As a long time reader of the boards and infrequent poster, it’s super gratifying to see this thread not only make the hot list but go all the way to the top.
I had just started coaching when the Gills were in high school and remember when Brockton won States in XC and thinking, wow, Brockton??, that’s unexpected.
Now as a college coach I in the northeast I’ve gotta disagree with you Wigins. Travel is a pita and costly for colleges, even those of us who are only in buses and vans (rather than air travel) every weekend 8 months of the year. And high school programs? Forget about it! Only wealthy schools with big pocket parents and boosters (think Brookline not Brockton) are going south more than once a winter for a meet.
And the bigger issue is practice.
Are there any indoor tracks in the Brockton area south of Boston? Wheaton has one, I think.
What’s access there like for the community and high school teams?
Any other facilities? UMass Dartmouth?
Reggie’s totally unusable now with the Covid testing. How much you betting they are still doing testing there next winter? Or have other continued restrictions due to the virus?
In a normal year Reggie’s booked with meets and practices practically 24-7 from December thru March.
Bottom line, track is one of the the most popular (biggest participation numbers) youth, high school and college sports in the northeast, and the indoor season is 50 to 75% longer than outdoor here (closer to 100% for college) due to school and athletic association calendars. The one big expense is the facility. If Gill could jump start this with a $8 mill matching donation, and got other alums or boosters to match to $16, you better believe they could find another $16 or so of state/fed money to make it happen. Particularly if they put solar panels on it and rolled it into the ‘green new deal’