Track meet represents what’s good about sports

PALMER — In less than a week, dozens of Mat-Su Valley student-athletes will cap their track and field careers at the Region III Championships, hosted by Palmer High School.

And many of those athletes who throw the shot put, clear the hurdles or dash across the finish line for the final time will do so exactly where their careers

started.

Each year Palmer High School is also home to the Mat-Su School District Elementary Track and Field Championships, an event that gives hundreds of local youngsters the chance to throw, jump and run in a competitive setting for the first time.

More than 500 fourth and fifth graders from the Mat-Su Valley competed in the 2008 district elementary championships at PHS on Saturday. Young student-athletes from 15 Valley schools participated in a plethora of events ranging from traditional track and field staples such as the relay or the high jump, to nontraditional offerings such as the obstacle course or softball throw.

The district championships, a Valley meet that is decades old, is often the first chance for local elementary students to be involved in athletics.

“It gives them the opportunity to see what it’s like, get into it,” said Rachelle LeSage, a Swanson Elementary teacher who has helped organize the meet for the last three years. “It’s great. It lets them know if they want to do it in the future.”

The elementary track and field championships epitomize the positive qualities of youth sports. While the meet provides competition for the young athletes, there is still an emphasis on participation and fun.

“You’ve gotta have fun,” LeSage said. “It’s competitive, but still fun.”

It seems that the older athletes are, the harder it is to blend competition and fun.

For some, the two are an impossible fit.

But on Saturday, as participants wandered their separate ways after individual events, it was hard to differentiate the first-place finishers from those who were in the middle of the pack, or even near the back.

The smiles were consistent throughout.

These young athletes were enjoying athletics in its purest form. This is before the pressures of higher competition hit. It’s before the sole the emphasis is placed on winning.

And this is how all youth sports should be, whether it’s running, baseball, soccer or hockey.

But sadly, some of what pollutes higher competition is trickling down into youth sports. There are the coaches who don’t believe in equal participation and the parents who carry a stop watch to the games to record the exact amount of time a child is in the game.

There are the parents who berate their young child after losing a wrestling match and the coaches who find it necessary to blast an opponent by 10 goals in a peewee hockey game.

The elementary championships also represent the support that these young athletes deserve. LeSage estimated about 40 — mostly parents — volunteered their time during the event, and noted a handful of local business that helped make the meet possible.

Unfortunately were are also in a time in which the future of youth sports in our schools is often in question.

With each fiscal crisis, after-school activities are promptly put on a chopping block.

But as it becomes easier for children to take the wrong path and journey down a road that only needs to trouble, there needs to be an emphasis on the importance of extra-curricular activities.

Not only did the estimated 525 students have the opportunity to compete, but each had the chance to participate in after-school practices four days per week for about six weeks leading up to the meet.

Just the practices give these fourth and fifth graders a positive outlet and can lead them to participation in extra-curricular activities in the future.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.