May musings...

According to a recent report issued jointly by the National High School Federation and the NCAA, more high school girls have participated in track and cross country than any other sport. The data reflects the 2003-04 academic year, hardly an up-to-date indicator.

A combined total of 602,930 female student athletes participated in the three (separate) sports of cross country, indoor track and spring track. Unfortunately, the national organizations apparently hew to the notion that cross country and the two tracks are one sport. The next most-popular sport for girls, according to this report, was basketball, with 451,600 participants. Next was volleyball (382,755), followed by softball (365,008).

Football obviously topped the list of boys' sports. According to these ancient figures, 1,025,762 high school males played football. Track and cross country (again, erroneously lumped together) accounted for 713,305.

No matter how old the data, one thing seems clear: indoor and outdoor track and cross country are popular sports. I suspect, simply on the basis of multiple events, that indoor and outdoor track make up the bulk of the numbers cited in this report. Field event and relay teams alone would add to the total; cross country teams are comparatively small.

Admittedly, I'm a mite prejudiced when it comes to track and cross country, but these findings seem to dent the tired old-boy argument that – unless it's football, basketball, baseball or hockey – it's a "minor" sport. (Another fallacy is that cross country, indoor and outdoor track are a single entity. Anyone who thinks running a cross country race is akin to competing on an indoor or outdoor track has obviously never attended either). A combined participation of 13,162,350 high school student athletes in a given category is major by any rational assessment.

* The inaugural Rhode Island Ocean Tides Senior Games will be held on May 24 through June 7 at various sites around the state. The events are sponsored by the newly-formed Rhode Island Ocean Tides, Inc. to – as stated in the group's literature – "promote, encourage, organize and conduct programs, activities and sports events for senior men and women 50 years and over, in Rhode Island and surrounding areas."
v Events offered in the Games are basketball (men, 3-on-3), 10-pin bowling, swimming, table tennis, track & field/race walk, tennis, cycling, golf, triathlon and a 5-kilometer (3 mile) road race. The basketball and table tennis events will be held at Roger Williams University in Bristol. Bowling will take place at the Lang Bowling lanes in Cranston.

* Organizations guiding the inception of the Games include the R.I. Senior Agenda Coalition, the Gray Panthers, the State Department of Health and Human Services and Charles Houser, chairman of New Hampshire's Granite State Senior Games. For registration forms, or more information contact Nancy Dobie, 253-1425, or e-mail rhodytides@aol.com.

* Congratulations to Moses Brown track athlete Jenna Poggi on a fine indoor season in the pole vault. Poggi broke the Rhode Island indoor high school girls' record in the event this past March with a height of 11 feet, 6 1/2 inches (3.51 meters), at a meet in Boston.