Official practices start August 1 at 6:00pm

Watauga's first official practice will be Thursday, August 1, at 6:00pm.  Practice will be every weekday at 6:00pm until school starts (August 19).  Returning runners will get to practice extra at 7:00am on August 7-9.

Physical forms.

August 10 -- LCW Find Your Strength 5K at 8:30am.  There's a Fun Run at 8:00am.  This is a fundraiser.  (If you have a business and would like to sponsor, please contact Coach Mac today or tomorrow.)

and first meet of the season!  
August 17 -- Pioneer Clash of the Classes.  Separate races for each class.  
August 24 -- big meet in Hendersonville. 
The 2013 schedule is now posted.  See link to the left or July 9 post below.

The Bear

Michael and Will 10th and 11th, with Andrew Vandenberg 4th.  Matt 16th.  Jacob not far behind.
Doria 3rd and Holley 6th.
Shelby, Jordan, Juliana, and Sidney, plus Coach McAuley finished.
The 2nd place finisher was Peyton Hoyal, a teacher at WHS.  Coach Pack was 12th.  (And could a soccer player have finished 22nd?  Seems unlikely.)
It was beautiful this year: clear to west, lively clouds to the east, Scottish below.
Complete results.
Watauga Democrat -- " 'The Bear' Offers Heartwarming Stories" and HC Press -- "Unexpected Good Weather and . . . " 

 "Doria Kosmala rounded out the top three women with a time of 43 minutes. Kosmala, 17, just graduated from Watauga High School and is attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall. Kosmala, who finished 51st overall, has volunteered at a water station along The Bear route in the past and decided that she wanted to experience the challenge this year."

Also, Watauga Boys #25 in NC Runners Preseason Rankings

There is Michael on NCRunners.  Watauga #25 again, as with the Girls.  Maybe not exactly with the 7 runners listed, but someone will show up.

Test WHS Athletes for Drugs?

Is random drug testing of high school students something that we should rush to implement, starting with athletes?  "Gasperson said it would be preferable to adopt the policy on Monday and skip the second reading . . . The board is expected to vote on the policy at its August meeting." That School Board meeting is scheduled for August 12.

Here's the proposed policy.  (Starts at page 42.)

News articles: High Country Press,  Watauga Democrat ,  Go Blue Ridge

Evidence for effectiveness? Ethical questions?
PubMed (ASU's),  Google Scholar (ASU's)

The 4th Amendment does not apply for high school students, under recent Supreme Court rulings.

Watauga Girls #25 in NC Runners Preseason Rankings, The Bear, Tentative 2013 Schedule

There's Lynde this morning on NCRunners (until Wednesday morning).  Celia is not far behind.  Coach George has Watauga  Girls #25 in his pre-season rankings.  (That 21:34 is not likely to be correct for Taylor W., but there are probably lots of little imperfections in the database and rankings for all the schools.)

Some Watauga runners and recent graduates will be running The Bear Thursday evening.  Grandfather Mountain.  We will try to have results on Friday (and not miss Michael, who will probably be the first Watauga runner to come out of the fog).

And maybe a bit tentative, the WHS Athletics master schedule shows this.  Looks like the big changes are pre-conference and conference meets in Morganton and a trip to Greenville, SC, instead of Cary in mid-September.

July 1 Notes

First day of practice is August 1, but runners are running.  I don't know what the informal schedule is, but probably something like Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, 9:00am, at the Greenway.  Probably starting at the shelter behind the fire station on State Farm Road.  This is a good time to get started.

Google has been warning that this website is not going to renew on July 4.  Probably that's fixed, so that it will renew.  But if this site disappears, we'll just start over with another one.

Not to be taken too seriously -- NC Runners has its Returning Cross Country Team Rankings posted.  Watauga:  Boys #25 and Girls #21.

NC Runners "Upcoming Meets" is already showing the August 17 Pioneer Clash of the Classes.