June 12, 2024–
“Everybody can run.
Everybody has fun.”
That is Grant Palmer’s simple mantra for his Hill Country-based Summer Track program.
I saw it myself and it’s true. I sat in Tivy Antler football stadium on a hot summer evening with my two grands, along with more than 300 kids ages 5-12. They were all running and jumping.
Something felt different about this evening, and it took me awhile to figure out what it was. Then I got it. Not a single child was on their phone, playing video games, or eating junk food. There were no team jerseys. No parents were screaming at the refs or umps. There were no refs or umps. Kids were just running, and everyone was cheering for everyone.
The main movers behind this unaffiliated event are Grant Palmer and Will Reid, assisted by Kevin Pope, Dee Heiner, Mark Springer, and Becky Hooten, all current or former area high school track coaches.
Former Coach Palmer had supervised the AAU summer track program for five years, what he called a “time consuming” task, with piles of paperwork and miles of travel. When Coach Reid arrived in 2004, he suggested starting up this informal summer track program based on a similar one he ran at his previous school district. They started with eight running events, and built small hurdles out of PVC pipe.
The beauty and elegance of Summer Track is its simplicity. Here are the rules, which basically state there are no rules:
-There will be no field events.
-There will be no practices.
-You don’t have to be a member of any club.
-No track jerseys will be ordered.
-You run in as many or few events as you like.
Kids compete in four age divisions, girls and boys. There are no points, no times, no placings recorded.
The coaching team manages the event like a benevolent military campaign. It started on time, with racers queued up by age, gender, division. Coaches staged them on the field, then lined them up in the running lanes, as many as 20 runners deep. As soon as one race finished, the whistle blew to start the next race. Parents jumped in to reset hurdles knocked askew in previous heats.
At the finish line, high school students handed out ribbons, immediately and generously. Every runner got one in the order they finished, all the way down to 6th place.
But the real show was the athletes. Kids as young as 5, many who had never competed before, were doing dashes, hurdles, relays, and distances up to 1600 meters. For those of you who went to high school before meters were invented, 1600 of them is four laps around a typical football stadium track. That’s a long ways for short legs.
Another amazing statistic is that over the two-hour meet, every child completed his or her event. During one race, both parents ran onto the track, taking positions on either side of their straggling child, encouraging him to keep going to the finish line. The crowd cheered them all on.
My favorite scenario was the 5-year-old who was running in probably his first race, smiling at the crowd as he noticed them cheering, flexing his arms as he ambled down the track, swerving onto the infield, proudly finishing in last place. But finishing.
While it wasn’t participation trophies, no big deal was made about the order of finish. My grand was as proud of her 5th-place ribbon in an event she had never ran as if she was an Olympic qualifier. Palmer told of one young racer he caught purposely slowing down before the finish line. Why, Palmer asked?
“He told me he was trying to get a ribbon in each color!”
It’s moments like this that motivate the former coach. Over the 20 years he has been involved, he has seen some of these young athletes go on to track success in high school and college. But that is not the goal.
“It helps unite families again,” Palmer said. “Mom and dad and grandparents get involved, and it’s fun for everyone. Kids have good time and feel good about themselves. It’s like when we were kids, just running around catching fireflies.”
Running. Just because.
Details:
Summer Track meets four Tuesdays after the school year ends. The final meet this season will be at Leakey Stadium on Tuesday, June 18.
Registration is 6-6:30pm, followed by the meet.
Fee is $15 for the first child, $10 for the second, and $5 for the third.
Anyone ages 5-12 can participate.
Information: 830-459-5848, grant.palmer@kfumc.org