Churchill County Middle School’s track team officially opened its season Monday and started taking signups for the spring events.
Brian McAlexander, athletic director for CCMS and eighth-grade boys coach, said they usually attract 120 to 130 athletes spread between grades 6-8. He said he expects they will see a similar number of sign-ups this year.
In the past, most of the athletes have come from eighth grade; while seventh-graders sign up, McAlexander said it can be a toss-up whether they have many or just a few. He said sixth-graders are less common and tend to be nervous about the prospect of competing.
Along with McAlexander, the seventh-grade boys’ team will be coached by Keith Lund with Ed Ferris coaching sixth-grade boys; the eighth-grade girls will be coached by Warren Wood, Kris Hadley for seventh-grade girls and Kari Lister coaching sixth-grade girls.
Middle school track does five field events — shot put, discus, high jump, long jump and triple jump — and nine track events — 100-, 200-, 400- and 800-meter dash, one mile run, as well as 4x100, 4x200, 4x400 and 100-meter hurdles. Each grade will only compete against others of their grade in boys’ and girls’ divisions.
“When we have a track meet, it’s like having six track meets,” McAlexander said of the schedule at each meet.
The coach also said they will have the eighth-graders take leadership roles within the team to help guide the younger athletes. He said they like the older students to encourage the younger ones to try events they may not be as familiar with and take a ‘big brother’ or ‘big sister’ mentor role.
“It’s kind of hard to manage 130 kids or so, especially the first week,” McAlexander said. “The kids are trying to figure out what they want to do or what they even can do.”
CCMS has five official meets this year running through late May. The first meet will be April 14 in Dayton at 9 a.m. There will only be one home meet this year — the league championship in Fallon on May 16. There is no state level competition and middle-schoolers only compete within their regional league.
The schedule has one meet after the finals, but McAlexander said it’s not a competitive meet.
CCMS will be competing against teams from Pyramid Lake, Silver Stage Elementary, Silverland Middle and Yerington Intermediate.
