Track & Field coaches, athletes and friends
Please get involved to SAVE TRACK & FIELD
Ohio University is the latest to drop its Men's Track and Field program. Ohio University joins Bowling Green, Toledo, Ball State, Western Michigan, Marshall and West Virginia who all dropped track and field in the last few years.
There are 728 boys' high school track and field teams in Ohio according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association. Of the twelve boys Championships the OHSAA sponsors, track and field has the third most schools sponsoring a team. Only basketball and baseball have more high schools represented in OHSAA than track and field. With the popularity of high school track and field one wonders why this sport is being cut.
One of the reasons Athletic Directors look to cut track & field is that they count indoor and outdoor track and field as two sports. As a result, you can reduce the number of men participating in intercollegiate athletics by 40-50 - twice. It would be my suggestion to drop indoor track and field as a sport but not outdoor track and field.
I feel a college should take a close look at the diversity of a track and field team. A few years ago an African American trustee at a "State University" spoke out loudly about not dropping track and field, as it was one of the main sports that had a large number of African-Americans and minority students on the team. He pointed out how this school's overall African-American and minority student population was low. He stressed to his fellow trustees that it would be a bad policy to reduce the opportunity for minorities. This university kept track and field.
Track & Field is the oldest sport known to mankind. There are more countries participating in track and field in the Olympics than any other Olympic sport. Running is a lifetime sport and we need to do more to get people in Ohio and the U.S.A. fit and healthy
If a university needs to increase the number of women participating in intercollegiate athletics I suggest changing cross-country to cross country/distance running for women and hire an extra coach or two to help expand the program. I am sure with a little effort the coaches can get 40-85 women running in the fall.
What can YOU do?
1) Write the universities Presidents, Athletic Directors and Trustees members to voice your concern, this is especially important if you graduated from the university, recommend students to go to the university and if you or your business donate money to the university. (you can find contact information on the university’s web site)
2) Write a letter to your Ohio congress/senate members and voice your concern. Go to this
site -
http://www.house.state.oh.us/jsps/Representatives.jsp
and type in your zip code to
find your representative –
3) Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and voice your concern.
4) Pass this information on to as many friends as possible and ask them to do the same
With YOUR help we can work to SAVE Track and Field !!
Matt McGowan, Editor/Publisher RUNOHIO
http://www.runohio.com