Friday, October 04, 2013

Fresno council backs hosting state high school cross-country meet

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good opportunity coming up to investigate better options! Here's what's good about Fresno:(1) at the mid-point between North and South, and (2) it's familiar. Can't really think of anything (positive) to add.

Anonymous said...

Let's put the meet where the bulk of the people already are and would like to go.

What about a rotation between Balboa Park, Mt SAC, and Golden Gate Park?

Anonymous said...

Also in Fresno's favor are 3)abundant, reasonably priced hotels for teams and families and 4) generally good weather. (Probably just jinxed this year).

Rotation might work, but would not want to make folks stay too close to SF - too expensive. Maybe one of the CCS courses?

Anonymous said...

CCS courses are a joke outside of Crystal and the old farts get pissed with every meet. Plus no parking. An xc course would need to be made.

Shasta, Humbolt, all good options but good luck getting SS to go up there. Balboa park is awful.

To be honest it would be at Mt. Sac which is a terrible xc course for a championship.

Are there not any decent options in this huge state? How about near Chico? SLO?

How about moving the date while we're at it.

Anonymous said...

Golden Gate wouldn't be so great for a state course IMO. Crystal is good, but Bob Rush gets protective, so a huge meet there wouldn't probably be too good... What about Toro?

Anonymous said...

Toro is an awful course. Course is too narrow with a sharp turn 100 in. I'd rather see it on the Stanford golf course. But you could never have a course record as the course could never be duplicated exactly.

Again Crystal could never handle the parking.

A new course in open space would need to be made.

Albert Caruana said...

It would be hard to beat Woodward Park for state meet course. It has history dating back to 1987 (the first year of CA state meet). You have tons of parking. It's a central site for the northern and southern teams. You have a course than can handle a lot of runners. You have different places for fans/parents to see the runners.

As for the date, that is not changing any time soon. It enables students to compete at the state meet without missing school. Runners who compete at the state meet understand that Thanksgiving weekend is the time of the state meet. Just ask the teams or individuals who don't make it to state if they would rather be at home or in Fresno that weekend.

Anonymous said...

Albert, if only for the sake of upcoming negotiations, some viable alternatives need to be developed. I personally don't think the bar at Woodward is set very high - its more like strep and repeat - the path of least resistance.

hank said...

A possible course in the CCS is the Baylands course out in Sunnyvale. Santa Clara College puts on an Invite there every year. It has plenty of parking, bathrooms (although portos would need to be brought in) and nearby hotels that aren't near as expensive as SF. Close to SJ airport. It's biggest drawback is that it's flat as a pancake. No "hills" at all. Wide grass start (400-500 meters before a turn I believe) and then is on 6 ft wide dirt paths with grass on either side so you can pass if you want. But did I say it was FLAT? Maybe some hay bales and bring in a sand pit to run thru... I still like Fresno better. GGP could work but parking is a pain (and you wouldn't be able to charge for it) and the hotels on Thanksgiving weekend would cost mucho $'s (and there is no way CIF will move the date - one of the arguments for allowing a State XC meet was that no school days would be missed because of travel.

hank

Anonymous said...

So football can miss for the state bowl, not to mention volleyball, basketball, and wrestling? Track kids miss for a two day meet. California is the ONLY state with it on that weekend. I am still not buying the missing school thing. Too many holes.

As for State the entire course needs to be 30 feet wide. 6 feet is no where near enough room. Woodward is great, but CIF needs to pump some money into the care of the course, take out curbs and that silly island and bushes 200 meters in. A nice 10-20k would make that a much better course and is necessary. They can't just expect the course to never degrade. If I was Fresno I'd be pissed too. It's like relatives who always come over for thanksgiving, eat your food and drink and never offer to help cook, bring anything or help clean up. It's just rude.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous @ 5:01

Wow, you're kind of angry? I guess you could push State to the weekend before Thanksgiving but Southern Section might not be very happy having to move all their qualifying meets back to accommodate.

Also, by moving State, guess what will fill the void the Saturday after Thanksgiving? NXN California! So many athletes will end up race that Saturday anyway.

Anonymous said...

That's not angry. You live a sheltered life. Now go play more video games down in your mother's basement where you live.

That's a little more angry but I can do better.

hank said...

^
That sounds like a scene from "Live Free or Die Hard"

hank

Nils said...

Anon 5:01, I like your suggestion that CIF needs to put $$ into course upkeep, as part of whatever deal they make with Fresno. I'm finding myself at every big meet I go to worrying about the safety of the runners, from too-narrow courses (esp starts) to ankle-breaking bumps, etc. Runners are totally unprotected, unlike football players, and we should be trying to put their safety FIRST.

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