Hi everyone,
I am Chuck Schneekloth, the Direct of the Garden State TC. Hope you're all having a great week.
Last month, we learned that the indoor HS sectional and state championships no longer hosts the long jump, triple jump, and 200m here in NJ.
The reason they don't host the two jumping events is because the facility they use, the Toms River Bubble, just doesn't support the two horizontal jumps.
Meanwhile, kids have been competing in these events all season long at the Armory, Ocean Breeze, and Princeton during their league, division, and county championships.
While we recognize there are much bigger issues in the sport, we also recognize this is fundamentally an equity issue. The fact that some kids get to compete for state medals and others don't isn't just unfair - it's discriminatory and terrible for the sport.
As funny as this may sound, imagine a world where the 1600m and 3200m isn't supported at the state championships.
This morning, we created a petition to the NJSIAA to change the venue of the meet starting next year. While we have hundreds of local signatures already, we would love the support of the broader LRC community to really help us make this change for the kids of NJ.
Thanks for your consideration.
Chuck