2012 HL Track Conference

valporun · May 07, 2012, 11:14:39 AM

In negated track action this weekend, for the first time in our five years in the HL, the men's team finished higher than 7th. The men took 5th, with sophomore Julian Smith qualifying for the NCAA regional meet in two events, as he earned HL championships in the 100 and 200 meters. This kid is impressive for someone going to a school with NO home track to train on. Just as impressive, the men's track team BEAT BUTLER!! Mind you, Butler isn't as dominant on the track as they are in cross country.

The women's team finished 8th. I don't know what the issue is with recruiting for the women's team, but we're young and only have distance runners and throwers. We can get a couple field eventers, but NO sprinters. You can't be competitive with just young distance runners and throwers.

Seeing some of this success should help the program secure funds for the new track, but another thing is that we just need to get the new track put in anyway, and the program will grow based on that result too. An example of this working is a local private high school in the same conference as the one I ran in never had a track, then in about 2003 they put in a track, and the program has grown in numbers and productivity in the athletes' progress towards winning events at the conference meet and even getting to the state meet. Sometimes, "if you build it, they will come" does work, it's only a matter of getting it done, instead of sitting on it waiting for people to jump to make it happen. I know VU athletics doesn't want to take on the debt that would come with building a track and dealing with a bank loan to build it, but having the track there already, it would get paid off just as easier as it would waiting for a conglomerate of donors to pool money to make it happen.

VULB#62 · May 07, 2012, 11:30:50 AM

I'm with ya Valporun.

vu72 · May 07, 2012, 11:41:01 AM

I agree completely run. The impressive thing I noticed is that people like Smith and his teammate who finished second, is that they are a sophomore and freshman respectively. Looking at the people who scored points, they are almost all freshman and sophomores.

As for the "build it and they will come" theory, I guess I agree although the exact opposite has happened in tennis. We spent a bunch on a first class tennis venue only to finshed dead last in both men's and women's with a combined conference record of 0-15. What's up with that??

Valpo89 · May 07, 2012, 02:38:18 PM

My 16-year-old son is a sophomore at VHS who is a good runner (track and cross country). He sat next to a VU runner at a movie the other night, and my son's 1,600 PR is already better than the VU kid. Anyway, VHS put in a new $900,000 track surface last summer. It's great and my son loves it.
He is an excellent student and happens to love going to VU basketball games. He would probably like to attend VU (other than the fact that he should probably get the experience of leaving town), but there's no way I would want him to attend the school if there is no track.

VULB#62 · May 07, 2012, 03:23:46 PM

Gee, maybe VU could rent time on the VHS track? :bang head:

Is the VHS FB stadium better too? Just wondering.

vu72 · May 07, 2012, 03:53:05 PM

Not sure but I think the VU track team does work out over there.

valporun · May 07, 2012, 04:35:40 PM

The track team does do track workouts at VHS. We've also done them at Ben Franklin Middle, Thomas Jefferson (before it became an oval parking lot), Washington and Morgan Townships. Yes, there were points when we had no other option than to go to Eastgate, but for the most part, that space as been avoided like the plague.

In terms of the tennis teams and their new courts, I'm sure a lot of that has to do with not really having any scholarships to give out to scholarship-quality tennis players.

The outdoor track could also be used by all the athletic teams for training purposes. Baseball and softball could use it in the fall to do some sprint work, basketball could use it for fitness checkups, and the various non-track/cross country teams could use it if needed in their offseasons, as long as it doesn't conflict with track team needs. As I've also said in previous posts, the athletic department could host high school and college invitationals on the track all spring, and make money from it.

About the years of our scoring members on the team, without a track, many of the juniors and seniors that Coach Moore would like to keep won't stay with the team because they don't have a real track to train on, and with their classes and lack of transportation for everyone to get to the tracks at the local schools, we're stuck with a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the roster because they just haven't quite reached that level where all of a sudden the classes do get extremely important because they have something to do with the individual major, and track won't always be something they want to do, if they aren't at NCAA championship level or Olympic bid level.

VULB#62 · May 07, 2012, 05:33:19 PM

I can't help but think back to my era when the cinder track surrounded the FB field and baseball games had to be stopped because a mile race was being run in a dual meet (yes VU hosted meets!). But despite that and all the bitchin we did, we still won an ICC league championship (vs. the likes of Ball State and ISU among others). There's just so much to be said for your own home practice and competition facility.

bbtds · May 07, 2012, 06:06:55 PM

Quote from: valporun on May 07, 2012, 11:14:39 AMI don't know what the issue is with recruiting for the women's team

No track. Pretty simple.

Valpo89 · May 07, 2012, 06:23:27 PM

Quote from: VULB#62 on May 07, 2012, 03:23:46 PM
Gee, maybe VU could rent time on the VHS track? :bang head:

Is the VHS FB stadium better too? Just wondering.

Yes, the Valpo High football "stadium" is better than VU's.
Both have the field turf, but the high school's is much softer. The home side bleachers are close to twice the size of the university, and so are the visiting side bleachers.
The home bleachers have rest rooms and a concession stand directly underneath (new in the last 6-7 years), and there is still a concession stand and rest rooms at the "cleat house" on the south end of the football field.
And then there's the beautiful new rubberized-surface track that was just installed last summer.

Valporun, the BF track has been revamped since your running days and it is of much higher quality. Unfortunately, the TJ track is still the large oval with the stones around the edge that little kids like to throw out onto the track.

VULB#62 · May 07, 2012, 07:14:24 PM

Quote from: Valpo89 on May 07, 2012, 06:23:27 PM
Quote from: VULB#62 on May 07, 2012, 03:23:46 PM
Gee, maybe VU could rent time on the VHS track? :bang head:

Is the VHS FB stadium better too? Just wondering.
Yes, the Valpo High football "stadium" is better than VU's.
Both have the field turf, but the high school's is much softer. The home side bleachers are close to twice the size of the university, and so are the visiting side bleachers.
The home bleachers have rest rooms and a concession stand directly underneath (new in the last 6-7 years), and there is still a concession stand and rest rooms at the "cleat house" on the south end of the football field.
And then there's the beautiful new rubberized-surface track that was just installed last summer.

Valporun, the BF track has been revamped since your running days and it is of much higher quality. Unfortunately, the TJ track is still the large oval with the stones around the edge that little kids like to throw out onto the track.

My only flipping reaction:

At this rate VU can't even recruit a home town athlete. Jeez!!!

VULB#62 · May 07, 2012, 07:18:12 PM

Can the university rent the VHS stadium for it's games?

vu72 · May 07, 2012, 07:54:01 PM

Amazing what taxpayer dollars can generate!

valporun · May 07, 2012, 09:15:54 PM

Quote from: vu72 on May 07, 2012, 07:54:01 PM
Amazing what taxpayer dollars can generate!

Did taxpayers fund this for VHS, or was it a fundraising group of boosters within their athletic department? Remember, field turf for high schools supports football and boys and girls soccer a lot more than it does VU and other colleges.

VULB#62 · May 08, 2012, 07:37:26 AM

Went to Google Maps and checked out the satellite shot of the VHS athletic complex. That stadium definitely is nicer and bigger. Oh, well.

Valpo89 · May 08, 2012, 11:54:26 AM

Quote from: valporun on May 07, 2012, 09:15:54 PM
Quote from: vu72 on May 07, 2012, 07:54:01 PM
Amazing what taxpayer dollars can generate!

Did taxpayers fund this for VHS, or was it a fundraising group of boosters within their athletic department? Remember, field turf for high schools supports football and boys and girls soccer a lot more than it does VU and other colleges.

The turf field, I believe, was paid for by athletic dollars only. Booster money, yes. There are some high rollers in town (I'm certainly not one of them) who want their kids to have the best. But the VHS complex does not rank among the best in the Duneland Conference. Of the eight schools in the league, six of them now have field turf. As far as an actual "stadium", Merrillville and Chesterton would have to rank 1-2 with, believe it or not, Michigan City (revamped Ames Field is beautiful) and Crown Point next followed by Valpo and Portage. LaPorte still has a grass field and 6 lane track with old, concrete bleachers on the home side. Lake Central has a terrible grass field that floods, small home-side stands and a press box from the 1970s - and LC is the largest school in the conference.
Where would I rank the VU football field among those schools? Probably 7th after Valpo and Portage. So if you're a kid who has played at Chesterton or Merrillville (VU has had a few of them recently), you're definitely taking a step down as far as facilities.
Sorry, this is supposed to be about tracks. Valpo and Crown Point have the best tracks in the DAC. Portage needs to resurface. But THE best track in NWI might be at Hobart's new "Brickyard."

VULB#62 · May 09, 2012, 02:57:12 AM

For those of you interested in continuing this facilities discussion, you might want to go over to the basketball forum. So as not to duplicate strings, I posted three conceptual plans for an Athletic Campus, including a completion of the Brown Field track and a new home grandstand integrated with a Field House that has as its core a 200 meter indoor track. You can find it on the "Facilities" string. They are just ideas, but check them out.