By Alexander El Sawi, Staff Writer
The temporary closing of the PG Sports complex is significantly impacting this year’s indoor track and field season.
The complex, which hosts the indoor track meets for many Maryland schools, has been closed since August 29, 2023 to replace the track flooring “due to the end-of-life timeframe.” It was expected to reopen in time for the winter season. Coaches were notified the week after Thanksgiving (two weeks after track had started) that the facility would not be available until early 2024.
Howard County track teams are now scrambling to find meets for their student-athletes. River Hill’s long-distance track coach Ammera Schmidt states, “The biggest effect for the team is because it was so last minute that the availability for track meets for December is almost diminished. If we want to compete in December we will have to be playing out-of-state.”
River Hill’s solution to participate in some out-of-state meets has several complications. Due to the last-minute nature, there is no transportation method so parents must transport athletes to the meets (in Pennsylvania). Freshman Chai Raghavan expressed concern, “It creates a bigger burden on our parents as well for taking time from their weekend to drive to other states that could take up to multiple hours. Additionally, not having a bus forces us athletes to self-transport to meets rather than going together as a team.”
When surveyed in the track meeting held last week only 10 of the 44 who voted were able to attend the meet in PA scheduled for 12/9 due to the late notice and parent-required transportation. Another issue brought up by Coach Donnie Richmond is the limited nature of these out-of-state meets. Fewer athletes per school can be registered for the events. In the county meets held at the PG facility 8-10 runners could participate in an event while in the PA meets only 3-4 can participate per event.
Other schools, in particular Howard High, have found a different solution. They are holding their own “scrimmage” type meets outdoors at their high school track. River Hill contacted them to participate, but never got a response back from their coaches. According to Coach Schmidt, they are holding events similar to what was done during COVID…indoor track meets held outdoors.
Whatever the solution, the track coaches and athletes are making the best of the situation and look forward to competing at the PG county facility on their newly installed “state-of-the-art track” sometime this winter season.