Track coaches dealt another curveball
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PARKERSBURG -- Track and field coaches were thrown a curveball this week by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission.
Bernie Dolan, the executive director, confirmed the organization will stick to their arbitrary limit of 250 athletic participants in any session of a track meet.
"All states have different precautions, 250 will accommodate at least a quad of boys and girls or eight teams of a single gender," he noted.
"If the conditions continue to improve we will revisit it, just like we did in cross country."
Unfortunately for area track coaches, that doesn't exactly help them with their current issues.
"I'm working on a schedule for a third time and I still don't have it done," lamented Parkersburg High School head boys coach Rod O'Donnell.
"They told us it's 250 the maximum number of people. How are you going to have a track meet with 250 kids?"
The WVSSAC current criteria also means the Big Reds can't compete in Ohio at two larger invitationals.
"In Virginia two weeks ago at an indoor track meet they had 122 girls and 172 boys in just the 1600 run," O'Donnell added. "These states are running indoor track, people are having unbelievable numbers and we are going to be limited to 250 kids per meet. My biggest thing is these meet directors don't know what to do.
"I think I have two or three meets scheduled. I don't have my whole schedule done. That means buses, officials, travel, there's a huge amount of work that goes into a schedule after you schedule the meet, but if you don't know where you are going you can't do any of that. Time is ticking."
Zach Hall, who was obviously disappointed his Williamstown girls never had a chance to repeat as Class A state champs in 2020, was perplexed about the 250 number as well.
"That was a surprise to us," said the Yellowjacket boss. "I don't think they know how many usually are at a track meet, 250 is better than zero.
"At least we are having a season. That's all I'm thinking. I don't think they know 250 is not that many for a track meet."
Hall is also concerned with how the season might play out.
"I think the numbers will be down throughout the state because they pushed it back so much," he said. "Hopefully not though.
"Hopefully the kids will come out. We shall see. This year's team is going to be good too, but last year's would've been nasty."
Hall said he recently talked with Ritchie County boys coach Rick Haught. Of note, the 2019 Ritchie County/Pizza House Invitational had more than 500 athletes competing.
"I don't know yet what I'm going to do," Haught admitted. "It's like anything else with COVID, you can't really make decisions because you don't really know what you are going to be confronted with.
"I will probably limit off the bat to two to each event. That will cut down on the team size some. I don't know what size everybody's team will be this year. I don't know how to determine right now how many teams can come."
Although Haught has a list of committed teams ready to participate, the WVSSAC limit of 250 is causing issues.
"It becomes so hard for coaches to maneuver through it because you don't know what to do," Haught added. "You know schools need to get meets.
"There will be some schools left scurrying not finding enough meets to get into because it will be hard for some schools to fill out their schedule."
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com