12 replies to this topic

[catsalumni]

If your best expert (ah hem) opinions, how many track members would a track club need to have in order to have a chance of winning a conference title? Does that even make sense to ask?

[Jefferson Faithful]

really....it would possibly only take 20 i think....they have to be good at relays open sprints and field events though if you are gonna have a small track club....if you want to win conference with that many kids. you should have really good and fast athletes

[Hovs5]

really....it would possibly only take 20 i think....they have to be good at relays open sprints and field events though if you are gonna have a small track club....if you want to win conference with that many kids. you should have really good and fast athletes

I don't think there is an exact number answer. It all depends on who you have and how your team works together.

[WONBulldog]

Well, let's think about this...there are 17 events...13 single person events, 4 relays...Last I remember, everyone was allowed to participate in 4 events...So, let's assume the same 4 ppl run the 4 relays...Thus, you need those 4 ppl. And when it comes to most conference track meets (that I know of, at least), each team can only enter 2 people per event. So, you would need 26 entrants into those 13 single person events, so you need at least 9 people to fill a position in each of those events, and a few people would only be running 3 events that way. So...basically, if you want to get the MAX amount of points at your conference meet, you need a bare minimum of 13 stellar athletes participating.

Of course, that's quite the dream...

In my high school, we were limited by the school district to sending one school bus to the "big meets"...So, you have one seat taken up by the two coaches, another by two trainers, and then the rest are filled with athletes. If I remember, there are 26 seats on the bus (not counting the driver), so we brought no more than 48 (24 boys, 24 girls) athletes to the invitationals, conference and districts. So we pretty much made due with 24 people filling the events, or we just wouldn't waste our energy on an event where we had no chance of scoring, or just wouldn't bring a second person for a field event that couldn't clear/throw/jump what would be needed to be remotely close to scoring.

[slice slice baby]

Leave it wonb to "do the math" so to speak !!!! LOL

[WONBulldog]

Leave it wonb to "do the math" so to speak !!!! LOL

What can I say...sometimes I just find a way to make topics come to an end!!!

[sqwirt]

been coaching longer than most on here have been alive-I always have said give me 12 good athletes and we can win the conference every year. So to answer your question 12 will get it done if they are just a little better than average athletes.

[drquinn]

If look at it from a perspective of great athletes. I think a conference title could be won with a very small number of athletes. The winner of an event scores 10 points for his/her team. Four outstanding athletes competing in four different individual events apiece could accumulate 160 points. I think that would be a very tough total to overcome by any team. This would hold true if the rest of the conference teams were competitive with each other and knocked down the amount of points a second team could acquire. People love relays, but when you put four outstanding individuals in one relay, you are shorting yourself of a possible 30 points. Winning a conference takes maximazation of a team's point potential. There is a lot of great strategy involved in placing an athlete in an event to help the team score the most possible points. We won a state title by placing in only six events, but when you are first in five of those it adds up quickly. I guess what I am trying to say is that there is no magic number. It always better to have more than less, but quality usually wins over quantity. Give me four great athletes and I will take my chances

[drquinn]

Whoops! Won will be all over my math. Only 13 individual events, guess I should refigure. 154 would be the total without relays. 13 firsts and three seconds, it does not leave a lot of points to be had for the rest. This is only speaking theoretically, but it is a possibility if you have two great sprinter/hurdlers, one distance runner and a thrower. Sprinter/hurdlers usually translate into good long jumpers and high jumpers. Pole vault is a tough discipline, but you need good speed and a thrower needs to have great feet (Blaine Maag was blur across the circle to name one. I think he was a pretty good sprinter also.). A distance runner can triple (1600, 800, 3200). That make up sets one up pretty well with a minimum number of athletes.

[Demothenes]

gettning athletes that can win 4 enents at state is like gettin a royal flush in poker 10 times in a row. even placing at state is hard, let alone taking first in four events for multiple athlets is unheard of............but this is all hypothetical i suppose

[WONBulldog]

Whoops! Won will be all over my math. Only 13 individual events, guess I should refigure. 154 would be the total without relays. 13 firsts and three seconds, it does not leave a lot of points to be had for the rest. This is only speaking theoretically, but it is a possibility if you have two great sprinter/hurdlers, one distance runner and a thrower. Sprinter/hurdlers usually translate into good long jumpers and high jumpers. Pole vault is a tough discipline, but you need good speed and a thrower needs to have great feet (Blaine Maag was blur across the circle to name one. I think he was a pretty good sprinter also.). A distance runner can triple (1600, 800, 3200). That make up sets one up pretty well with a minimum number of athletes.

Ha...nah, I'll leave the math alone My math was for gaining the maximum amount of points overall. I am sure I could do some sort of equation that would sort it all out, but not today. Gotta have time to figure out the equation!!!

[JimBucks]

Back before the boys added the 4 x 200 we always figured 13. With the extra sprint relay now...I would probably say 14. I know 4 is not enough to win it...at least not most leagues.

[silverwings]

To win your conference it takes a combination of good athletes and depth; to win state it only takes several (or 1) great athlete.

To answer Demothenes a single athlete has won 4 gold medals at the State Meet in Ohio only 8 times (one of those guys was Jesse Owens, and the other was Chris Nelloms - both are legends in track). Only 2 athletes have won 4 golds in running events only - Nelloms and Waynesfield-Goshen's Joe Horn.

Last year at the boys State D-III meet, Horn led WG with 4 golds in 80 minutes, winning the 100m, anchoring the state record setting 4x200 relay team, winning the 400m in state meet record time, and then finishing with victory in the 200m. Sophomore Gray Horn of WG won the PV, was 8th in the LJ, and led-off the 4x200 team. Kellen Fetter and Jesse Norris ran the other legs of the relay - each are outstanding athletes as well.

Lower level meets (like conference meets and district meets) are won by depth and some "stars" - higher level meets, like regionals and state meets - are often won by "teams" of a few really good athletes.

Another example - tiny Cincinnati Christian School (9 boys on the team) was 4 in the Miami Valley Conference in 2005 behind Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (CHCA) and Cincinnati Country Day. CCS went on to win the SW regional beating a much larger and talented New Bremen (and several others like Dayton Jefferson, Minster, & St Henry) team - I think CHCA and CCD scored about 10 points combined at the regional. Tiny CCS then captured the State runner-up trophy with just 4 athletes. Horn, then a junior, won the 100m and ran on the gold medal 4x400 relay team, as well as placing 4th in the 300 IH as CCS scored 28 points to finish a distant 2nd to a loaded Liberty Benton team, but just edging out Columbus Grove (featuring big points from Blaine Maag, in fact!).

A few "great" ones can put you in position to win at state, a lot of "good" ones will put you in competition to win your conference.