Track Parents

Our team’s amazing parent coordinator is Rachel Axinn, mom to sophomore Mali. You should get weekly emails from her throughout the season. If you aren’t on the email list yet, please click here to contact Rachel. If you see Rachel at a meet, please introduce yourself and say hello!

PARENT FAQ’s:

How can I help this season?

The kids love having snacks for after they compete, and you can sign up to provide snacks here: Snack Sign-Ups

Suggestions

Drinks: gatorade or other sports drinks, chocolate milk (a research-based recovery drink), juice boxes (the team brings our own water cooler and cups for the kids)

Fruit: apples, grapes, watermelon slices, oranges/clementines/cuties/etc, bananas

Snacks: fruit/grain breakfast bars, pretzels, granola bars (non high-fiber type), rice cakes, muffins, peanut butter sandwiches

What equipment does my child need in order to practice/compete?

Practices

– Refillable water bottle

– Running shoes

– Workout clothing

– Warm layers (early in the season: warm-up pants, sweatshirt/fleece/jacket, hat, gloves)

Meets

– Uniform (provided by the school, and must be returned at the end of the season or the family will be charged for a replacement)

– Running shoes or track spikes

– Proper undergarments that are not visible under the uniform
– Refillable water bottle, snacks

– Warm layers (pants, warm jacket, hat, gloves – in between events, students will be sitting around and it can get windy/cold)

– Many boys and girls like to wear compression shorts / spandex under their uniform shorts, and this is fine, so long as the shorts are a solid-color red, white, black, or gray.

Food

To stay healthy, our athletes need to be eating enough and eating well: plenty of whole grains, protein, calcium, fruits and vegetables! In order to re-fuel after a practice or meet, athletes need to eat very soon after the workout – at hour at the very most. Reminding your child to pack or buy a snack (e.g. an apple and peanut butter, a cup of Greek yogurt, a turkey and cheese or veggie wrap, a pb&j sandwich, a black-bean burrito, etc) is one way you can help ensure he isn’t energy-depleted by the time he gets home! Check out our Nutrition page, and encourage your child to read it, too!

Am I allowed to watch meets and/or practices? Track Parents

We love having family supporters at meets! You can find directions here. During meets, parents can watch running events from the bleachers, and field events (shot put, long jump, triple jump) from the fences in front of those events; parents/fans should not be on the track infield.

Practices are for athletes and coaches only.

How do I know when my son/daughter will practice / compete?

Check the calendar for each practice time/location and meet start times.

Practices are held at East River Park; we usually depart school by bus at 3:30 and return by bus around 5:15 or 5:30.

If you are coming to a meet and want to know when you’ll see your child, the meet orders of events are posted as an attachment below (match up the meet name with the proper file). Meets vary dramatically in how quickly they run (sometimes meets are run very efficiently and fast, other times we might finish 30 minutes later than expected).

“Optional Practices” are just that – optional. Since students must have 80% attendance in order to compete in meets, these optional practices are a good way for athletes to catch-up or get ahead in their attendance. All optional practices are supervised by coaches.

Do athletes practice / compete in the rain?

On days when it rains, coaches make the decision based on safety; if the rain is light enough and the weather is warm enough, we will still practice at East River Park outside. If the rain is heavy or it’s cold, the team will still practice, but on campus (using the fitness center and other areas of the school).

Meets are run rain or shine. The only time a meet will be delayed or canceled is due to lightening. The meet coordinators have strict guidelines regarding lightening procedures, so you can be assured that every precaution will be taken to ensure the safety of the kids and fans.

What safety measures are taken with the athletes?

All coaches are certified in First Aid, CPR, and AED use. We have a medical kit that we bring to every practice, and the school’s trainer, Roz, accompanies us to some practices. Every meet has a certified trainer on site.

Athletes are encouraged to run and workout even if they are sore or fatigued; soreness is a part of normal exercise and training and continuing to work through soreness will actually prevent stiffness. The coaches plan the entire season with recovery practices/days built in after tough workouts, so when students selectively skip practices they risk getting off-schedule with our training plan. We provide foam rollers for the athletes at every practice/meet, and have instructed them in how to use these to help with mitigating soreness and keeping their muscles warm.

Athletes who have pain (e.g. a pull or strain, sharp/shooting pains, dizziness) should tell a coach immediately and make an appointment to seeRoz, our school’s trainer.

Will my child miss any school due to track?

Occasionally, students will be dismissed during the school day in order to travel to a meet and arrive on time. Dismissal times are posted on thecalendar.

Coaches instruct students to:

1) contact their teachers a week in advance to warn them of their impending absence and tell the teacher that the student will make up any missed work on his/her own time,

2) contact a classmate in advance to set up a plan for getting any missed notes/information via scanner/email/photo that night,

3) schedule a time to make-up any missed tests/quizzes.

Students traveling to the famous Penn Relays in April will have the experience of a lifetime … and will miss one full day of school. Just like with Experiential Education or other field trips, students simply plan ahead and contact teachers in advance to make up work.

What if I think Track & Field is interfering with my child’s studies?

Most athletes comment that participating in a sport actually makes them work more efficiently, because they know they can’t afford to waste time. Academically-successful athletes make good use of their free periods throughout the day (most students have 2-3 per day), and work ahead on weekends.

The team hosts optional study hall sessions twice a week after practice, when the coaches supervise students in the library to work on homework until 6:30 or later. This is a great way for students to work efficiently (students have commented on how much they get done in this focused environment), to get help from one another, and to get help in programming/technology (Mumford) or math (Krow and Melaragno).

If you have strong concerns about your child’s academic performance slipping due to the season, please contact a coach immediately so that we can work through a solution.