St. Rita Track & Field · Doing the Impossible Since 1381
Everything you wanted to know (and more!).
Where we go, what to wear, and what happens when the sky opens up.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:45–5:45 PM, at Fort Ward Park. Meet at the picnic table area just past the amphitheater, near the restrooms. The lot by the field fills up fast at 4:45 — there's more space up the hill, and it's a short walk down.
Saturdays, 9:00–10:00 AM — the first three were planned at Greenbrier Park in Arlington, the Yorktown High School stadium at 2700 N Greenbrier St. A synthetic track, a long jump pit and free parking, which is most of what a Saturday on a real track buys us. There will be doughnuts.
There were five planned, and they are not every week:
The gaps are mostly race days: September 19 and October 17 are cross country meets, October 10 is the Championship Meet, and November 7 is the cross country championship.
There is no Sunday practice. Bishop O’Connell hosted us on Sundays last year and was a gracious host, but they’ve cut back on outside groups and are writing a new contract before they approve anyone. We’re still in that queue and may yet add an O’Connell date — but the Saturdays above are what we can offer right now.
A parent stays for weekend practice — either helping out, or with another team parent you’ve arranged it with beforehand. The October 24 and 31 locations are still to be set; we’ll email. Nothing about Tuesday and Thursday changes either way.
No, and please don't. NVJCYO rules prohibit spikes outright — "spikes or spike-less shoes are not permitted" — at practice and at the meet, every grade, every event, no exceptions. Regular running shoes for everything. This saves you about $60 and saves your child a possible DQ — or an awkward conversation on meet day about the shoes they were counting on wearing.
Two a week is ideal, and it's what we plan around. One a week works when the conflict is either another sport that complements track — soccer, field hockey, basketball, that sort of thing — or a school activity that overlaps, like the spring musical. We'd rather see your kid once a week all season than not at all. Just know that showing up almost never won't set them up well for meet day.
No need to report every absence — but if they'll be out a while, email us and we'll send a workout they can do on their own.
Practice ends at 5:45 and the pickup window is 5:45–6:00 PM. If you can, give a coach a wave on your way out so we know your child is with you.
Weekend practice works differently. Tuesdays and Thursdays you can drop off and go. On the weekend we ask that a parent stay — either helping out, or with another team parent you've arranged it with beforehand, someone other than us. Every child needs an adult there who is responsible for them.
That's less about supervision than about the weekend being unpredictable. Weather can end a session early, and track availability is the bigger problem — tracks are in short supply and heavily booked, and we have been turned away or double-booked at every single location we've used. If we arrive and the track is gone, we need every child to have someone there who can take them home.
We do take roll at the start of every practice, so we always know who's here. What we no longer run is a sign-out sheet at the end. We tried one for years, and the honest problem was funneling forty parents past a clipboard in a parking lot at dusk — we'd finish practice with three names still on the list and no children attached to them, leaving coaches in a dark park working out whether it was time to call someone, when of course everyone had gone home ages ago. A wave, a nod, or a shout across the lot does the same job better. Anything that tells us you've got them.
Yes. Kids can attend Extended Day beforehand and get driven over to practice. Let us know so your child is on the list, and we'll confirm the arrangement at the start of the season.
Older kids in the neighborhood are also welcome to walk or bike to our house and ride over with us — up to the number of seats we have, which is the real limit. Ask us first so we know to expect them.
Not remotely. Email coaches@stritatrack.com and we (i.e., Mary) will help sort out a carpool. There are always families coming from the same direction, and Mary has been known to simply go get your child herself.
Saturday, October 10, 2026 — done, and what a day. Thank you!
Yes — every athlete on the track team competes, and it matters more than any single practice. It's the culmination of the season and a genuinely great day, and relay teams need four humans: a missing runner takes three teammates down with them.
This fall's meet was Saturday, October 10. When there's a weather backup, it's the Sunday after; if we get rained out, everything remaining slides to Sunday, starting no earlier than noon. It has happened before.
It's a low-pressure day and it's supposed to be fun. Yes, we want the kids to run, throw and jump well — we've spent a season on it, and there's real joy in a race that goes right. But there are no cuts, no qualifying times, and nothing at stake beyond a shot at a ribbon and a good story.
We're especially careful with the younger athletes. A 3rd grader lining up for the 400 in front of a full stadium is doing something genuinely brave, and finishing it is the accomplishment. The loudest cheering all day is reliably for whoever comes in last.
And nerves are completely normal — for everyone. They're much less about age than people assume; we've had unflappable 4th graders and 8th graders who couldn't eat breakfast. They don't track ability much either — if anything they turn up at both ends, in the child who isn't sure they belong out there and in the one who's good enough that people have started expecting things. Kids feel expectations long before anyone says them out loud.
So the most useful thing a parent can do is keep it light. "Have fun out there" travels much better at 8:00 AM than "remember what we talked about."
| Session | Grades | Runs roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | 6th, 7th, 8th | 7:30 AM – about 11:30 AM |
| Afternoon | 3rd, 4th, 5th | 11:00 AM – about 2:30 PM |
There's no team warm-up. Each child gets their own "arrive no later than" time, based on their first event — long jumpers a little earlier, to get practice jumps in. It comes in the entries email, along with your child's events, heats and lanes and roughly when each one runs. The afternoon starts earlier this year: field events open at 11:00 and the first race is at about 11:45. Do not use last season's arrival time — it changes every year, and we have the emails to prove it.
You're welcome to come earlier to cheer on teammates — but it's a long day for the youngest, so there's no need to come hours ahead.
It's at Bishop O'Connell High School, 6600 Little Falls Rd, Arlington, where it's been held every season for years. Parking for the afternoon session is always a challenge; give yourself extra time.
Only one race in the entire meet has a start time — the girls' mile at 7:30 AM (grades 6–8 run it together). Everything after that runs in a fixed order, whenever it gets there. The meet flips from ahead of schedule to behind and back again with no warning.
So: know your child's events and know the running order. The most frustrating question of the day, for everyone including your child, is "when is my race?"
Each child's entries email lists their events with estimated times, heats and lanes, including the field events — long jump, shot put and javelin — which run alongside the races rather than in the printed sequence, and are the easiest thing on the schedule to miss. The time we list for a field event is when to get in line; if your child's race is called while they're waiting, they tell the volunteer at the table, who saves their place. Treat the times as estimates, not appointments; the meet drifts, and heats can be combined on the day. MileSplit Live shows each heat as it runs. Our tent will be set up on the turn by the start of the 200, and we'll have walkie-talkies.
Wear: track t-shirt and shorts. Regular running shoes — no spikes in any event. October mornings in Virginia are cold; every athlete should have sweats or warm-ups for when they're not competing. A change of clothes, dry socks and a light rain jacket are never a bad idea.
Bring:
Please do NOT bring: soccer balls, footballs, tennis balls or any other ball; frisbees or discs; electronics, tablets, or anything that makes noise. Loose balls on an active infield are exactly as bad as they sound.
The snack bar will be open, offering delicious food of questionable nutritional value.
Please stay through the relays — relay teams are set by the coaches before the meet, and relays run late in each session. And we hope you'll stay longer: the meet is a team event, and the day is better when the team is there for each other — the kid cheering at the fence in the afternoon is often the reason someone else runs a PR.
No — only athletes, volunteers and coaches are allowed past the gates. We (Mary) have to complain about other teams' parents wandering onto the field at every single meet, so please don't make us (Mary) look bad. Kids should also stay off the field unless they're warming up, lining up, or headed to a field event.
Related: it's a very long day for younger siblings. Please keep a close eye on the little ones — past meets have featured damaged equipment and disrupted races.
Bring it to Matt or Mary. Please don't approach the meet directors, officials, or other teams' coaches. The meet directors will only act on a dispute raised by a coach, and everyone else will just get agitated. We'll take it from there.
And if you have video, send it to us — especially of the relays and the 100, which generate the most disputes. Phone footage from the stands has settled more than one place.
Preliminary results post the same day to MileSplit and we'll send the link. Treat them as preliminary — they're going to change, especially the relays. If something looks wrong once results are up, tell us fast; corrections have a short window. For October 10, the league's official results — your child's marks and the team scores — are on the team website under Meet Results.
Ribbons go to 1st through 6th place by grade and gender, and the top three teams in each division get team awards. We also hand out our own awards at the spring banquet.
| Track | Cross Country | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | A track. Flat, oval, predictable. | Parks. Grass, hills, mud, roots. |
| Events | Sprints, distance, relays, long jump, shot put, javelin | One race per division. That's it. |
| Divisions | By grade — 3rd through 8th each race their own | Freshman (3–4), JV (5–6), Varsity (7–8) |
| Who it's for | Everybody, grades 3–8 | Distance-oriented — but genuinely open to anyone |
| Meets | One championship meet — every athlete competes | A three-meet series — the two developmental meets are optional |
They run concurrently in the fall — XC isn't a separate season, it's an add-on. Kids doing both come to the same practices and just do more distance work.
In practice, everyone who runs cross country also runs track, but not everyone who runs track does cross country. It leans toward the distance kids for obvious reasons — but don't count yourself out on that basis. Some of our best throwers have done cross country and loved it, and it does more for a sprinter's engine than anything else we do all fall.
The league has set all three, and they're all Saturdays:
Venues remain subject to park availability, which is not a formality. Last fall the championship moved four days out because of a federal government shutdown closing the park.
The first two are developmental meets and are genuinely optional. The championship is where we'd really like everyone. Before each one we ask for a yes/no per athlete, because we have to submit entries.
No. Same track shirt. We are nothing if not efficient.
(Mary would like there to be one. Mary is currently losing this argument.)
Yes — volunteering is a requirement of team membership. We say that plainly because it's true: this program is run entirely by parents, and our coaches need to be coaching rather than measuring.
But you can meet it however it fits your life: at practice, at the meet, or both. Some families are at every Tuesday practice and skip the meet shift; some can't make a weekday to save their lives and work the pit on meet day. Both are great. We just need everyone doing something.
Long jump. St. Rita has run the long jump pits for several seasons now and has the scoring system down to an art form — the league coordinator says so in writing, which we bring up often.
It is, by broad consensus, the best gig at the meet: you're in one spot, you're in the shade under our tents, and you get to watch kids fly. Roles include measuring, raking, marking, recording, and keeping the line orderly. No experience needed, and first-timers are welcome — we'll show you everything in about ninety seconds, and ask a few volunteers to lead each pit.
If you'd like to see how the whole thing works before you show up, here's our long jump system, written out. Reading it is entirely optional and mildly impressive.
About 2½ hours at the pit. Here's the honest math: the two pits take 14 volunteers a session, and we share the load with St. Louis and St. Mary's. We'll have extra helpers to cover for you while your child runs or jumps, so you won't miss their events.
One firm rule: wait for your cover to arrive and get the hang of it before you step away. The pit stops if you walk away.
By email: we send a link where you tap to pick a spot — no account needed. Thank you to everyone who worked the long jump pits on October 10! Still want to help, or something changed? Email coaches@stritatrack.com and we'll find you a slot that works. Dress in layers, bring water, a snack, and sun protection — and if you own a pop-up tent with real weights, we'd love to borrow it.
High schoolers (and middle schoolers at the afternoon session) can work as pit runners, and high schoolers can earn stewardship hours for it.
Cross country meets are different: St. Rita staffs the finish line — two parents for each race — and brings the team tent. The open spots are listed at the bottom of the page you open from each meet's yes/no email — tap one to take it — and you can only pick a race your own child isn't running.
All of it counts. Every hour you spend working with this team — at practice, at the meet, hauling equipment, driving other people's children — counts as volunteer hours for the school. Keep track of your time and tell us if you need it recorded.
Please do — this is genuinely where we're shortest. A practice where kids get real individual attention takes a lot of adults. Seventy athletes doing six different events can't be one group; it has to be six or eight small ones, each with someone watching a single kid's arm or step or grip and telling them one useful thing. That's the difference between a practice where children run around and a practice where they get better, and it's entirely a question of how many grown-ups are standing on the field. An hour on a Tuesday is worth a lot to us.
Not sure where you'd fit? Come to the parent volunteer meeting. At the start of practice, while Matt runs warm-ups with the kids, Mary holds a quick meeting where parents sort out who's helping with what — no need to guess on your own. Distance running is a particular need right now, between injuries and graduations: we need people either spread out along the loop or running with the kids.
Tell us what you're curious about and we'll point you at it.
And then there are the parents who do all of the above. Every season a handful of families end up at every practice, in the pit on meet day, hauling equipment, collecting other people's children from Extended Day, and saying yes to whatever we ask next. We are not being modest when we say the team does not run without them — it is the literal truth, and it is worth knowing that the season your child enjoys was built largely by other parents.
Adding the second sport costs $20. That is the whole gap between $60 and $80 — a second season of racing, the same practices, the same coaches, the same shirt. If cross country is a maybe in your house, $20 is the entire downside of finding out.
The logic: most of what we spend goes to running the team rather than to any one sport, so there's a single team fee per child — track rental, equipment, meet costs — plus a smaller fee for each sport they join.
One quirk, and it is a different $20 from the one above: if you sign up for cross country only, the system will collect just $20 at checkout, and we'll follow up with those few families for the remaining $40. It's a registration platform thing; it's not you.
If any of this creates a hardship for your family, please reach out to us privately — the parish has assistance available, and we will work something out. No child has ever missed a season over the fee and we intend to keep it that way.
Fall registration is closed. Spring registration opens at reg.sportspilot.com/106556/leagues, and we'll email when it does. Two things that trip people up every single season:
If the payment option doesn't appear or something looks broken, don't assume — email us. It's usually a setting on our end that we can fix in an hour.
Yes — but you have to tell us, because registration only records one email address per family. It asks for the second parent's name and phone number and never asks for their address, so by default we're reaching whoever filled in the form and nobody else. That's the sign-up system, not a choice we made.
Email coaches@stritatrack.com with the second address and we'll add it. Same for a grandparent or anyone else who does half the pickups and needs to know when practice moves. If you'd rather we took an address off the list, tell us that too.
Please treat it as real. Fall registration closed September 10, with the biggest team St. Rita has ever had. We need the roster settled to build entries, order shirts and tell the league how many kids we're bringing, and every year a few families miss it — more than one child didn't get to be on the team last year for no reason other than a missed deadline. That's the outcome we'd like to avoid. If you're close to the deadline and something is in the way, email us before it rather than after.
No — but they do need to be a St. Rita parishioner. This is technically a CYO activity rather than a school one, and parishioner status is a diocesan rule we don't control. Homeschooled parishioners are absolutely welcome. The athlete themselves needs to be the parishioner.
If your situation isn't clear-cut, ask us rather than assuming the answer is no. We run the roster by Father Christensen, and where there's any doubt about eligibility the call is his — which is as it should be, and has worked out for more families than it hasn't.
A team t-shirt. That's it. The league requires only "a matching team t-shirt" as a uniform — no singlets, no team shorts, no warm-up jackets, no spikes. One shirt covers Tuesday and Thursday practices and the meet.
This fall's shirts are in. We ordered extras, so if your child still needs one, email us and we'll arrange a pickup — the full box no longer comes to every practice. Cash, Venmo or PayPal.
Each season's order is separate from registration and closes early — around the second week of practice — because it's one bulk order to a printer and we can't add to it afterwards. We email the order form when it opens.
Two practical notes. Try one on before you order — the donation bin comes to the first practices with every size in it, and a shirt your child has actually held beats a guess off a chart. And if they're between sizes, size up: they will grow into it by spring, and out of it by the spring after that. Which is exactly why the bin exists — when they outgrow it, send it back.
If you register close to the deadline and miss the order, you aren't stuck. We buy spares in the common sizes for exactly that, and there's always the bin. Email us and we'll sort your child out.
Nothing required. NVJCYO provides every implement used at the meet — the shots and the javelins are the league's, and everyone throws the same ones. We also have a closet full of equipment for practice.
That said, plenty of families do buy their own for backyard practice — see the next section.
Optional, but more common than you'd think.
Plenty of families do, and it's one of the highest-return things you can buy for a young athlete. The throws reward repetition more than almost anything else in track — a kid who takes thirty throws in the backyard on a Sunday will out-improve one who only throws at Tuesday practice, and it costs less than a season of most other sports' gear.
It's also the one part of track you can practice properly at home. Nobody has a long jump pit in the yard.
With one condition, and we mean it: backyard throwing is for athletes who have already been taught the basics at practice, or who have an adult out there supervising. A 3rd grader who has never been coached through a throw should not be alone in the yard with a shot put. Come learn it with us first — it takes one practice — and then the repetition at home is worth everything.
The league throws a TurboJav — a rubber-tipped foam-and-plastic training javelin, not a spear. Match the weight to the grade:
| Grades | Weight | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd – 6th | 300 gram | TurboJav 300g on Amazon |
| 7th – 8th | 600 gram | TurboJav 600g on Amazon |
Two notes. First, buy the 600g early if you have a 7th or 8th grader — it goes out of stock far more often than the 300. Second, if the TurboJav is unavailable, a generic 300g training javelin at the same weight is fine; skip the foam "howler" toys and skip the USATF AeroJav, which flies differently.
The league supplies the shot at the meet, and which one your child throws is set entirely by grade and gender:
| Weight | Who throws it | Link |
|---|---|---|
| 4 lb | 3rd and 4th grade — boys and girls | First Place iron shot — pick 4 lb |
| 6 lb | Everyone else — 5th through 8th grade girls, 5th through 7th grade boys | 6 lb shot puts on Amazon |
| 8 lb | 8th grade boys only | 8 lb shot puts on Amazon |
A 4 lb shot is hard to find. Most shots are sold at 6 lb and up, so searching "4 lb" on Amazon turns up heavier ones. The one above is a true 4 lb. A 2 kg (4.4 lb) shot is close enough for practice and far easier to find; just don't let a 6 lb stand in for it.
Two moves up, if you're buying: 4 lb to 6 lb going into 5th grade, and 6 lb to 8 lb for boys going into 8th. Check with us before you buy if you're unsure — training all winter with the wrong weight is a genuine setback.
Iron or rubber? They throw iron at the meet, so that's the truest practice — but it will crater a lawn, skip off a driveway, and put a hole in anything you love. A rubber or urethane-coated shot is the same weight and far kinder to a backyard; the only trade-off is that it's a slightly bigger ball for the weight, so it sits a little differently against the neck. Either is fine for building strength and form. Pick based on where they'll be throwing.
Nothing you need to buy. The best off-season equipment for a track athlete is a hill, a stopwatch, and a parent willing to stand at the top of it — sprinting, jumping and playing other sports do more for a 9-year-old than any purchase will.
That said, a fair amount of what's already in your garage is good training. A jump rope is as close to a perfect track tool as exists — it builds exactly the springy, quick-footed contact with the ground that sprinting and jumping run on. A frisbee teaches a throwing motion and gets a kid running to a spot without being told to run. A ball, a bike, a set of stairs, a stopwatch: all of it counts. None of it needs to look like practice.
The part of the season that isn't training.
Yes — in the spring, at the end of the track season. It's an evening for the whole team and their families, and it's the one time all year we stop and say out loud what we saw.
The shape of it, based on last spring:
Yes. The banquet belongs to spring, so the fall gets a team party once the season ends. A team parent has kindly taken on the planning.
We'll email the details.
Yes — and they're genuinely welcome, not merely tolerated. Bring them. There are playgrounds at the weekday sites, and a younger sibling who wants to run around is a younger sibling who is already halfway to joining the team.
More than that: if you're there volunteering and your younger child wants to actually join in, that's usually fine. Some of our best athletes started as the little sibling who kept sneaking into the drills. Two conditions, both reasonable: a parent is present and engaged, and the child can follow instructions without derailing the group. If a sibling becomes a handful, we'll ask you to redirect them — no hard feelings, it just isn't fair to the kids who are there to train.
One firm exception: the distance workouts. We're selective about who runs those even among team members, and we won't take a child who's too young for the team at all. These sessions are genuinely hard — that's the point of them — and the training load is built for kids in grades 3 through 8. Running a 7-year-old through an 8th grader's interval workout isn't a head start, it's an injury.
Up to four, relays included. Coaches build the entries based on what we've seen at practice and what the team needs, and we'll email you your child's events to check before anything is final. Please do check it: name spelling, grade and gender errors are much easier to fix before the deadline than after.
Email coaches@stritatrack.com, ideally before we set relay teams. And if anything is urgent on meet day, our cell numbers are in the week-of-the-meet email — or just find someone in the team tent with a walkie-talkie.
Email, from coaches@stritatrack.com. That's a new address on a new domain, so add it to your contacts — and check your spam folder if a week goes quiet. A reply reaches both of us. Meet sign-ups come by email too: one tap per child for cross country, and a link to pick a volunteer spot. Yes, our emails are long. We've been told. Bold text marks the parts that will change your Saturday.
If only one of you is getting these, that's fixable — registration records one address per family. Send us the other one and we'll add it (see Money & Registration).
There is also a team website now — stritatrack.com/parents. Sign in with Google, using the address we email you at, and you'll find the season calendar, your own athlete's results and progress through the season, the school records, the top-ten lists by grade and event, results from past meets, race-day details for each meet, and your child's practice video once they've been filmed. You see your own children's pages, and some pages — results, the top-ten lists, the records — name other children too (who can see what).
If it doesn't recognize you when you sign in, that's our end rather than yours — usually it means we have a different address for you, or the one we have isn't a Google account. Email coaches@stritatrack.com and we'll sort it out.
Your child's Athlete Tracker page (all their results in one place, attendance, season summary) and their practice video are seen only by the accounts linked to them and by the coaches. The Tracker page lists those accounts at the bottom. If you don't recognise one, email coaches@stritatrack.com and we'll take it off.
Some pages name other children, yours included, to every family that signs in: meet results (every school's runners at each meet, with places and times), the top-ten lists, the school records, and each meet's page, which lists every St. Rita runner entered and the parents volunteering — with their phone numbers and family email until the meet is over.
That list will grow as the site does, and we'll update this answer when it changes.
Email coaches@stritatrack.com. If you're new to the team and would rather just talk it through, say so and we'll set up a quick call — most evenings work for Matt, and Mary is good on Wednesdays.