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SOS - Save Our Sierra - Joe Hartman

(Ageless wonder Jim Hunt attempts to help save the Sierra College course, with Joe Hartman's photo above seeming to show that huge piles of dirt do not a good trail make, with Hunt attempting the veritable magician's act of pulling a solution out of his hat!!! - Joe Hartman photo)

Can former Humboldt St and UC Davis XC Coach (and new Nevada resident) Jim Hunt pull a rabbit out of his hat and save the Sac Joaquin Cross Country season? The curtailment of Sierra College's running programs and plans to build a parking lot have threatened one of the most valuable cross country courses in Northern California. After meeting with Sierra College officials Monday, Coach Hunt was optimistic about all the arrangements that were being made to get the popular course in working order to host meets. The huge dirt pile that is blocking the course approximately 100 yards from the start line and 100 yards from the new finish line is scheduled to be bulldozed aside sometime next week. (Eventually that dirt pile will be used to level off the area in the starting meadow.) By the Granite Bay meet on August 30th, there are plans to mow the area at the start where prickly weeds have taken over, trim the trails, and train some of the other coaches (such as assistant baseball coach Steve Hernandez) at Sierra College to set up the course. The date Coach Hunt has set to mark the new 5K course is August 26th which will require some new turns and setting up a new finish chute between the starting area and the track. Thanks to Coach Hunt and Sierra College officials for their cooperative efforts and acting on the best interest of the thousands of young runners in Northern California.

(Editor's note - from Doug Speck - one of the neat things about our sport is when a course can be kept as close as possible to its original configuration through the years so that different runners, times, and teams can be compared. Courses such as Woodward Park in Fresno or the Foot Locker National course in San Diego that have had their configurations pretty close to original through the decades provide some interesting comparisons of different runners and groups of runners that add a great deal to the sport. It is always hoped that before courses are altered (or heaven forbid, closed permanently) that attempts be made to keep the keep the configurations as close to original as possible. Within a team itself, or in comparison with others or all-time records it is always nice to have some benchmarks to measure or gauge things by - sure some years courses are sandy, some years they are hard-packed with good recent moisture, the day of a race may be much hotter one year than another, or a variety of other factors, but it is at least nice to have the actual lay-out as close to original as possible.)

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Editors: Doug Speck and Rich Gonzalez
Publisher: John Dye

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