‘A Great Opportunity’
Fri, 2016-05-20 05:00
News Staff
9 Cove athletes to compete in 2nd annual Meet of Champions
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
To be among the best of the best in your field of athletic endeavor is in the heart of any true competitor. To get to showcase your skills one final time in front of college coaches and recruiters is icing on the cake.
Nine Copperas Cove athletes get that opportunity in eight different events tomorrow during the 2nd annual 2016 Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Meet Of Champions at Baylor’s Clyde Hart Stadium.
The champions from each conference HSAA (Home School Athletic Association), SPC (Southwest Preparatory Conference), TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools), TCAF (Texas Christian Athletic Fellowship) and UIL (University Interscholastic League) are awarded an automatic bid while the remaining spots are awarded to the best qualifying time or mark according to the txmilesplit.com leader board. This year’s format invites the state’s Top 18 athletes in each event to compete against one another to determine a true Texas state champion.
“Any chances you get to compete you want to take advantage of it,” said Copperas Cove head coach Keith Stifflemire. “If you’re in multiple sports it’s going to help that other sport, but if your main focus is track, that just gives you one more opportunity to be seen. I know we have some college coaches looking at a couple of our seniors and they’re really excited they get one more opportunity to hopefully improve and showcase themselves.”
State qualifiers Marcus Brumfield, Shamad Lomax, Antonio Lealiiee, Eric Cain and Josh Canete all met the meet criteria. Due to personal obligations Lomax and Canete are unable to compete so senior Sean Bedford will replace Lomax on the 4x100-meter relay team and the next best mark in the high jump from the five conferences will replace Canete. Brumfield will also compete in the 100m dash where he finished fifth in the state at the UIL State Meet last weekend.
Also qualifying for the meet were the boy’s 4x200m relay squad of freshman Shontez Simmons, Cain, Bedford and Brumfield; freshman Kyle Stifflemire in the pole vault and discus; senior Donte Irving in the triple jump and junior Dahmir Pearson in the 800m run.
This also gives some athletes a chance at redemption that may have performed well during the year but maybe didn’t have their best outing in their final postseason opportunity.
“Some of our kids finished on a great note by qualifying for the state track meet and this will be a chance to get better,” said coach Stifflemire. “Some other guys still qualified for the meet even though they didn’t making it to the state meet, their goal was to get there so they are really, really excited for one more opportunity. When that happens, you want to take advantage of it and (set a personal record) one more time.”
And to beat out champions of other conferences would place a cherry on top.
“It helps build confidence because you have all these other divisions coming in and you can see how you match up with them,” said Stifflemire. “I think it’s going to be a real positive day for us.”
Stifflemire also sees the annual Meet of Champions as an ideal opportunity to marry college coaches with potential recruits.
“For those wanting to run at the college level, you couldn’t have a more perfect opportunity to be looked at,” he said. “It’s huge because a lot of colleges had track meets last week so the coaches didn’t get to see them in person. This week they’ll have even more opportunity out there at that grand level where you’re going to have more access to be seen.
“We have a couple seniors that haven’t signed with anybody yet and are hoping they can get a few more interested colleges looking at them.”
Kyle Stifflemire and Irving will get the competition started for the Bulldawgs when they compete in the discus and triple jump, respectively, beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Stifflemire returns to competition at 6:15 p.m. in the pole vault to close out the Cove field events.
The 4x100m relay team will kick off the running events at 6:15 p.m. followed by Pearson in the 800m run, Brumfield in the 100m dash and the 4x200m relay. The running events will be on a rolling schedule with awards presentations being held in the breaks between each event.
There will also be an autograph session with Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Famers at 2 p.m. at the northeast side of the stadium under the tent.
For more information on the event or for an updated participation list visit http://www.txtfmeetofchampions.com.