Petition for NJ's HS Track and Field Athletes

Princeton is certainly no Armory or Ocean Breeze, but there were some great state meets held there at Jadwin. Centrally located, plenty of parking, etc. I remember racing there and feeling like I was a million miles away from the spectators, but it actually was a decent place to watch and run.

I understand why the Bubble can't handle the horizontal jumps, but why not the 200??

Maybe UPenn's new facility will make sense. The bigger issue is that the NJSIAA continues to have issues in all three seasons. Horrendous timing issues at Holmdel, this fiasco with the bubble, and moving the sectional weekend in spring are all bad for the kids and bad for the sport.

It's long past time something is done here. NJ is an immense track and field state, and the Bubble is just not doing justice in showcasing these competitors. Glad to see you all working to do something here.

Jadwin is out. They don't want to host high school meets anymore for whatever reason.

But why not have the NJ state indoor meet at Ocean Breeze? It's just right across the bridge.

Remember the time that the Bubble deflated? Imagine that happening the day of the state meet.

I would have some devastated athletes. We haven’t had triple jump at any of our indoor meets just long jump. We also don’t have a pit for athletes to practice either jump. The

Good luck.

Thanks for Sharing.

Chuck you got me into a meet when I signed up late, I'll always appreciate what you guys do for the sport

I agree that the venue should change to something more like OB for Sectionals and Groups, but I am not sure why you are making it sound like they only recently removed LJ, TJ and the 200m. These events are still a part of MOC via showcase events for the very best.
In the case of my school, we are mostly limited to Drew University which doesn't even have the potential for LJ or TJ. They also only allow XC shoes, without spikes in them. In addition, our school is given about half the coaching staff for indoor compared to outdoor. Expanding the number of required events indoors would lead to a greater gap between the teams with and without proper resources indoors. Its impossible to get any volume of horizontal jump practice in the winter due to snow in north west NJ too.
Your petition has two components: 1) change venue to somewhere with proper facilities, 2) add the LJ, TJ and 200m to indoor track in NJ. Your IG post comes across as interested in helping one school win sectionals by more points because they are appropriately staffed to practice uncontested events through the winter.

I think everyone wants to get behind #1, but #2 creates more disparity. Getting accurate seed times going into sectionals in the 200m requires fairly even access to banked indoor tracks. Also keep in mind, OB had a prize tag of about $112 million. Expect a similar price to build a similar facility in NJ. Perhaps someone in track is friends with the governor?

While I agree that they need to move the meet to a place that can have all of the events, saying it's "discriminatory is asinine and is the worst kind of fishing.

There we go! Knew we'd get the Letsrun type comments on something that is working for good change in the sport. Give it a break dude. No other sport would put up with a half assed facility hosting a state championship.

Didn't I say the event should be moved?

I know, why don't you answer this question for me: How is not hosting events that can't be hosted in the facility, discrimination?

Why don't you start first, why does it bother you that it mentions it being discriminatory? Why even bother reacting and fishing for what exactly?

It's disgusting to say it's a racist decision. Track and field is the most diverse sport sport, across every event.

Ocean Breeze isn't even in NJ. Your solution is to host it in another state? Some states don't even have indoor championships. Are you going to call South Carolina, Texas, Florida, etc racist for not having an indoor state championship at all?

You should be ashamed, Chuck.

"Discriminatory" doesn't mean racist. What a clown. What an absolute JO

Story I heard years ago was that Princeton asked the NJSIAA and coaches many times to make sure the kids didn't leave the facility an unholy mess after the meets, or else they'd lose access. After several warnings, the place was still trashed after NJ HS meets, so Princeton stopped hosting.

Hi everyone - thanks for the support. And thank you to those clarifying that there are varying types of discrimination beyond racial discrimination. At the end of the day, we want our sport to send that message that all events and all athletes are equally important, but sadly, that's not happening in NJ right now.

I appreciate your response here. To clarify, the purpose of our IG post wasn't to just say that the TJ, LJ, and 200m should be in the state meet. It wanted to show, in a very concrete way, how unfair it is that they're excluded.

In other words, NVD has a kid who's been winning the TJ and LJ all season in team-scored county and divisional meets. And then, at the state meet, suddenly it's not an event and the best team almost doesn't win.

Since it's not fair to kids and teams to omit these events, the solution is to find a venue that can, indeed, support them.

You can't lie your way out of your statement, Chuck. You call it an equity issue and discriminatory....It's 2024 - we know and you know what you were implying.

Having followed Garden State Track Club for a while, I have lost respect for you as a person for calling the NJSIAA racist.

en.wikipedia.org

Discrimination

...

Link:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination

Just a couple of questions:

What is the cost to NJSIAA to have the meet at Toms River vs Ocean Breeze, Armory or any other viable option?

How difficult is scheduling Ocean Breeze with sectional and Group meets?

If better facilities are available, but at earlier dates, would you be in favor of shortening the season for everyone to accommodate those events?

As a side note, I would love to see Rutgers construct a nice indoor track facility for themselves (and the Bubble ain't it) and to use it for indoor high school meets.