Say it ain't so: Johnson County CC in Kansas City planning on shutting down track program and demolishing its track

I was bummed to hear about this. Not just for Aquinas (there is enough money in that community that they will come up with something, especially with the success of their program), but more for the college program. Even being extremely successful isn’t enough to save you from cults.

It does amaze me that there isn’t another outdoor collegiate track in the immediate area, and indoor is even worse. Central Missouri does a solid job hosting collegiate stuff, but they don’t do as much with the high schoolers. Mizzou’s indoor facility isn’t nice, but they do a really nice job with their indoor series for high schoolers. Pitt State seems to really be taking advantage of their new facility, so hopefully that continues to grow. KU has a nice facility, but meet management always seems to be a mess.

The trail infrastructure is actually pretty solid though, at least on the Missouri side. The trolley trail is a nice downtown option and there are trails all over the eastern suburbs.

Does anyone with JCCC connections know if the construction of the new baseball, softball, and soccer fields will have any impact on JCCC's XC course?

Growing up in the greater KC area, I loved racing the Greg Wilson Classic @ JCCC. I believe Aquinas hosts this meet and they do a fantastic job. Its a nice fast course to start the XC season with and it would be a shame if it had to be amended.

-HStu

HarrierStu wrote:

Does anyone with JCCC connections know if the construction of the new baseball, softball, and soccer fields will have any impact on JCCC's XC course?

Growing up in the greater KC area, I loved racing the Greg Wilson Classic @ JCCC. I believe Aquinas hosts this meet and they do a fantastic job. Its a nice fast course to start the XC season with and it would be a shame if it had to be amended.

-HStu

I don’t have a connection to know for sure, but the track is across a street from the XC course. The course already weaves around a variety of fields so I doubt there will be much construction on that side of the campus. I think St. James is also hosting a 2018 meet there too, so that probably means the course will remain if they are adding meets.

I work at Garry Gribble's in Overland Park, so am familiar with the layout of the XC course, to some degree. It's across an access road and up the hill from the track, so no impact there. What is even more stunning to the total destruction of the track is that the money that would go to the track and xc programs will now fund, wait for it.....expense money for the softball teams! Yes, the softball players will get food money for their Big Macs and the runners are told to take a hike!

JCCC's track even includes a water pit for running a steeplechase. I don't know of a single track in the KC area closer than KU (an hour's drive at least) that can run a steeple. So it's a special track, and helped create National Junior College champions and championships. I am very saddened that my county tax money helps support a Jr. College that has decided this, and plan to be at the walk, too.

I urge any and all LRC runners to call and email the JCCC Athletic Dept and tell them what you think. Oh, and we do have asphalt trails around Johnson County, but other counties in the metro KC area have few and are very lacking in motivation. We have some maps of the JOCO trail system in our store.

A LRC visitor wrote:

This program has 57 National Champions, 1,380 All-Americans and 80 Conference titles in 32 years. The Johnson County Community College has been a very huge fan of the Letsrun community and all that you do to help keep our sport going.

I'm sorry to see this program go, but can someone explain how a school can average 43 All-Americans per year? Assuming it's all three sports, and spread across men and women, that still means each team has on average 7 All-Americans per season. Can anyone verify this? If true, it's remarkable.

Banana Bread wrote:

Turn the lights of.

off

waltertompatton wrote:

I suspect they are hiding something. Track & Field does not cost that much. No mention was made of basketball and they happen to have some excellent teams there. To rip up an excellent track is Captain Insano!!!

The Alumni who ran for all those teams should be up in arms. I would think this will reduce their fundraising. My college dropped track & field many years ago. They have never received one red cent from me and they never will until they resume that program! (I'm not holding my breath, but I do know why they dropped it---football.)

Track and field doesn't cost that much? I love track but seriously....have you bought a pole vault pole recently? (500 to 1000 EACH) Or maybe a new set of pits (5000 minimum for HJ pits, to 35000 for top of the line PV pits)? Or the cost of getting your track resurfaced (between 20K and 100k)? I love track, but it is rather expensive. Not football expensive, but sure as hell more expensive than soccer, baseball etc.... I would bet it is one of the most expensive collegiate sports, behind football and Gymnastics, and possibly the swimming sports depending on the cost of maintaining pools.

And the rental fees are what make those other fields important to the school. I work at a college that put a new artificial turf soccer field in their stadium. That this is constantly rented out. 7 days a week, evenings after track and soccer practices, and all day every weekend day except for soccer game or track meet days. I absolutely hate it because the soccer players that rent it out have zero care for our facilities. I am CONSTANTLY cleaning chewing gum off the track, and I know it isn't our soccer players, its the ones that rent the place.

I don’t really know how much it costs to upkeep a track and associated programs. I also don’t know the current condition of the track or how many useful years are left in it. However, addressing the need for more fields, it’s helpful to understand what’s already there. Looking at Google Maps satellite view, I see the track and throwing/jumping areas within. Immediately next to the track is what looks like a practice soccer field. Immediately next to that is a baseball diamond. 100 yards away from the track in the other direction is a lined soccer field and next to that is a softball field. Certainly, if you want another soccer field, just place it inside the current track and move the jumps/throws somewhere else nearby. Interestingly, I don’t see a football stadium on the campus, though there is one at the neighboring high school along with two baseball/softball fields.

It looks like there’s another soccer field a few hundred more meters away in the adjacent park. At the park, there’s also an off-leash dog park that takes up almost as much room as the track. And another open green area that looks like it has 5 small softball fields (with lines drawn for 3 junior size soccer fields and some other sort of fields).

I have no idea how many soccer and softball/baseball fields they need but I found all this in one small area of the town. That’s more in a large four square block area than I had in my entire town growing up and yet they want to get rid of the track and create more playing fields.

Clearly, it’s hard to monetize the track, as the only way to charge for use would be to have someone working the gate to collect from community members who want to use it. The soccer fields and baseball fields are easier to collect revenue. However, the net cost to maintain them may be greater than maintenance of the track, as I imagine soccer fields get beaten up pretty badly and baseball fields need lines drawn periodically as well as may need maintenance of dugouts, fences, etc if part of the facility.

Anyway, things are not looking great for Track in the US these days.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9221902,-94.7387385,1510m/data=!3m1!1e3

I believe JUCO All-American is top 8. That is not exactly a low threshold, but there are not that many competitive JUCO programs around the country.

NJCAA track is dominated by about 10 schools. Being an NJCAA All-American is about like being all conference in a mid major DI.

Hello, Ken M, hope you are doing great. I see that ACSM will have more time/info dedicated to cancer and exercise at their National Convention this year.

The Google map you posted includes the Stoll Park Center, another strip mall of businesses, and that is where I work, fyi. Just a mile from the JCCC facilities.

Brianruns10 wrote:

Coffee Monster wrote:

That is terrible to see!

I am from Kansas City and for how a great of a city it is, the running infrastructure is terrible..

Oh I know! Fellow Kansas Citian chiming in. Have you ever seen UMKC's "track." It's four straightaways with rounded corners. An absolute joke.

Technically UMKC's track (the one they paid for) is a partnership with a high school in the same area. Mondo surface and full steeple ready. Actually a really nice track, the one you're referring to is the student gym track.

The fact is the JCCC president hates sports in general. The other fact is that the track and field program was largely self-sufficient. It was not as costly as softball or soccer. Coach Bloemker did an excellent job of fundraising to cover the costs of travel and other items. Outside of the scholarships, the program wasn't a big drain on the athletic department.

The community needs to unite and keep the track in place. I'm glad to see this show up on LetsRun!

I have dealt with the Johnson County government in the past. What a bunch of idiots. IMHO.

I went to JCCC back in the mid 90's and ran that course even back in my HS days... live several states away now but does anyone in the area know who would be valuable to contact at JCCC about this? I can google up the college president, but assume there is list of deciders would would be valuable to contact?

Mike Lundgren wrote:

JCCC's track even includes a water pit for running a steeplechase. I don't know of a single track in the KC area closer than KU (an hour's drive at least) that can run a steeple.

The track at St. Teresa's Academy which is UMKC's track has a mondo surface and a steeple pit.

The track at William Jewell in Liberty also has a steeple pit.

Thanks for letting me know, I appreciate the info (and slightly embarrassed that I'd didn't know, but I've been wrong before), and should have at least guessed that there were complete tracks somewhere. Still sad that there are only two in a KC metro area of 1.5 million people.

As to who to call at JCCC, I'd call the AD directly AND follow up with an email, or even a letter/letter-writing-campaign.

Central Missouri has a nice new mondo, 200m flat track just 30min away from KC. They host quite a few meets for the area.

Central Missouri is 40 Minutes fron Lee's Summit, the most extreme SE suburb of KC. It's a good hour drive from KC to get to that facility. That my friend is not a track that can be considered to be in Kansas City by any stretch.

waltertompatton wrote:

I suspect they are hiding something.....

There is absolutely more to this story, perhaps some kind of construction kick back or something.....

As others have pointed out demolishing the track will be pricey in its own right, and fitting a soccer feild inside the track is amazingly easy.....