Bad track cancels Alabama indoor state meet

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http://www.al.com/sports/press-register ... xml&coll=3

Bad track cancels state meet
Monday, February 04, 2008
By ARTHUR L. MACK
Sports Correspondent
For almost five decades, high school track and field athletes throughout the state looked forward to the first weekend in February. It was time for the Alabama State Indoor Track and Field Championships.

This year, however, it was just another date on the calendar for an estimated 2,000 track and field athletes in Alabama. The event was canceled for 2008.

Concerns regarding the safety of the track surface at Celebration Arena in Priceville, where the event has been held the last several years, caused the Alabama High School Athletic Association to pull the plug on this year's meet. The arena, known as "The Barn" by prep track and field athletes, was also used for horse shows and featured a wooden track.

The AHSAA could not locate another site for the event, but the association is working toward resuming the meet in 2009, executive director Steve Savarese said.

"We're looking to having it in a permanent facility," Savarese said. "We had to postpone the meet this year until another facility can be found. We think we have a facility in place, but I won't be able to comment any further until we get a written agreement."

In the meantime, track and field athletes around the state have to wait until the spring to lace up their running shoes.

"I know the state is doing everything that it can to find a solution, but meanwhile, there are 2,000 kids who are out of a sport," said Mountain Brook track coach Greg Echols, who also served as the indoor state meet director.

St. Paul's track coach Jim Tate questioned why the meet couldn't have continued until a new facility was found.

"The tragedy is that the ones that are hurt by all of this are the kids," Tate said. "We've done well for 41 years and now it's gone. A few years ago, there was some concern that the track was unsafe, but year by year, there were improvements made. Last year, the rumors increased about it not being a safe venue. My thing is, let's work on it (getting another venue), but why take it away while we're working on it?"

Savarese said, however, that the track wasn't in any condition to host a meet.

"We sent one of our staff members up to Priceville to take a look at the track, and he said it was still not up to standards," he said. "The association is committed to finding a new track, but we also need a place where it can be set up and stored."

"With the indoor season being five weeks long, we needed somewhere we could have the track set up over a three- to five-week time frame and wanted two or three meets. Nobody acted until we had a crisis."

The AHSAA's Central Board decided in 2006 to call off the meet unless a quality facility could be found. Several cities, including Mobile, made efforts to host the meet, but none could provide adequate facilities for the time frame required by the AHSAA.

Although there was space in the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center in Mobile, a conflict with several other events -- including Mardi Gras and the Senior Bowl -- prevented the track from being housed there on a continuous basis.

"We tried to find a suitable facility," said Bud Ratliff of the Mobile Bay Sports Authority. "The Convention Center had enough square footage, but with all the other events going on, there were not enough dates available. We thought there was an old airplane hangar available at Brookley, but there was not. We even looked at the old QMS facility (off Schillinger Road), but it had too many columns inside to set up the track."

Steve Schoenewald, who was part of the effort to get the meet to Mobile, said the city could have hosted the state championship meet itself, however.

"The AHSAA wanted to lay it (the track) down for six weeks, but not in the same situation as in Priceville," he said. "We had a place to store the track and dates for two meets. We could have bought the track for $500, and the only issue would have been shipping and labor. Compare that to the economic impact we would have had on this city -- anywhere from $2 million to $5 million -- this city would have had if the meet could have been held here."

After much discussion, however, the plan failed to get solid backing and fell through.

"We couldn't get funding to get the track because the state wanted a brand new one," Schoenewald said. "Nobody got seriously hurt on the old track, and the people in Priceville were going to try and get that track fixed. Even one meet would have been better than none."

Even the outdoor track season will be affected by the lack of an indoor meet. With an official indoor season, coaches were able to train athletes on a daily basis in the winter -- especially important in technical events such as the throws, jumps, hurdles and vaults. Now, that opportunity is lost. Coaches could not have contact with their athletes until practice for the official outdoor season started on Jan. 25. The first meets are Feb. 15.

"Going into the outdoor season with only three weeks of practice (for technical events), that is pretty dangerous," Echols said. "Basically, some of our kids, especially sprinters, hurdlers, and field event people, have lost eight weeks of training."