Welcome to our 2007 Season and our 10th year of Track and Field at St Stephen’s. This program is designed to introduce your child to the sport of Track & Field. While it is an "introduction" to the sport, it is not easy. By the end of the season, your athlete will be able to complete a mile warm-up and run actual track workouts. We strive to match each child to an event they both enjoy and can experience some level of success. Our ultimate goal is for your child enjoy their Track and Field experience.

Doug Rachow is our Head Coach and has been involved with St.Stephen's Track for the past five years. Kami Alessandro is joining us again. Scott Pachunka is the Coordinator and part-time coach. Patty Smith founded the team and was Head Coach for the first 6 years. Although she has stepped down, we are fortunate to still have her help as part-time coach and will oversee administration of the program.

We need parents’ involvement to make this work. We need 2-3 parents to help out at each practice. Our primary task is to help us capture/record stats. No special skills required; however if you do have experience/expertise in Track we would very much appreciate any help we can get. We are especially looking for part-time coaches to instruct the kids in the following events:

Long Jump, Triple Jump, High Jump, Hurdles

In addition, each school is obligated to host a meet, which takes a significant staff to pull it off. Each family will be required to volunteer one parent to help out at the meets. If you have experience – great! If not we will provide on the job training.

We appreciate all the help we have been getting. We have many parents attending on a regular basis to help coach and it's been great! Thank you!

Starting March 12,(formerly March 5) practices will be held on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30 at Millard West. The first 2 weeks of practice will be designed for “conditioning” to get into shape for track workouts. All participates need to be ready to run outdoors by 5:30. We don't run indoors. Please dress appropriately for the weather with hats/gloves/sweats and most of all actual Running Shoes! If you have questions about this please talk to the coaches, the season is to short to risk injury with improper shoes.

Please pick your child up from practice on time. Like you, the coaches have other time commitments so please be considerate.

Spring weather is unpredictable. An announcement about track cancellations will be made by 3:00 p.m. over the intercom at school the day of practice. We will also try to get the word out on email if possible. If a sudden rainstorm comes up and it does not look like it will stop raining, use your best judgment. Drizzle will not usually stop practice. Lightning does! Dress appropriately for the weather. Bring hats, gloves, and sweats as necessary. You can always take off extra layers but you can’t put it on if you do not have it. Due to the fact that the coaches work, it's not always possible to reach us just before practice. When in doubt, you can always stop by the track.

Email is our primary form of communication. We require email addresses from parents. Because the track team is typically very large (50-60 athletes), it becomes very time consuming to communicate with parents about track meets and schedule changes. It will be the responsibility of the parent/athlete to check email each day for changes, cancellations, track meets, etc.

We will also employ the use of this Website (www.pachunka.com/track): The practice schedule (and any changes) will be posted here on this web site.

Any athlete wishing to participate in the track meet will have to email your coaches by the Wednesday evening before the meet. This is your responsibility. The roster for that week's track meet will then be set up.

Planning a roster for a meet is a large and difficult task. We try to make it as fair as possible and we try to get everyone that wants to participate in at least one event. Factors taken into consideration include but are not limited to: past performance, dependability, dedication, chance for success, etc..

We have four (4) scheduled track meets and one end-of-the-year "Super Meet". The Meets are scheduled for most Saturdays in April (Current Schedule). The format usually consists of a morning session (8:30-11:30) and an afternoon session (11:30-3:00). The boys and girls will alternate the sessions. For example, on the first meet the boys will be competing in the morning and the girls in the after noon. The following week the girls will be in the morning and the boys in the evening.

We require parents to help at the meet we host if your child is participating. Most parents are there to watch so it's not an extra time commitment. It takes roughly 25-30 people to run a track meet. We need your help. It's easy and fun. More information will be coming regarding the meets we host..

The track meet schedule of events and the events your child will participate in will be emailed by Friday evening the night before the meet. So that you may have your own personal copy, please print one off for you and your athlete. They need to bring their copy to the track meet. Copies will not be available from the coach.

At the end of the season, the PAL Track Program hosts a "Super Meet". At this time, we compete with the other 7 schools in the PAL League. We are still firming up the facilities and the dates but it will be held at the end of April or early May.

Coaches are only allowed to bring the top two athletes in each event to this track meet. So the top two milers will compete, the top 2 hurdlers, etc. We reserve the right to decide who will attend. If we have a top miler that has only competed once the entire season and only shows up occasionally for practice, they probably won't go. The athletes that are dedicated to the practices and track meets will likely be selected.