This year the Nevada High School cross country meet was going to take place at SCORE Park. There was a lot of effort put into setting it up, but it was unfortunately canceled due to the weather.
Nevada High School Athletic Director Dustin Smith said, “Building a new course was a bit of a challenge and took many hours of communicating.”
It took about three to four days to work out all of the issues with the course. Mr. Smith, Mr. Sneiderman, Middle School Athletic Director, Larry Parker, and the maintenance crew spent a lot of time driving the course in order to assure that the students would be safe and injury free. The day before the meet, as well as the day of the meet, there were several hours put into setting up the course so that it was ready to run on.
Several hours were spent making sure that there were volunteers for the meet. These volunteers have different jobs or tasks that they do to help with the meet.
In past years, the Nevada cross country meet did not take place at SCORE. It took place at Hickory Grove. This year Hickory Grove did not have an area for the cross country meet to take place because they started a $3.4 million construction project. This project closed its doors on many services, including many areas used for Nevada’s home cross country meet.
After finding out that Hickory Grove would not be available to use as a course, there were some big decisions that needed to be made. Smith said, “Former Coach Larry Parker and I spent a couple of hours brainstorming course ideas.”
After brainstorming, it was decided that SCORE Park would be the best location for this year’s home cross country meet.
Having the meet take place at SCORE Park would have allowed our middle school and high school to have a full-length course. This location also had plenty of parking space, as well as numerous restroom facilities.
Smith said, “Typically, Coach Parker, current cross country coaches, and our maintenance staff would set up the course at Hickory Grove. This year was a bit different as Larry Parker was out of town on vacation and both of our coaches were new to the program.”
This year several people worked together to lay out the course, set up flags, and make sure that it was prepared for race day.
“In a normal year, my ‘job’ is to communicate with all stakeholders about the course, course layout, and other needed information. This year that was expanded. I appreciated that opportunity, because I learned a lot about setting up a cross country course,” said Smith.
The location of the future home cross country meet is to be determined. Wherever it is, you can be sure that it will take a lot of time, effort, and careful thought to put it on!
Article contributed by Elie Tuhn.
