All,

Here is some news and updates for Wednesday, May 9 [Week 4 of 16]

KELLEN SMITH

Kellen Smith, an Engineering student who is a member of the University of Michigan Women’s Track & Field team, has re-joined the staff for the outdoor season. Kellen competes in the short sprint events. She will be assisting in coaching our sprint athletes. Kellen was an assistant coach for us last summer. Please join me in welcoming Kellen back !

UNIFORMS

For the new families with kids on the “Travel Team” who need uniforms, you can now order them from “Team Sports” (one of our two uniform vendors) on the following web-site:

https://n95aj.itemorder.com

The deadline for ordering is Sunday night May 20, so please place your orders by then. The site will close for ordering at 12 AM Monday May 21, and all orders that were placed before then will then be processed, and then it will take several more weeks before they arrive. The club will loan out temporary uniforms for the new athletes to use until then.

NOTE:

The only required item is the uniform top, and a pair of “black bottoms”. If your kids are distance runners (the shortest distance they run is the 800), then you should order the “dash singlets”. Otherwise, order the “compression singlets”. In terms of the “black bottoms”: if your kids already have solid black running shorts or solid black compression shorts, then you don’t need to order the ones on the web-site — the ones you have will be fine (baggy shorts/basketball shorts not acceptable). Otherwise, you can order the ones on the web-site or buy elsewhere if you can get them cheaper elsewhere — as long as they are solid black. In terms of which style of “black bottoms” to buy — you can buy either style your kids feel more comfortable wearing. Most distance runners prefer running shorts for a looser fit and most sprinters (they run the 400 dash and shorter running events) and field event athletes prefer compression shorts for better aerodynamics. But preferences can vary — it’s your own personal preference.

In addition to the uniforms, you can buy warm-ups on the site also, and you can choose to have your kids’ names embroidered on the jackets for an extra fee. Warm-ups are completely optional.

MEET SCHEDULE

Once again, I have attached the meet schedule for everyone’s convenience. None of these meets are not listed on the calendar yet, except for the AAU Junior Olympics, due to a technical issue with the “Team App” calendar. I’ll add the rest of the meets on the schedule once the calendar is fixed.

Our first track meet of the season takes place at Pickerington North High School, just outside Columbus, OH on Sunday May 20.
The meet information is here: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fbcf31_237e9c87424144ca87d3cad47702dfb4.pdf

I have to register all athletes competing in this meet by the deadline, which is next Tuesday, May 15 @ 10 PM.
If your kids are going to be competing, I need to know before then.
Neither AAU or USATF memberships are required (more on what those are in another e-mail).

Based on the meet schedule, it is recommended that athletes and parents come down to Columbus the night before the meet and spend the night in a hotel, unless their first event happens to be in the mid afternoon. I reserved a block of 15 hotel rooms for the team, some of these rooms will be set aside for the coaches who will be attending. The rest are for the other parents and athletes on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Here is the hotel information:

Hampton Inn Columbus-West
5625 Trabue, Columbus, OH 43228
T: 1 614-851-5599

Each room has two (2) queen beds at a rate of $183 + tax (total cost: $215.03) for check in Saturday, May 19 and check out Sunday May 20.
One night only. Free breakfast is included. Everyone is responsible for their own hotel rooms, except the coaches.

So far (in addition to the coaches), I have set aside rooms for the following families:

Munson
Lamb
Randolph

So far, I have the following athletes competing:

Kate Munson
Imani Blair
Sydney Cunningham
Robert Lamb
Eric Rodwell
Mckenzie Randolph
Mackenzie Robinson
Ashton Brann
Braxton Brann

Did I miss anyone? If anyone else wants a room, please e-mail or text me before all the rooms are gone.

ILLINOIS AND IOWA MEETS

The club also reserved blocks of hotel rooms for all the other out-of-state track meets in Illinois and Iowa.

AAU JUNIOR OLYMPICS AND QUALIFYING

In order to compete in the AAU Junior Olympics (which takes place at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, IA Saturday July 28 – Saturday August 4), athletes have to qualify. They have to compete in and advance thru an AAU Junior Olympics State Championship meet (also known as a “District Qualifier”), and then they also have to compete in and advance thru an AAU Junior Olympics Regional Championship meet (also known as a “National Qualifier”). The dates for the two meets in the Michigan district and region are as follows:

District Qualifier: Saturday-Sunday, June 16-17 (Detroit Renaissance HS)
National Qualifier (Multi-Events & Steeple-Chase): Thursday-Friday, June 28-29 (University of Detroit Mercy)
National Qualifier (Individual events & Relays): Saturday-Sunday; June 30 – July 1 (Detroit Renaissance HS)

If, for some reason, athletes have a conflict with the dates for either of the two Michigan meets, they will have to compete in another District Qualifier and another National Qualifier in another region of the country (and those meets have to be in the same region). For example: If the weekend of June 16-17 doesn’t work, they can compete in the Indiana District Qualifier the following weekend, but then they also have to return to the Indiana region in July to compete in their National qualifier as well.

The tentative schedule for the AAU Junior Olympics National Track & Field Championship is here:

http://image.aausports.org/sports/JO_Games/entry/2018/AAUJOTrackSchedule.pdf

I recommend athletes and their families arrive at least 1 full day before their first event is scheduled, to allow time to rest and prepare.

Please note that the dates and times for each event in the schedule is based on age-divisions. Age-divisions are based on birth-year.
So if an athlete is born in November 2007, he/she will turn 11 before this year is over and therefore will be in the “age-11” division. Even through that athlete will still be 10 years old during the AAU Junior Olympics, he/she is still considered to be in the “age-11” division.
If an athlete is born in December 2006, he/she will be in the “age-12” division for the purposes of this national meet, etc.

FUND-RAISING AND SPONSORS

The AATC Youth Division will receive around $23,000 this year from our Board of Directors to subsidize our expenses in 2018, above and beyond what the parents pay in participation fees. The amount of this subsidy has been reduced in recent years. My goal is for the Youth Division to be self-funding by the 2019 outdoor season, and not depend on the Board for anymore subsidies after that. So the Youth Division is going to launch more fund-raising initiatives over the next few months in an attempt to put us on a path of financial independence. That’s my goal, going forward. So I will be writing grants, but I am also seeking corporate sponsors as well. If any parent works for or knows of corporations known to sponsor youth sports teams, please me know the name of the company and who the contact person is. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ron Beasley (734-330-7931)
Ann Arbor Track Club — Youth Division Director
youth@aatrackclub.org