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Interesting article from the newspaper of my childhood hometown newspaper. Copyright The Rockdale Reporter, reprinted with permission.
Is high school track vanishing before our very eyes?
By Bill Martin
In its heyday, teams from around the state would flock to the Rockdale Relays—it was the place to be if you wanted to show off what you had and compete against the best of the best.
In 1961, 42 schools invaded Tiger Field for the fourth running of the Relays, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
A month ago, six teams participated in the Rockdale Relays, its lowest total in history.
Now, this is nothing against the venerable old track meet or the people who put it on—it’s just the trend these days.
The question is, are we losing track of track?
Dwindling numbers and athletic specialization has gutted high school track teams and track meets all over the state.
Using texastrack.com as a research tool, and examining over 50 track meets from 2008, there could only be a dozen meets found with double digit participants.
At the Caldwell Relays a week before the Rockdale Relays, there were only five teams present.
A lot of the races had just Caldwell athletes in them.
The Cameron Relays, which was cancelled two weeks ago, was scheduled to have eight teams—including Rockdale.
The Tigers will travel to Lexington Thursday where they will join 10 other squads, which makes it one of the largest track gatherings in the state.
Second-year Rockdale track coach Brent Hasselbach explains that track has a lot of competition nowadays.
“Especially in 3A schools, kids do a lot of different things,” he says. “Whether it is other sports, UIL, BPA, JETS or just time to relax, track has a lot to compete with.”
Two years ago, the Rockdale track team was gutted by the Business Professionals of America (BPA) competition and had to muddle through its own track meet without 15 key performers.
The girls were unable to defend their own crown with 39 points, the boys fared much worse with 15 points to place ninth out of 11 teams.
One is a lonely number
Track can also be a lonely business.
“Training for track is difficult and a tough sell,” says Hasselbach. “In order to compete with everything else that a kid wants to do, along with some coaches unwillingness to attend Saturday meets, there has been a trend to move meets to the weekdays.”
That’s another factor—the timing. While most track meets used to be held on two days, now, most are one day affairs and held on Thursday and Friday.
The days of preliminaries are gone.
“Therefore, time constraints limit the number of teams that can attend, Hasselbach said. “As far as the missing kids... they often have more than one event scheduled and are forced to choose.”
“In an ideal world, the Rockdale Relays would be a Saturday meet with 20 teams attending,” he said. “But the last year we hosted the Rockdale Relays on Saturday it was very difficult to find teams to attend. Since moving the
meet to Friday however, we have had to turn teams away.  
“I wish we could have a large meet again, but with a six lane track and only a few hours of daylight, there is only so much you can do.”
He does have a few ideas however.
“We try to make it possible for our kids in Rockdale to do everything they want to do,” he said. “ Our track, baseball, and softball programs have worked very hard to allow this to happen. Hopefully this will allow track to grow in Rockdale.”
Hasselbach says the Tiger track team currently has 50 boys and 48 girls on the roster, which makes them an exception.
“The kids are there but a lot of them only do one event,” he said. “I am working on changing that attitude. I want them to be competitors. I love the kids that come and beg me to run the mile relay. That is starting to happen but we have a ways to go.”
Hasselbach says the Rockdale Relays are not a candidate for extinction and should be around for a long time to come.
Losing track
Meet Teams
Caldwell Hornet Relays 5
Cameron Relays 8
Heart of Texas Relays 6
San Angelo Relays 8
Lampasas Badger Relays 8
Temple Relays 6
Bryan Viking Relays 12
Lexington Relays 11
Elgin Wildcat Relays 10
Hutto Relays 8
Silsbee Relays 6
Leander Relays 10
Rio Grande Relays 6
Jarrell Relays 9
Pflugerville Panther Relays 9
Ft. Worth Country Day Inv. 8
Is high school track vanishing before our very eyes?
By Bill Martin
In its heyday, teams from around the state would flock to the Rockdale Relays—it was the place to be if you wanted to show off what you had and compete against the best of the best.
In 1961, 42 schools invaded Tiger Field for the fourth running of the Relays, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
A month ago, six teams participated in the Rockdale Relays, its lowest total in history.
Now, this is nothing against the venerable old track meet or the people who put it on—it’s just the trend these days.
The question is, are we losing track of track?
Dwindling numbers and athletic specialization has gutted high school track teams and track meets all over the state.
Using texastrack.com as a research tool, and examining over 50 track meets from 2008, there could only be a dozen meets found with double digit participants.
At the Caldwell Relays a week before the Rockdale Relays, there were only five teams present.
A lot of the races had just Caldwell athletes in them.
The Cameron Relays, which was cancelled two weeks ago, was scheduled to have eight teams—including Rockdale.
The Tigers will travel to Lexington Thursday where they will join 10 other squads, which makes it one of the largest track gatherings in the state.
Second-year Rockdale track coach Brent Hasselbach explains that track has a lot of competition nowadays.
“Especially in 3A schools, kids do a lot of different things,” he says. “Whether it is other sports, UIL, BPA, JETS or just time to relax, track has a lot to compete with.”
Two years ago, the Rockdale track team was gutted by the Business Professionals of America (BPA) competition and had to muddle through its own track meet without 15 key performers.
The girls were unable to defend their own crown with 39 points, the boys fared much worse with 15 points to place ninth out of 11 teams.
One is a lonely number
Track can also be a lonely business.
“Training for track is difficult and a tough sell,” says Hasselbach. “In order to compete with everything else that a kid wants to do, along with some coaches unwillingness to attend Saturday meets, there has been a trend to move meets to the weekdays.”
That’s another factor—the timing. While most track meets used to be held on two days, now, most are one day affairs and held on Thursday and Friday.
The days of preliminaries are gone.
“Therefore, time constraints limit the number of teams that can attend, Hasselbach said. “As far as the missing kids... they often have more than one event scheduled and are forced to choose.”
“In an ideal world, the Rockdale Relays would be a Saturday meet with 20 teams attending,” he said. “But the last year we hosted the Rockdale Relays on Saturday it was very difficult to find teams to attend. Since moving the
meet to Friday however, we have had to turn teams away.  
“I wish we could have a large meet again, but with a six lane track and only a few hours of daylight, there is only so much you can do.”
He does have a few ideas however.
“We try to make it possible for our kids in Rockdale to do everything they want to do,” he said. “ Our track, baseball, and softball programs have worked very hard to allow this to happen. Hopefully this will allow track to grow in Rockdale.”
Hasselbach says the Tiger track team currently has 50 boys and 48 girls on the roster, which makes them an exception.
“The kids are there but a lot of them only do one event,” he said. “I am working on changing that attitude. I want them to be competitors. I love the kids that come and beg me to run the mile relay. That is starting to happen but we have a ways to go.”
Hasselbach says the Rockdale Relays are not a candidate for extinction and should be around for a long time to come.
Losing track
Meet Teams
Caldwell Hornet Relays 5
Cameron Relays 8
Heart of Texas Relays 6
San Angelo Relays 8
Lampasas Badger Relays 8
Temple Relays 6
Bryan Viking Relays 12
Lexington Relays 11
Elgin Wildcat Relays 10
Hutto Relays 8
Silsbee Relays 6
Leander Relays 10
Rio Grande Relays 6
Jarrell Relays 9
Pflugerville Panther Relays 9
Ft. Worth Country Day Inv. 8
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