Glacier's Boschee pushes for indoor track meet

Standing in the rain at a local track meet in mid-May, Glacier coach Jerry Boschee thought out loud about how he'd like see the sport he loves move forward. For now, it's just an idea he's hatched, a solution to a problem. But it's a serious enough thought that other states have put it into practice, and Boschee would like to see Montana follow stride one of these days.

"I would love to see an unofficial state indoor track meet. It doesn't have to be (Montana High School Association) sponsored, it could just be something that the teams get together and we could have a AA meet or an all-class meet," said Boschee, who coaches the girls team at Glacier High and was at Flathead for 13 years before that. "I just look at that whole month of March and that first week of April and no one's doing anything because the weather is horrible. Those first four or five weeks are the ones where we're going to lose kids unless we get out and do something."

The track and field season in Montana ended the way it started, with storm clouds threatening overhead. It was the story of the spring, again.

The first allowed team practice took place on March 15. Unlike other sports teams that have an event within two weeks of starting, track squads went almost a full month in most instances before competition. And that's hoping poor weather doesn't extend the period even further.

At Glacier, the track athletes competed in their first track meet on April 10 while their second scheduled meet three days later - a Class A Invitational - was canceled and not rescheduled.

"That first month of track season in Montana, and I think it's for the whole state, you hardly get outside," Boschee said. "I think it hurts the sport.

"We hit that period where nothing was going on and we were all inside and I think that hurt. The kids just kind of lose their focus and lose their interest in what they're doing," he added.

Montana State University is the lone site in the state currently capable of hosting an indoor meet.

Last January, Boschee wrangled together a group of almost a dozen available kids from the Flathead Valley, including his daughter Lexy, and traveled to Bozeman for the state's only indoor club track meet, an all-comers competition hosted by the local Bozeman Track Club.

But competing at such an event has become a luxury because other sports are still going in January and most athletes can't get away for a weekend of track, Boschee said.

"I think there's a small number of kids in the winter time like Lexy who have the opportunity to experience an indoor meet and it's a great experience," he said.

When Boschee coached high school track in Lisbon, N.D., he said an indoor meet was held in early March. It was an opportunity for athletes to dust off the snow and tune-up on the track.

"I think what keeps kids interested and excited in the sport is track meets," Boschee said.

Dave Skelton leads the Bozeman Track Club and organizes the annual January indoor meet.

Skelton shares Boschee's passion for the sport, but when it comes to adding an indoor meet at the start of high school track season, he's a little more wary.

The two biggest hurdles standing in the way, Skelton said, are renting fees for Montana State's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse and staying in line with NCAA rules considering it's a university setting hosting high school athletes.

"It would be great to have an indoor meet in early March," said Skelton, who grew up competing in track in the state and continued at MSU. "But it would also be really tough for us to reserve a spot in the fieldhouse because it's usually still basketball season."

For years, an indoor meet used to be held for high school teams but it was eventually canceled due to strict NCAA rules being implemented, Skelton said.

"I can remember competing years ago before the NCAA rulings. We had 800 athletes on an indoor dirt track. It was huge and it was great. It was a great tune-up for the outdoor season," he said.

According to MHSA assistant director Scott McDonald, the idea of an indoor meet at the start of the season hasn't been brought up in his six years on the job. But that isn't to say it can't be done, he said.

"There would be no rule against them having an indoor meet if they wanted to have one during our regular season and the athletes had 10 practices in," McDonald said.

Athletes are required to turn in 10 practices before competing, according to MHSA policy, and teams are limited to 10 meets per season.

McDonald pointed out that the events would be different at an indoor meet and that NCAA rules would need to be looked at closely.

"There would be a lot of things that the coaches would need to figure out," he said.

Regardless, Boschee thinks it could be done. And maybe there's more like-minded people out there standing in the rain thinking the same. He sure hopes so.

"If we had a pool of coaches to get involved with this idea it would have a lot more momentum," Skelton said. "We need about 20 more Jerrys."

Montana's two-year testing period for the AA qualifying standards -which expanded the opportunity for athletes to qualify for state during the regular season - ends after this season.

Whether or not the standards will be kept or removed, or even added to all other classes, will be decided in the coming months, McDonald said.

"From what I've heard everybody likes them," he said.

"I think it's been a positive thing for AA track."

Reporter Dillon Tabish can be reached at 758-4463 or by e-mail at dtabish@dailyinterlake.com