To the editor:
I’ve read the Daily Item as long as I can remember. It’s been sent to my parents’ house, then my house, and now it is delivered virtually to my phone every morning.
Local journalism is important. One of my favorite parts of The Item — and I’m not alone in this — is the sports section, which highlights our community’s athletes, young and old, from the highest levels to those just starting out.
As a coach — beginning my career as an assistant at Swampscott Middle School and now head coach at St. Mary’s High School — I’m interested in seeing my kids get the coverage they deserve.
Of course, I’m not the only coach who has had to make sure on their own that this was the case. I know how big the staff is at The Item (I worked there for a summer, organizing years of archives) and I know you’re spread thin, but as I write this on Saturday morning with the sports page open on my laptop at the beginning of a bizarre “Fall II” season, I see previews for football, basketball, soccer, and volleyball teams with pictures of players poised to have a great season and quotes from coaches who have been eagerly awaiting this season.
I can’t help but notice, then, that one sport is missing entirely: track and field.
Not one article from any local schools has been written about track and field this season, which returns Fall II as well. I think this is wrong for many reasons.
First of all, my kids work hard. Without access to any indoor facilities of any sort open in the area (even the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury has closed), my kids have been training in whatever has been thrown at them since December.
We’ve trained in parking lots, open fields, down Lynn Shore Drive — whatever it takes to work on conditioning, form, technique, speed, agility, coordination, and everything else it takes to be a great track athlete. They’ve done so without complaint — and with masks. I am so proud of them.
The local coaches in this area work hard, too. We’ve all had to improvise. Some leagues are going with virtual meets, others with in-person meets that carefully stress social distancing guidelines and follow all appropriate protocols.
Our athletic directors have been paramount in coordinating all of this. The efforts myself and my fellow coaches – particularly personal to me, my amazing assistant coach Themo Liakopoulos and my high school coaches Peter Bush, Joe Tenney, Jeff Bartlett, Deems Hatch, and Ralph Souppa – and our athletic directors should be recognized, and covering the track season is part of that.
Perhaps the most important reason that track should be covered to me is that it’s the most open sport. You’re going to cover kids on the track team that you wouldn’t cover on any other team. My team has more than 50 kids on the roster, grades 6 through 12, girls and boys, junior varsity and varsity, all possessing different skills.
I know I’m not the only track coach who has such diversity on their team, so it’s important that this sport is covered because of its equity and its way of bringing everyone to the table with their unique skills. My milers can’t do what my javelin throwers can do, and my shot putters can’t do what my high jumpers can do – and that’s why it’s the best, most inviting sport ever created.
I know that the lack of attention to track is by no means a problem unique to The Item. Frankly, we are overlooked in many situations. However, the kids who are on my team and the literal thousands of kids who run on track teams across the communities covered by The Item deserve recognition for their hours of dedication and hard work toward their achievements.
Thank you,
Tristan Smith
Head Coach
St. Mary’s High School Track and Field
