The Good:
Atlanta has been hosting a first-class highly competitive track meet for many years. The meet is set up in a way so each athlete has a fair chance at success. It is one of the few meets that is held on a Saturday with running preliminaries. The spectator turn out this year was awesome. The weather was great also.

The Bad:
It seems that many athletic departments use the track meet as a quick fund-raiser with little thought for the athletes. There are several that make this bad list. One of the most recent was the meet held at Neches High School. Because they wanted to quote, " get home before midnight", they combined the varsity 800 meter runners with the J.V. runners. More than 30 kids running in one heat from a waterfall start. Tell me, how much time would you actually save by doing that? I'm not sure what else they did to "speed up the meet". Neches has held good meets in the past with Coach Ott directing them. Obviously Coach Ott wasn't there!

I thought the Neches meet was just a bit rushed as well, but in their defense, I know they were concerned about the weather and were trying to get the meet in.

I understand that, but....you pay your entry fee and you want your kids to have a fair chance. Putting 30 kids in one heat of the 800 is not fair to anyone.

30 kids? I bet it was a real mess when they could start cutting back to the inside.