Darrell,
I agree that the club system cannot wait for Indy to do something, it
must go for its own gold. That said, the Nat Club Champs is a great
idea, one I've been behind for some time. We also need to go at this
from a professional viewpoint, which means corporate sponsorship, etc.
Additionally, this also means that the coaching staff involved must be
full-time & paid. Until this happens, track coaches on all levels being
treated with the financial respect that tennis or skating coaches get,
we cannot expect that our clubs will get any respect from sponsors or
the media.
This club system can benefit most from a structured regional/national
schedule. Team scores must be kept and promoted to the hilt, and a
complete event schedule should be followed as often as possible (get
some walks in there too!!).
As for the grass roots division, it should not be creating anything for
anyone. Instead it should be administrative and perform
fundraising/publicity functions locally and nationally. My greatest
beef with Indy in this area, is the comment that no major sponsor will
support the Associations, with Adidas only wanting to fund the national
meet. The only reason this is true, is that no one has asked the right
questions and given the right proposal to them. If Adidas knew the
benefits, they'd jump in a second, but no one wants to tell them.
MJR
