The proud and historic Charlotte High School was nearly completely destroyed by a direct hit from Hurricane Charley in 2004. This past August, after an $84 Million rebuilding effort, it rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the old school. Along with the school itself, the athletic facilities and stadium were re-constructed. The result is a beautiful, state-of-the-art nine lane track & field facility.
Coach Chris George of Charlotte High School is proud of his school and their new facility and is ready to show it off. Dreaming of bringing large events to the area, he has been tossing around the idea of hosting a distance carnival this spring. “Not grand enough,” he decided.
Just two weeks ago Coach George came to me and proposed a partnership. He envisioned bringing a major track & field meet to Southwest Florida. Inspired by our cross country meet, he asked me to undertake this task with him. After a brainstorming session with him on the phone yielded some exciting possibilities, I told him I needed a couple of weeks. Since the beginning of this month I have been trying to talk myself out of doing it. “I’m far too busy to take on another meet,” I have been repeating in my head. But I can’t shake the excitement of doing something fun, different, and grand.
So here it is: flrunners.com Primetime @ Charlotte High School! It will be held on March 4-5, 2011.
The basic concept is to encourage participation and experimentation. We want to discourage worrying about team scores and let teams focus on giving kids a chance to compete in new events and enjoying a festival atmosphere at an early season, low-pressure meet. The entire meet will be finals against time and consist of many non-traditional events.
At the same time, it just wouldn’t be flrunners.com without an elite element. This is the inspiration of the “Primetime” in the meet’s name. We will take the top seeded entries in select events at put them in the primetime slot under the lights. This is inspired by the USATF’s drawing board concept of trying to reduce track meets to a short period of time (fit for TV) that really draws the crowd in by being short and high action.
The meet will be a two day affair, with three parts: Friday afternoon open individual events, Friday night primetime seeded individual events, and Saturday is our relay day.
This separation will let kids go out and run in their individual event without worrying about having to hold back for a relay (or qualifying rounds). So you can go after that 1500 on Friday and then come back with your team on a DMR on Saturday.
I encourage your feedback and ideas. We are fleshing out all of the details right now and will continue to roll out news as we finalize some things. We hope you'll be excited about it and put it on your schedule if you're able!
Questions and Answers
Awards? First through third medals in all individual and relay events (for all four legs). Plaque for winners of Primetime events. No team awards.
What is the “Primetime” division? How do you get in? We are picking select events to contest under the lights to create an exciting and fast-paced atmosphere that is very crowd friendly. These are our elite individual races. Enter your athletes in the event (same as any other) and we will pick the top entries from each select event to be in our primetime heat.
Can we run just one day? Yes. Enter your team in one or both days.
Entry fee? This meet is open for schools only. The cost is $60 for one day or $100 for both days, per gender. In other words, the max is $100 per gender and $200 per school.
What events? Where is the schedule of events? Here it is!
How many lanes? Charlotte HS has 9 legal lanes for single straight events (100, 100H, 110H). Eight of those lanes are legal for longer events—“lane zero” will not be used for events over 110.
No prelims? Nope. All heats will be finals against time. We will seed heats by time.
Will seed times be verified? Yes, we will use the best time from last year by default. Coaches may override this; however, this will red flag us to double-check on it… and we will definitely double-check if the manually entered time puts you in the fast heat.
How do you enter? We will use the online registration system on flrunners.com to enter. No entries will be accepted by other means. You must pay before the meet or we will not hold your spot. We will open entries next week (before Christmas).
Who is doing the timing? Half Mile Timing.
How many entries per team? We will allow two athletes for individual events and one team for relays.
How many people does the stadium seat? It can seat 3,500 on the home side and 1,500 on the visitor side.
Where to stay? There is lodging in Punta Gorda, nearby Port Charlotte, and a little further out in North Ft. Myers, Cape Coral, and North Port. Here are the recommended meet hotels.
Will the meet be sanctioned? Yes, Charlotte HS will be the host school. We will be double sanctioned by the FHSAA and USATF. We will not, however, be sanctioned for out of state schools.
Will there be concessions for sale? Yes.
Will there be admission/parking charged? Yes, but we haven’t figured out the rates yet. We’ll try to keep them relatively nominal.
Will there be t-shirts for sale? Yes, we are hoping to do multiple colors like the flrunners.com Invitational cross country meet. They will be $15.
Will there be live coverage? Yes, we will be streaming the event live on the internet and live results will be posted shortly after each event. We will also have our crew out in full force to post lots of photos, videos, and articles!
Will there be a rabbit? We are hoping to be able to find a rabbit for our Primetime 5K and 800 race. This must be a high school athlete though, so it may be a challenge to find. If you have an athlete interested and capable of setting a good pace, let me know. We’ll find a way to say thank you!
Will there be an announcer? Yes, we will have commentators to host the meet over the PA and live webcast.
Will there be music? Oh yeah… we’ll have a solid playlist to keep the meet rocking and get the crowd into it. “Who let the dogs out” anyone?
Are you looking for sponsors? Yes! We have sponsorship opportunities including space vendor booths and for event naming opportunities of our Primetime races. Contact jason@flrunners.com for details.
What is the purpose of the meet? It's the same basic idea behind our cross country meet. We want to celebrate the sport. We want to put on a meet that is fun and different. That teams circle on their calendar and will remember for a lifetime. We want it to be different and not just another meet. We think we can achieve that and hope you will support it.