If your tastes run toward the full gamut of indoor track and field events, your long wait is over.
The high school indoor season begins in fits and starts here in Colorado.
On December 9, the Air Force Holiday Open provided an opportunity for several high school athletes to get in an event or two. But, if you tried to make a meet of just the high schoolers who showed up, it wouldn't feel like very much of a meet. Simply not enough bodies.
Above the Bar pitched in with a pole-vault-only meet on December. It will real competition in a real venue, but nobody was throwing heavy objects, crashing over hurdles, kicking up a little sand, or suffering through endless laps around the track.
All that changes tomorrow.
USATF-Colorado gets a full-fledged high school (well, actually, an age group meet) meet underway at Balch Field House on Saturday.
I won't be there to cover it as taking photos inside Balch Field House is a whole lot like taking photos in a cave. Except that long exposures generally yield acceptable results in a cave. At a track meet, they don't work out so well.
Nevertheless, we'll have a full slate of results to report on for the first time this season. I don't know about you, but I'm just about ready for that. Typically, it takes about 24 hours for results to post from USATF-Colorado meets, so please give me at least that much time before starting to wonder if I've missed something.
And, once we get the USATF-CO All-Comers meet at Balch out of the way, the indoor season gets underway in a much more serious way the following weekend.
By the way, it could be there is a Colorado entry or two in the Texas A&M High School Indoor this weekend as well, but I don't have any advance word of that. Like the rest of you, I'll check the results when they post.
Here in Colorado, next weekend is the MLK Mile High on Sunday. If you want to make the trip down to Albuquerque, there's a pretty competitive meet shaping up down there on Saturday.
Or, if you travel with a pole, there's something called the Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada, that weekend.
Following that, there are more USATF-Colorado meets (like the MLK Mile High, at the Cadet Field House), there is a series of four Thursday meets at the Steinhauer Field House on the campus of Colorado School of Mines, and then there are the February meets.
February is when the indoor season takes hold in a serious way.
On February 4, the Air Force High School Open spills over inside the Cadet Field House. It is typically the best attended indoor meet in the Colorado season and the only indoor meet in Colorado that reliably draws out-of-state competition. This year's Air Force High School Open will be live streamed on Colorado Track XC. That's a pretty sweet deal that increases the value of your subscription.
But, showtime doesn't end on February 4. The next weekend, you must make a choice between the Great Southwest Indoor and the Western State High School Indoor Open.
The Great Southwest Indoor, of course, takes place in Albuquerque. If you sneak a peak at the early entries for this meet, it appears there is a very serious delegation of Texas talent pointed toward Albuquerque. The quality of this meet just keeps rising.
On the other hand, the quality of the Western State meet just keeps rising, too. The Western State High School Indoor Open is in serious growth mode these days. As the only indoor meet all season on the Western Slope, it figures to get a serious slice of the Western Slope crowd. But, a good piece of the Front Range has discovered this is a good weekend to make a winter trip over Monarch Pass.
So, February 11 is the big decision. Only you and your coach can say what's best for you.
February 16 through 18 is the Simplot Games. We know that meet's a big deal. It is the granddaddy of all indoor meets west of the Mississippi River. And, it's popularity only seems to grow.
For those opting out of the trip to Pocatello, Idaho, this year will see the second edition of the TCA Polar Bear on February 18. Actually, February 18 is a bit of a flexible date. If weather isn't looking so good on February 18, we'll move it to Presidents Day on February 20, but Plan A is to run the meet on February 18. There's more information to come on the TCA Polar Bear, but look for the following events: 600, 1000, 2000, DMR, 200 hurdles, shot put, discus (both on TCA's newly revamped, first-class throwing venues), and possibly a high jump.
So, as you can see, the really good stuff is just getting started for winter.