Perhaps the most complicated and urgent scheduling issues concerning the University Interscholastic League’s decision to postpone all competition for two weeks because of the swine flu epidemic concerns track and field.
Earlier Wednesday, all meets scheduled for Friday and Saturday had been cancelled and the state meet had been extended to a three-day format that included semifinals heats.
That state meet was re-scheduled for May 14-16 in Austin.
But upon further review, the UIL announced later Wednesday that a new track and field scheduling proposal was in the works and that upcoming regional meets may not be cancelled.
UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt told the Dallas Morning News that his office is considering pushing regional meets to mid-May and the state meet near June.
An announcement might be made by the end of the week.
“If there's a safety issue, it’s public problem for us having a kids come to a common place from all over the state,” Breithaupt said. “We understand that. It's one of those tough calls you have to make.”
Breithaupt thinks the UIL might have a better plan in place.
That would be good news to Dan Green, one of the most successful track coaches in the state and country at The Woodlands (Conroe, Texas).
He was asked earlier in the day why he thought the UIL made the original decision.
“I think it’s the swine flu fear,” he said. “There will be people coming from all over Texas and some of them will be from cities bordering Mexico and they don’t want to subject kids to potentially getting sick.”
The state meet is held with five classifications for boys and five classifications for girls. There are eight qualifiers in each event to the state meet meaning there are 80 total between boys and girls for each event. Eliminating the regional championships would double that total.
Green, who has won 24 regional and 30 district crowns, said he does not have any sick kids. There also is no restriction on practicing for the next 10 days.
Senior writer Kevin Askeland contributed to this report.
