Christ the King CYO Track & Field
Head Clerk: "Secrets of the Brown Hat"
Along with the starter and the head timer, this job determines how fast (or slow) the meet will go. If nothing else, just try to be ahead of the events. You should be working about half an event ahead of the actual meet: if middle-school girls are running a race, then you should be trying to get the youngest boys ready. This will give you buffer time when things go wrong -- and sometimes, they do. Athletes wander off, or show up late for a heat, or there's confusion in signups, like assigning ten athletes in an eight-lane track. Staying ahead will give you a buffer and present the illusion to spectators that everything is under control.
This is the process I followed for a number of years, by event:
- 1600m
- Have announcer call to remind coaches to make relay cards for 4x100m relay
- 20 athletes in a heat is a maximum, fewer if they're large
- Dividing by grades 2-4 and 5-8 works well
- Call for the younger girls 4x100 relay after the first 1600m heat starts
- 4x100 relay
- Always popular, and thus, chaotic
- Assure athletes that they will get a baton: we never start a relay without them
- Assign relay teams to lanes as soon as possible and write the lanes on the sheets
- Dismiss the runners with their shepherds in reverse order: 4th leg first, then third leg (they have a long walk), then second, then first
- Call for younger (grade 2-5) boys relays when the grade 2-5 area is open
- Call for older (grade 6-8) boys relays when the grade 6-8 area is open
- Call for younger (grade 2-5) girls 400m when the grade 2-5 area is open
- Call for older (grade 6-8) girls 400m when the grade 6-8 area is open
- 400m
- Compared to the 4x100m, this is a nice, slow event: breathe!
- Shepherds can manage a heat of athletes once they are all signed in: give the shepherd a sheet and let them line up the athletes behind the timers so they can enter the track as soon as the last relay finishes
- As before, call for the older groups when the younger ones are dismissed
- 50m and 100m
- Things get busy again
- Clerks will be scrambling here, especially in grades 2-3: they will surely need extra sheets and crowd control
- You can help clerks by physically arranging athletes into heats and lanes before they are signed in. This takes a little extra time at the beginning, but you'll make it up once they start lining up
- Shepherds will take the sheets and line up the athletes right on the track: they need to know to run the sheets back to the recorder's table
- Remember: 5th grade is the oldest grade for the 50m. Everyone may run the 100m.
- If this is a team-run "practice" meet, boys and girls run these events on opposite sides of the track, so you will only need to worry about calls for one gender. Call as soon as you have room.
- The shift-change usually happens during these events. Ask outgoing clerks to train their replacements.
- 800m
- Meets thin out dramatically after the 100m completes
- Anyone may run the 800m: we do a "waterfall start" like the 1600m with no lane assignments
- Still keep the genders seperate, unless the meet is nearly vacant
- This event takes a while to get through: a nice break for clerks and weary shepherds
- Have announcer call to remind coaches to make relay cards for Sprint Medley and 4x400m relays
- 200m
- Allow for shepherd's walking time since the start line for this event is far away from the clerk area (third turn)
- Combine heats as much as possible, but don't stick too broad of an age gap together (don't run 2nd graders through 6th graders, for instance)
- Each heat should be "stacked" on the track like the 50m and 100m: send a shepherd out with the sheets and a heat of kids, line them up on the track, and then get the sheets back to the recorders
- Call for the Sprint Medley when the older boys are dismissed. Call all ages, boys and girls.
- Sprint Medley Relay
- Coaches are usually scrambling to make teams for this event: be patient. Only the die-hard families are left at the meet now
- The "run-up" diocese rule for combined teams is: the oldest athlete determines the team grade, and any boy on the team makes it a "boys" team. Having a sixth-grade boy on a team with eighth grade girls creates an eighth-grade boys team
- Handle the same as the 4x100: assign teams to lanes
- Assure athletes that they will get a baton: we never start a relay without them
- The second and third leg runners need to be dismissed to the far turns like the 4x100m
- The first and final (anchor) leg runners assemble in lanes on the track for instructions from the starter
- Call for the 4x400 relay when there's a heat or two left to go. All ages, boys and girls.
- 4x400m Relay
- Coaches again are scrambling to fill teams
- See the "run-up" rule, above. Lots of mixed teams make it into this event
- Assure athletes that they will get a baton: we never start a relay without them
- All runners assemble in lanes on the track for instructions from the starter