Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Track Season Begins; March Relays Set

After competing in the indoor track and field state championship, the Prescott track and field teams were scheduled to open the 1997 outdoor season with practice meets at Nashville last week.

Since the girls' basketball season was extended and some athletes and coaches wanted to see the play-off games, these meets were cancelled for Prescott teams.

The senior teams were scheduled to host a practice meet this past Tuesday and the junior teams are in action on Thursday.

Prescott will host its second annual March Relays next Tuesday, March 18, with the field events starting at 3:45 p.m. and the running events at 5:37. This meet gives area teams something to work toward before going on their spring break.

After this well-deserved break for the athletes, the relay season will get in full swing.

In setting a track and field schedule, the coaches try to give every male and female athlete from grade seven through twelve a chance to compete and improve on a weekly basis. Each team will offer its competitors three to four highly competitive meets in April that awards trophies, ribbons and medals. Most of them on the senior high level are state qualifying meets, which allows an athlete a chance to earn a trip to state.

Although track and field is the oldest form of organized competition in the world, the sport has always been a stepchild of sorts, according to coach Eddie Jackson. "Every fourth Olympic year, Americans have a chance to get excited about human competition then it seems to fade for a while," he said.

"On the public school level the sport is traditionally the first to suffer staff reduction, budget cuts, travel limitations, etc. At Prescott we started promoting the sport decades ago, winning conference and state championships without a facility," the coach continued.

"After the track was built, the coaching staff and community volunteers worked endlessly to help give area athletes a showcase place for high school track and field," Jackson said.

"Although we now see these cutbacks done at Prescott and other schools working like we used to do here, we still have a chance to host the relay season ending meet with the Merchant Relays on April 24.

"The area schools that are increasing staffs and improving their participation numbers are also finding success in other sports," the coach lamented. "It's almost as if they are copying Prescott's philosophy from years ago."

Jackson, the senior boys' track coach, said there is one area that has changed from within the staff. In recent years, the senior teams have traditionally competed on Tuesdays and Thursdays just to get in a complete schedule in April.

With events scheduled on top of meets, various other school activities and just to give an athlete a chance to workout, the track shedule has been cut to once a week.

"Sometimes more is not always better, but if a meet is rained out a track athlete is without a meet for two weeks," the coach said.

In spite of setbacks, the 1997 track and field season could prove to be exciting once again. The Wolves will be competitive in some events like the man and superman's relays, vault, hurdles and long jump, Jackson said.

Here is the spring track and field schedule:

Prescott High School Schedule

March 13..........Leopard Relays, DeQueen

March 18..........Prescott Relays, Prescott

March 20..........Ouachita Mtn, J'ville

March 27..........Nashville Classic, Nashville

April 3...........Jacket Relays, Stamps

April 4...........Hog Relays, Texarkana

April 5...........Dragon Relays, Genoa

April 4-8.........PHS Relay Carnival

April 10..........SAU Relays, Magnolia

April 17..........Scrapper Relays, Nashville

April 24..........Prescott Relays

April 29..........7AA Prelims, Fordyce

May 1.............7AA Finals, Fordyce

May 10............Class AA State Meet

May 14............Meet of Champs

May 20-21.........Decathlon/Pentathlon

May 24............Ark-Okla All Star Meet