2018 Follow Up
This article ultimately serves as a follow up to one that was originally published in 2018 that was a comprehensive examination of the availability of rubberized track surfaces across the entire state. The short summary of that report was only 40% of schools in Division I and only 52% in Division II have rubberized facilities at their campus. Here's an update on some of the counties we drilled down into at the time.
Shelby County
Metro Shelby County Schools in Memphis manages 43 high school campuses. Of those 43 campuses, 10 have rubberized track surfaces, 3 have asphalt, and 30 have nothing that resembles a track. One of the facilities that is widely shared by those with nothing, Halle Stadium, is in disrepair. See this video posted in September.
This video came across my timeline shortly after it was posted. If you're experiencing playback errors I apologize but the text of the tweet and the pictures below screenshot from the video should give you a general feel for what it's about.
Doc Holiday informed me that since the posting of this video Metro Shelby County Schools reached out and formed a committee to explore addressing these conditions. While there has been a lot of chatter recently on social media about Memphis potentially getting an indoor facility, the lack of outdoor surfaces may take priority.
Sumner County
In 2018, Sumner County had eight high schools with only one rubberized track surface at Hendersonville to be shared by all campuses. With the addition of Liberty Creek which opened in 2022, they now have nine high schools and two tracks as the new campus was built with one. Even with the one addition, they are still the lowest percentage of high schools to rubber track surfaces of the Top 10 most populous counties in Tennessee. Though the addition of Liberty Creek is a step in the right direction, it's hard to get past the fact that schools in the county have been open for over a century (Gallatin, Portland) continue to go without. I'm reminded of this scene from the show Breaking Bad. I won't directly embed the video due to content matter but the principle of the scene is relevant. Before a new school (Jesse and Walt) gets their track, the legacy schools need to be "made whole."
In the early 2000s, Gallatin's Athletic Booster Club privately funded a rubberized surface at their campus. By 2012, competitions could no longer be held at the due to the condition. There is currently no plan to resurface this facility.
Montgomery County
The analogy drawn from that video can be applied to Montgomery County as well. The new campus of Kirkwood will open it's doors in August of 2023 with a brand new track and field facility paid for by the county while the oldest schools in the county, Clarksville, Northeast, and Northwest will continue to operate without facilities.
The Rest
While the focus of the initial case study was tailored around some of the largest counties in Tennessee, it goes without saying the availability at the smallest are fewer and farther between. In the last couple of years, I've featured Covington's San'darius Coleman on this site numerous times as he is one of the highest rated runners in Division I Class AA across all distances 200 meters and up. When I interviewed him as we approached the 2022 outdoor season, I made a comment about how he raced in trainers. I soon found out he had no need for spikes considering this the surface he has to train on at his campus.
Munford, last year's Division I Class AA Boys team runner up, surface looks the same.
So as we progress through the 2023 track season this spring, keep the accomplishments of some of these athletes in context as they overcome the continued negligence of their school boards as well as their opponents.
