Track meets drive economy, competition

Major cities around the state build stadiums and lobby to host major sporting events like the Super Bowl and Olympics in large part due to the potential economic benefits.

Photo by Ernie Clark

FOXCROFT ACADEMY TRACK STAR — Hunter Smith helps man the concession booth during Saturday’s Penobscot Valley Conference small-school championship meet at Oakes Field in Dover-Foxcroft.

The same motivation can drive the pursuit of bringing much smaller events to much smaller locales.

Foxcroft Academy has been a frequent host of Penobscot Valley Conference small-school and Class C state championship outdoor track and field meets since the construction of its current facility at Oakes Field near the turn of the century.

“We’ve done them on Mondays, and we’ve done them in years we weren’t even scheduled to have them,” said Foxcroft athletic administrator Tim Smith recently. “One was rained out on a Saturday and moved to Monday but the host school wasn’t willing to do it then, so we hosted it on Monday.

“There was another time Westbrook was supposed to host one and a week before the meet their athletic director left and the school wasn’t willing to host so we got called on a Wednesday about hosting it on Saturday and we said no problem. We want it.”

Typically Foxcroft has fielded teams in the meets it has hosted, but this year marks a change to that relationship in that the school’s enrollment has resulted in its shift from Class C to Class B.

But while the Ponies’ track teams participated in the PVC large-school championships at Hampden last Friday and will be on Mount Desert Island this Saturday for the Class B state meet, it didn’t made the school any less receptive to hosting the PVC small-school meet and the Class C states again this spring.

“We actually requested to have the meets,” said Smith. “There was no reluctance.”

The reason? Each convergence of athletes, their parents and fans from around the region or the state brings a lot of people to town, and with that comes an economic benefit for both the school’s athletic program and local businesses.

“A, I like to show off our facilities, but more importantly people stop at Mountain’s Market and Fox Brook and go to Butterfields’ and eat at Subway and McDonald’s,” said Smith. “I’ve had a business owner or two over the years tell me that when we have a state championship track meet it’s their No. 1 sales day of the year.”

“I let the business owners in the area know when we’re doing them because they put extra people on. The Irving station [A.E. Robinson convenience store] is the No. 1 place I let know. They get hammered because people can walk there from the meet.”

Concessions sales at the events also rank among the biggest fundraising opportunities of the year for the benefit of the school’s all-sports boosters club, which in turn puts the profits back in Foxcroft’s athletic program.

“We can raise a couple of thousand dollars on a good day,” said Smith.

One challenge Smith is finding when Foxcroft hosts a conference or state championship meet on a weekend when its track teams are competing elsewhere is staffing the concession booth.

“Last week was Memorial Day weekend and we weren’t in the [PVC small-school] meet,” said Smith. “All the track parents went to Hampden the day before where we were competing, so only a very few of them might want to go to another track meet the next day.”

Instead, Smith relied mostly on family members last Saturday — though he also got a boost from Foxcroft senior three-sport standout Hunter Smith (not related).

Hunter Smith, who won four events on Friday to help the Ponies win the PVC large-school boys championship, heard when he got home from that meet that help was needed the next day, so he spent Saturday cooking hamburgers and hot dogs at a meet-record pace.

That Foxcroft is eager to host a small-school state meet even as its enrollment has elevated it to a different class has drawn the appreciation of the Maine Principals’ Association that sanctions the state championships.

“Their willingness to host these track meets, particularly when their team isn’t competing, provides the opportunities for those schools in the smaller classes with limited facilities the chance to perform on an outstanding eight-lane track, which is what we need for the state championships because of the number of participants,” said Mike Burnham, MPA assistant executive director and staff liaison for outdoor track and field.

“There are some other facilities that do have eight lanes. A number of Class A schools have been willing to host — Brewer has been phenomenal in being willing to open its track to classes other than Class A — but there are very limited track facilities with eight lanes north of Augusta.”

The MPA prefers when possible to switch state meets between northern and southern locales every other year. Yarmouth, which this year was reclassified from B to C, hosted last year’s Class C states.

“We like to rotate between north and south as much as we can based on the availability of the venues,” said Burnham. “I also think it’s important to note that to host one of these takes a great deal of work and organization, and Tim is willing to undertake that in order to bring those championships to the Dover-Foxcroft area.

“It’s a beautiful venue, and the entire community is welcoming. The schools that come to compete in those meets are made to feel welcome. It’s a good feeling to go and know that people really like to have you there.”

Participants from as many as 52 different schools may take part in the Class C state meet, and Smith — a Foxcroft Academy graduate — enjoys both helping to provide the local economy with an infusion of cash and exposing many of those athletes, their families and friends to a community they may never have seen before.

“It’s a good feeling to try to help out because most of the business owners I know,” said Smith. “I want the town to thrive and I know that these two Saturdays are big sales days for those people.”

“It also shows off Dover-Foxcroft. A lot of people don’t know where it is on a map, and then they come here and see this immaculate place. When people come for the first time they’re astonished.”