Objectives

What we are seeking?

• First priority: an immediate commitment by the administration to rebuild the outdoor track this summer, to be ready for use in September, 2006, regardless of the progress of the Master Plan.

• Addition of a professional trainer to monitor the health and conditioning of track team members to increase strength in vulnerable areas and decrease the risk of injuries, and retention of Matt, our throwing coach and weight trainer, as a designated member of the coaching staff .

• Within two years, a specific commitment (committed timeline and funding) to build an indoor facility which will include expanded health and conditioning facilities for use by the Williams community, as well as NCAA certifiable competition level track.

Why does Williams College need these things?

Why does Williams College stand to gain by implementing these recommendations?

The Track and Field program annually includes 100+ students, or approximately five percent of the student body. This is probably the largest athletic program in terms of participation, and rivals the size of many other Williams campus organizations.

GOAL 1: NEW OUTDOOR TRACK

TARGET: OPEN SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

The current facilities are unsafe for the skill level and sheer numbers of participants.

• Outdoor track is unsafe and potentially at risk for causing career ending injuries with uneven base (dips), excessively hard sub-surface (asphalt) and deteriorating running surface.

• Field events (throwing) cannot be adequately and safely trained indoors, and there are not presently any all weather outdoor surfaces on which to train.

• Track and Field student athletes are placed under the undue burden of traveling every weekend in two competition seasons every year.

No other team or activity group operates under that burden. The track, being unsafe, has been de-certified by NCAA for meets, thus compelling Williams track athletes to travel every weekend especially in the final weeks of the school year in order to have certified qualifying times to go to National Championships. If the track were certifiable, we could host at least two or three home meets which could qualify our team members without their having to travel EVERY weekend. This places our student-athletes at a considerable disadvantage

• Traveling every weekend also places an unfair burden on the coaching staff and their families, as they too must be gone every weekend during the competition season.

• Since we can not have home meets, our Track and Field program is virtually invisible to the Williams community.

Since our student-athletes are only performing away from campus, our students have no way to show their own community what they have been working so hard to achieve. As such, very few people in the Williams administration, faculty and student body even know how many of our kids are really involved in Track and Field, and how much they are accomplishing, in meeting their personal goals if not setting national records. Faculty and staff and alumna living nearby who might support these young folks never get a chance to see them. Our students are excelling outside the view of Williams; at home the Track and Field team is nearly invisible

• If we had an adequate outdoor facility, our students would be coached year round differently, even during indoor season.

Field athletes would be able to practice in a way that is not safe to do indoors. Running athletes would be able to run on a surface at rates not possible with our (inadequate) indoor facility because the indoor turns are too sharp (not equivalent to other indoor turns) and thus risk injury to the runners.

• If we had an adequate outdoor facility, students in off season could maintain more stable conditioning on their own (in a safer facility) before team preparation officially begins and thus not lose some conditioning which requires a safe track.

GOAL 2: DESIGNATED PROFESSIONAL TRAINER FOR THE TRACK TEAM (and retention of Throwing Coach position)

TARGET: NOW

Important News Flash: As of March 15, there is a proposal to shift the current part-time weight trainer and throwing coach position into full-time weight training dominated by football, and eliminating his access as coach to the Track and Field Throwing team.

The Track and Field team practices at a high level of personal conditioning and discipline. Every event requires a specific level of focus conditioning, and carries its unique risks for injury if done improperly, and every athlete carries into their specialty different and unique physical resources and challenges. As the diversity of athletes participating in the team has increased, and the events being covered, so has the need for professional knowledge of physical conditioning, injury prevention, and recovery programs when injuries do occur (or illness interferes with maintaining conditioning).

In addition, because the Track and Field team includes student-athletes at every level of skill and experience, individuals coming on to the team may require attention to establish safe practice at even elementary levels, if the student is going to enjoy and persist in the sport as a lifelong practice.

Presently the coaching staff consists of one Full-Time position (Coach White), one Part-Time position (Coach Farley - full-time, but duties divided between club sports and track and field), one shared position with XC (Coach Farwell), one Part-Time strength trainer/throwing coach (Coach Campanelli, whose FTE is already shared with other programs), and five graduate teaching assistants paid on a minimal stipend per season basis. If all these are considered fully available coaches, we still have at best a 15:1 staff to student ratio, the leanest of all athletics, and probably lean as or leaner than any other campus skill activity.

GOAL 3: CERTIFIED INDOOR TRACK WITH COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING AND PERSONAL CONDITIONING FACILITIES FOR THE WHOLE CAMPUS

TARGET: COMMITMENT ESTABLISHED WITHIN 12 MONTHS.

• Current indoor facility is inadequate for safe training of either track or field athletes competing at the skill level of our present athletes.

• Turns are too tight for runners, either increasing risk of injury or limiting the ability to train at peak speed.
• Surface under running surface is concrete, thus providing inadequate cushioning for runners
• Infield is inadequate in size or barrier protection to train throwers and other field athletes for the number of demands in the schedule, preventing throwers from having a safe practice area. Ideally, with the outdoor track, an all weather surface will allow a better training regimen for throwers.
• Availability of banked turns becoming standard in establishing national times, and also decreased risk of joint injuries

• Current facility not certifiable for NCAA meets, thus requiring athletes to travel every weekend for sanctioned meets in order to qualify for National Championships.

• Athletes are required to travel every weekend in order to qualify, placing undue burden on ability to participate in other Williams activities or to meet academic demands as easily (see above)
• Track and Field program is invisible to rest of Williams community (see above)

• A well-designed indoor facility integrated with fitness equipment adequate to meet the needs of the whole campus and local community will be an asset to Williams mission of pursuit of excellence
• Such a facility is expected in highly competitive academic environments such as Williams, and Carlton, and the Ivy League schools (with which Williams competes for student-athletes) in which it is well-recognized that attention to physical health and fitness is highly correlated with academic discipline.

• A well equipped facility will be an asset in drawing both faculty and students to Williams.

Means

How do we get there?

• Increase the visibility to the administration, faculty and trustees of the track program, both in present ( involves nearly five percent of the student body and their parents), the past (ALUMNI), and the community (both within Williams and the Williamstown area).

• Activate first the awareness of this group of potential supporters, and then the voice.

• Make known not only our needs (immediate commitment for a safe track, physical trainer to support health and safety) but the advantages of our expanded interest (broader visibility and participation in our community, more events at Williams, and pursuit of excellence in the Williams tradition).

• Build a case for integration of track into the general health interest of the Williams community – hence the need for a full indoor track facility including recreational and conditioning resources for all students/faculty/staff seeking to support a healthy lifestyle (which parenthetically is highly inversely correlated with unhealthy behaviors such as drinking).

• Reaffirm that the present track program builds strongly on the overall mission and reputation of Williams College as an institute of academic excellence, athletic integration as a life skill, and building a sense of pursuit of a goal will serve the community.

Why we want to build Friends of Williams Track & Field

• We know that administration will listen to a choir of voices from many levels more than the single voice of the coach, who naturally will want to advocate for his/her own program.

• The present batch of student-athletes will benefit from establishing a link to their predecessors, and knowing that a larger body beyond their parents really is interested in what they are doing, and that they are part of a long tradition going forward.

• The strength of any interest group, whether football, tennis, dance or international affairs, comes from the interest in alumni in supporting that which they have valued as part of their Williams experience and which they can continue to see as building positively on the Williams reputation.

• As a group, even though large in numbers, the members of the track team tend to be more likely to be on financial aid and are more likely to represent the diversity that Williams seems to tout. However, we also therefore have less of the influential families than other groups who may have an ear of the administration. Our alumni however do their alma mater proud, and to that end, we need to bring them into an active voice for our present group.

• And as frequently noted by all of us pre-alumni parents, Williams’s alumni are passionate about their cause.

• We want an organization in place that will continue to support the needs of the track program going forward – an enduring force.

Who we want to bring on board as active participants in the Friends of Williams Track

• Present parents of the team members
• Alumni – whoever has participated since the beginning of time.
• Parents of recent graduates who still appreciate the positive effects of the program on the educational experience and personal development of their kids, and who still know the weakness of our facilities.

Ancillary folks to identify:

• Possibly any members of the faculty, trustees, staff, administration who are particularly friendly to the program
• Possibly people in the Williamstown area who have appreciated the community efforts of the program

What we are going to be asking of Friends of Williams Track & Field

• IDENTIFICATION: Just let us know who you are and if Track & Field still means something to you or tickles your curiosity enough to want to continue to receive information. Give our Track & Field program a tradition, and our present student-athletes a sense that they are part of a distinguished history, and that Track & Field indeed meant something to those who went before.

• VISIBILITY AND VOICE AND CRITICAL MASS: Initially, we are seeking only their many voices, endorsement, advocacy, and information – to increase the visibility of a long and enduring value of Track & Field in the tradition of Williams (presently pretty invisible, possibly to the dismay of some of our graduates).
• What did Track & Field mean to you in your education and personal development, or the education and development of your child during the course of your (their) time at Williams

• How has Track & Field continued to influence your life since graduating – e.g. continued interest in maintaining healthy and physically active life; discipline of track carried over to present functioning in career and life; long time and enduring friendships, etc.

• Come to our meets, whether at home or in your region. Meet us and let us meet you. We need to get at every event some present parents to be “hosts” or representatives looking to welcome others into the fold, both of present parents as well as recent parents who may still have an interest, and alumni).

• Write a letter to the President and the Board and let them know how important the Track & Field program is to Williams, how important it was to you, and that as a sport involving more than 100 kids, Track & Field supports individuals in seeking their own Personal Best, even if not on the NCAA books, and as a team that involves nearly 5% of the student body, it merits safe, adequate and high quality facilities and resources.

• ADVOCACY: e.g. are you willing to be active in the organization, meet with people in your region or old friends from Williams to help build the club; will you help increase the visibility of the program

History and Background

Strength of the Williams Track and Field program:

• In the last decade, the Track and Field program has nearly doubled to presently fielding a team with solid participants in nearly every event in Track and Field (except those for which the program does not have reasonable facilities for training).

• In the last five years, Williams has participated in NCAA D-III National Championships in both Indoor and Outdoor seasons, with several athletes taking top titles. In the most recent, 22 athletes qualified to compete at National Indoor Championships at St. Olaf’s College in Northfield, Minnesota. Against even much larger public colleges and universities, the Williams Women’s Team placed second, falling short by only 6 points. Twenty-one members of the team overall came home with All-American honors.

• Of the 100+ regularly participating members of the Track and Field team, Many were new to the sport or walked on to the team. Our great student-athletes have excelled as students as well as athletes, with numerous academic awards such as Phi Beta Kappa and fellowships on graduation. Track teams nationally tend to be more disciplined than nearly any other specialty group, and as athletes tend to be the best academically while preparing for their competition season. .

• As individuals, in addition to the discipline and precision required of their sport, Track and Field participants also have profound respect for their bodies and health, so tend to make decisions overall to serve their long-term best and healthy interests. Consequently, as a group, they are less likely to abuse alcohol or other substances, are less likely to smoke, and are more likely to engage in activities in support of their health and well-being. As an individually oriented activity in many ways, Track tends to have a positive shaping effect on others who become involved with the program, as each participant begins to identify their personal goals, their belief that those goals can be met, and an awareness of the need to take good care of themselves if they want to meet the goals they have set.

• Track is a life-time sport. Even in comparison to many other individual sports, people who ran track in their youth are more likely to continue running, some even competitively in open competition, and some for the sheer joy, without losing the commitment. If a runner is able to maintain health and fitness and physical capability, they will likely continue to run for their own well being, a quality with well documented lifetime benefits. Useful to survey our track alumna and compare to activity level of class cohorts, even in a small randomized survey

• In addition to the excellent coaching available to the students at Williams, in the students’ respective activities, coaching at Williams also teaches students mutual respect, support, and regard. Every person who seeks their personal best, even in completing a mile in 6:30 is cheered for their accomplishment, and mentored by peers. In addition, an emphasis in the coaching staff is to teach interest team members the intricacies of managing and coaching a team. Runners who are not running for illness or injury are given the opportunity to support the coaching staff and to learn. Some have gone on to coach as amateurs and volunteers. While there are eight members of the coaching staff, with 100+ students participating in the program, there is only a 13:1 student to coach ratio.

Past efforts and current status of the previous efforts

• A proposal for $1.83 M (adjusted for 2006 estimate) to build new outdoor track has languished on the table since 2000, vaguely promised to incoming athletes as part of an (ACTIVE?) Master Plan, which has gone only backwards in the intervening years. Most recent feedback to team members questioning the AD was that there was nothing that could be done to change the current status.
  NEWS FLASH: We have learned March 16, that there is a proposal to put our track once again out into the future. On the current proposal, developed with little input from the Track and Field staff, the AD proposes to build a track at Mt.Greylock High School (fifteen minutes from campus) this summer. The facility would have no accommodations for training Field events, our kids would have to be transported by buses (adding considerably to the time involved in training and making more difficult those times when classes run over, or exams start before practice is over, or the time saving of using the run to the track to warm up and save time). If we were invisible before when we could only run practices on campus, now we will be completely invisible. Furthermore, the new facility is will go through review for eighteen months and not even be available to Track & Field until 2009 if it makes it through planning!

• There appears to be no firm opposition to the proposal to rebuild the outdoor track, just lack of momentum and not enough voices in the chorus advocating for the resources, and being bogged down by an increasingly elaborate Master Plan

• Faculty have some resistance to more resources being spent on athletic facilities and teams, which they see as competing with academic excellence, benefiting only a few athletes, competing for the same resources (dollars, space and attention), not always supporting the best image of Williams, and possibly distracting students from what their primary mission should be. Response to this is that Track and Field is a lifelong sport, enhances discipline (considerable research shows students academic performance is best when they are in competition season), and builds an environment of valuing mind and body.

• Building a comprehensive fitness facility (incorporating an NCAA approved indoor track) will benefit the whole Williams and surrounding community by providing healthy activity for all, with all attending advantages.

• Upgrading the facilities and resources enhances Williams image overall, and recruiting of faculty and students (even outside Track and Field) to the campus.

• From a construction standpoint, this track can be built this summer! It can be built from the inside out, with the football surface first, then the track and field surfaces, and then the new stands and facilities buildings. We want it/need it now!

Task List

for current team captains (and interested members), steering committee of present parents, and active alumni

• Specify details of our wishes (e.g. outdoor track and field specs), the timeline for completion (e.g. is it reasonable that if we establish a campaign in the next two weeks that we could actually get a track started this summer?) What is needed to bring on a Trainer; preliminary proposal for full facility

• Current Track and Field Team information
• Develop a mailing list of all current active Track and Field members.
• Build a profile of who they really are: Student Athletes who pursue excellence and service in all that they are doing. What are their aspirations after Williams and how has Track and Field contributed to their present activities and their vision. Include everyone you can, including the newcomers.
• What are the obstacles to our kids achieving their own goals? What gets in their way or makes their path more difficult – what could make it better?

• Corp of all parents of current active Track and Field members.
• Develop a mailing list of all current and soon to graduate parents.
• Identify resources within the group:
• Steering committee – identify five or six people to help build
• Connecting parents into whole group:
• Who is willing to reach out to other parents who are not as able to travel to events, or whose kids are not participating in meets, but are still passionate about track?
• Keeping an eye out for parents, Friends, alumni who do travel to meets and make sure connections are made.
• Who in the group has skills or resources or visibility in the Williams community to amplify our visibility

• Alumni: Develop a list of all identifiable living alumni who have participated in Track and Field during their time at Williams – going back forever, as older alumni may have lots of interest and resources and connections to throw into this campaign, particularly since we are not initially asking for money to get this off the ground, just their endorsement.
• Build a list of folks interested in staying informed personally about the activities of the Track and Field program.
• Research the stories and whereabouts of some of our predecessors and give the history of the team some length and depth. Make contact with some of those folks and ask if they want to be involved in the mission.
• Identify one or two who are willing to join the mission in an active role, and will participate in the steering committee.

• Develop a list of Friends
• Members of the Williams community who are interested in the program
• Particularly sympathetic ears in the administration
• People in the region who have enjoyed the involvement with the Williams track team – e.g. local runners, the schools, sponsors of area running events, etc.

• Designate an enthusiastic coordinating committee with coordinators of each of the above groups who will mobilize their respective elements in the immediate pursuit of our first two goals.

• Target Spring Relays this year to make as many contacts as possible, and even to urge members of each of the above groups to make an effort to come and connect, and maybe even plan a gathering to honor past members of the team. Build visibility, publicize the event on campus, and invite key people within the campus to come.

• Gather information about facilities available in the academically competitive programs similar to Williams, including where our applicants go instead to demonstrate that our program is not inconsistent with academic environments elsewhere. The Carlton facility is an excellent example: academically equivalent even though the athletic programs are not in forefront, yet they have beautiful facilities benefiting the overall mission. Who drove the movement on those campuses? Middlebury, Colby, Bowdoin, St. Olavs, Carlton and Tufts similarly have good facilities. What about the Ivy’s with whom we compete for students, though not comparable in size of student body?