URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL TRACK COACHES
Coaches it is imperative that you read and understand this message and then explain the situation to your athletic directors immediately. The Conference Meetings are this week at the SCHSL offices and if a solution is not found, then you will have to redo your entire track and field schedule!!!
Let me explain.
The last day for regular season meets for the 2025 track and field season is Saturday, April 26. Most of us have our SCHSL Region Championships scheduled the week of April 28-May 3, as it would normally be. The SCHSL State Qualifiers are on Saturday, May 10 and the 2025 SCHSL State Track and Field Championships are at the end of the next week.
However, since the 5As, 4As and 2As (and maybe the 1As and 3As) have changed qualifying formats this year, the region championship is not a qualifier. That means that the region meet is now a REGULAR SEASON MEET and must be held prior to the deadline of April 26.
If this remains the case you will have to move your region, which means we will have to move the Coaches Classic Qualifier (scheduled for April 25), which means other meets will be rescheduled, etc. This also means that you will have to go from April 26 to May 10 (almost two weeks) before you get to run a meet.
If the 1As and 3As do not change to the same one qualifier format that the other classes have adopted, they will be allowed to host their region meets the week of April 28-May 3 as we all had hoped to do because it will be part of their SCHSL State Meet Series and therefore not count as one of their regular season meets.
The remedy is simple. The SCHSL needs to change the end of season date to May 3 and require all region meets to be completed by this date.
Therefore it is imperative that you see your high school athletic director immediately, explain the situation and get him or her to make sure that this is corrected. As I stated earlier, all of the classes meet this week and if it is not corrected now many meets will have to be changed or cancelled.
PLEASE be proactive and talk to your athletic director.
Guest column by Ed Boehmke, coached for 38 years in South Carolina.