... And of course me and this blog would probably be one of the few to mention that. Hahaha. I am sure it is no big secret about all the snow we got the other week (and depending upon where you live in the Mid-Atlantic or New England regional areas of the United States of America, you are still getting the snow). Where I live around the Baltimore area of Maryland, we have reached some record-breaking snowfall accumulations with the snow that began on Friday, February 5 and continued onward to like maybe late Saturday February 6. I got snowed in at my parents' house in Howard County, MD, where we got like 33.8 inches, which I think is more snow than I had seen in my life. Then, just when we were able to begin to shovel ourselves out, more snow came on Tuesday, February 9 through Wednesday, February 10. As a result, I was out of work for over a week since I work a coupla jobs as a teachers' aide in the Howard County Public School System.
It was nice to spend a week with my parents (and we were joined by my younger brother just before the second snow storm hit) and get some nice family time in of watching movies and playing games. I know some people had it much much rougher than we, and I hope that if that is you, that you are feeling better. I appreciated the downtime, I did not even mind too much shoveling the snow, and it was great that my parents had a treadmill that I could run on. I typically find running on them a bit uncomfortable and monotonous at times, yet I was grateful to at least have something to run on.
This "second winter break" from school reminded me of the Blizzard of '96, which occurred in the winter of 1996 when I was a sixth grader. Just like this recent snow, the Blizzard of '96 probably occurred right around the same time all this snow did, and it closed schools in Howard County's Public School System for at least a week, giving us a "second winter break" in that this happened after the typical winter break that includes Christmas and New Year's. I was at the same place as I was during the Blizzard of '96; my parents' house. Except this time, instead of playing videogames, sledding and building snow forts, I occupied myself by doing things on the internet, watching t.v., talking on the phone with friends (especially Kay), doing a little homework, and running on my parents' treadmill. Amazing how much I have grown in fourteen years thereabouts, haha!
One other thing that was great for me personally was to look at closings throughout the state of Maryland, and to see all the different counties mentioned and to think of how awesome God is to have helped me do something I really enjoy in each of those Maryland counties: Run races! it was something great to think about, even if Howard County Public Schools eventually had to open on their regularly scheduled time and I had to go back to work, haha!
The last race I ran was the Mighty Medford Freeway 5K Run in the Westminster area of Carroll County, MD on Sunday, January 10, 2010. I thought by now I would have done a little more than two races so far this year, but I am not at all disappointed. I realize going this long without doing a race can seem like quite a stretch for me, but I guess since I have some different priorities and that I am not quite in as strong of running shape as I was before, maybe I feel a little less inclined to do as many races. I know all this snow has canceled and postponed quite a few races throughout Maryland as well as the surrounding states. God-willing, I hope to do some more races once again around early-to-mid March (more on that later). Jeez, it could very well be over two months for me without doing a race depending on how things go, though I am not complaining.
All right, thank you all for stopping by and I hope you have a blessed evening :)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Forty-Fourth Super Bowl Championship :)
I think I just saw the best and most captivating Super Bowl that I have ever seen in Miami, Florida: Super Bowl XXXXIV: The Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. As usual, I was pulling for the underdogs, the New Orleans Saints. This was actually their first Super Bowl competition, and also, several years ago I am sure they were adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Needless to say, it was awesome to see a team who had gone through all that get to the Super Bowl by God's grace!
The Colts were up 10-0 for a little bit during the first part of the game, but then with a coupla field goal kicks, the Saints caught back up to the Colts, and then the lead changed between the two teams twice until at the end of the third quarter, the Colts were narrowly leading, 17-16. During those first few quarters, this player from the Saints made a successful field goal kick of around 50 yards, and set a record as a result for three kicks made that were outside of forty yards. To have seen a Super Bowl record made from someone on the underdog team (when they were trailing the Colts by several points after the Colts had regained the lead), it was truly inspiring to me and personally, I think that was just a little better than what happened in the fourth quarter.
Not long after the fourth quarter began, the Saints made a touch down, then after a challenge with the referees, barely made a two-point conversion. They had a 24-17 lead over the Colts at this point, and like a good portion of the game, myself and other gentlemen I was at a Super Bowl party with, watched in rapt attention for what would happen next in this close Super Bowl championship. Then, unexpectedly, one of the players on the Saints intercepted the ball while the Colts were on offense and made a great run for a clean touchdown, followed by a successful field goal kick that put the game at 31-17 with the underdog Saints making an incredible comeback (well in my opinion it was incredible; I am really not much of a televised sports buff). The New Orleans Saints went on to win, 31-17, even though the Indianapolis Colts had come close to scoring another touchdown towards the end of the fourth quarter. Both teams seemed to play really hard and I am grateful that God blessed the Saints with a win at their first Super Bowl. I think the New Orleans Saints simply making it to the Super Bowl despite the adversity they have faced that I touched on before earlier in this post, is an inspiring testimony of how God can work through and achieve mighty things from the more unlikely. I am not saying the New Orleans Saints are lousy in their abilities at all, I am just saying it seemed that the Colts were more favored in their chances of winning the Super Bowl this year. I even thought that. I am glad I was wrong!
So yes, I wanted to share my brief thoughts on this evening's Super Bowl Championship, and how inspiring it was to see how strong and professional both teams played. I think that was everything I want to see in a Super Bowl game: A nice competitive game where especially the underdogs play a great game (and that kicking record by that gentleman on the New Orleans Saints was a real highlight for me to see and just an awesome bonus :) Thank you all for stopping by, please stay warm and safe :)
Races I have done so far in 2010!
Friday, January 1, 2010 - 3rd Annual Southern Maryland Community Network Resolution Run 5K - Prince Frederick (Calvert County), MD - 9th overall (2nd in 20-29 male age group division) - 20:38 (clock), 20:34 (watch)
Sunday, January 10, 2010 - Mighty Medford Freeway 5K - Medford/Westminster (Carroll County), MD - 8th overall (20-29 male age group division winner) - 20:25
Please check out the events I did in 2009:
http://ranineverymdcounty.blogspot.com/2009/12/reflection-on-2009.html
Please check out the events I did in 2008:
http://ranineverymdcounty.blogspot.com/2008/12/
not-much-longer-until-2009.html
Please check out the events I did in 2007:
http://runineverymdcounty.blogspot.com/2007/09/
i-ran-in-running-event-in-all-of.html
Friday, February 5, 2010
Praxis II
Image from: http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.fab2360b1645a1de9b3a0779f1751509/?vgnextoid=48c05ee3d74f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&WT.ac=Praxis+Brochure+and+Front+Door
Hey there everyone, I have some excellent news. Those of you who know me and who have been following this blog know that I am trying to become a certified teacher. To be a certified public school teacher in Maryland, you are required to take pass some Praxis Exams. Over two years ago, God helped me pass Praxis I, and on Saturday, January 9, 2010, He helped me pass the Praxis II exam by over ten points! I am so happy, because that is one step closer towards earning teacher certification. I am not the best test-taker, and I have heard it said that the Praxis II is more challenging than the Praxis I (but I thought they were a little similar). I am relieved that God passed that exam for me!
Thank you all for stopping by, and I appreciate your prayers and support for me on my future endeavors. Take care and be well :)
On the apparent cutting of the Carroll County, Maryland Public Schools' Indoor Track & Field Program - My take (with a geographical spin)
I am sure that if you are an avid runner living around the Baltimore, Maryland area (such as I) or in the surrounding counties, you have probably caught wind of some news that I at least find unsettling: Due to budgetary concerns, Indoor Track & Field (which is a winter sport), could be getting cut from the athletics program(s) in the Carroll County Public School System. Carroll County is more rural and very hilly county moving out towards the western area of Maryland, neighboring Frederick and Howard Counties just to name a couple, and it is one of Maryland's counties that sits along the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line. Carroll County has about eight public high schools to my knowledge who have running programs. When I heard this was happening, pretty close to home, I was pretty startled.
I understand that there are probably sound reasons for doing this, but it is hard to sit and be aware that this is going. I understand that we are in economically difficult times, and as a result, many businesses and organizations (like public school systems) are on tighter budgets, which no doubt would lead them to have to make tough decisions about what to cut and what to keep. It would be nice if they did not do away with the indoor track program, though. I remember when I ran for Hammond High School in Howard County, Maryland, Carroll County was right next store and usually we would have about two meets of the season over in Carroll County, and then we would run against Carroll County teams more often at other meets. Then in indoor and outdoor track, we would see Carroll County's teams at various meets as well. Them taking this program away from Carroll County would be like taking away a part of my high school days, in that their schools were a part of our school's competition on a fairly regular basis in cross-country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field from regular season meets to championship-caliber meets.
I know this seems to just be targeting the Indoor Track & Field programs of Carroll County's Public School System, but my point is is that they have reputably had great running programs, programs that would help make names for their schools and bring those said schools some hardware in the form of trophies and rewards. Though, as you can tell by my previous posts, I know there is much more to running than the extrinsic lure of earning hardware for faring well in competitive running.
Anyway, let me take a break from my editorializing on this. I recently became aware of this when I was invited to the "Save Carroll County Indoor Track & Field" group on the Facebook.Com Part of me could not believe it, but then again, in light of current economic difficulties, it did not surprise me that a public school system would have to make such cuts to fiscally support itself (AND I AM NOT JUSTIFYING THIS, I AM JUST TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF IT THE WAY THE PROPONENTS OF CUTTING INDOOR TRACK SEE IT)! I have read a couple of articles over the internet on this subject, and I want to share links to a couple of them.
For a brief background article on the Carroll County Public School System's ideas about this, I found on this Facebook group, please check out this below statement:
Category: Public School Athletics
Region: United States of America
Target: Carroll County Public Schools Board of Education and Carroll County Maryland Board of Commissioners
Background (Preamble):
On January 13, 2010 the CCPS Superintendent presented his FY2011 budget recommendations to the Board of Education, initiating the budget process. The recommendations included the proposed elimination of freshman sports and indoor track programs, saving an estimated $92k and $31k, respectively.
The elimination of indoor track and freshman sports in Carroll County MD would be detrimental to the students and community. We feel that there are viable, sustainable financial alternatives to cutting these programs that do not require making cuts in instructional services.
So not only due to budgeting reasons are they thinking of cutting the Indoor Track & Field programs, but freshman sports as well. Wow. I suppose these kinds of sports must have subconsciously or consciously been marginalized by the school cultures of this school system (well I am not saying that as a fact, but it would appear so since these seem the first to be cut). It would seem that way in just about any school system. It seems like it is the football, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse games that bring in the large crowds and get a lot more hype than do the running programs. I mean, when was the last time you heard of a 5K foot race or a track meet being held for a high school's homecoming? I am sure such things exist or have occurred before, but they are not too common. I am not trying to victimize high school runners because it seems like their sport has been seen as a minority in terms of the attention and media it gets compared to others, but it just seems like it is getting the "short end of the stick" with this. And freshman sports!!!! Whoa! Hold up! That is not even about track & field anymore. That is a larger thing that I will not perseverate on much more in this post, however, I really feel that from my own experience, that freshman can successfully make transitions from middle/junior high schools to high schools through sports and the work ethic developed from practicing and competing in sports. They can learn lessons and effective work habits that could help them succeed throughout their lives in many different areas.
I can tell you from my own subjective experience that God used running in high school to really help me turn into an academically-driven student from one who could have cared less about school and would have been fine settling for less-than-mediocre performance in life. I know life is not all about achieving, but my gosh, I felt more alive in the more aggressive and stronger approach that I took to life, and that approach I felt was mostly due to what the Lord taught me through years of practicing hard, competing hard, and committing to it steadfastly for the over 10 years I have been running. God used this same kind of work ethic to help me keep my grades up, improve my attitude in school and in life in general (which is a huge plus), and He used it to help me persevere in my endeavors to run races in every county of Maryland. Had I not been running and competing my freshmen year, my high school experience (and probably my experiences on the cross country and track teams in later years of high school) would have been totally different, and quite possibly, it may have been a more negative difference if I knew me back then, haha!
All right, I am gonna stick to more articles in talking about this. My opinion can only do so much. I came across this article written by a gentleman named David Griffin, who is a running coach and who seems like quite an influential voice in the Carroll County running scene. If you would like to read his column in the Carroll County Times, then please check out: http://www.carr.org/~wrrc/column/24January10.htm
After reading this, I felt more touched by this issue about the indoor track programs. It was what he learned from striving for those medals that has lasted, not just the medals he earned. Such important life lessons could be learned from this sport that is being cut from Carroll County. This really made me feel bad about what the school system was going to do with the indoor track & field programs, and at the same time it made me PROUD to have gone through such a program and to have that as a significant part of my high school experience.
I also came across what this woman said in regards to them cutting the program:
It has come to my attention that the board might consider cutting out
the Indoor Track Winter Sport for Carroll Co. Schools next year. This
is a great program that costs very little in comparison to other
sports. The kids buy thir own gear and pay an athletic fee to cover
some of the expenses. This is a sport where students can excel on
their own and stand out. This is an activity that requires time and
good grades and good health as well. What a great way to keeps kids
involved in school, stay healthy and feel confident. Cutting out the
program would be crazy.
In this succinct statement, the woman brings up a few good points. It is definitely an activity that requires time (I remember getting out of school and often going to the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore City or the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex in Landover/Prince George's County, MD for indoor track meets, and not leaving until sometimes as late as well after 9 PM in the evening and getting back home closer to 10:30/11ish at night, and still have quite a bit of homework to do for school the next day, which began a little after 7 in the morning. Not only does it require time, but discipline and endurance as well. However, I know that things can get much more challenging than that, and actually I would say any kind of intramural or interscholastic sport would require good grades, and good health, so indoor track & field is no better or worse than any other sport IN REGARDS TO DEMANDING HEALTHIER CHOICES FROM THEIR PARTICIPANTS! Though, she brings up a striking point that indoor track & field does not cost as much as other sports in that it does not require as much of expensive sports gear (i.e. sticks, protective pads and guards, etc) as some of the other interscholastic sports. So it begs the question, why cut something that does not strain the budget too much??
Well, looking at it from another angle, indoor track usually can not have competitions at the high schools (and I have not heard of any high schools that have indoor tracks, but they could very well exist), so they have to TRAVEL BY BUS to indoor track & field facilities where many different schools can compete. Sometimes, for the larger regional or state championships, it is not unusual for schools to travel from different parts of the state to get to the facility where the championship meet is being held. So, the bus fares, gas prices, and other such fees involved with traveling to meets (not to mention admission fees for teams to compete at the meets) can get costly, and from doing a little reading on this, may be another significant reason why Carroll County may want to see this program being cut.
Then again, Carroll County is not that far from the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore City, the Community College of Baltimore County's indoor track at their Catonsville Campus in Baltimore County, the Hagerstown Community College indoor track in Washington County, or the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. Not to pick on other counties, but some schools pretty well down in the southern Maryland tri-county region would have just as long (if not a longer) commute to even get to the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex, which I think is the southern-most indoor track & field facility used for these track meets ON THIS SIDE OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY! I wonder if these school systems are considering doing this to their indoor track & field programs because of the commuting. I am not trying to pick on different areas of Maryland. Let's look over at the western and mid-shore areas of the Maryland Eastern Shore (from Cecil eastward to Dorchester County). They would probably pretty much be going either all the way to Salisbury (Wicomico County) to run at the Youth and Civic Center there, or the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's indoor track in Princess Anne (Somerset County), or across the Bay Bridge to get to one of the facilities on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay. I'd say that is a much more lengthy commute for them than it is for Carroll County teams to get to Hagerstown Community College, or other venues around the Baltimore or Washington D.C. area. And as for the far east side of the Maryland Eastern Shore (i.e. Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties), they would probably have used the aforementioned facility at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and then for the larger championship meets they would have to drive for well over an hour across the Maryland Eastern Shore, and then come across the Chesapeake Bay to the facilities. It is a good thing they opened up this new indoor track & field facility in the Snow Hill area of Worcester County, so perhaps it can help cut down on the commuting a bit for some of these Eastern Shore counties, and therefore help save on funds that would probably have otherwise been used for longer bus trips to meets further away.
And oh boy, I really hope this kind of thing does not happen to those excellent running teams out in the far western Maryland counties (such as Allegany and Garrett Counties). If they do not have any indoor facilties in West Virginia or southwestern Pennsylvania, I think their nearest indoor track & field facility in Maryland is at least a good hour or so away eastward at the Hagerstown Community College. Good gosh, now that is a haul! For example, think about like Southern Garrett High School in the Oakland area of Garrett County (Maryland's western-most county, and I again I am not making fun of any particular school), but that is like over 2 hours and over 100 miles according to MapQuest.Com
If people are thinking it is a longer commute for Carroll County Public Schools to get to indoor track & field meets, look at how some of these southern-most, eastern-most, and western-most counties have to travel from their schools to get to these meets! I understand that indoor track & field may require more commuting on a consistent basis more than other sports because they can not really hold competitions at their schools, but at the same time, it is not like Carroll County schools have all that far to travel for their regular and championship meets COMPARED to some other schools. I AM NOT SAYING, let's go eliminate the indoor track & field programs of these geographically-distant-from-indoor-track-&-field-facilities, schools because of their longer consistent commutes, but it helps to keep in PERSPECTIVE that COMPARED to some other schools, Carroll County schools do not have that far to commute.
I realize that some of these more "geographically distant" schools come from counties that probably have no more than two or three more public high schools, and those schools are smaller 1A or 2A division schools. So perhaps, those schools do not require as much money from their school system as Carroll County may, since Carroll County has it's share of larger 3A and 4A public high schools. Then again, the larger populations of these schools could also be just as well supplying the school system with more money that would make its spending and doling out to different schools proportional to that of the smaller schools and smaller school systems throughout Maryland, through the tax dollars of the residents of the school districts. I am no economist by ANY MEANS, but that is also a possible factor to consider in analyzing and making a decision for this issue. Then again, that point could all be in my mind...
So I believe I have shared all the facts as well as opinions of some others on this issue. If I am wrong or I misquoted/misrepresented any one or any information, I sincerely apologize and will try to correct it. I know I definitely threw in my input as well. This is a blog I mainly use to talk about my running,and everyone now and then I like to hear from what you all think. I am trying to entertain both sides of this decision so as to see it for what it truly is, and also to INVITE your input on it as you would care to share.
Below, I will now include my reaction to it and if you disagree with any of it, I will not be offended and I will not offend you in return:
You may be shocked to see that after I have said all this and interpreted some of these facts and ideas earlier in this post, that I think it is most important to submit to the authorities in this. If you think I perseverated, analyzed, researched, and speculated a great on this, well the authorities on this have no doubt done more and did a more thorough job of it. As much as I see the highly apparent benefits of indoor track & field in high school, I personally believe that God has appointed these authorities in schools and we should be obedient to them (as with any authority). There are reasons why this is happening, and however this all plays out, there are better reasons for it than I can conceive.
I really hope that this program does not get cut, though I know that God has a plan for this situation, even though it can be hard to understand it. I think that indoor track & field can really help student athletes by helping them develop discipline, endurance, prioritization and time-management skills, conditioning for different sports. I know that especially from when I was in high school, some of the greatest student athletes at Hammond High School had done indoor track & field for at least one season, if only to get in shape and conditioned for other sports. Not only runners, but football players, baseball players, tennis players, soccer players, and lacrosse players would come together on the track team, and running really seemed to help them in their game. I think that taking out indoor track & field would be eliminating a valuable opportunity for athletes to grow and develop in various ways.
Like Mr. Griffin wrote in the Carroll County Times, he had come away with memories and experiences from indoor track & field that has helped to see success not just in the form of tangible awards, but as a consistent process, one that can require risks, courage, and perseverance. If you could not tell, that article really resonated with me and my plethora of memories of indoor track in high school (including the practices).
I honestly used to really dislike indoor track & field. It did not take me long to dread going to practice in the cold of the late fall and winter. Not only was I consistently tired at practice from staying up late doing homework some nights, but some evenings when we would have meets on school nights, I would be fortunate to catch a few precious hours of sleep from getting back late, doing homework, getting up early for school, and then going to practice to run some more. The first time I stayed up all night doing homework in high school came after I went to the Maryland State Championships at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore City, to watch and cheer the team on, and then I came home later that night and did make-up work for school. There was also one time in the winter of my junior year of high school that I probably got about 14 minutes of sleep, because I was up late doing chemistry homework after a fairly long meet. God helped me get through that fairly well at the time, though it was even more difficult if I would go to a meet and not run very well compared to others (there were times I came pretty close to finishing last, and I definitely did not enjoy being overlapped by a majority of the runners in the 3,200-meter race, the longest race they would have there). If I would stay up late because of an indoor meet, and then not even do well, I would feel like it was more of a waste of time (even though setbacks are a part of success and not outright failures). You could do homework at the meets, but it was pretty distracting and I probably did not get as much done there as I could. We almost always seemed to run against the same teams in Howard County, so to me it was pointless to keep going as the results would almost always the seem (or so it seemed to me with my negative attitude towards it). During my freshman year, I had considered multiple times not coming back to the team the following year. However, my sophomore year saw many improvements in my running times, and I actually felt more inspired to stick with it. Why, I was even blessed to be on the 4x800 meter relay varsity team, and we even got to compete at the Maryland State Championships in 2000 (this was an event where four people on a team would each run 800 meters/four laps around that track/approximately a half-a-mile). Looking back, I was grateful that I stuck with it, and there were some great memories I have had of my time with indoor track & field:
- In December of 1998, I ran my first sub-12-minute 3,200-meter (virtually 2-miler) in under 12 minutes as a high school freshman(an 11:55, followed by an 11:53 later in February of 1999 at the Regional Championships)
- In February of 2000, I ran 2:21 in the 4X800 Relay at the Maryland State Meet my sophomore year, and we actually placed first in the slower heat (and I think we placed 7th overall). My 2:21 was my best time for that distance so far at the time, and even though I still brought the slowest time out of the four of us on the team, I was glad to have helped us do well in the Maryland State Meet.
- In the winter of 2001 during my junior year, I was on a junior varsity (jv) 4X400-meter relay team, and we won our heat. I was the third leg and I was not the best sprinter. That did not matter. We were so happy!
- On Wednesday, January 15, 2002, I ran my first sub-5-minute 1,600-meter (virtually a mile) in under 5 minutes my senior year of high school (a 4:58.8 according to my dad and coach, and a 4:59.1 according to the official timing). I had been wanting to break five minutes for about two years up to that point, and I remember not feeling so hot that evening. I had just run 2:15 in the 4X800, a personal best time for me in the 800-meter distance by about 3 seconds, and did not expect much of myself in the 1,600. However, I went through the first half in 2:28, three-quarters of it in 3:47, and then finished it in about 4:58.8, so I had a fairly even pace with a pretty quick last quarter. Then, I ran the 3,200 in about 11:44, and I felt like I was kind of coasting through that with happiness of running under 5 minutes for the first time and also having another personal best time in the 4X800-meter relay. That was one of the best indoor track & field meets I have ever had :)
I am not trying to brag here, but those are just awesome experiences and memories that I treasure that God brought to me through indoor track & field. I think indoor track & field is a wonderful way to gain terrific experiences and make valuable memories to say the least. I do think that there are some people that could be messed up academically if they allow for some of the consistent practices and late-nights at indoor track meets, to interfere with their school work and them living a healthy life with eating and sleeping enough. However, it would seem a majority of students would benefit and grow well from such programs (especially freshmen and sophomores). It would be sad to see a county, especially one who seems to have terrific running programs such as Carroll County, have to cut indoor track & field programs.
I have recently caught wind that this same kind of decision may be facing Frederick County Public Schools' Indoor Track & Field programs, which is a county just west of Carroll County. I am not going to get into that, but Frederick County is where I have had some of my very first outdoor track & field and cross country meets in middle school when I ran for the Howard County Junior Striders' running program. This probably sounds corny, but I would probably get a little emotional if something happened to Frederick County's running programs, since that is an area where many of my earliest running races and memories occurred.
In conclusion, I want to tell the young high school ladies and gentlemen involved in Carroll County Public School's Indoor Track & Field programs (or hoping to be in the future). If they get cut despite all the benefits and assets of high school indoor track & field, understand that there are good reasons for it and that. These are economically rough times, and even though programs like indoor track & field can do so much good for high school students, there are even more important things to be considered. The authorities in the Carroll County Public School System are no doubt working very hard and would probably not wish to have to let any athletic program go if they could allow it and still maintain a good budget. I would encourage you athletes (or aspiring athletes) to keep running, training, jumping, throwing, and weight-lifting, even if they cut indoor track & field from your schools. Do not give up on your passions. Your abilities of running and competing in track & field events, as well as your passions for it, were gifts given to you by a loving God whose grace, wisdom, and providing for you can not be stopped by the decisions of a school system. You can still use those gifts (even though I think that having indoor track & field would be a terrific outlet for it in a competitive manner that would also develop camraderie). If nothing else, please stay in shape for outdoor track & field or another sport that you would normally use indoor track & field to get conditioned for. At least they still have road races open to the public year-around in Carroll County. The Eldersburg Rogue Runners (which I was a member of and information on can be found at http://www.errun.org), the Flying Feet Running Program, and the Westminster Road Runners Club (http://www.carr.org/~wrrc) are organizations that coordinate these events in the Carroll County and surrounding areas. The Westminster Road Runners Club and Facebook.Com have done well in making me aware of this situation with the Indoor Track & Field programs in Carroll County. My point is please keep training and do not be discouraged because you may not have high school indoor track & field (which is easier said than done). Just know that your ability to run and your enjoyment of it is a gift, and like other gifts, you do not want to take them for granted or allow negative situations (like no more high school indoor track & field in your school district) to lead you to turn away from your gift. You all deserve to see those gifts come to fruition to the fullest extent that God intended them too! Therefore, please be encouraged and know that even though people can take away programs to showcase and develop your abilities and talents, but they can never take away your heart, aspirations, abilities, talents, and callings! You were made for more than to lose heart and your gifts from your Creator because of surrounding circumstances!
I understand that there are probably sound reasons for doing this, but it is hard to sit and be aware that this is going. I understand that we are in economically difficult times, and as a result, many businesses and organizations (like public school systems) are on tighter budgets, which no doubt would lead them to have to make tough decisions about what to cut and what to keep. It would be nice if they did not do away with the indoor track program, though. I remember when I ran for Hammond High School in Howard County, Maryland, Carroll County was right next store and usually we would have about two meets of the season over in Carroll County, and then we would run against Carroll County teams more often at other meets. Then in indoor and outdoor track, we would see Carroll County's teams at various meets as well. Them taking this program away from Carroll County would be like taking away a part of my high school days, in that their schools were a part of our school's competition on a fairly regular basis in cross-country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field from regular season meets to championship-caliber meets.
I know this seems to just be targeting the Indoor Track & Field programs of Carroll County's Public School System, but my point is is that they have reputably had great running programs, programs that would help make names for their schools and bring those said schools some hardware in the form of trophies and rewards. Though, as you can tell by my previous posts, I know there is much more to running than the extrinsic lure of earning hardware for faring well in competitive running.
Anyway, let me take a break from my editorializing on this. I recently became aware of this when I was invited to the "Save Carroll County Indoor Track & Field" group on the Facebook.Com Part of me could not believe it, but then again, in light of current economic difficulties, it did not surprise me that a public school system would have to make such cuts to fiscally support itself (AND I AM NOT JUSTIFYING THIS, I AM JUST TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF IT THE WAY THE PROPONENTS OF CUTTING INDOOR TRACK SEE IT)! I have read a couple of articles over the internet on this subject, and I want to share links to a couple of them.
For a brief background article on the Carroll County Public School System's ideas about this, I found on this Facebook group, please check out this below statement:
Category: Public School Athletics
Region: United States of America
Target: Carroll County Public Schools Board of Education and Carroll County Maryland Board of Commissioners
Background (Preamble):
On January 13, 2010 the CCPS Superintendent presented his FY2011 budget recommendations to the Board of Education, initiating the budget process. The recommendations included the proposed elimination of freshman sports and indoor track programs, saving an estimated $92k and $31k, respectively.
The elimination of indoor track and freshman sports in Carroll County MD would be detrimental to the students and community. We feel that there are viable, sustainable financial alternatives to cutting these programs that do not require making cuts in instructional services.
So not only due to budgeting reasons are they thinking of cutting the Indoor Track & Field programs, but freshman sports as well. Wow. I suppose these kinds of sports must have subconsciously or consciously been marginalized by the school cultures of this school system (well I am not saying that as a fact, but it would appear so since these seem the first to be cut). It would seem that way in just about any school system. It seems like it is the football, basketball, baseball, and lacrosse games that bring in the large crowds and get a lot more hype than do the running programs. I mean, when was the last time you heard of a 5K foot race or a track meet being held for a high school's homecoming? I am sure such things exist or have occurred before, but they are not too common. I am not trying to victimize high school runners because it seems like their sport has been seen as a minority in terms of the attention and media it gets compared to others, but it just seems like it is getting the "short end of the stick" with this. And freshman sports!!!! Whoa! Hold up! That is not even about track & field anymore. That is a larger thing that I will not perseverate on much more in this post, however, I really feel that from my own experience, that freshman can successfully make transitions from middle/junior high schools to high schools through sports and the work ethic developed from practicing and competing in sports. They can learn lessons and effective work habits that could help them succeed throughout their lives in many different areas.
I can tell you from my own subjective experience that God used running in high school to really help me turn into an academically-driven student from one who could have cared less about school and would have been fine settling for less-than-mediocre performance in life. I know life is not all about achieving, but my gosh, I felt more alive in the more aggressive and stronger approach that I took to life, and that approach I felt was mostly due to what the Lord taught me through years of practicing hard, competing hard, and committing to it steadfastly for the over 10 years I have been running. God used this same kind of work ethic to help me keep my grades up, improve my attitude in school and in life in general (which is a huge plus), and He used it to help me persevere in my endeavors to run races in every county of Maryland. Had I not been running and competing my freshmen year, my high school experience (and probably my experiences on the cross country and track teams in later years of high school) would have been totally different, and quite possibly, it may have been a more negative difference if I knew me back then, haha!
All right, I am gonna stick to more articles in talking about this. My opinion can only do so much. I came across this article written by a gentleman named David Griffin, who is a running coach and who seems like quite an influential voice in the Carroll County running scene. If you would like to read his column in the Carroll County Times, then please check out: http://www.carr.org/~wrrc/column/24January10.htm
After reading this, I felt more touched by this issue about the indoor track programs. It was what he learned from striving for those medals that has lasted, not just the medals he earned. Such important life lessons could be learned from this sport that is being cut from Carroll County. This really made me feel bad about what the school system was going to do with the indoor track & field programs, and at the same time it made me PROUD to have gone through such a program and to have that as a significant part of my high school experience.
I also came across what this woman said in regards to them cutting the program:
It has come to my attention that the board might consider cutting out
the Indoor Track Winter Sport for Carroll Co. Schools next year. This
is a great program that costs very little in comparison to other
sports. The kids buy thir own gear and pay an athletic fee to cover
some of the expenses. This is a sport where students can excel on
their own and stand out. This is an activity that requires time and
good grades and good health as well. What a great way to keeps kids
involved in school, stay healthy and feel confident. Cutting out the
program would be crazy.
In this succinct statement, the woman brings up a few good points. It is definitely an activity that requires time (I remember getting out of school and often going to the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore City or the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex in Landover/Prince George's County, MD for indoor track meets, and not leaving until sometimes as late as well after 9 PM in the evening and getting back home closer to 10:30/11ish at night, and still have quite a bit of homework to do for school the next day, which began a little after 7 in the morning. Not only does it require time, but discipline and endurance as well. However, I know that things can get much more challenging than that, and actually I would say any kind of intramural or interscholastic sport would require good grades, and good health, so indoor track & field is no better or worse than any other sport IN REGARDS TO DEMANDING HEALTHIER CHOICES FROM THEIR PARTICIPANTS! Though, she brings up a striking point that indoor track & field does not cost as much as other sports in that it does not require as much of expensive sports gear (i.e. sticks, protective pads and guards, etc) as some of the other interscholastic sports. So it begs the question, why cut something that does not strain the budget too much??
Well, looking at it from another angle, indoor track usually can not have competitions at the high schools (and I have not heard of any high schools that have indoor tracks, but they could very well exist), so they have to TRAVEL BY BUS to indoor track & field facilities where many different schools can compete. Sometimes, for the larger regional or state championships, it is not unusual for schools to travel from different parts of the state to get to the facility where the championship meet is being held. So, the bus fares, gas prices, and other such fees involved with traveling to meets (not to mention admission fees for teams to compete at the meets) can get costly, and from doing a little reading on this, may be another significant reason why Carroll County may want to see this program being cut.
Then again, Carroll County is not that far from the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore City, the Community College of Baltimore County's indoor track at their Catonsville Campus in Baltimore County, the Hagerstown Community College indoor track in Washington County, or the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. Not to pick on other counties, but some schools pretty well down in the southern Maryland tri-county region would have just as long (if not a longer) commute to even get to the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex, which I think is the southern-most indoor track & field facility used for these track meets ON THIS SIDE OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY! I wonder if these school systems are considering doing this to their indoor track & field programs because of the commuting. I am not trying to pick on different areas of Maryland. Let's look over at the western and mid-shore areas of the Maryland Eastern Shore (from Cecil eastward to Dorchester County). They would probably pretty much be going either all the way to Salisbury (Wicomico County) to run at the Youth and Civic Center there, or the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's indoor track in Princess Anne (Somerset County), or across the Bay Bridge to get to one of the facilities on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay. I'd say that is a much more lengthy commute for them than it is for Carroll County teams to get to Hagerstown Community College, or other venues around the Baltimore or Washington D.C. area. And as for the far east side of the Maryland Eastern Shore (i.e. Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties), they would probably have used the aforementioned facility at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and then for the larger championship meets they would have to drive for well over an hour across the Maryland Eastern Shore, and then come across the Chesapeake Bay to the facilities. It is a good thing they opened up this new indoor track & field facility in the Snow Hill area of Worcester County, so perhaps it can help cut down on the commuting a bit for some of these Eastern Shore counties, and therefore help save on funds that would probably have otherwise been used for longer bus trips to meets further away.
And oh boy, I really hope this kind of thing does not happen to those excellent running teams out in the far western Maryland counties (such as Allegany and Garrett Counties). If they do not have any indoor facilties in West Virginia or southwestern Pennsylvania, I think their nearest indoor track & field facility in Maryland is at least a good hour or so away eastward at the Hagerstown Community College. Good gosh, now that is a haul! For example, think about like Southern Garrett High School in the Oakland area of Garrett County (Maryland's western-most county, and I again I am not making fun of any particular school), but that is like over 2 hours and over 100 miles according to MapQuest.Com
If people are thinking it is a longer commute for Carroll County Public Schools to get to indoor track & field meets, look at how some of these southern-most, eastern-most, and western-most counties have to travel from their schools to get to these meets! I understand that indoor track & field may require more commuting on a consistent basis more than other sports because they can not really hold competitions at their schools, but at the same time, it is not like Carroll County schools have all that far to travel for their regular and championship meets COMPARED to some other schools. I AM NOT SAYING, let's go eliminate the indoor track & field programs of these geographically-distant-from-indoor-track-&-field-facilities, schools because of their longer consistent commutes, but it helps to keep in PERSPECTIVE that COMPARED to some other schools, Carroll County schools do not have that far to commute.
I realize that some of these more "geographically distant" schools come from counties that probably have no more than two or three more public high schools, and those schools are smaller 1A or 2A division schools. So perhaps, those schools do not require as much money from their school system as Carroll County may, since Carroll County has it's share of larger 3A and 4A public high schools. Then again, the larger populations of these schools could also be just as well supplying the school system with more money that would make its spending and doling out to different schools proportional to that of the smaller schools and smaller school systems throughout Maryland, through the tax dollars of the residents of the school districts. I am no economist by ANY MEANS, but that is also a possible factor to consider in analyzing and making a decision for this issue. Then again, that point could all be in my mind...
So I believe I have shared all the facts as well as opinions of some others on this issue. If I am wrong or I misquoted/misrepresented any one or any information, I sincerely apologize and will try to correct it. I know I definitely threw in my input as well. This is a blog I mainly use to talk about my running,and everyone now and then I like to hear from what you all think. I am trying to entertain both sides of this decision so as to see it for what it truly is, and also to INVITE your input on it as you would care to share.
Below, I will now include my reaction to it and if you disagree with any of it, I will not be offended and I will not offend you in return:
You may be shocked to see that after I have said all this and interpreted some of these facts and ideas earlier in this post, that I think it is most important to submit to the authorities in this. If you think I perseverated, analyzed, researched, and speculated a great on this, well the authorities on this have no doubt done more and did a more thorough job of it. As much as I see the highly apparent benefits of indoor track & field in high school, I personally believe that God has appointed these authorities in schools and we should be obedient to them (as with any authority). There are reasons why this is happening, and however this all plays out, there are better reasons for it than I can conceive.
I really hope that this program does not get cut, though I know that God has a plan for this situation, even though it can be hard to understand it. I think that indoor track & field can really help student athletes by helping them develop discipline, endurance, prioritization and time-management skills, conditioning for different sports. I know that especially from when I was in high school, some of the greatest student athletes at Hammond High School had done indoor track & field for at least one season, if only to get in shape and conditioned for other sports. Not only runners, but football players, baseball players, tennis players, soccer players, and lacrosse players would come together on the track team, and running really seemed to help them in their game. I think that taking out indoor track & field would be eliminating a valuable opportunity for athletes to grow and develop in various ways.
Like Mr. Griffin wrote in the Carroll County Times, he had come away with memories and experiences from indoor track & field that has helped to see success not just in the form of tangible awards, but as a consistent process, one that can require risks, courage, and perseverance. If you could not tell, that article really resonated with me and my plethora of memories of indoor track in high school (including the practices).
I honestly used to really dislike indoor track & field. It did not take me long to dread going to practice in the cold of the late fall and winter. Not only was I consistently tired at practice from staying up late doing homework some nights, but some evenings when we would have meets on school nights, I would be fortunate to catch a few precious hours of sleep from getting back late, doing homework, getting up early for school, and then going to practice to run some more. The first time I stayed up all night doing homework in high school came after I went to the Maryland State Championships at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore City, to watch and cheer the team on, and then I came home later that night and did make-up work for school. There was also one time in the winter of my junior year of high school that I probably got about 14 minutes of sleep, because I was up late doing chemistry homework after a fairly long meet. God helped me get through that fairly well at the time, though it was even more difficult if I would go to a meet and not run very well compared to others (there were times I came pretty close to finishing last, and I definitely did not enjoy being overlapped by a majority of the runners in the 3,200-meter race, the longest race they would have there). If I would stay up late because of an indoor meet, and then not even do well, I would feel like it was more of a waste of time (even though setbacks are a part of success and not outright failures). You could do homework at the meets, but it was pretty distracting and I probably did not get as much done there as I could. We almost always seemed to run against the same teams in Howard County, so to me it was pointless to keep going as the results would almost always the seem (or so it seemed to me with my negative attitude towards it). During my freshman year, I had considered multiple times not coming back to the team the following year. However, my sophomore year saw many improvements in my running times, and I actually felt more inspired to stick with it. Why, I was even blessed to be on the 4x800 meter relay varsity team, and we even got to compete at the Maryland State Championships in 2000 (this was an event where four people on a team would each run 800 meters/four laps around that track/approximately a half-a-mile). Looking back, I was grateful that I stuck with it, and there were some great memories I have had of my time with indoor track & field:
- In December of 1998, I ran my first sub-12-minute 3,200-meter (virtually 2-miler) in under 12 minutes as a high school freshman(an 11:55, followed by an 11:53 later in February of 1999 at the Regional Championships)
- In February of 2000, I ran 2:21 in the 4X800 Relay at the Maryland State Meet my sophomore year, and we actually placed first in the slower heat (and I think we placed 7th overall). My 2:21 was my best time for that distance so far at the time, and even though I still brought the slowest time out of the four of us on the team, I was glad to have helped us do well in the Maryland State Meet.
- In the winter of 2001 during my junior year, I was on a junior varsity (jv) 4X400-meter relay team, and we won our heat. I was the third leg and I was not the best sprinter. That did not matter. We were so happy!
- On Wednesday, January 15, 2002, I ran my first sub-5-minute 1,600-meter (virtually a mile) in under 5 minutes my senior year of high school (a 4:58.8 according to my dad and coach, and a 4:59.1 according to the official timing). I had been wanting to break five minutes for about two years up to that point, and I remember not feeling so hot that evening. I had just run 2:15 in the 4X800, a personal best time for me in the 800-meter distance by about 3 seconds, and did not expect much of myself in the 1,600. However, I went through the first half in 2:28, three-quarters of it in 3:47, and then finished it in about 4:58.8, so I had a fairly even pace with a pretty quick last quarter. Then, I ran the 3,200 in about 11:44, and I felt like I was kind of coasting through that with happiness of running under 5 minutes for the first time and also having another personal best time in the 4X800-meter relay. That was one of the best indoor track & field meets I have ever had :)
I am not trying to brag here, but those are just awesome experiences and memories that I treasure that God brought to me through indoor track & field. I think indoor track & field is a wonderful way to gain terrific experiences and make valuable memories to say the least. I do think that there are some people that could be messed up academically if they allow for some of the consistent practices and late-nights at indoor track meets, to interfere with their school work and them living a healthy life with eating and sleeping enough. However, it would seem a majority of students would benefit and grow well from such programs (especially freshmen and sophomores). It would be sad to see a county, especially one who seems to have terrific running programs such as Carroll County, have to cut indoor track & field programs.
I have recently caught wind that this same kind of decision may be facing Frederick County Public Schools' Indoor Track & Field programs, which is a county just west of Carroll County. I am not going to get into that, but Frederick County is where I have had some of my very first outdoor track & field and cross country meets in middle school when I ran for the Howard County Junior Striders' running program. This probably sounds corny, but I would probably get a little emotional if something happened to Frederick County's running programs, since that is an area where many of my earliest running races and memories occurred.
In conclusion, I want to tell the young high school ladies and gentlemen involved in Carroll County Public School's Indoor Track & Field programs (or hoping to be in the future). If they get cut despite all the benefits and assets of high school indoor track & field, understand that there are good reasons for it and that. These are economically rough times, and even though programs like indoor track & field can do so much good for high school students, there are even more important things to be considered. The authorities in the Carroll County Public School System are no doubt working very hard and would probably not wish to have to let any athletic program go if they could allow it and still maintain a good budget. I would encourage you athletes (or aspiring athletes) to keep running, training, jumping, throwing, and weight-lifting, even if they cut indoor track & field from your schools. Do not give up on your passions. Your abilities of running and competing in track & field events, as well as your passions for it, were gifts given to you by a loving God whose grace, wisdom, and providing for you can not be stopped by the decisions of a school system. You can still use those gifts (even though I think that having indoor track & field would be a terrific outlet for it in a competitive manner that would also develop camraderie). If nothing else, please stay in shape for outdoor track & field or another sport that you would normally use indoor track & field to get conditioned for. At least they still have road races open to the public year-around in Carroll County. The Eldersburg Rogue Runners (which I was a member of and information on can be found at http://www.errun.org), the Flying Feet Running Program, and the Westminster Road Runners Club (http://www.carr.org/~wrrc) are organizations that coordinate these events in the Carroll County and surrounding areas. The Westminster Road Runners Club and Facebook.Com have done well in making me aware of this situation with the Indoor Track & Field programs in Carroll County. My point is please keep training and do not be discouraged because you may not have high school indoor track & field (which is easier said than done). Just know that your ability to run and your enjoyment of it is a gift, and like other gifts, you do not want to take them for granted or allow negative situations (like no more high school indoor track & field in your school district) to lead you to turn away from your gift. You all deserve to see those gifts come to fruition to the fullest extent that God intended them too! Therefore, please be encouraged and know that even though people can take away programs to showcase and develop your abilities and talents, but they can never take away your heart, aspirations, abilities, talents, and callings! You were made for more than to lose heart and your gifts from your Creator because of surrounding circumstances!
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