Ready or not, the 2017-2018 academic and athletic year has arrived. Teachers are busy preparing to meet the needs of their students and coaches in fall sports are several weeks into their respective seasons. There are some very good things happening in the IATC as we continue to look for ways to increase membership, improve communication and transparency, and find ways to promote cross country and track & field across our great state.
First off I’d like to congratulate all of the individuals, teams, and coaches on a fantastic State Track and Field meet in May. Despite the weather, the performances of the student athletes across all classes continues to be amazing. We would like to thank Ames HS for hosting the Mike Henderson Junior High Boys State Track and Field meet as well as Ankeny Centennial for hosting the Mike Henderson Junior High Girls State meet as well. Central College again hosted the 7th-12th grade coed state pentathlon the week after the state meet as their beautiful facility. The staff at the University of Dubuque did a tremendous job with the Senior Spotlight Meet in early June as well. There are so many people behind the scenes who help to make those events successful. Thank you to all who volunteered their time and efforts to help grow the sport of track and field for us!
Moving forward, I would like to wish all of the cross country athletes and coaches the very best of luck this season. The weather for the start of practices has been tremendous. The state qualifying meets will be held on October 19th while the coed state cross meet will be held on October 28th. Individual and team rankings will continue to be released throughout the season. We are still compiling information the JH state cross country meet and the Cross Country Senior Spotlight Meet. We will get that information posted to the IATC website as soon as possible.
Membership dues can be paid at any time. Please visit the membership portion of the IATC website (https://www.iowarunjumpthrow.com/about-the-iatc/membership/iatc-membership-form-2/) for more information. We are always looking for ways to increase the value of your membership so any feedback is appreciated.
One of the major goals that we are trying to improve within the IATC is increased attendance at our two meetings that are currently held each year in November and June at Ames HS. We are still in the organizational process of getting the details completely figured out but we are hoping to get an hour built into the Championship Productions Track and Field Clinic set to be held in Ames on December 1st and 2nd. We will release more information concerning this soon but feel the clinic might our best way to get as many members together as possible. Also for communication purposes; If you are an IATC member and you are currently not on our distribution email list please contact myself at jared.fletcher@carlislecsd.org or Rob Hammann (our website guru) at runrobrun@gmail.com
In closing please know how much we appreciate your membership and your contributions to our association. We wish all of you the best of luck in 2017-2018!
Jared Fletcher
2nd Vice President
