Those three quotes I posted were from: 4000 BC; Plato (yes the greek philosopher) and the last one was during the crusades. I think we actually have the greatest generation of kids there has ever been. Just some stats I heard at a conference:

* We have the most diverse generation. There are 127 languages spoken in CA public schools

* They are smarter than ever. They had to revise the SAT because people did to well on it.

* Girls are more independent and competitive thanks to title IX being passed a generation ago. This generation never was exposed to the old way of thinking.

We are entering exciting times people shouldn't be as bummed out about this future generation. This is why I love coaching these high school students. I have seen it firsthand. They will do amazing things. - Coach Mike

(Information from DR. Paul Salitsky from UC Davis)

Track and Field Today

Hey if you gys check out NBC at 1:30pm they are showing the Reebok Grand Prix. Last year at this meet Bolt ran a 9.72 to set a new world record in the 100 meters.

(He is not running this year) But Gay and Wariner are along with a bunch of others.

Also I am debating taking a road trip down to the State Meet next Saturday. If anyone is interested in checking it out let me know. - Coach Mike

Stephanie Armstrong

Not only did she get her own rung on the podium this time (had to share her spot last time) she also moved a little higher up. Big time Congrats to Stephanie ALL-CCS for the second straight year she tied her PR, which moved us up to 219. It is tempting to think about next year already (I know I am excited), but right now is just the time to enjoy the season that has just passed.

Couple notes: I think Stephanie and possibly Pauline are going to run at the Golden West invitational in Folsom on June 13th. (So we are at 219 in the PR department, but the door isn't quite shut at 221 PRs)

Also I posted some of the pitcure I took tonight, basically a lot of Stephanie since she was the only one competing and a couple of our school record 4 by 400

Some guy from Salinas gave me a disc with a bunch of Live Oak photos in it from the Alisal invite and CCS Semis so I posted those too (more Jordan Hasay stalking haha)

Also Sportswurlz was at CCS so I posted their pictures as well. Adding up all the photos I have posted plus I know fresh has another 100 or so that makes over 1600 photos. That is a pretty well documented season. Lots of good memories.

2009 Season Results

So I think I got pretty much everything this year except some people who didn't make it into the top 3 at Westmonts dual meet (they only gave partial results)

Here is the link to my excel spread sheet so you all can see your progression, I included everything going back to 2006. (I only kept track of sprinters and jumpers back then and didn't do a very good job at it)

Also if you notice the tab called points. Those are our top ten results this year using the IAAF ranking system. Great job this year.

http://www.liveoakcaf.com/2009Results.htm

Top Marks 2009

Girls
100: Erika Rodriguez- 12.87w (BVAL) & Courtney Robinson - 13.12 (STAL)
200: Erika Rodriguez - 26.30 (BVAL)
400: Pauline Olsen - 59.45 (STAL)
800: Pauline Olsen - 2:27.93 (Westmont)
1600: Olivia Duran - 5:48 (Westmont)
3200: Olivia Duran - 12:20 (STAL)
100h: Stephanie Armstrong - 17.68 (Quicksilver Invite)
300h: Stephanie Armstrong - 48.27 (BVAL)
4*100: Erika-Courtney-Catherine-Lauren - 50.60 (CCS Semi)
4*400: Erika-Stephanie-Courtney-Pauline 4:05.70 (CCS Semi)
TJ: Lauren Drewniany - 31'7"(Avis Kelley)
LJ: Lauren Drewniany - 15'10.25" (Andrew Hill)
HJ: Stephanie Armstrong - 5'2" (CCS Semi) (To be determined)
SP: Nikki Dronek - 25'10.5" (Piedmont Hills)
DT: Nikki Dronek - 85'0.5" (Westmont)


Boys
100:Billy Van Aken 11.33 (STAL) & 11.20w (BVAL)
200:Greg White - 23.67(STAL)
400: Jacob Montoya - 52.53 (STAL)
800: Artie Valencia - 2:10 (STAL)
1600: Adam Groen - 5:05 (STAL)
3200: Adam Groen - 11:25 (Andrew Hill)
110h: Dominic Leach - 18.64 (Piedmont Hills)
300h:Dominic Leach - 47.24 (Santa Teresa)
4*100: Jeff-Greg-Billy-James 43.89 (Piedmont Hills)
4*400: Viz-Tolson-Daw-Montoya 3:34.60 (BVAL)

LJ: Greg White - 21'1.5" (BVAL)

TJ: Greg White- 41'4" (Piedmont Hills)
HJ: Jacob Daw - 5'10" (Santa Teresa)
SP: Mason Lammers - 40' 11.75" (STAL)
DT: Mason Lammers - 127'4" (CCS Semi)
PV: Eric Tolson 10'0" (Santa Teresa)

reminder to read the old stuff and new stuff

unfortunately the old stuff got taken over by bots and sex fiends, but if you ever want to see some of the older stuff that Coach Mike has answered via the many questions by myself, Cedeno, Rookie, and a lot of other past athletes, they should be still around.

and if you don't feel like wading through all that stuff, I believe that I tried to combine and summarize all the "ask coach mike" threads into a book that gave coach mike his 4th year of coaching, sorted by topic.

might be a good way to learn all the basics - like what should i eat before a meet, why does plyos actually help the body and so forth. plus, you might discover the digital track past. imagine just going through the archives =D

http://www.liveoakcaf.com/forum/index.php

and just wanted to say if you were interested in new stuff, there's a lot of journals and books on kinesiology, the complete breakdown of the muscles needed in the long jump, and if you're into that type of stuff - sports medicine, athletic training, and functional physiology. Can get you copies of the latest journals or direct you to books or Coach Mike into his library of stuff that is cool to know =D

Pauline/Adam kick 2 & 3

HEre is another angle of Paulines kick

I think Pauline had a little more gusto with this one, maybe because now she was soaking wet.

OH wow

Its nice opening this page and seeing stuff written from people other than myself! BY the way if anyone has something they want to contribute I just need your email address to add you to the list of 'contributers'

I have three copies of Pauline kicking adam into the pool, unfortunantly I only saw Stephanies cheap shot on Pauline with my own eyes. (it was hilarious though) I will upload those later. Thanks again for everything. - Coach Mike

Why Its Awesome to do Track and Field for Live Oak

This may be giving away my age, but back in the day when Coach Mike had the board, there used to be a topic about why people run track and field and why its better to be a Nut than anything else. Since those boards have since been retired and now there is the blog. I wanted to bring it back.

So here's my list of reasons why I think its awesome to do track and field for live oak.. and sorry if there's a lot of stories.. feel free to add on =D

1. 6 years later, I'm still here - eating In N Out after CCS

its crazy how some sports graduate people and you never hear from them ever again. track and field is THE only sport where I've felt comfortable enough to come back to spend time with athletes and coaches. That in itself means something.

And the In N Out is the official place for track. if i hear another athlete from another school claim in n out as their place, no. its been the official track place for 5 years!!

2. Crazy track stories and track people

Track people are crazy everywhere. not just in high school, recall rory's hollister observations, alisal, and the meet in the rain.. but in college, and everywhere else. you have to be in order to push yourself mentally in a sport that is a team sport, but is also an indivudal sport.

and this one kills me - apparently, track and field is the sport that is other team's punishment. i've heard that with a bunch of coaches of other sports, and i have nothing to them. if my sport is a punishment, why would i do it?

3. Athlete of the week

because everyone loves random gifts and the stories behind them. michelle danner got a stool. i have no idea why. the 4*400 team my year got sick socks, which I still have. i whip them out on important test days.. old habits die hard... and my aow award, a kinesio textbook is in my dorm room and is often referenced =D

4. everyone gets recognized

nothing is worse than an organization where only the "talented" or only the "seniors" are recognized. what does it mean when others get recognized and you don't. the motivation dies and you don't get people who come back year after year. alum before me told me that was an issue. why come back if the only reason that you were there in the first place was for some artificual achievement? no, get recognizied for the work you do. every athlete deserves a place in the sun.


5. plyo boxes, mini hurds, sand bags, and sleds

when you're a d1 school and you can afford big bucks on every athlete, you can buy whatever you want, but when you're underbudgeted public school. well you can't. seeing coach mike's homemade mini hurds, plyo boxes and bars for squats (they are slowly getting lighter each year - when they were first made, the paint cans were actually super difficult =D), puts a smile on my face everytime.

6. Saturday jump crew

only tcal kids will remember this because it was before the rule change, but saturday jump crew has the fondest memories in my mind because it showed me what it means to be a "real athlete," the kind who get up on days that they don't want to because they want to be come stronger, higher, and faster. it also showed me what a 6 day workout schedule will be. and it make me a much better athlete form wise. i still remember one of the first days when michelle, sarah, and me came to practice and coach mike was cleaning out the pit.. it made me sad because i realized if we wouldn't have come. an awesome thing would never have existed.

7. track bonding

from sky high to kerby's cone to super taq to in n out to track parties, and inside jokes - track is truly a family. in fact when rory was here for his first year, i recall the ongoing joke of track actually as a family with mother mike and father rory, and somehow rookie was related, darn you distance people, but i feel that the people that i ran with know me better than anyone else. i feel that track people always got my back.

8. king of the hill

because everyone still wants to believe that coach mike would do something illegal and steal the diana sign.. would make a great movie. plus, it gives you chance to live in infamy.

9. arnold work out tapes

because everyone needs a good laugh during plyos. especially after just running the hill. or just because its a bad day.. they're also great for conversation starters and are a mini-tribute satire to the current governor.

10. 8 minute abs

i don't know why but this workout become inter-sport-inal. it was the crossover workout that showed how hardcore track athletes were. plus it gave hard core abs that you could use to wash your laundry.. except now coach mike knows better and we do something else, but they were cool when we still did them

11. how track and field athletes kick butt in all other sports

there is no cross over sport for track and field. they come from all over - volleyball, field hockey, soccer, water polo, football, tennis even! and whats even better is when track and field athletes show their heart, spirit, and leadership in their other sports. not only are track and field athletes great on the field, they're great in the classroom and great leaders.

just one eg. field hockey captains my senior year - both track and field athletes =D

12. track is the only sport where its okay for a guy with a gun to take your clothes off

stole it from stephanie. but i found it awkwardly true.

13. lime green warm-ups

old school - but when your school and every other school is green, it helps when your warm-ups are lime green. lame when it rains ie. the meet where huge puddles were in the track and we didn't cancel the meet. yeah running a 400 is great - try running it when theres puddles every step of the way.. and your warm ups dont keep you warm - instead they suck up the rain like a sponge.. also they were really comfy when they're dry and you're just chilling post-meet

14. running on the high jump pit

its exhausting and you think it might be cool. its not. =D

15. meeting new athletes every year

one of the reasons i come back every spring.. besides waiting for the second annual midnight madness. but i love meeting new athletes.. i love seeing how the team grows, how it improves, even if it means smashing on old records of people i knew and basically make me look like the lamest student athlete ever.. but its still awesome all the same to meet the newest member of LO Track and field.

and i guess i'll call it quits for that list.. getting sleepy and i'm sure your brain is sick of scrolling through all this. more at a later date, when i think of a good story or some fun facts. =D

This is SPARTA!!!!!

Just wanted to post the video of Pauline kicking Adam into the pool yelling "This is SPARTA!!!" The best version was the 3rd attempt but i wasn't able to record that one. However Courtney did so hopefully we will get to see that version soon. Link that will take you to my album that has a few more videos and pics from the party and everything else i took this year.

hormones discussion

So, I was waiting for an opportune moment, because hormones and stuff seem kinda random, but I guess there's no better time than the present, so why not?

Also, please note that most of this stuff is for your info, so no excuses that you didn't know that oxytosin was for increased oxygen levels when you got it from your "doctor," when you thought you were taking it for acne. And also, if you're planning on doing kines, medicine, pharmacy, this is mostly organic chemistry, so if you plan to do drugs (please don't) or catch the people who do (either way - its controversial stuff), just make sure you know what you're getting yourself into, its a lot more complicated than it sounds.

So first step - how do hormones work - there's a hormone (either a protein or a steroid) that targets specific receptors. In the case of hormones for sports, they tend to be steroids, meaning that they have a cholesterol skeleton (not all cholesterol is bad). These hormones attach to a receptor which can be found on a cell. This in turn acts as a signal to start a pathway causing physiological changes. Changes can occur on the tissue level, such as increasing muscle strength or emotional or something like increasing your red blood cell count.

The changes are usually part of a large cycle that involves more hormones than you could count. And more is being discovered all the time. So if you're functioning right now - breathing and eating and living - be thankful that all your hormones and hormone pathways are functioning at a reasonable rate. Also, note as the warning i said earlier, small changes in these pathways can have huge effects, so be careful if you're going to mess with hormones.

One of the major things that athletes want is improved oxygen intake. So one thing that you can do (illegal of course) is blood doping. You basically end up giving blood to yourself. (more on the blood pitch later). Instead of physically giving yourself blood, you can stimulate yourself to make more red blood cells - more hemoglobin to grab oxygen, more ATP to your muscles.

So what can you do to stimulate oxytosin and more red blood cells? Basically - run and train. When your tissues do not receive enough oxygen - running 50 second repeats, 500 breakdowns, your body makes oxytosin. Oxytosin makes more red blood cells so that the next time you run 50 second repeats, you don't get booty lock.

You can also give blood, because now you'll have less blood cells so you need to make more. Kinda contradictory, but you save three lives and who wouldn't want great athlete red blood cells and platelets! So, give blood, you make more blood cells and you help save some lives =D

As a fun fact (if you can call it that) - red blood cells have no nucleus, so they have to be broken down by your thymus and more red blood cells are made from multipotent (can make limited types of new cells) stem cells in your bone marrow.

Other hormone interactions that are crazy include testosterone pathways. Testosterone is a negative feedback system, so in reality, the more you take, the less you make. Which seems weird right? But by mixing in other stuff, you can actually stimulate more testosterone to be made by making it look like you have less.

And the weird thing is if girls take more testosterone, they can actually end up more moody and more crazy than they normally are. Why? Because testosterone is a precursor to estrogen!

So that seems long enough on hormones. tried to hit the ones relevant to track, but there are also ones for dehyrdation. maybe get to that laters.

thanks for an awesome track reunion: mumbles of an alum

So, I guess I've been part of track and field for as long as Coach Mike has been coaching, but coming back from school at Cal to help make some extra funds for track by posting results and then going to CCS to watch some of the most talented athletes that Live Oak has ever seen, and then to top it off with some traditions and a track party has been a pretty great homecoming, not just because its been 2 years since I've run, but because I'm really glad to have been a part of something at Live Oak track and field family and more so because the memories keep growing.

Even though I was only around for a week here and there, to post results in the press box or help out by being an alumni partner for plyos or to give suggestions for random injuries or tape a shin splint or cheer you on for the 4*400, I appreciate everything you guys did in the season, especially when it came time to hear about pr's and soggy breads (aka season bests).

I know Coach Mike did it, but I want to thank you guys too. I want to thank the athletes, because athletes make it possible and make it worth it. Without athletes, I wouldn't need to come back, but athletes that I've run with and athletes that I just meet, I want them to have the same feelings, the same love, and the same opportunities that I got as an athlete. Because I don't want to be the only alum still coming to practice 2 years later. =D

But enough rambling on, I just wanted to say that you've joined a family - one of the greatest families ever - the Live Oak track and field family. If you ever need anything, midnight madness timers, a tour of berkeley, the inside look of a pac-10 traing room, need to meet a real strength and conditioning coach, someone to run with you up diana, someone to measure your long jumps, lights for the track in the dead of winter -what are alumni for? I'm throwing it out there that if you ask, I will make the time to help you get what you need. You try and I will meet you half way. Once you've run on that track or jumped in that sand, you're family now =D

Congratulations Stephanie!!!!

Hey all -

I know it has been a while since I posted, I was too exhausted Saturday night. Yesterday I spent the morning and afternoon at an A's game (they won)

Anyways a quick run down of the meet:

Stephanie cleared 5'2 and advanced on to Friday nights CCS Finals for the second straight year. She didn't even have to try 5'4" because there were only 8 left at that point. Gret great job.

We had 2 near misses: the boys 4*100 and the girls 4*400 ran season bests but ended up in the unfortunant 9th spot. Which means they will be the 1st alternate. Both teams will practice this week and hope that someone scratches. The killer of this is that there are 9 lanes, and they only let 8 make finals. Not sure the logic.

We had 8 total PRs. Bringing our season total up to 218. Hopefully we can finish with 219.

The girls 4*100 also ran a season best with a 50.40 but would have needed a 50.40 to advance. Great season by them.

Anyways I will post a bigger run down later tonight and post pics that Steve took. But I wanted to get this up now.

CCS Entries

http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/2009/ccst_ent.htm

So here are the entries for CCS. Tell me if you notice a trend.

4*100 Boys = Lane 6

4*100 Girls = Lane 6

Pauline (400) = Lane 6

Erika (100) = Lane 6

Billy (100) = Lane 6

Erika (200) = Lane 6

Pauline (200) = Lane 6

Courtney (200) = Lane 1

4*400 Girls = Lane 6

4*400 Boys = Lane 1

Since it is seeded your lane is based on your entry. So it looks like we have alot of people in the 13-16 range. Remember only the top 8 advance to CCS finals, who is going to do it?

Lane 4= 1-4

Lane 5= 5-8

Lane 3 = 9-12

Lane 6 = 13-16

Lane 2 = 17-20

Lane 7= 21-24

Lane 8 = 25-28

Lane 1 = 29-32

Lane 9= 33-36

Another Video

Here is our girls 4*400 from last Thursday. Erika blew this race wide open and Courtney and Pauline had no one to run with. A couple notes...

1) It is dark so pretty much you can only see the straight aways
2) The person filming was filming another team so once Erika gets us that lead we don't se too much of our other runners.
3) I think this team has as good as a chance of making CCS finals as our 4*100

Videos

So that company sportswurlz put up a video for the boys heat of the 4*100. Also I posted video of Usain Bolt this weekend. We ran the 150 in 14.3 seconds. By comparison Erika just made CCS semifinals in the 100 in a time of 12.87 seconds. (and she is our fastest 100 runner)

BVAL BOYS

Usain Bolt

Sportswurlz

HEy Guys,

So that website sports wurlz put the girls 4*100 into a movie/slideshow. If your interested here it is:

Coaching Opportunity

The track coach at Britton, Jim Green, is looking athletes who are graduating this year to help coach the team in 2010. So if you are going to be around and want a reason to spend afternoons out in the sun, let me know and I can pass along your information. I think it would be great if some of our athletes started coaching at Britton. - Coach Mike

Taper

Well guys. In case you didn't notice we reached our goal of 200 PRs. We are now at 210. Very proud of you guys. I had a post a few weeks ago about tapering (I even made a diagram on Windows Paint, haha)

Well just to give you some numbers. Going into the April 30 Meet against Piedmont Hills we had 128 PRs and 1 Season best. In the 14 day span from our last dual meet to BVAL finals we had 82 PRs and 9 season bests. This is the cool thing about track. You can scrap the regular season to perform better in the post season. We had 15 people qualify for CCS. Some of those athletes qualified in multiple events. Erika in 4, Courtney, Pauline, and Stephanie in 3, Greg in 2.

Here is the list of the BVAL schools in order of enrollement. You can see there is quite a high correlation between attendence and performance. It really is just a statistics game. Say 1 out of every 20 students enrolled is a good athlete, and 1 out of 100 is a great athlete. A school with an enrollement of 3000 is going to have quite a few good athletes to spread around to the different sports and a good amount of great athletes.

BVAL Enrollements :

3646 Independence
2628 Evergreen Valley
2586 Oak Grove
2435 Silver Creek
2397 Santa Teresa
2237 Andrew Hill
2220 Piedmont Hills
1945 Mt. Pleasant
1858 Leland
1716 Yerba Buena
1709 Leigh
1707 Overfelt
1680 Westmont
1662 Lincoln
1564 Ann Sobrato
1536 Pioneer
1479 Willow Glen
1402 Branham
1336 Del Mar
1320 Prospect
1315 Lick
1250 Live Oak
1149 Gunderson
997 San Jose

BVAL 2009

Great Great Great Job. So here is the run down of the meet.

Stephanie 'won' the high jump. Like I said before though the goal was just to get in the top 8. She also had a big PR in the 300 Hurdles. (We ended up scratching her from CCS so she can focus on the high jump). She also made it in the 4*400 team.

Erika was my pick for athlete of the meet. She competed in 4 events, had 4 PRs, and made CCS in 4 events. She made it in both Relays, in the 100 she broke 13 seconds for the first time with a 12.86, the wind was over the legal limit (2.4 meters/second) (her old PR was 13.12). In the 200 she ran a wind legal 26.30 which was a huge PR (her old one was 27.02)

Courtney advanced in the relays and the 200. She has qualified for 8 CCS events in her 4 years here. She had to get a good stretch to get that baton to catherine in the 4*100.

Lauren and Catherine each made it in the 4*100. Lauren reeled in the runner from Evergreen (new public enemy 1) Just a great leg, good thing she is fresh. Really happy with this girls 4*100. A windy day like yesterday really puts a dent in 4*100 times (If you look at the entries and the results we were one of the few teams who ran even faster) Very excited about these girls at CCS. If we can get a warm day with no wind and hit all 3 handoffs I like our chances. (I know thats alot of ifs, but none of those are big ifs) I think it has been decided that Catherine runs that turn like her hair is on FIRE. haha

Pauline learned what it felt like to die at the end of a 400. She still battled to win her heat. She ran that first 300 exactly how she needed to but with a 3.0 head wind it took too much energy. If we can get good conditions at Gilroy, which we usually do (although the weather this year has been weird to say the least) SHe is looking to advance to CCS Finals again. She also qualified in the 200 with a .5 second PR which is huge. Not to mention a 59.97 leg all by herself in the 4*400.

THe boys 4*100 needed a dive to advance and James ran a little more relaxed as far as I can tell. Big big kudos to Jeff who dove for Gregs hand knowing if he missed it their season was over. Very clutch, all the pratice running the Veer in football allowed him to read the defence and make split decisions like that.

Jeff also hit a PR in the Long Jump with a 20'2.5" jump, which came up 2 inches short of CCS, but like i said, its hard to be bummed with a PR. I mean what else could you ask of yourself.

Also in the Long Jump Greg popped off his first 21' jump which puts him into CCS. HE does just about everything wrong which goes to show his talent level. (No warm up, no landing)

In the Discus a DQ put mason from 9th to 8th and bought him another week of track. Like i predicted he is such a natual talent and so early in the learning curve taht the longer he goes the better his chances. Well he wasn't supposed to make it out of the santa teresa division, but he PR'd then and was the last person to advance. Then this week he wasn't likely to advance either but PR'd again and was the last person to make it. Now he has another week to learn some more and see what he can do against the best in the section.

IN the boys 4*400, our team of 3 sophmores and 1 junior ran their hearts off and were the last team to make it with a season best 3:34.6. (Then their hearts were almost stomped on by Evergreen)Viz broke into the 53s. Tolson had a bit of a slower time but that is only becasue he was starting the race (the lead off leg usually has the slowest time because they are starting from a dead stop while the other three have a 'flying start'. Montoya ran a 52.00 which is a .4 PR.

HE battled to keep us in the 8th spot just holding off Westmont.

Steve has sent me some pics which I have posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/BVAL2009#

Also that company sports world took alot of pictures which I have posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/BvalSW#

Justice

So I can finally think rationally, I just got this email:

Your guys are still in, we decided Evergreen blew it so they are out.

So we ended up with 15 qualifiers to CCS. Remember we only had 29 athletes going into the postseason, 17 made BVAL and 15 of those made CCS. Our largest CCS group since I have been here. Great job. Over 50% of our athletes made CCS. I can tell you that has got to be one of the best % if not the best % around. If 92 Independence athletes made it to CCS that still would be a worse percent than us.

As for the whole 4*400 shenanigans I mean it would have been ridiculous to kick them out for a team that didn't run. THe Mt. PLeasant coach gave his vote to Evergreen Valley (thats fair) and the Westmont coahc (our league rep and the Lincoln Coach (West Valley League rep) voted for us. So make sure we cheer on Lincoln and Westmont this week and hope bad things for Evergreen and Mt Pleasant. I think what it came down to was Westmont and Lincoln could sympathize with us, who were being bullied out by an A division school. Or they had an ounce of brain in their head, which is all you need to see how stupid this was.

I will have a happy post with all the excitement from last night, coming soon. I wasn't able to enjoy any of the great performances because of this headache. (still ticked about this despite it being resolved.)

So here is our list of CCS qualifiers:

1) Stephanie Armstrong in the HJ and 4*400
2) Pauline Olsen in the 200, 400 and 4*400
3) Erika Rodriguez in the 4*100, 4* 400, 100, 200
4) Courtney in the 200, 4*100, and 4*400
5) Lauren Drewniany in the 4*100
6) Catherine Sparling in the 4*100
7) Mason Lammers in the Discus
8) Jeff Roberts in the 4*100
9) Greg White in the 4*100, LJ
10) Billy Van Aken in the 4*100, 100
11) James Hamblin in the 4*100

Maybes - Jacob, Jacob, Viz, Eric (Why maybe you ask because of coaches who protest things)

So Evergreen Valley claims that the official told them they were in heat 3. Even though there is no heat 3. So what they want to have happen is they advance to CCS without running at all and the 8th place team gets kicked out. (Which is us) The coaches were all in agreement that you can't do that, it was in the program they messed up. Unfortunantly since the meet referee already left he couldn't rule one way or another. So now the 3 league reps meet privately about it and vote. The smaller the group ruling on it the more biases come into play and the greater chance we can get screwed.

I was planning on sleeping well tonight. Good job everyone. Once the post the results I can let you know the updated PR list. Off the top of my head though.
Greg and Jeff PR'd in the LJ
the girls 4*100 (School Record)
boys 4*100
Billy and Erika Pr'd in the 100
Mason in the DT.
Boys 4*400
Erika in the 400r
Stephanie in the 300h
Erika and Pauline in the 200
Viz and Jacob M in the 4 by4

So that is at least 13 which means we are at at least 208 for PRs this year!! Congrats you guys.
As for CCS we have 11 or 15 people going.

BVAL tonight

Last week I was really excited for the meet. We had a chance to show off our team. This week I would say I am more nervous. This is a good thing though, in previous years most of our athletes were on the outside trying to get in, so it was exciting. We were trying to knock teams out. This year 15 of our 17 athletes are in the top 8 position so I am just hoping we won't get knocked out. The scary part is we were pretty good at knocking teams out. Was that more because of our mindset or the top 8 athletes mindset?

So maybe the fact that so many athletes this year are in top 8 position is part of the reason for the lack of focus this week, usually they are hungry going in to this meet. Or maybe the fact that I am nervous instead of excited is just altering my perception. Once the meet starts I know I will be excited again. It has just been the build up that hasn't been fun. At 9:30 tonight I will be excited for CCS.

Maybe someday I can be nervous for the CCS meet.

Focus

The focus level this week has not been good, it has been pretty horrible in my opinion. There is a tendency for a drop to occur because:
1) we are in to the taper so practices are light,
2)some of your teammates season's ended last week and you survived so there is a bit of an ego issue there,
3) its been a long season (We started January 5th)

There is a thin line between a relaxed environment and an unfocused one. Research shows a relaxed environment is the best environment for learning (when stressed we only use the dominant side of our brain, we want to coordinate both sides) I know we try to walk it, that puts the responsibility on you to be focused. As we decrease the physical stuff we need to INCREASE the mental stuff. Instead this week looked like we saw the small workload so we turned off our brains.

You see that we are just doing one handoff, you say 'sweet easy day'. Instead of seeing it as 'we better get this one right' you have already mentally checked out. Our girls 4*100 missed 4 out of there 6 handoffs we tried this week. Not sure if they missed that many all year. Not to pick on them because most of you did the same thing this week in your event. Practice is going to only get easier, but I can guarentee you the meets are going to get harder and harder.

People I saw with a high level of focus this week were: Pauline Olsen, Stephanie Armstrong, and Eric Tolson. That is the list out of 18. The interesting part is 2 of them (Pauline and Stephanie) made it on the podium at CCS last year. They understand what it takes.

I wanted to post this now because the results at BVAL are irrelevant to what I saw this week. Your fresh legs may make up for you lack of focus this week and you may run well, but imagine what you could have done. There will be practice on Friday for those of you that advance. We will have nine days between BVAL and CCS. We can't have another week like this one.

BVAL

So we have 18 (maybe 16 thanks to the whole Jacob/Artie situation)

While the relays appear to be in good condition. It is hard to tell because in the Mount Hamilton Division 7 teams advance and they only have 8 teams so really they only have to run hard enough to not get last. In the 4*400 Willow Glen didn't even run so all they had to do was finish to advance. (so some good teams ran slow times)

So of our 18 people (assuming Artie makes it in)

14 of those are in good position to advance to CCS with the Relays. (I know they do other events but I am just looking at how many people advance to CCS)
Olivia is in 6th position in the 3200 (should make it)
Mason is about 10 feet from 8th in the disc and 2.5 feet from 8th in the shot
Leach needs his PR to hit 8th
Artie is in 15th position 5 seconds away from 8th in the 800


So I would say we have 15 in position, still need to execute though tomorrow. Leach needs to jump well. Mason and Artie need some big PRs (Mason gets better each week as he learns the event/ Artie just needs to get entered in the event first)

Etc..

So I got an email from the westmont coach, they forgot to add our guys. So Artie is now on the alternate list. He said he is going to see if they can change the 400 to include Jacob otherwise he will be on the alternate list as well. The good news is they are both sophomores (everytime I spell that I think I spell it differently)


On a side note, this question came up in practice yesterday. Why is something called tasty when it tastes good and smelly when it smells bad? I have no answer to that.


Technique work today, light physical/big mental day tomorrow and then it is BVAL on Thursday.

BVAL Entries

Hey guys -

BVAL this week here are is the time schedule

http://www.liveoakcaf.com/BVAL%20Finals.doc

Here are the lane assignments:

http://www.dyestatcal.com/ATHLETICS/TRACK/2009/bval_ent.htm

Couple notes:

1) They left out Artie and Jacob, both got 6th but Artie was supposed to be Lance's replacement and Jacob hit the at large mark. I think the head of our league was too busy trying to win the meet then to make sure all the right people got entered. I sent an email last night and will let you guys know when I get a response.

2) There will be no bus, so those of you that need a ride will need to let me know. Since we have a smaller contingent going (18) and the meet starts later in the day (4*100 is at 5:45).

3) This meet is a qualifier meet, meaning we are taking the top 16 athletes in each event and cutting it down to 8. There is no BVAL Championship, no points, its a light switch there is only on and off. 8th place is as good as first place, 9th place is a bad as 16th place. One thing that is always good... PRs. If you hit a PR I guarentee you, you won't care about your place.

4) So just like last week you guys have 2 options... PR or qualify so you can PR later. As always with this team the focus is on PR-ing.

See you all later today - Coach Mike

So many photos!!

Hey guys we have about 360 photos from the meets last week. Photos were taken by Cindy, Fresh and Steve. Also I included photos from that website sportswurlz (is that supposed to be 'sports worlds' but spelled in a COOL, I mean kewl, way? haha)

Anyways I think we are up to about 850 photos on the season. IF anyone else has been taken any let me know and I can upload them. Here are the albums:

STAL Prelims: (Photos by Steve)

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/STALPrelims2009#

STAL Finals: (Photos by Steve, Fresh, Cindy)

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/STALFinals2009#

STAL by Sportswurlz:

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/STAL2009Sportswurlz#

Season Bests

If you notice there are some marks on the PR list that say (SB) this means that the time run was a season best and not quite a PR. I think there are only 4 that are in that catagory.

My thought is this, if this is not your first year doing an event and you have done the event 6 or more times in this season then a season best is awesome. The point of PRs is to show improvement (throwing/jumping/running better then you ever have.) You can't back into a PR, well towards the end of the season I think season Bests are similar they reflect a progression.

Example: Stephanie in the 300 hurdles, she ran it 6 times this year and here were her times:

57.61 Andrew Hill
54.84 Independence
53.84 Sobrato
53.99 Del Mar
52.10 Quicksilver
55.84 Santa Teresa

Then on Tuesday she ran 50.48 and on Thursday she ran a 50.53. So while she didn't get a PR I think it is safe to say that she has been working hard and improving in her event. Which is the whole reason I recognize PRs


Anyways Season Bests tend to get overlooked because (1)they mean nothing at the beginning of the season. (2) when you get one you know you had done better at another time. Under the right condition though I think they are important and deserve to be recognized.

So technically we only have 195 PRs and 5 Season Bests (I hadn't included Stephanie). But Stephanie, Chelsie and Olivia all hit season bests at the STAL Meet. Great job ladies.

In my post yesterday about patience, I mentioned about how it was discouraging to run knowing that you had no chance of breaking your PR until May. I included the season bests on the PR list this year to show those people who weren't close to PRs that they were improving and were on the right track.

So in my mind we have had 200 Great Performances this year, but I did call it a PR list so I am going to bring it down to 195 and next year I will include SB (under the stipulation they have done an event 6 times, it is at least April, and this isn't their first year doing an event, although if it was I guess a SB would be a PR so that is irrelavant, haha)

Let me know what you guys think, leave a comment.

BVAL information

Here is the info on the BVAL meet next week

http://www.bval.org/forms/bval_finals.pdf

As you can see the 4*100 doesn't start until 5:45 and the 4*400 isn't until 9:00.

In the field events we have Stphanie jumping at 3:30

Lauren and Mason jumping/throwing at 4:45

We will not have a bus so if you need a ride you need to let me and Mark know so we can give you a ride to the meet. We will discuss this next week. - Coach Mike

Relay Teams Yesterday.

Here is our girls 4*100 working some handoffs today.

Just some stuff about our relay teams yesterday.

Girls 4*100

• 50.84 - Ties the school record set in 1980 with our CCS Champion Sprinter Gurtha Pounds
  
• 9 - Current Rank in CCS of Girls Team
  
• 2 - Consecutive STAL Championships in the 4*100
  
• 1.14 - Improvement in seconds over fastest time previously (51.98 - set at Stanford)
  

Boys 4*100

• 44.14 - Fastest team we have had since I've coached here.

• .41 second improvement from previous best time

Girls 4*400

• 4:09 - 2 seconds off of the school record team of 2 years ago

• 2 - place going into the anchor leg

• 1 - place after the anchor leg

• 10 - improvement in seconds of fastest time this year

• BUMMED - mood of Westmont coach after telling me we had a chance for 2nd or 3rd and I told him our team can run a 4:07.

• STAL Champions

boys 4*400

• 5 - PRs (all 4 runners PR'd, so obviously their total time was also a PR )

• 3:35.04 - fastest time we have had since i have been here (which is something i could say about 3 of the 4 relays)

• Team is made up of 3 Sophmores and 1 Junior.

If you just score the 4 Relay Events here were the point totals:

1) Live Oak 30

2) Sobrato 28

3) Independence 21

4) Westmont 18

5) Piedmont 14

6) Santa Teresa 10

7) Andrew Hill/Del Mar 0

I know we don't care about points but this goes to show the consistancy of the 4 teams.

MY favorite stat: We are probably the only team who's 4*100 is 4 completely different runners then our 4*400 (for the guys) For a small team that is some good depth.

Updated Top Marks List

I posted this list last week with all our top marks for each events going into this week. Well there were plenty of changes (notice all the STAL Finals now listed)
Girls
100: Courtney Robinson - 13.12 (STAL Finals)
200: Pauline Olsen - 26.93 (STAL Finals)
400: Pauline Olsen - 59.82 (STAL Finals)
800: Pauline Olsen - 2:27.93 (Westmont)
1600: Olivia Duran - 5:48 (Westmont)
3200: Olivia Duran - 12:20 (STAL Finals)
100h: Stephanie Armstrong - 17.68 (Quicksilver Invite)
300h: Stephanie Armstrong - 50.48 (STAL Prelims)
4*100: Erika-Courtney-Catherine-Lauren - 50.84 (STAL Finals)
4*400: Erika-Stephanie-Courtney-Pauline 4:09 (STAL Finals)
LJ: Lauren Drewniany - 31'7"(Avis Kelley)
TJ: Lauren Drewniany - 15'10.25" (Andrew Hill)
HJ: Stephanie Armstrong - 5'2" (St. Francis)
SP: Nikki Dronek - 25'10.5" (Piedmont Hills)
DT: Nikki Dronek - 85'0.5" (Westmont)

Boys
100:Billy Van Aken 11.33 (STAL Finals)
200:Greg White - 23.67(STAL Finals)
400: Jacob Montoya - 52.53 (STAL Finals)
800: Artie Valencia - 2:10 (STAL Finals)
1600: Adam Groen - 5:05 (STAL Finals)
3200: Adam Groen - 11:25 (Andrew Hill)
110h: Dominic Leach - 18.75 (STAL Finals)
300h:Dominic Leach - 47.24 (Santa Teresa)
4*100: Jeff-Greg-Billy-James 44.18 (STAL Finals)
4*400: Viz-Tolson-Daw-Montoya 3:35.04 (STAL Finals)
LJ: Greg White - 20'6" (STAL Finals)
TJ: Greg White- 41'4" (Piedmont Hills)
HJ: Jacob Daw - 5'10" (Santa Teresa)
SP: Mason Lammers - 40'11.5" (STAL Finals)
DT: Mason Lammers - 121'8" (STAL Finals)
PV: Eric Tolson 10'0" (Santa Teresa)

Patience

Track and field is all about trying to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. Which makes it seem almost counter intuitive that patience is one of the greatest qualities a track athlete can have.

Not to go off too much about our society, (that's not what this post is about) but we have so much information out there in the world today and things to do and people to connect with that if something doesn't keep your interest you have plenty of alternatives to which you can put your attention into. The idea of ADD (attention deficit disorder) didn't really exist 30 years ago. I think it is also a bit of a misnomer I think it is more of an attention abundance disorder there are SO MANY things competeing that if something doesn't show results quick we move on. I think there are positives and negatives to this. I will stop there because I could go off all day on this.

Back to my point. In other sports your performance throughout the season dictates how well you will do at the end. In baseball/football/basketball etc.. this constant pressure to perform fits in perfectly with our society. We just need to focus on winning this week. We can break the season into 12 individual single servings. It is alot easier to keep their attention.

Track on the other hand is a different animal altogether, we could lose all our dual meets 144-0 and at the end of the year our athletes are just as likely to advance as a team that won all their dual meets. Imagine trying to keep someone motivated in February with the promise that it will be worth it in 3 months from now.

At Live Oak we take it a step further because we put absolutely no emphasis on the dual meets and sometimes would train right through them. We use the phrase 'champions in May not March'. Now sure we have PRs throughout the year but until we get to May those are based more on just improvements in technique, understanding of an event, becoming more energy efficient. (That's the reason freshmen and sophomores get way more PRs then juniors or seniors)

Just to single out one person, Courtney worked as hard as anyone this year but had not had any PRs because it would be too much to ask her to hit the times she hit in previous years that early in the season. It is so easy to get discouraged when you feel your results aren't keeping up with your effort. It is so easy to be discouraged or to give a little less effort. As a junior, it completely dicouraged her because she figured she would just pick up where she left off sophmore year. Thats where the problem occurs going into a season knowing you probably won't be able to PR until May when we give you fresh legs. This year she was patient and kept working hard and ran her fastest 100 ever (beat her sophmore year PR).

Well I am sure this post is now testing your patience, there is plenty of other things to read on the web. Just wanted it was really great to see all the good performances of the last 2 days. Now is our time to reap the rewards of our work and it needs to last another 11 months because next March when you are deciding (subconsciously) whether you are going to go all out or just 90% on that last rep up the hill. These next few weeks need to have made a big enough impression that you understand the importance of your choice.

STAL Finals

People advancing to BVALS

(4 Events)

Courtney in the 100, 200, 4*100, 4*400

Erika in the 100, 200, 4*100, 4*400

(3 Events)

Lauren in the TJ, LJ, 4*100

Pauline in the 200, 400, 4*400

Stephanie in the 300h, HJ, 4*400

(2 Events)

Greg in the LJ. 4*100
Jeff in the LJ, 4*100
Mason in the DT and SP

Jacob Daw in the 400 and 4*400

Jacob Montoya in the 400 and 4*400

Billy in the 4*100 and 100

(1 Event)
Catherine in the 4*100

Artie in the 800
Leach in the HJ

Olivia in the 3200

Viz in the 4*400

Eric in the 4*400
James in the 4*100

PR Count

In the PR department we had 38 PRs over the course of the 2 day meet. This brings us to 199 PRs, the first PR at BVAL will be our 200^th.

STAL Champions

Erika-Courtney-Catherine-Lauren (4*100)

Stephanie Armstrong – HJ

Pauline Olsen – 400

Stephanie–Erika-Courtney-Pauline (4*400)

STAL Meet by the numbers:

60 - Events Competed in

38 - PRs

35 - Qualifiers by 17 differnt athletes

30 - Combined Points in the 4 relays (highest total among any school)

29 - Age of girls 4*100 record that was tied today (thats older than me!)

As for my goal at the beginning of the day (80% of our team either PRs or Qualifies)

27 - Events competed in today

21 - PR'd or Qualified (78% - Hard to be upset with that)

12 - Number who PR'd AND qualified

When I get the results I will post them on the site. Really proud of you all. Sometimes it is easy to achieve something and instantly start thinking of next year, next month, next week. I encourage you all to enjoy what happened today before focusing onto next week. See you all tomorrow. - Coach Mike

STAL Finals Today!

Goal for today:

80% of the people competing today fall into one of the 2 catagories

(a) PR

(b) Qualify for bval

Just do one or the other. (Both is fine, in fact some of you will need to do (a) to do (b) haha)

See you at Westmont!

Photos

Couple more notes about photos... Steve has been kicking butt this year, I got an error notice that my 2009 folder was filled (I guess you can only put 500 photos in a folder)

So if you go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163

You will see my photo albums

2009 - Has all the pics from the regular season (~500)

STAL Prelims - Has the pics from Tuesday

and I will just add folders for each specific meet from here on out.


Also that website sportswurlz was at the meet yesterday and took plenty of pictures so you can scan through those if you would like.

http://www.sportswurlz.com/home2.html


See you all tomorrow!

Well we are off to a good start

People advancing to BVALS

Mason in the DT
Lauren in the TJ
Greg in the LJ
Jeff in the LJ
Leach in the HJ (as far as I know)
Olivia in the 3200

All other events were prelims so we will have to wait until Thursday. However, the following people hit at large marks so they automatically advance regardless of what they run Thursday:

Erika in the 200
Pauline in the 200
Pauline in the 400

PR Count

In the PR department we had 16 PRs today and hopefully in the finals we will have at least 16 more. Our total for the season is up to 177. 23 more to go.

STAL Finalists for Thursday

Stephanie qualified in the 100h and 300h
Pauline qualified in the 200 and the 400
Erika qualified in the 100 and 200
Courtney qualified in the 100 and 200
Billy in the 100
Jacob Daw qualified in the 400
Jacob Montoya qualified in the 400

Other Competitors for Thursday
Stephanie in the HJ
Lauren in the LJ
Greg in the TJ
Mason and Alberto in the Shot Put
Nikki in the Discus
Olivia and Chelsie in the 1600
Trevor in the 3200
Alex and Adam in the 1600
Artie in the 800
All 4 relay teams
Pauline in the 800


See you guys tomorrow, picture day at 3:15pm

The day is here...

...although 'day' may be a bit of an exageration. What is up with this rain?

Anyways, I couldn't sleep last night I was so excited about this meet. I'm not even competing. Again this is what running the hill, lifting weights, 500 BDs and the like are for so we can get a peak performance in May. Well the time is now.

We never cancelled practice because of the rain (Well Mark did last week I guess, one time I put him in charge he cancels practice haha) Seriously though this is why we still ran even when it was raining. Whatever the conditions today, it won't matter because I can't imagine they will be worse then some of our practices.

Reminders:
Bus Leaves at 1:20 Today and Thursday
Picture Day tomorrow at 3:15pm

PRs

Hey all -

Just one more thing. When coming up with a goal a good rule of thumb is to pick something you think there is a 50% chance of happening. If Laurens goal is just to land in the pit in the Long jump there is a 99.99% chance of that happening so when she does achieve that goal, she can't really get any excitement from it. As that percentage goes down the benefits you recieve from achieving it go up. So does this mean pick super hard goals? NO. If she said her goal is to jump 20 feet, she would be on cloud 9 if she did it but it is not very likely to happen so setting super hard goals isn't great either. Hence the 50% chance. Make your goals a coin flip.

Anyways, at the begining of the season it looked like we were going to have 50 kids on the team, after grades, discipline, other sports issues came through we were down to ~32 (20 guys and 12 girls)

When I set our goal of 200 PRs, I figured 50 kids * 4 PRs each = 200. I figured this would be something that we had a 50% chance of hitting. As it stands now 32 kids would need to average 6 PRs each to reach that goal. Now I could have changed our goal to 32*4 = 128 PRs. However, I don't like changing goals once they are set. (although there is nothing wrong with adjusting goals)

Well since we just got 32 PRs in our last dual meet, this brings us up to 161 (39 away) with the taper coming up we have a legitimate change to reach our goal. This is something you all should be very proud of (now i know we haven't reached it yet, but the fact that it is in range goes to show the work that has been put into this season.) Let's finish what we started. -Coach Mike

Photos

Hey All: Here is my folder with all the pictures taken from 2009. I know Coach Armstrong has taken some too, but still needs to figure out how to use Picasa before I can post those, haha.

Scroll to the bottom to see the pictures from Piedmont Hills this past week. Big thanks to Steve again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/msullivan.kin163/2009#

There are 448 photos in total from this season, with more to come I am sure.

Top Marks 2009

Now that the regular Season is done, here are the top Marks of 2009 on the Live Oak Track Team


Girls
100: Courtney Robinson - 13.34 (Del Mar)
200: Pauline Olsen - 27.15 (Quicksilver Invite)
400: Pauline Olsen - 59.82 (Quicksilver Invite)
800: Pauline Olsen - 2:27.93 (Westmont)
1600: Olivia Duran - 5:48 (Westmont)
3200: Olivia Duran - 12:20 (Willow Glen)
100h: Stephanie Armstrong - 17.68 (Quicksilver Invite)
300h: Stephanie Armstrong - 52.10 (Quicksilver Invite)
4*100: Erika-Courtney-Catherine-Lauren - 51.74 (Santa Teresa)
4*400: Erika-Stephanie-Courtney-Pauline 4:18 (Santa Teresa)
LJ: Lauren Drewniany - 31'7"(Avis Kelley)
TJ: Lauren Drewniany - 15'10.25" (Andrew Hill)
HJ: Stephanie Armstrong - 5'2" (St. Francis)
SP: Nikki Dronek - 25'10.5" (Piedmont Hills)
DT: Nikki Dronek - 85'0.5" (Westmont)


Boys
100:Billy Van Aken 11.58 (Westmont)
200:Greg White - 23.73(Westmont)
400: Jacob Montoya - 52.91 (Avis Kelley)
800: Artie Valencia - 2:11 (Piedmont Hills)
1600: Adam Groen - 5:06 (Santa Teresa)
3200: Adam Groen - 11:25 (Andrew Hill)
110h: Dominic Leach - 18.64 (Piedmont Hills)
300h:Dominic Leach - 47.24 (Santa Teresa)
4*100: Jeff-Greg-Billy-James 44.14 (Piedmont Hills)
4*400: Viz-Tolson-Daw-Montoya 3:38.04 (Piedmont Hills)
LJ: Greg White - 20'6" (Santa Teresa)
TJ: Greg White- 41'4" (Piedmont Hills)
HJ: Jacob Daw - 5'10" (Santa Teresa)
SP: Mason Lammers - 37'3" (Quicksilver Invite)
DT: Mason Lammers - 118' (Piedmont Hills)
PV: Eric Tolson 10'0" (Santa Teresa)

The stalking of Jordan Hasay

Been meaning to post this earlier. SO last week at the alisal invite Jordan Hasay was set to compete.

Jordan Hasay is the best prep 2 miler in the country she ran a sub 10min 2 mile last year and is the defending state champion. She will be compteting for Oregon next year on a full scholarship. Last year at the olympic trials she upset a lot of more experienced runners to make the final in the 1500 as a Junior in High school.

Anyways, me and Mark were wondering if Jordan Hasay was going to show up since the meet was so cold and windy and not very well run (as aI posted about last week). I made the joke that she was going to fly in on a helicopter right before her event started. Well pretty soon a helicopter start flying around and we joked that oh Jordan Hasay is about to land. Well the helicopter flew behind the back of the school and I looked over and Jordan Hasay was walking over from behind the school.

So Jordan Hasay enters the track area and heads straight to the bathroom. Lauren says she will go to the bathroom too to ask about the helicopter to see if it was true or not. As Lauren is walking down there JH walks out and joins her team. Lauren didn't see this so enters the bathroom anyway and then comes back saying I couldn't find her I looked under the bathroom stalls and spent an extra long time washing my hands.

Anyways after JH runs her 800 and Jacob gets a paper signed for Mark, a shoe signed for Lauren and a shoe signed for himself. Then Lauren and Jacob get this picture taken of them with JH in the background.

Then when JH is leaving LD and JM follow her to see if she is getting on a helicopter or not. This included running through bushes and hopping fences:

Like I said before this was a boring meet so it was fun seeing them run around on the case of Jordans Helicopter. The best part was Lauren kept asking "What's her name again?"

So did she actually show up in a helicopter, no. But it was definitely a pretty strong coincidence so for stroy's sake JH had a helicopter.

Santa Teresa Division Finals Info

INFO:

What: Santa Teresa Division Finals

When: Tuesday May 5th & Thursday May 7th

Where: Westmont High School

etc... They charge admission both days, it is $5 dollars for adults.


Time Schedule for Tuesday:

Running Events
3:30pm - 100 Meter Hurdles (Stephanie)
3:45pm - 110 Meter Hurdles (Matt)
4:00pm - 400 Meters Girls (Pauline)
4:10pm - 400 Meters Boys (Kenny, Jacob D, Jacob M)
4:20pm - 100 Meters Girls (Erika, Courtney, Catherine)
4:28pm - 100 Meters Boys (James, Billy, Eric )
4:35pm - 3200 Meters (Girls Final) (Olivia, Chelsie)
4:55pm - 300 Meter Hurdles Girls (Liz, Stephanie )
5:05pm - 300 Meter Hurdles Boys (Dominic )
5:15pm - 200 Meters Girls (Erika, Courtney, Pauline)
5:30pm - 200 Meters Boys (Eric, Jacob M, Greg)

Field Events (All Field Events are FINALS)
3:00pm - Girls Pole Vault
3:00pm - Boys High Jump (Dominic, Jacob D)
4:00pm - Boys Discus (Mason, Alberto)
4:00pm - Girls Shot Put (Nikki, Lexie )
4:00pm - Girls Triple Jump (Lauren)
4:00pm - Boys Long Jump (Kenny, Greg, Jeff)

Time schedule for Thursday:

Running Events
3:30pm - 4 x 100 Relays
3:50pm - 1600 Meter (Trevor, Adam, Alex) (Olivia, Chelsie)
4:10pm - 100 Meter Hurdles
4:25pm - 110 Meter Hurdles
4:40pm - 400 Meters
5:00pm - 100 Meters
5:15pm - 800 Meters (Artie, Alex) (Pauline)
5:35pm - 300 Meter Hurdles
5:55pm - 200 Meters
6:15pm - 3200 Meters (Boys) (Trevor, Adam)
6:35pm - 4 x 400 Relays

Field Events
3:00pm - Boys Pole Vault
3:00pm - Girls High Jump (Stephanie)
4:00pm - Girls Discus (Nikki, Lexie)
4:00pm - Boys Shot Put (Mason, Alberto)
4:00pm - Girls Long Jump (Lauren)
4:00pm - Boys Triple Jump (Greg)

The top 5 advance, however if you get 6th place or worse and still hit one of these at large marks you will advance.

http://www.bval.org/forms/09_BVAL_qual_standards.pdf

Post Season 2009 Guide

Hey All just wanted to post all the information for the Postseason 2009

Week 1: Santa Teresa Divsion Finals (May 5th & 7th)

Where: Westmont High School

We will compete against: Santa Teresa, Piedmont Hills, Westmont, Sobrato, Independence, Andrew Hill and Del Mar.

On Tuesday there will be the prelims, where every event will be cut down to 8 competitors and then on Thursday we will have the finals of each event. The field events will have prelims and finals on the same day and the girls 3200 meters will be Tuesday.

In the finals the top 5 athletes advance to the BVAL Championships (also if you hit an at-large mark you will also advance even if you get 6th)

Week 2: BVAL Championships (May 14th)

Where: Mt Pleasant High School

We will compete against all 24 BVAL school. The Mt Hamilton Division will send 7 athletes, the Santa Teresa Division (us) will send 5 athletes and the West Valley will send 4 athletes.

On Thursday May 14th, we will have the BVAL Championships at Mt. Pleasant High School. 16 atheltes will be in each event (7+5+4) and the top 8 will advance to CCS Semifinals.

Week 3: CCS Semifinals (May 23rd)

Where: Gilroy High School

We will compete against all school in the CCS.

At this meet we will compete against all schools in the CCS (~130) in most events only the top 8 will adavance to the CCS Finals.

Week 4: CCS Finals (May 29th)

Where: Gilroy High School

This is our last CCS Meet of the year. Those who finish in the top 6 are considered all CCS (Pauline and Stephanie finished here last year in the 400 and HJ respectively) Those who finish in the top 3 will advance to the state meet.

Week 5: State Meet (June 5th & 6th)

Where: Fresno, California

We will compete against every high school in the state of california. Each section gets 3 entries (+ at large marks) there are 9 sections so that makes 27 entries in each event for prelims which take place on Friday June 5th. The top 8 Advance to finals on Saturday June 6th. If you finish in the top 6 you are an all state competitor.