BC Summer Games Report
Annual General Meeting of BC Athletics - January 2004

Plans are well underway for the 2004 BC Summer Games to be held in Abbotsford from July 15th to 18th. For more information on team formation and zone descriptions please go to the BC Games website at www.bcgames.org. At the completion of the BC Athletics AGM I shall have more specific information posted on the BC Athletics website at bcathletics.org and I also hope to post information for schools on the BC Secondary Schools website.

CONTACTS:

Provincial Sport Advisor
Diana Hollefreund 250-658-8023 victrack@islandnet.com

Assistant Sport Advisor
Shirley Young 604-594-7990 chedro@direct.ca

Zone 1: Kootenays [Yellow]
Dan Horan 250-368-5291 dhoran@telus.net

Zone 2: Thompson-Okanagan [Red]
Heather Baptie 250-765-8909 baptie@shaw.ca

Zone 3: Fraser Valley [Light Blue]
Brad Wallbank 604-466-1100 wallbank@mybc.com

Zone 4: Fraser River - Delta [Orange]
Kathy Terlicher 604-433-1941 kdterlicher@shaw.ca

Zone 5: Vancouver - Squamish [Dark Green]
Dawn Copping 604-929-3554 dcopping@telus.net

Zone 6: Vancouver Island - Central Coast [Light Green]
Tom Dingle 250-656-3341 tdingle@uvic.ca

Zone 7: North West [Purple]
Joe Galvin 250-846-5407 jgalvin@sd54.bc.ca

Zone 8: Cariboo - North East [Dark Blue]
Bill Masich 250-614-1406 bmasich@telus.net

ZONE TRIALS
This year the Zone Trial dates are going to be extremely tight due to the dates of the actual Games. All trials must be completed by Wednesday, June 9 [some exceptions may be permitted]. Wild Card selections will be completed on Saturday, June 12th and sent out to the zones on the following Sunday. The completed team lists must be in the Victoria Games office by 4:00 PM on Monday, June 14th. Some Zones will need to combine the trials with school meets as there will not be enough time to host separate meets particularly in those zones with late snowfalls! In 2006 the Summer Games will move permanently to the last weekend in July giving all of our zones more time for their trials.

GAMES SCHEDULE
The schedule used at the last 5 Games will continue to be the basis of the Abbotsford schedule. The final revision is almost ready. Several of the throwing events have had to be changed to accommodate the venue in Abbotsford and the fact that soccer and rugby will be using the fields surrounding the stadium. Javelin will be a challenge as the athletes will need to cross the track in order to complete their throws. In addition the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be held in Rotary Stadium so we have had to shuffle events to avoid the construction of the stage and portable seating. This may create new athletics' events such as the over the bleacher discus toss or the power cables relay! The draft schedule will be posted on our website after one last check by Games' officials.

ROTARY STADIUM
The track at Rotary Stadium has been resurfaced and will be a wonderful setting for these Games. Throwing sites and curbs still have to be completed but I have every confidence that the team in Abbotsford under the direction of Jane and Gerry Swan will have everything ready for us!

TRAINING AT THE GAMES
This year all of the athletes will be in Abbotsford by 11:00 am on Thursday, July 15th. Training times have been arranged for each sport at their venues to allow coaches and athletes to get to know one another, to view the facility and to hold a brief training session. In athletics we are also planning to host several mini-clinics during this time at the track. Topics of the clinics will be confirmed at a later date but will possibly include: block starts; distance runs; vertical jumps; and warm-ups for throwing events [we cannot actually throw as the infield will be filled with people at this time]. PacificSport coaches will be conducting these sessions for coaches and athletes.

AGES OF THE ATHLETES
This year the majority of athletes attending the Games will be between 13 and 15 years so expect a much younger crowd in Abbotsford as the other sports move to the age groups that Athletics has used for years! Social events are being planned to appeal to younger athletes.

ELIGIBILITY
All athletes must be born in 1989 or 1990 regardless of their actual birth dates within these years. All athletes must be residents of British Columbia in order to compete and they must register for the trials within their home zone.

ACCOMMODATION
All Athletics competitors must stay in the assigned school. Some sports permit athletes from the Host City to stay at home but our sport is not one of them! Every athlete must complete on a level playing field and if that means sleeping on the floor of a school dorm then they will all sleep under the same conditions!

BC ATHLETICS MEMBERSHIP
All participants, coaches, chaperones, and officials participating in the Summer Games must hold some form of membership in BC Athletics. This includes competitive Junior Development, associate, coach, Summer Games training and/or officials' membership categories.

RECORDS
Current records are posted on the BC Athletics website. One record must be updated as it was missed after the Nanaimo Games. Please amend: Aaron Dixon, Boys Pentathlon, 4011 points, Mackenzie, BC, Zone 1.

WILD CARDS
This year we will continue to use Wild Card positions to add athletes to various zone teams. The initial team is made up of 30 athletes [15 female and 15 male] with 6 Wild Cards allocated to those teams who can place them at the zone trials. There are also 24 more positions that will be allocated to the next best performances around the province. Some teams will have only 30 athletes per team while the larger zones with larger turnouts at the zone trials could end up with 45 to 50 athletes on their teams. This year all zones will have copies of Brian Foan's scoring system so that all of the zone reps will be able to rank the performances of those athletes being considered for Wild Card positions. Brian is currently amending the scoring tables based on the 2003 Personal Best tables from BC Athletics.

SPORT CHAIRS OF THE ABBOTSFORD GAMES
At this time all our best wishes are with Jane and Gerry Swan who are focusing all of their attention on Jane's recovery. If you have any questions about the 2004 Summer Games please contact Diana Hollefreund or Shirley Young and not the Swans at this time.

Diana Hollefreund
Provincial Sport Advisor
BC Summer Games