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Netters:
From
the viewpoint of one who ran HS age JO programs for some 20 years, I have to
sharply disagree with the recent post that termed them unnecessary.
I
could give severl reasons for this, but the most important one is making sure
that HS athletes have a chance tp compete under the international rule book
instead of the ridiculous HS book with its countless ways of disqualifying
youngsters for no good reason.
The
combination of stupid rules and too many officials who think the main job of a
track official is to disqualify someone has turned off no one knows how many
athletes from our sport. The principal job of a track official is to run a meet
efficiently and give everyone a fair chance to do his/her best Any official who
thinks itehrwise should do us all a big favor and get out of the
sport.
But
there are, as I said other reasons. While many HS athletes have a very full
season by June and can stand a rest, there are others who do not. The JO meets
give them a chance to compete in a relaxed atmosphere at the event of their
choosing, not one (or more) they may have been forcved to handle during the HS
season.
Then
there are the JO events which the HS program may not have. We developed more
than a few triple jumpers here in NJ from districts in the state (the great
majority) which do not have the event. Two of note, both of whom became
50-footers in college, were Mark henry and Marcus Hickerson. I can still recall
the day Marcus first tried the event with coaches from Paramus Catholic (which
is a Bergen County school where the event flourishes) helping him to learn how.
More recently, we have Rephel Martin of Dover who was lucky enough to have a
coach (Wayne Valentine) who still deeply involved in the AAU JO
program.
Building a HS age JO program is not easy, but it can be done. As I have already
noted, the key is to get to the HS athletes with information at their meets
during the spring season. And there are always some HS coaches who will tune
into the program. In my experience, most HS age JO athletes had their coacvhes
present even when our state association was making all kinds of threats to
punishment them for maintaining contact witrh their athletes out of
season.
The
all-around situation is also a reason. Almost no HS programs include the
pentathlon, heptathlon or decathlon as a reagular event. I ran such meets for
more than 25 years and, inaddition to developing some real talent, these
programs also were popular :just for the fun of it."
ED Grant .
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