(Robert Ramsey showcases his skills in the hurdles. Photo by Tom Connor)
The FLYRA Middle School State Championships have been the springboard for many of the state's best and brightest track and field athletes. In 2015, we saw sprint phenom Tyrese Cooper sweep the 100, 200, and 400 for the second straight year in record times of 10.61, 21.26, and 47.76.
In years past there have been two ways to qualify for the state meet: run a qualifying time at any FAT meet or finish in the top two at a regional championship. Jason Byrne, co-director of the middle school state track meet and FLYRA (Florida Youth Running Association) board member, says this year the road to Bradenton will be slightly different.
"Athletes can still qualify by hitting the auto-qualifying standards," Byrne explained, "but we are no longer allowing place-based qualifiers from regional championships."
Despite the elimination of place-based advancement from these meets, FLYRA will continue to endorse regional championship meets. Byrne said the non-profit organization's board of directors felt strongly about the continued need for these meets. "The regional meets are still valuable and we are still putting our stamp on these events. FLYRA wants to ensure that our middle school athletes have quality meets and these meets are still vital even without the place-based qualification element."
The change has been discussed among the FLYRA Board for almost two years, leading up to the vote to approve the measure earlier this week. Initially the regional championship meets were created as a way to get the word out about the state meet. Before many knew a state championship existed for this age bracket, the regional meets created visibility around the state and helped bolster the number of participants at the state meet. Given the wide-spread recognition the meet has attained, this marketing is no longer necessary.
"People know about the Middle School State Championship and people strive to get there at the beginning of the season." Byrne continued, "we don't need the regional qualifiers for a promotional engine anymore."
At most of the larger regional championship meets, the top two finishers almost always meet the qualifying standards. So in those regions, the change has largely no impact.
However, in some of the more rural areas and regional championships with less attendance many of the top two finishers (who didn't hit the standard) have ended up side-by-side in the slow heat or being lapped in some distance races. They have seldom proven to be in contention for a medal. With an ever expanding number of qualifying athletes, Byrne says the move will help to preserve the elite competitive aspect of the event and arrest the slowing pace of the meet that expanding numbers of heats has created.
"The core function of the meet is to have championship-level quality and atmosphere, as opposed to an open meet. As an organization, we still embrace athletes at all levels and want to encourage them and give them opportunities to compete, but the state championship needs to be just that."
One of FLYRA's main initiatives is to increase participation in the sport at the youth level by spurring more opportunities to participate on teams and more meets for middle school athletes to compete in. Byrne says the non-profit group has been exceedingly successful in these goals over the past several years.
"We've had record levels of participation and competition both at our championship meets and state wide. Not only is the sport getting more popular in this age bracket, but middle school track & field in the state of Florida is getting more competitive. And hopefully we are helping to seed the next generation of track athletes and making fans of the sport for life!"
The 2016 FLYRA Middle School State Championship is slated for May 14th, 2016 once again at Bradenton's IMG Academy. This year on back-to-back weekends at the venue with the high school state championship.