Our 10U athletes continue to amaze and inspire their coaches! At today’s JV meet, we saw many PRs to close out our season (even in the Fillmore heat). WAY TO GO 10U!!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our FUN practice on Wednesday…between ice cream, sponge relay, and the scavenger hunt we stayed pretty busy. It is bittersweet to close out the season. Coaching the team has definitely been one of the highlights of my week. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the TIGRES picnic on May 7th (noon in the quad at Buena, see the announcement for details on what to bring!)

For 10U athletes who made finals (varsity), we will continue to have our usual practices on Monday and Wednesday this week and specialties on Tues/Thurs. I believe I contacted everyone who made finals regarding this, but please reach out if you have questions!

Thanks again for a great season. If you see me around town on my bicycle (yellow bike bags), give me a honk or a “Hey, Coach Stephen!” as you drive past 🙂

I can’t thank all the assistant coaches enough for all their hard work and dedication; we had a great team of 10U coaches! THANK YOU!

We LOVE to run!
-Coach Stephen 805-822-9341

10U Tigres,

It has been a great season! Lot’s of PRs and more importantly, we’ve seen a lot of good sportsmanship with team mates encouraging each other.
This season has really flown by, and we’re proud of all our 10U Tigres!

I have reached out to the athletes who have qualified for the Varsity Meet on May, 6. If we have a drops in any events there may be some minor shifting but we’re almost finalized.

Be sure to come out for our fun-practice tomorrow.
Yes, we’ll have our warm-up laps, and then some fun relays/games and a few surprises.

Thanks to all the 10U Coaches! This has truly been a team effort, and I’ve appreciated all their flexibility, patience, and dedication to our 10U Team!

Please reach out if you have any questions.

Hoping to see everyone at our Team Picnic on May 7!!

Thank you,
Coach Stephen 805-822-9341

Hi 10U Tigres Families 🙂

Our meet yesterday against the Oxnard Stars marked the end of the regular season. As usual, our athletes came out with great attitudes and competed hard! Many athletes tried new events, and there were SO MANY new PRs. Hopefully, your athlete had fun!!

We are now moving on to the championship season. As a reminder, ALL athletes are eligible to compete in the JV Meet this week (4/28) at Fillmore High School. However, if your athlete secured a spot in the Varsity meet for an individual event, they are not eligible to run that event in JV. Also, in order to compete in an event at the JV Meet this weekend, they must have competed in that event during our regular season.

We will have our normal practice schedule this week; Wednesday’s practice will be a quick workout followed by fun and games.

Once the list of athletes that have qualified for Varisty is set, I will send an update with the individual names and the relay teams that will be representing Tigres at the Varsity Meet on 5/6. Those qualifying athletes will continue to practice with us for the first two weeks of May.

Last but not least, the coveted golden baton will be awarded to athletes who have competed in all of our track (including relays) and field events during the regular season.
Please reach out with your questions,

Coach Stephen 805-822-9341

Just a quick reminder that our picture day is at the beginning of practice tomorrow, Wednesday, April 19th. Please have your athlete on the field, on time, and dressed in their Tigres running singlet and black shorts.
Thanks!
Coach Stephen

I hope everyone had a GREAT spring break and will be ready for practice tomorrow! Remember, we’ll be running off campus for our distance group tomorrow, so please plan on running sprints if you’re not ready to run 3.5 mile without walking 🙂
We do not have practice Wednesday, April 12, so please be ready to sign on Monday.

If you will not be at practice on Monday, you can send your event choices to 10u@venturatigres.org

We are hosting the Saturday Meet at Buena High school. It is an afternoon meet starting at 3:00PM please arrive early especially if you are running the 4X100 or the 1600.
I can’t believe we only have two regular meets left. A lot of athletes have been asking what they need to do to go to the Varsity meet, so I thought it would help to send a little information.

VCYTC Varsity Finals
For Varsity Finals the top 9 athletes in the league move ahead in laned and field events (400M and shorter) and the top 12 athletes move ahead in distance events (800M and longer.)
This is from all teams in the league not just Ventura Tigres. You can see the current standings by clicking the link below
VCYTC Track & Field Rankings (athletic.net)
If your child is interested in trying to make it to Varsity, it would be great for you to share the results with them so they can see what they need to do to qualify.
They only have two meets left to qualify.
If you don’t qualify for Varsity don’t worry . We have a finals meet (JV) for these athletes as well.

VCYTC Junior Varsity Finals
Athletes may only compete in an event they have previously competed in during the regular season.
The 4X400 is the only exception to this. Athletes may run the 4X400 even if they have not run it during the regular season.
If an athlete has qualified for Varsity in a certain event, they may not compete in that event in the Junior Varsity Finals. This applies even if the athlete decides not to compete in the Varsity meet in that event or at all.
It’s a lot of information, please contact me if you have any questions,
Coach Stephen
805-822-9341

10U and Families,
Our 10U athletes have been lighting up the track in practice and at our meets!
#Shout-out to everyone who has given our distance group a try for “off campus Mondays” when we run to the park.

Our athletes expeditiously ran through their events at today’s meet!
Results for all meets will be here on the Tigres page (under “Practice, meets, and results” tab), once they are finalized. In the mean time, for today’s meet you can go to:
http://royalresults.com/liveresults/
We were amazed by so many PRs that we saw today.

Reminder, we will be having ribbons for PRs that have been achieved by our athletes. I’ll let you know when I have an updated schedule regarding
when these will be coming out.

Bonus Question/Reward:
If any athletes can correctly define the word “expeditiously” we’ll have to have a 2 Dum-Dum day.

Thanks again to our coaches for all their AMAZING support of our athletes!
I’ll see you on the track!

-Coach Stephen

What a great meet we had this weekend at Newbury Park. Our 10U team members were flying around the track! We had lots of PRs, and everyone is getting noticeably faster and stronger in practice. I also saw lot of good encouragment.

I’m especially thankful for the good attitudes and 100% effort our 10U runners have been giving at practice and the meets! Coaching the team is a highlight of my week. Keep encouraging your athletes to do their best and cheer on their teammates.

We expect to have ribbons from the meets for PRs only. I’m excited that our team is focusing on runners improving their personal best times. More to come on this, as I get further details.

WE LOVE TO RUN!

A few administrative notes and reminders:

-For upcoming meets, if your athlete is running the 4×100 relay, please try to be on site by 7:45am. It can be a scramble to put the teams together. If you’re not onsite in time, we may have rearrange teams and your athlete may lose their spot…Thanks to everyone for staying flexible. We’ve had several athletes step up when we needed another runner to field a complete team.

–We will have NOT have practice or a meet during spring break: April 3rd-8th, BUT it would be great opportunity to get in some running with friends or family members!

-Thanks for everyone’s flexibility as we transitioned to paperless meet sign-ups. This seems to be working well, and we are incorporating “lessons learned.” Big shout-out to Coach Ryan N. (from 12U) for setting this up!

-A gentle reminder that parents are NOT allowed on the infield during any practice or meets.
This includes both team and specialty practice days. Siblings and friends (unless they are also Tigres athletes) are not allowed on the field even after practice is over.

-I can’t overstate how thankful I am to our AMAZING assistant coaches. We have a great coaching team (all parents) who love the 10U athletes and encourage them to give their best.

-Finally, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. We want to do everything we can to help our 10U Tigres learn, grow, and succeed

Stay Strong 10U,

Coach Stephen –

805-822-9341 (call/text), or 10u@venturatigres.org

10U, What do we Love???
We love to run!!!
(We also love Dum-Dums)

What a great week of practices! This week a “shoe-throwing” good time was had by all! Our athletes have been working hard in both sprints and distance, and we’ve seen them getting faster and stronger. More importantly, we’ve seen lots of team spirit and encouragement.

Our first regular meet of the season is this Saturday, March 11
as Ventura Tigres host the Heritage Valley Blazers at Buena High School.
Meet starts at 8:30 am. Check-in at 7:45 am.
Rain or Shine (Be ready for rain!)

We will have our orange Tigres canopies set up in the stands. This is a great place to stage and keep your food/extra gear. This meet will have all the events and another team, so expect it to go significantly longer than our practice meet. Please bring healthy food/snacks to keep your athlete fueled up! The canopies will offer shade and/or protection from rain, so please feel free to use them.

Please remember that we want to be good sports to our fellow Tigres and our visiting team, the Blazers! I’m sure we’ll catch many of you high-fiving your competitors (after the race!) We want all athletes to try their best!

Please text/call me (805-822-9341) if you need to sign-up or modify any events for the meet.

A special thank you to all our parents for their support of Tigres! Without you, our meets would not be possible (and none of our athletes would make it to practice!) Thanks for all you do! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly throughout the season, if you have any questions or concerns!

Brrrrrrr…….this afternoon our athletes braved the sub 55 degree temperatures as our Socal winter continues on for a brisk practice!
We continue to be inspired by the enthusiasm and good attitudes we see on the field. Keep up the good work, 10U.

We have been gently reminded that my good friend, Coach Jim (12U Coach), brings Dum-Dum lollipops as a special treat to some practices, so stay tuned and keep coming to practice 🙂

With a meet coming up, please remember that we’re all on the same team and continue to be encouraging to all of our teammates! One of the best parts about running is that you can improve individually with practice and hard work. When you improve in event that becomes a Personal Record (PR). You’ll begin to hear us talk about PRs in practice, since every athlete has the opportunity to improve throughout the season!

We are now less than 60 hours away from our practice meet. Please try to get enough sleep and eat healthy/hearty meals, so you can be at your best. It is forecasted to be in the 40s at 7:45am when we arrive to warm-up for the meet. Remember to dress in layers, since it should warm up to the 50s as the day goes on. Please bring your water bottles to take on the field. You’ll also want to bring food/snacks/etc., but these need to stay in the stands and off the field.
Finally, remember, that this is our practice meet and there may be delays as we are all learning together. Your patience is appreciated and please reach out to me or any of the coaches with questions.

As a reminder, athletes sign-up for their events at practice. This year, we have paperless sign-ups using Coach Ryan’s web-based app. Thanks to all the parents who have reached out to me for sign-ups when their athletes were unable to sign-up at practice. Please reach out to me via email or text by tomorrow (Thursday) if you need to sign up or modify any of your sign-ups.

Stay strong, 10U….”WE LOVE TO RUN!”

If you have any questions, please email 10U@venturatigres.org or call/text 805-822-9341
-Coach Stephen

Thank you to Coach Dave and all the coaches for stepping up to fill-in, while I was away for work last week! I received lots of good feedback, regarding practicing relays!
Great practice for all the athletes that came out today. Keep working on your form during those warm-up drills and don’t be afraid to ask a coach if you need help. My arms are a bit sore this evening after our crab-walking-sharks-and-minnows variation.

This Saturday is our practice meet here at Buena, please make sure your athletes sign up for the events they are interested in by this Wednesday at practice. I will be around after practice if anyone has questions. This year, we’ve transitioned away from paper sign-ups and are getting the App to our coaches (Thank you, Coach Ryan for setting this up!!!). If you’re unable to make it, please reach out to me via email or text (contact info below) by Thursday, so ewe can ensure our athletes get into the events they want.

AND…
We are so excited for Saturday’s practice meet, where our athletes can finally compete (even if it is against only Tigres). The team has been working hard in practice, and Saturday is 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 cover important information for the athletes.
Please be sure to wear your uniform and bring extra 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 only be a tiny window on Saturday morning, so please do your best to be on time.
Please bring sunscreen (maybe wishful thinking?) and water. No food or drinks (other than water) are allowed on the field.
For parents and athletes, the purpose of this meet is to “practice” for our regular season meets. Athletes will be exposed to listening for event calls, warming up for events, and the staging process. 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! Our coaches will be actively involved to help everyone.
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 10U team will be allowed to compete in are a subset of a typical meet. Our athlete’s options are:
4×100 (relay)
1600
400
100
4×400
Long Jump
For the practice meet, athletes can compete in 2 running events and the Long Jump. They aren’t required to do 2 running events but can not do more than 2 running events. The exception to this is the 4×400, which is always free.
A significant area of focus for our team is sportsmanship. We are asking our athletes to 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 10U@venturatigres.org or call/text 805-822-9341
Coach Stephen

P.S. Coaches note: We have a very strong Coaches to athlete Ratio (this is a GREAT thing, thank you!) For this meet we’ll have one coach that is dedicated to help in the staging area for relays AND one coach that stays in Long Jump, while our 10U athletes are jumping.
P.P.S. I also want to take this opportunity to thank all our VOLUNTEER coaches for their dedication, enthusiasm and investment of time at the practices. YOU are the reason our athletes are doing so well, Thank you!