With the news of the Tigers cancelations and postponement of the season, there are probably many questions on what this means moving forward.  The only thing we know, is that until April 10th, there will be no Tigres activities.  I’m very sorry for all the athletes that during this period they will be not be able to spend the time with their teammates doing what they love.  It’s obviously a difficult decision to make the cancelations, but we should all hope the situation becomes stabilized and that track activities are determined to be safe in the near future.

So, moving forward, of course we hope everyone will be safe and take care of themselves as people.  As athletes, I would encourage all to be active at a minimum and suggest to continue working out if at all possible.  The training plan is published on the U15/Y&I website that can provide a guideline.  If you feel safe doing so, maybe get together with a small group of teammates/friends to support each other during your workouts.  Since it will likely be difficult to access a track, if you need help figuring out alternatives in a park, etc, please feel free to call/text/email me.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions – 650-678-3681 or youth@venturatigres.org

We are so excited for Saturday’s practice meet, where our athletes will finally be able to compete (even if it is against only Tigres).   The team has been working so hard in practice and Saturday is the the first chance to see the payoff!

A few quick logistical things:

• Please have athletes meet in the end zone near the gate at 7:45 sharp.  Please do your best to be on time as we will be covering important info for the athletes.
• Please be sure to wear your uniform and bring additional warm clothes. If you have not had a chance to pick up a uniform, they will be available Saturday morning before 7:45.  However, there will be a very small window on Saturday morning, so please do your best to be on time.
• Please bring sunscreen (maybe wishful thinking?) and water.  There is NO food or drinks (other than water) allowed on the field.

For parents and athletes, the purpose of this meet is to “practice” for our regular season meets.  Athletes will get some exposure to listening for event calls, warming up for events and the staging process.  One of the goals of the U/15/Y&I team is to prepare our athletes for high school.  While the younger ages heavily rely on their coaches and parents on meet days, we expect our athletes to manage themselves and rely on their teammates much more.  We expect the veteran Tigres to show leadership and help the new Tigres athletes navigate meet day activities (of course us coaches will be there to lean on as well).  Many of the new Tigres might feel a bit nervous about not having competed in a track meet – it’s OK.  After Saturday, they’ll be experts!

For parents, this meet is to train our volunteers in their positions, so the meet runs smoothly when we host another team.  Things will NOT run smoothly, there will be delays and possibly a lot of standing around, feeling unneeded.  Please be patient!  Once we have a real meet, we’ll look like a finely tuned machine (fingers crossed).

The events our Youth/Intermediate team will be allowed to compete in, is a subset of a typical meet.   Our athlete’s options are:

• Hurdles
• 1600
• 400
• 200
• High Jump

Please note that athletes must be cleared before they are allowed to participate in the Hurdles and High Jump due to safety.  Please ask if you would like to understand the clearing process, but this happens at practice where those events are offered.

For the practice meet, athletes are able to compete in 2 running events and the High Jump (if they are cleared).  They aren’t required to do 2 running events, but can not do more than 2 running events.

A major area of focus for our team is sportsmanship.  We are asking our athletes to really work on congratulating competitors by shaking hands after races, saying thank you to volunteers, being helpful teammates, etc.  Please watch for your athletes showing sportsmanship and reinforce this at home.

We can’t wait to get our season started on Saturday!!!

If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

This Saturday is the Tigers practice meet.  At practice on Monday, we’ll have the event sign up sheets available for the athletes.  The practice meet is a condensed version of a regular season meet, with the main purpose of training the volunteers.  The U15 age group will have the Hurdles, 200, 400, 1600 and High Jump available for participation on Saturday.  Regular season event limits are 4 total events, of which a maximum of 3 can be running events.  For the practice meet, the event limit is 3 total events, with a maximum of 2 running events.  Please note, to participate in Hurdles and High Jump at meets, athletes must be cleared by the Hurdles/High Jump coaches at practice (must be able to safely run a flight of hurdles and must clear opening height for High Jump).

Please have athletes consider what events they would like to participate in prior to Monday’s practice so they can sign up when we go over the process as a team.  We will be sending out more information regarding the practice meet later on this week.

As always, if you have any questions or need information, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681.

This group of kids is amazing!  We had our first full week (other than Thursday’s specialty practice) with a Warrior Wednesday workout and a couple of specialty days to try some things out.  A few reminders:

• There is practice next week Monday (Presidents day)
• Athletes may be a bit sore.  That’s OK and it will get better.  Much of what we are doing is new to many of the athletes and it will take some adjusting.
• Please remember to bring warm clothes and label everything brought to practice!
• Encourage your athletes to try new events and branch out.  You never know what they will end up enjoying and where they will have success.
• Please also remember to have athletes turn completed goal sheets.
• There is no practice on Saturday or Sunday, but until meets start, it would be great to get in a bit of running.  Sprinters – 10 minutes of easy running and 4×100 meter strides.  Distance runners – try to run 30-40 minutes.

See everyone at practice next week!  As always, if you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

What a first day of practice we had on Wednesday!  It is such a great group of kids – the season is going to be fun!

For next week, we’ll be having a full slate of practices, with the U15 team practices on Monday and Wednesday and a full schedule of specialty practices according to the practice schedule found here: https://www.venturatigres.org/practice/

Also, please remember the homework we assigned at practice on Wednesday.  On the U15/Youth/Intermediate team website, you can find the training plan along with the 2020 goal sheets.  Please look over the training plan and bring a filled out goal sheet to turn in at practice.

As you’ll see on the training plan, until meets start, we recommend getting in some easy running over the weekend.  If you have basketball games, soccer matches, etc, that will work as well.

• Distance runners – 30 minutes or up to 4 miles at an EASY pace.
• Sprinters – 10 minutes of easy running, plus 4 x 100 meter strides.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681

See everyone next week!!!

We can’t wait to see the returning Tigres and meet the new members of the 15U team tomorrow at our first practice!!!  Practice will start at 4:30 and we will be meeting at the Buena Track.  A few things for tomorrow’s practice:

• It is going to be VERY cold tomorrow as the sun starts to set.  Also, we will be doing more talking tomorrow than normal, so athletes will be doing a fair amount of sitting.  PLEASE DRESS WARMLY!
• Please have athletes wear comfortable athletic clothes and running shoes.
• Please also remember to label everything that will be brought to practice (back packs, water bottles, sweats, etc)
• Tomorrow’s practice will likely end a bit early, so please consider coming 15 minutes or so early for pick up.
• We will be communicating fairly regularly, so be sure to sign up through the Tigres website with whatever emails and phone numbers you would like to receive your info (as well as following us on Twitter and Facebook).  However, we also are going to be giving the athletes quite a bit of info directly, so be sure to ask them what we cover at practices.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681.

It’s going to be a great season!!!

Here is a link the the 2019 Season Highlight Video!

It was great to see so many of you at the Tigres End of Season Picnic!  What a great way to cap off the season.  For those moving on to High School, we are excited to watch your career regardless of which school you will attend in the Fall.  Those coaches are going to be thrilled with the great attitudes and personalities they will be adding to their teams.

In 9 short months, hopefully we’ll see the rest of you for the 2020 season!

If you were unable to attend the picnic, you can pick up your athlete gift and packet (ribbons, medal, team picture and goal sheet) at Buena’s track on Monday and Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00.

If you have any questions, please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681.

After our Co Conference qualifiers compete on Saturday, there is one last event to draw the 2019 season to a close.  The Tigers picnic will be on Sunday from 12-3 at the VUSD service center located at 255 W Stanley Ave.

The Y/I team is responsible for bringing side dishes to serve 12.  We’ll have some lunch and socialize, have some announcements, then break into age groups to give out some packets (ribbons, medals, goal sheets and a gift).  We’ll also be watching our team movie.

As a bit of a teaser, here is the trailer:

Looking forward to seeing ALL of the Youth and Intermediate team on Sunday to celebrate an amazing season!!!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Tigres’ mothers out there!

Those who attended the Conference Championships in Moorpark yesterday, saw some special performances by our Youth and Intermediate teams.  We had 8 events where a Y/I Tigre won and even had a meet record in the girl’s youth 1600!  There were some massive PR’s and courageous finishes.  It was a day to remember for all of us coaches.

Congratulations to all of our Tigres that are moving on the the Co Conference Championship meet, this coming Saturday at Moorpark High School!  We have a huge number competing, not only qualifying from the meet yesterday, but from the Leagues Finals two weeks ago, where FOUR of our relay teams have qualified.  Please see the list below for the those who have secured their spot next week.  There are also some athletes who are on the bubble, depending on some tie breaker criteria and some possible drops that may move our athletes into a qualifying spot.  We should know by Tuesday evening if those athletes will be competing on Saturday.  We are looking forward to seeing both lists below at practice on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week!  Please email youth@venturatigres.org or call/text 650-678-3681 if you have any questions.

Qualifiers for the Co Conference Championship

Madi Kasztelan – 3200

Henry Hammel – 3200, 4×400

Diego Rodriguez – 3200

Braden Herrera – 3200

Daniel Ortiz – 3200, High Jump

David Reyes – 3200, 4×400

Lily Shadden – Hurdles, 4×400, High Jump

Donnea Prehn – Hurdles, 4×100, 100, 4×400

Owen Benedik – Hurdles

Savannah Sprinkle – 4×100

Ryan Mendez – 4×100, 4×400, High Jump

Lovi Jones – 4×100, 100

Sadie Engelhardt – 1600, 4×400

Chelsea Ochoa – 1600, 800, 4×400

Sofia Stepan – 1600, 4×400

Violet Hurguy – 1600, 4×400

Michael Torres – 1600, 800, 4×400

Grant Baysinger – 1600, 800, 4×400

Jailyn Batis – 4×400, 4×100

Merric Bayless – 4×400, 4×100

Mekaela Villa – 4×100

Brigit Fitzgerald – 4×100

Alyx Perez – 4×100, 4×400

Justin De Leon – 4×400, 4×100

Gavin Calderon – 4×400

Ryan Maquinalez – 4×400, 4×100

Amelia Mcleod – 4×400

Taylor Leslie – 4×400

Jaiden Espinoza – 4×400, 4×100

Taylor King – 4×400

Jacob Jeffries – 4×100, 4×400, 200

Ethan Scalfaro – 4×100, 4×400

Ava Okun – 4×100, 800, 4×400

Bennett Torgerson – 1600, 800, 4×400

Braden Elliott – 4×400

Zac Crist – 4×400

Elsa Safranski – 4×100, 4×400

Athletes on the bubble for the Co Conference Championships (will know by Tuesday evening)

Ava Okun – Long Jump

Mekaela Villa – Hurdles

Savannah Sprinkle – Hurdles

Sofia Stepan – 800

Diego Rodriguez – 800

Ryan Mendez – 200

Lovi Jones – 200

Justin De Leon – Long Jump

Violet Hurguy – High Jump

Warren Turville – High Jump