Meet Lineup Selection

• For a detailed explanation of how the coaches select the meets and events an athlete will compete in please read the document below

• Meet lineups will be evaluated on a weekly basis. Coaches will make decisions on the events and meets an athlete will compete in based on multiple criteria every week.

• Meet lineups will be announced at least two days before the meet. This is a tentative lineup as multiple things can happen to alter that list.

• On occasion athletes may be asked to run in multiple meets in a week, depending upon the situation.

• Relays may have a pool of athletes (5-6) announced for each meet. The coaching staff will designate the four athletes that will be running that event at the meet. If you are in this pool of athletes you must warm-up with the relay team.

Below is an explanation for how our meet lineups are set on a weekly basis by our coaching staff. Athletes and parents are always welcome to ask for feedback on why they are participating at the meets they are for a particular week. Please understand the development of athletes within our program is our top priority and each individual athlete and their development is discussed on a regular basis by our coaches. We spend a great deal of time deciding what meets and events athletes should be participating in and putting together our meet lineups on a weekly basis. Ultimately our goal as a coaching staff is to place our athletes in the best opportunities where we feel they can be successful and develop.

We have three levels of meets: varsity, junior varsity, and freshman. As a coaching staff we do not select varsity, junior varsity or freshman teams for the season. All athletes will run the same workouts and train together as a unit (sprinters, jumpers, distance, throwers) and could compete at different levels of meets during the course of a season depending upon different factors.

While one of our goals is to get as many girls into our varsity meets, there are several rules and restrictions that we must follow. Those that are new to track and field might not be aware of these limitations at the varsity level meets so please read through them.

1) At varsity level meets we are only allowed to enter three athletes per event and one relay team per relay event. (Most of the junior varsity meets have unlimited entries)

3) Each athlete may only compete in 4 events during the course of a meet.

4) An athlete may only compete in 9 meets (of four or more teams) during the course of a season before the district meet and the state meet.

Understand we as a coaching staff are evaluating athletes every day, every minute of practice and are looking for athletes that show us they want to be successful within this program. There are several factors that we as a coaching staff discuss when deciding where athletes will compete on any given week.

1) Attendance at workouts.

2) Performance during weekly workouts.

3) Coachability (Is the athlete looking to improve and listening to their coaches, instead of complaining and putting little effort towards self improvement)

4) Previous meet performances.

5) Academic performance and classroom behavior

Athletes that miss workouts or meets might be held out of future meets depending upon the circumstances. Varsity athletes in our program are held to a very high standard. If an athlete wishes to compete at the varsity level they must be consistent in their attendance and attitude at practice. Seniority is not considered when setting meet lineups - it is all performance based.

The times and distances listed below are the standards that we would like to see athletes attain in order to compete at the varsity level in the Westside Track & Field Program. While it is not a requirement for an athlete to be meeting this mark, this should be a goal for athletes that want to compete at the varsity level.

As a team we have one goal in mind and that is to win our district meet at the end of the season. Thus we put together the best lineup that we can for that meet which will allow us to score the most points and qualify the most athletes for the state meet.

Therefore all decisions that we make as a coaching staff are geared towards getting all of our athletes ready for that meet. We try to get as many athletes that we feel are prepared for varsity competition an opportunity to compete at that level. With that being said we as a coaching staff place a great deal of importance on junior varsity and freshman meets. We have seen many athletes start at these levels and advance throughout their time within the program to not only compete in varsity meets, but compete at the state track & field meet.

Also consider, that across different event groups the training schedule differs greatly. For instance competing in two meets in a week puts a lot less stress on sprinters or throwers than it does on distance runners and therefore athletes might not compete in different meets because of their training schedule.

As a coaching staff we are dedicated to every athlete’s success and ultimately want to place athletes throughout the season where they can succeed and develop as an athlete and individual.