Could have lost his day

It could have never happened.Palmer Junior Middle School eighth grader Jake Parisien had a record-breaking day on Wednesday. The young runner shattered a pair of 10-year-old state middle school records.

Just months ago there was talk that all school-sponsored middle school activities could vanish. The ax would come down, separating all money allocated to school sponsored activities, such as athletics, from the general budget. If that was the case and middle school sports, like track and field, were cut -- Parisien would never have had his record breaking day. Eric Strabel's record would have lasted forever, as the only running an eighth grader would do was the sprint to the bus as he was running late to school.

Parisien has shown tremendous promise in the sport, for his age, and will ultimately go to the high school level and succeed. But for athletes such as Parisien to have success at the prep level, the ground work has to be set. Athletes need the opportunity to participate in the activity at the middle school level. It is the ultimate junior varsity

This community has produced countless quality athletes who have had tremendous success on the high school level and many who have gone on to have successful collegiate careers.

The list is broad and features names such as Jessica Moore, Cole Magner and Jed Wade.

But Moore had to start somewhere, Magner had to start somewhere, and so did Wade.

Credit is due to such elementary and middle school teachers and coaches such as Kay Omer, Lyle Busbey, John DePriest and Bill and Dave Booth -- they are just a select few of a large group of coaches who play a large part in the reason why Palmer, Wasilla, Colony and Houston each have programs that contend for state championships every year.