Current Features
April 25, 2002
EDIT BELOW
The PIAA has awarded the Hershey Entertainment and Sports Complex
(HERCO) the opportunity to host the state XC Championships for another
three years. The course received mixed reviews in 2001, so PennTrackXC
asked for reaction. And did we get reaction! Two for. Seventeen against.
Below are those responses. Soon, we hope to bring you the PIAA's
reasoning behind the selection of Hershey over Lehigh (which hosted an
NCAA meet) and Slippery Rock (which also hosted an NCAA event).
Just in case you've never been to Hershey, here are photos taken by PennTrackXC in
2001. Note the stones in the first photo, and the sidehill running on
the ridge, referred to in the emails.
FAVORABLE
Hi! My reaction to hearing that State for
XC will be in Hershey next year was "Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!," screaming and
jumping up and down in front of Mrs. Barry's gym class. I'm pretty
excited about it. Last year was my first good State XC race, and it was
at Hershey, so that course has special memories for me. I'll also be
able to mentally picture the whole course. So that's my opinion of
Hershey! - Jesi Christiansen
I am glad that you have
decided to run the next three years of the XC Championships at Hershey.
My team won the AAA Championship on that course and that's what we're
training for now. I am a Freshman and and I'm looking forward to the
next three years of defending my teams victory. - Anonymous
UNFAVORABLE
I can't believe it's going back to Hershey for the next three years!
There are plenty of beautiful courses around the state-Penn State's
course, the one at Bucknell U from two years ago was great and
challenging, and so many others. The course at Hershey is not a course,
just some fields and stuff cobbled together at the 5k distance. It is
just plain ugly. Aside from course looks, the meet at Hershey last year
was not as well-run as from the year before at Bucknell. The Hershey
setup has some kind of commercialized, sold-out feeling to it. Just
because the rest of the state goes there for their Championships doesn't
mean we have to. The whole idea of Cross Country is change-in scenery,
in hills, in surface, etc. Now we have to spend the next three years
there?!! If I keep qualifying for the state meet I will have run here
three times in a row- and finish my career not on a cross country
course, but on an old airstrip, some baseball fields, one tiny, tiny,
patch of woods, and a school yard. Yuck. - Anonymous
If it is Hershey, then Hershey it is! I believe that
Penn State or Lehigh is a better xc course (or even Bucknell) Did the
state survey coaches (an easy thing to do in the age of
technology)...and the PIAA often wonders why they fall prey to
criticism!................By this Nov....Jess Cickay will feel that
Hershey is her home course........... - Anonymous (PA HS Coach)
Don, I'm disgusted that Hershey is hosting the PIAA
XC championships for the next three years. I was unable to attend last
fall's race, but the following day, I spoke to Casey Depasquale, a
junior at Mt. Lebanon and their #3 runner. She had just returned from
the hospital, unsure most of the night whether her ankle was broken. She
had fallen about 400 meters into the race, after stepping on a large
cobblestone. In addition, Lebo's top runner, Jessie Winschel, also was
forced out of the race due to injury. I was out of school for the fall
while I looked for somewhere I wanted to go, so I had some time on my
hands, and I needed a project to work on. I talked to Mike Agostinella,
my high school coach, about the travesty of a race the PIAA held. He
told me that the PIAA was seeking a 3 year commitment with Hershey for
states. He provided me with a videotape he shot of the course, and I
picked apart the multitude of problems. I wrote this letter, and it was
distributed to coaches in the TSTCA and PTFCA.
Dr. Robert
Lombardi
Associate Executive Director
Pennsylvania
Interscholastic Athletic Association
550 Gettysburg Rd
PO Box
2008
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-0708
Dear Dr. Lombardi
I am writing in regards to the PIAA Cross Country Championships. I
feel that the course at Hershey poses a danger to athletes and should
not be used for a state championship race.
Unlike most sports,
such as Football and Track, the playing field for Cross Country varies
with location, and cannot be uniform, and so the quality of the course
has almost as much affect on the race as the runners. I viewed the
course across the street from Hershey Park, and I found it to be
sub-standard in terms of safety of the athletes. Holding the race at
Hershey would violate Article II, Section I of the PIAA constitution: To
organize, develop, and direct an interscholastic athletic program which
will promote, protect and conserve the health and physical welfare of
all participants.
The start of the race took place on a
variety of surfaces: grass, gravel and a macadam airstrip. To my
knowledge, no other major cross country course in Pennsylvania starts on
macadam. The runners starting out of the far right blocks have to run a
good part of a quarter mile on this airstrip, and it is very hard on a
runners knees and shins. The varied terrain a the starting line gives a
distinct advantage to runners who start out of the blocks on grass.
Shortly after the start, some runners pass over an area of large
cobblestones, and I know of at least one runner who suffered a sprained
ankle on this patch, and had to drop out of the race because of the
severity of her injury.
A good part of the course is run on
the faces of hills, with one leg lower than the other. This is a
dangerous way to run, very conducive to knee and back injuries and
falling. Many times, the runners pass over large gravel paths, which are
very bad footing. Many of the turns are sharp, at 90 degrees. After the
mile mark, the runners descend a dirt hill. As the pack moves, dust is
kicked up, and a cloud overwhelms the runners. This affects both the
visibility in the area, as well as the respiratory systems of the
runners.
With 800 meters left, the runners descend a steep
hill and make a sharp right hand turn shortly after reaching the base of
the hill. On the PCN coverage of the 2001 meet, I saw a large pack of
runners flung about by their forward momentum upon finishing the
downhill, some winding up in the parking lot a few feet from the course.
If a runner should trip after descending this hill, the injury would
most likely take him out of the race.
The race finishes along
a road, where exhaust fumes will affect fatigued runners=92 breathing,
and the potential danger of a car accident, while slim, is too great a
risk for student-athletes to run.
All of these problems would
be compounded by any precipitation, which is likely in early November. A
steep descent of a hill in the rain or snow would be catastrophic for a
large pack of runners.
Many of these footing problems
contribute to a major hazard: athletes falling and being trampled by the
mass of runners in a state championship meet. With over 250 runners in
each race, a fallen competitor is at the mercy of runners who might not
see them; other runners can trip over the fallen runner, or they can
inadvertently kick or spike him as they try to avoid him. While athletes
will trip on any course, the Hershey course's poor footing creates a
hotbed for tripping problems and subsequent complications.
The
course is not very visible or centralized, and if a runner is injured on
a distant part of the course, it could take a long time for a trainer to
be notified of the injury, let alone reach him.
Cedar Cliff
coach Ken Rosenberry wrote to the PIAA in 2000, requesting that the
District 3 course be changed, because the course at Hershey posed a
danger to the athletes. If a coach whose team runs the course every year
feels that a course is inappropriate for a District race, it goes
without saying that it should not host the state championship race.
Continuing to hold the state championships at Hershey would be
irresponsible to the safety of the athletes, and would compromise PIAA
objectives to hold a safe competitions. Please consider the safety of
the athletes when you make your decision on the future sites for the
PIAA Cross Country Championships. High School athletes compete for fun,
and while a challenging course is welcomed, a dangerous one is not.
Sincerely,
###
I wanted to do something for the
runners in Pennsylvania. No high schooler should work hard for four
years and then have to run his or her final race on such a course. This
letter may not make a lot of sense, because I was very involved in his
effort, and this news from the PIAA has me very emotional. I already
lost a day's worth of revision and addition to my term paper in history
due to a disk error, and this news has just made this an absolutely
horrible day for me, but I feel worse for the youth of Pennsylvania. -
Charlie Ban University of Richmond
Is this the
same course as 2001? Worst championship course I've ever seen. Rocks for
brains PIAA (ex football coaches?) don't have any brains left since they
deposited all the rocks just past the first turn. I feel sorry for the
kids. - J Bonner
what do i think about hershey
for the next three years? two reasons why it's bad: 1.) It is District
3's course. They run it a lot and are more used to = it than other
schools. It would be like holding states at Slippery Rock University.
District 7 would have a major advantage, which in turn is = not fair.
2.) The beginning of the race was horrible. Every runner has to =
converge to this small point and then all 300 people are trying to fit =
between this pole and this fence by the baseball field. It's very =
difficult and I saw many runners get taken out by either the pole or =
other runners. It was dangerous. Finding a neutral course would make =
the most sense. - Kristen Erny
Hi, I ran at
Hershey for States this year and i hated it. It was worse than any
course I had run on that entire year. Even the dual meet courses i ran
on were better than Hershey. If it wasn't for the huge starting line the
course wouldn't be at all suitable for a Meet of such calibur. I was
pushed in to steel poles, and tripped onto the dirt and rock paths
twice. I couldn't stand it. The only thing that kept me content was the
promise I recieved from my coach that we would not run there ever again.
All the course does is aid runners with bigger builds who can push
through people and muscle around the course. Reconsider!! - Anonymous
That course was awful. It is not a fair test of
true XC. You begin in = a "parking lot" for God's sake!! Then go up a
4-600 meter hill within the first 1200 meters of the race! I found the
course to be inane at best. = The kids ran a championship level STATE
MEET by looping around baseball outfields. It's silly and an
embarrassment to the state and our sport. When I told friends from
another state what the course was like they = laughed and asked why
nothing else was available. The Lehigh course is a true XC course that
was created for that = specific purpose. It was good enough for the
NCAA's a few years ago it probably would be fine for a high school meet.
(That was sarcasm there). PSU's course is the next best one and even the
Bucknell course was = challenging but fair. The 400+ meter finish chute
at Hershey I guess makes great drama = but it was interminable to any XC
purist. Please say it aint so... Maybe = some of the people from the
western part of the state would say hills are a = part of the sport... I
agree but at least put them into a course that makes = sense and has a
true sense of the sport. I assumed that the only reason we = were at
Hershey was due to other courses not being available and that we = would
return to a real course next year. I thought that people who =
understood XC racing at a championship level made these decisions. Boy,
was I = na=EFve!! - Larry Rechtin Pottsgrove HS XC
The next 3 PIAA Championships being held at Hershey are criminal.
That = was easily the hardest course my team has ever seen or ever will
see. I = believe that a challenging course is one thing but that course
is just = punishing for young men and women. I would like to see the
PIAA = officials try to go out and run a competitive race on that
course. I release that people complain that the Penn State course is too
narrow = for the size field. =20 But what about the teams from
Northwestern, PA. I was standing in line = at the 2001 championships,
when I over heard a coach from some school = that ended up being near
Northern Philly - he was not happy about = traveling 4 hours or
something to that effect - he thought the meet = should be kept at
Lehigh - I pointed out to him that teams from = Northwestern PA -
District 10 had to travel all day just to get to = Lehigh and
three-fourths of a day to get to Hershey or Bucknell. The State of
Pennsylvania is huge, I can not understand why the PIAA = cannot spend
the money (like they did to build up the Shippensburg track = and field
site) and make a competitive course that can accommodate the = field and
not be brutal on our young athletes. - Anonymous (PA HS coach)
Having run last year's (2001) state meet I can safely say
it is one of the worst championship courses I've ever run... and no its
not that it's too hilly.. as an easterner I've been accused of
complaining just because I'm not used to hills... 1st off... I ran at VA
state championships twice at Great Meadows... that is a state
championship course... hilly and challenging... the Hershey course
starts on the worst rocky "runway" in the world, leading to stumbles and
ankle injuries, the immediate turn after the 1st hill is extremely tight
ruining the possiblity of ACTUAL TALENT prevailing, simple lucky
positioning can place you 30 places higher.....after the insane turns we
get to the spectators, granted nothing in the world spurs us on like
cheering fans but when you are confined to a narrow alley such as the
one atop the hill by the school, that's ridiculous. the end isn't as bad
but it is far from perfect, the course as a whole is extremely rocky and
an unwary runner can lose 3 months of running due to a misplaced step.
I'm only grateful that this is my senior year and I will never deal with
that goat trail of a course again. - James O'Kane
(deleted first sentence to keep identity anonymous) I cannot
believe that our young men and women will once more = have to run on
such a dangerous course. Once again the PIAA is putting the welfare of
our student athletes behind their own needs. - Anonmyous (PA HS Coach)
Hershey is fine for an individual championship
but this is a team sport. Hershey is just plain not fair to all teams
with that starting line and narrow course with tight turns. Lehigh is
the only true fair course. Besides collage coaches know that course,
they run on it and therefore it gives our athletes an advantage in
selecting a college. We all know Hershey will be the sight of all PIAA
championships in the future in all sports. - William Ruth
It's not a bad course but I truly hope someone puts some work
into the = place! The asphalt on the course must go and the huge gravel
also needs = to be removed or at least covered with dirt and turf. Also
needs more = trees and a true look and feel of a cross country course.
Better course = markings would also be a great help. I'm amazed that in
such a "wilderness rich" state like Pennsylvania, we = can't find the
perfect location and build the perfect cross country = venue for our
high school athletes. After all, cross country was the = first sport
humans engaged in! - Sincerely, Swad Swadlo
I
believe that the decision to hold PA XC States at Hershey in any year,
let alone 4 years in a row (including 2001) is a bad decision. Those who
made the decision do not know what is in the best interests of cross
country. The course is pathetic. It begins on an airplane runway and
gets worse with every 90-degree turn from there. The location isn't any
better than the proposals from Lehigh and Slippery Rock. It takes too
long to get to the course because of traffic. There is not enough
parking. I am quite disappointed with the decision. I have talked to
several coaches in our area and haven't found any who like the Hershey
course. - Matt Tavani, Wyalusing Valley High School
I saw the headline saying that the PIAA wants the state XC meet to
be held at Hershey in the coming years. My name is Joel Thomas, and I
finished 10th at the state meet this past year, and I must say that
Hershey is the worst course I have ever run. The only positive quality
of Hershey is the fact that it is located centrally in the state of
Pennsylvania. Outside of that fact, it has no redeeming qualities
(except perhaps the smell of chocolate in the air). The course does not
have a good start for a state meet. Also, half of the course runs
alongside of the mountain, which was not the least bit enjoyable for my
legs. Runners could seriously be injured at Hershey, but the PIAA is too
slow to realize this, because they do not know what it is like to
actually run a race on the course. Moreover, the course does not lend
itself to fans. My family and friends told me that it was difficult to
get from checkpoint to checkpoint. Remember, this is states we are
talking about -- possibly the most important race in a young athlete's
career. I plead the PIAA to consider that a couple extra hours of
driving is a price I am more than willing to pay in order to hold the
PIAA XC State Championships at a quality course. And there are such
courses out there. For example, why not run at Lehigh again??????? I
think it is possibly the best course in the state. For heaven's sake,
the NCAA national meet was held there once! Please consider these
sentiments for the sake of every XC athlete. As I am a senior, I will
not be around next year; however, I feel strongly enough about how bad
Hershey's course was, that I feel every runner deserves better. - Thank
you for your time, Joel Thomas
It was not a
spectator friendly course if it is the same course as 2001. - Richard
Torbik
I don't think it's a good idea at all.
It is not a championship style course. I have run or been part of
numerous championship events and have never seen a course as unfair as
Hershey's. The hills are too much, it does not show who truly is the
best all around cross country runner. It is not very spectator friendly
as well. - Anonymous
l though my daughter,
Lauren Wood actually likes the course, as an = ex-college xc runner and
an avid spectator as a father I think the = Hershey course is terrible.
It chewed up a pair of $100.00 spikes and = almost killed half the
spectators that attempted to see the race. = Slippery Rock is good
enough to host the NCCA's but I guess its asking = too much for the
eastern people to come out west and run on a great = course that the
runners appreciate. Furthermoreat Slippery Rock the = spectators can
easily see 95% of the race without risking injury = sprinting in the
fields and woods. - James K. Wood
