Northgate High School Athletics

  The Northgate track team had a stellar day at the DVAL championship meet held here in Bronco Stadium.  We cam away with championships in the BV, BFS, and GFS.  Only the GV title eluded us, as Clayton Valley took the title.  However the GV did beat arch-nemesis College Park for 2nd.

  The day was awash with Broncos winning events and filling the awards stands.  We had many event winners, and more than a few multiple winners.  However, the top honor goes to Haley Sutton of the GFS squad who won the pole vault, the high jump, the 1oo hurdles and the 300 hurdles.

   And there was nothing but a steady stream of compliments directed towards the meet management crew from everyone in attendance.  Everyone was impressed with how smoothly the meet was running and the efficiency of the volunteers in every area.  Hats off to the many many Northgate families who came early, stayed late, made things run superbly, and then left the facility neater and cleaner than it was before we got there.

Here the lane assignments for the finals on Saturday, as well as the entry lists for the field events. 

   The Broncos positioned themselves well for a run at both boys' and girls' DVAL titles as we advanced almost three dozen athletes through the preliminaries into Saturday's finals.  The races start at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday here at Northgate.

The Broncos not only hosted the meet, and ran most of the events, and provided all the support services such as snack bar, t-shirt sales, ticket sales, facility clean-up, and the rest, they did the job in competition as well.  After the field event results were tallied, our GFS and BFS teams enjoyed sizeable leads.  It looks good heading into finals on Saturday.

The Bronco tracksters spent Saturday combining the jogathon fundraiser with a workday and team picnic.  We raised over a $1,000 while getting the track facility and equipment ready for the DVAL championships this week.  51 athletes, 2 siblings, 3 coaches, and lots of parents got  together throughout the day to make it all work.  And the bee swarm added a an extra bit of excitement to the festivities.

   This weekend saw the last of the invitationals for the season.  The Bob Warren was supposed to be a low-key affair with injuries, conflicts, family plans and lost of other things pulling away athletes.  Nonetheless, the Broncos stood tall and came away with 35 medals and top team placings in all divisions.

When the rain finally came at the end of the meet, the Broncos had swept the frosh-soph divisions easily, and tied the Girls' Varsity after having to rescore the high jump.  Due to a number of small injuries and tweaks, we were not able to compete at full strength and the Boys' Varsity was not able to take the College Park Falcons.

We are currently the DVAL power in the frosh-soph divisions, and we are 2nd in both varsity divisions.  This still puts us within striking distance of our opponents at the DVAL championships coming up.

The Northgate tracksters took a few divergent paths this weekend.  The Frosh-Soph squad sent a contingent to the Dublin Frosh-Soph Championships, Max Moore participated in the Logan Top 8 meet, and Coach Brewer took a smattering of athletes to the Mt. SAC Invitational in Los Angeles for that annual pilgrimage.

In the first DVAL test in 2012 for league supremecy, the Bronco varsity boys easily handled the Clayton Valley Eagles.  Both the boys' F/S and the girls' F/S also took dominant wins.  The varsity girls were close, but not quite.  We are still a real threat in the GV and will be looking to the DVAL championships to reverse this last meet's outcome.

The Broncos have quite a few athletes dotting the landscape in the current individual rankings for NCS track athletes.  According to athletic.net, no less than 5 boys are on the top 10 lists in their events.   And when we narrow the focus to just our own league, Northgate is a major presence.

Of course, these are just mid-season marks and there is a lot of time before we get to the championship meets next month.  Still, this gives us a good snapshot of just where we are in comparison with other teams.

This is the first big DVAL challenge in our march to the DVAL title.  (The next challenge will be College Park).   We need to be as prepared as possible, since Clayton traditionally is very strong team overall.

Check out the entries for the meet.

The Broncos had a good day at the prestigious Stanford Invitational.  Tim Stapleton established himself as one of the area's fastest hurdlers, and the distance relays fared well too.

  Evven though the varsity portion of the meet was rained out, the Broncos did very well in the frosh-soph divisions, taking 2nd place in each.  Once again our team strength was apparent.  A quick look at the results show that we had the best combined team showing of any of the schools participating.

The Broncos were a bit too much for the Concord Minutemen and Minutewomen in today's contest.  As one of the larger teams in the league we simply had too much firepower in too many events today.
We also saw Concord's star Olito Thompson race to a 10.9 clocking in the 100 meters, which puts him squarely as the league favorite and one of North Coast's best.
This is a very good start for us.  However, we still have contend with Clayton Valley and College Park in the upcoming weeks, and those are the two meets which will determine DVAL supremecy.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Hi:

Home Meet This Week

We finally get to have a home meet.  We will have several this season, including the DVAL championships (which is a three-day affair).  Now that we have the press booth and the snack bar, we can have more of an extravaganza than ever.  Of course, we need lots of help to do it.  I hope to see lots of our team families at the track this year.

Team Progress So Far:

The season is now in the full swing.  We have finished the first 7 weeks of the season, and are now in the second half of the season.  Our DVAL schedule heats up with our first league meet this coming Wednesday against Concord and Mt. Diablo.

With 5 invitationals under our belt, most of our team has been race-tested and battle-hardened.  We have learned how to travel to meets, be prepared for a long day, how to get ready for multiple events, and how to compete against some of the best athletes in Northern California on a regular basis.

We have also found out that we are a pretty good team overall.  We have our share of top individuals, and we have a good cluster of emerging athletes.  This is all good news as we become more fit and more practiced in our events.

Mid-Season Adjustments:

We have changed the workout schedule slightly.  We no longer meet in the weight room.  Weight sessions are optional at the discretion of the individual event coach.  All workouts start at 3:30 on the track, regardless of the school schedule for that day.

Our coaching staff has undergone a shift as well, as Coach Johnson has had her baby and will miss the rest of the season.  Coach Jack elected to leave the team, and his area of sprints has been assumed by Coach Brewer.  For the rest of the season, the coaches will spread out their areas of oversight to cover all areas of the team.  Additionally, we are relying on the athletes themselves to assume a larger role in managing their own workouts.  For the past two weeks this has proven to be an effective arrangement.

Upcoming Events:

• 3/28  Wednesday  home meet vs. Concord & Mt. Diablo.  Early dismissal 2:10 p.m.

• 3/29 Thursday  Picture day -- envelopes available at workout from Coach Brewer

• 3/30 Friday Castro Valley Invitational (Frosh-Soph only).  Early release is 1:20 p.m., and the bus leaves at 1:30 p.m.  Coach Steben will be supervising the bus trip.

• 3/31 Saturday Castro Valley Invite (Varsity).  The events start at 9:00 a.m.  Athletes arrive on their own.

• Spring Break workouts will be at 9:00 a.m. -- 11:00 a.m. every day on the track Monday-Friday.

Fundraiser:  We are trying to set up our fundraiser for the Wednesday of the Spring Break.  This will be a 12 hour continuous relay, and athletes will be asked to gather pledges for each lap run.  Coach Brewer will be handing out packets and pledgesheets next week.

Commentary:

Attendance:  The team roster has settled in, finally, and the coaches have a much clearer picture of our team.  We have an average of 80 athletes (out of 103) make the workouts every day.  This is very good.  Yes, we still have a few athletes who are self-selecting their days of attendance.  These individuals have been given a choice.

(For the sake of clarification, here is the attendance policy once again:
1) Communication -- the coach must be given notification ahead of time of any sort of absence.  Phone, text, e-mail -- these all work.  Emergencies of a dire sort obviously crop up without notice, but the vast majority of absences are not emergencies.
2) Validity -- the greater number of excuses not to be at workouts or competitions are not valid.  Everyone has homework.  Group projects can be scheduled other than 3:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon.  Injured athletes still have to check in every day so we can monitor the injury.  If an athlete is well enough to go to school, that athlete is well enough to attend workouts.
3) Frequency -- regardless of communication and validity, it an athlete is gone from the team for large amounts of time, then that athlete is over-committed and needs to simplify his or her calendar.  And since the athlete has already chosen to place track lower on his or her priorities, then he or she should focus on those other activities only.)

Accountability:

This coach is exceptionally impressed with the effort and improvement of the athletes so far this season.  They have learned the value of doing the work, they are eager to learn, and they are willing to push themselves.  The coaching staff has asked most of the athletes to branch out and learn multiple events and compete in different areas, and the athletes have responed very well.  We have throwers that sprint, sprinters who do distance, and distance runners who jump.

That's it for now.

Coach Brewer

510-919-4769
pcbcrosscountry@yahoo.com

2/12 WEEK I

Lots of Athletes

   It is a good thing that we have so many athletes making it out to the track this first week.  This really bodes well for the team, the season, and success of the athletes.  The overall enthusiasm has been very high, and makes the track a great place to be each afternoon.

Administrative Notes

   We have been sorting out all the new kids, and we will be getting our paperwork in order.  All new athletes have to have the Athletic Clearance Froms filled out, includingthe doctor's signature.  As well, all athletes are expected to pay the team fees ($150.00 for the District contribution, $150.00 for the team fee, $50.00 for uniform deposit, $50.00 for sweats purchase or deposit.)  Our team moms will be in contact with you about all of this soon.

   We hope to wrap up this administrative aspect of the team as soon as possible.  We want to be able to focus completely on the training and competing, especially since our first competition is just two weeks away and we have lots to do.

Coaching LIneup:

Head Coach -- Peter Brewer   cell: 510-919-4769; home: 925-945-869; pcbcrosscountry@yahoo.com

Assistants:

weights and sprints: Jack Enright

pole vault: Dan Steben

hurdles: Mike Cuglietta

distance: Andrea Johnson, Royce Anderson

throws: Justin Lowell, Jim Hart

2012 Northgate Track -- The Season Has Started ! ! !

WORKOUTS BEGIN

• We have officially begun our workouts, and the season is feverishly underway.  With just one week under our belts, we have already seen over 100 athletes make an appearance, and we are expecting a few more as the winter sports finish up, and as the word spreads about how much fun we are having out here.

WORKOUT SCHEDULE  -- normal week

• The bell schedule at Northgate is variable, and the track itself has multiple users, so our workout schedule at times has to be flexible.  However, for the next few weeks we will be adhering to the following schedule:

Mondays -- meet at the weightroom 3:30

Tuesdays -- meet at the track 3:30

Wednesdays -- meet at the weightroom 3:30

Thursdays -- meet at the weightroom 2:30

Fridays -- meet at the track 3:30

HOWEVER -- adjusted for the next few days

This coming week will see a few shifts already, due to holidays and the soccer playoffs. So, here is the adjusted schedule for this coming week:

Monday 2/13  -- 2:30 meet at weightroom  (school holiday)

Tuesday 2/14 -- 3:30 meet on track

Wednesday 2/15 -- 3:30 meet at weightroom -- no track use (girls' soccer playoffs)

Thursday 2/16 -- 2:30 meet at weightroom

Friday  2/17 -- 3:30 meet on track

Saturday  2/18 --  9:00 a.m.meet on track

Sunday 2/19 -- off

Monday 2/10 -- 9:-- a.m. meet on track (school holiday)