Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Welcome to University High School Track and Field, 2014

Welcome to University High School Track and Field (UHSTF):

Good Morning!  This is Coach Shaver, and for those new to U-High track, I am the head coach for girl's track and field.  I would like to welcome back our wonderful veteran parent supporters as well as welcome our new parents to the program.  We are glad to have your child in our program and will strive to make the experience a positive one for all!  Thanks to all who attended the Spring Sports Meeting last week.  If you were unable to attend, we will be posting our handouts on the web site soon.  You can find our website by going to the University High School Athletic site and clicking on Girl's Track.  Tammy Baker posts the parent and athlete e-mails on this site as she gets them from me.  The web site also includes some team history such as school records and past meet results.  Thanks also to Joan Styczynski for putting together this e-mail list for our use!

If you have questions, concerns or need to have your athlete excused from practice, please e-mail me at shavers6@aol.com and/or CC Coach John Neisler at jmneisler@gmail.com.  Please let us know prior to practice if your child will not be attending for family or medical reasons.  They are responsible for letting us know about school conflicts, again, before practice. Please understand that it helps to have an e-mail that your child is excused from practice.  We have a rather large team and Coach Neisler and I appreciate not having to try to remember which athlete told us they would be absent Wednesday ... or was it Thursday??? You get the idea.

Although we have been doing conditioning workouts for the past few weeks, practice has officially begun.   Practice will be Monday through Friday, beginning at 3:10p and we will try to finish by 5:15.  For those parents picking their child up from practice, it may be best to plan on 5:30p so you will not be left waiting for them to collect their "stuff" and finish visiting.   The athletes can let Coach Neisler and I know if they have a reason to leave early once they get to practice.  If this is a regular issue, we will address it with the athlete.   If your athlete is participating in a winter sport, they are not required to be at practice until after their sport ends.  We will work with each of these athletes to determine their starting date ... some may need a short rest after their winter season ends and we will carefully work them into track practices.

The first indoor meet for the majority of athletes will be the University High School Invite at Horton Field House this Saturday, March 8th.  The coaches are making assignments now and we will post then later this week, along with a meet schedule.

We are excited about this season and look forward to working with your child.  There will be several coaches working with the athletes this season:
Coach John Neisler and I will work across all disciplines although I mostly work with sprinters and John's primary assignment is the distance athletes.

Several coaches work with both boys and girls teams:

  • Coach Karonji Carr works with the jumpers/sprinters
  • Coach Natalie Brunson-Wheeler works with hurdlers/sprinters
  • Coach Eric Simple will occasionally assist with sprinters
  • Coach Adam Rasche will assist with throwers

We also have a few volunteers helping occasionally.  The coaches will make every effort to meet the parents of our athletes during the first few meets.

Again, my e-mail address is shavers6@aol.com and my phone number is 309/310-3018.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.

I will send e-mails regularly to keep you updated on what is going on.  I will send the schedule for Saturday's meet as soon as I receive it but I want to let you know the following now.  Athletes assigned to Long Jump, High Jump and Pole Vault need to be at Horton Field House by 7:45a.  Athletes assigned to 60M Dash and 60M Hurdles need to be there by 8:45a and all other athletes need to be at Horton by 9a.  Just to give everyone fair warning, this meet is an all day event.  Historically, the meet is finished between 4p and 5p.  Athletes needing to be excused before the meet ends need to let either Coach Neisler or I know before Saturday, as many already have.  We also are aware several athletes have the Solo/Ensemble contest scheduled this same day.  Coach Neisler has been working with teachers to coordinate these activities.

Go Pioneers!

PS, if you have an additional e-mail address you would like me to send notes to or want to be removed from this list, please let me know.  Thanks!