The following list was written by Glen Hazelwood, author of the prior article, Musings of a Rookie XC Dad.
If you took a friend who was uninitiated in the ways of New York track and field, stood them on the corner of 168th St. and Broadway in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and told them that they were within sight of one of America's premier "hotbeds" of the sport, they'd probably look at you like you may have missed the pole vault pit a few times too many. And in all fairness, it does seem an unlikely place for such a thing. The urban landscape that would fill their eyes with brick, concrete and steel wouldn't easily lend itself to visions of a mass of well-conditioned young people, wearing a veritable rainbow of school colors, running and jumping and throwing.
But the truth is, within those bricks, The New Balance Track & Field Center on Ft. Washington Ave. in Manhattan is just that. It is the epicenter of indoor track and field in the northeast, if not the entire nation, and it offers everything anyone could possibly need or want in a meet facility; from its state-of-the-art Mondo track, to its "Jumbotron" scoreboard, to its concession stands.
Ironically, in the thirty plus years that I've competed in and followed track and field, I'd never been inside The Armory until this winter. The facility was in a period of disuse during my competing days, and until this season when my oldest son began his high school track career I just didn't have any particular reason to go there. I've now been there 6-7 times over the course of this season and am completely impressed with what goes on within those brick walls.
As the winter track season begins to wind down and we all start getting ready to bid this facility farewell until next year and venture outside for the spring season, these are a few of the things that have made me smile about the New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory.
The Facility
When I competed in high school, the majority of our meets were held at the Westchester County Center in White Plains. When this facility was in its planning stages, I can envision the designers sitting there saying, "Let's build a multi-use facility that can be used for virtually any type of event....except track meets." The floor was painted concrete and the lanes were marked with duct tape. I believe the track was something like 157yds, 2ft., 7 and 1/4 in. and had concrete pillars in some of the lanes. The aroma of day-old Carling's Black Label beer and french fries comes back to me like it was yesterday.
The New Balance Track and Field Center is freakin' DISNEYWORLD for track and field athletes. It is literally the place that we dreamed of having back in the day. A complete, full-service arena entirely dedicated to the sport of track and field. The track is world class, as are the jumping and throwing areas. The support areas (trainer's area, warm-up and check-in areas, etc.) are top notch and professionally run. The best way I can think of to describe it is that if you're a track & field athlete in the tri-state area with access to The Armory, it's like joining your schools baseball team and being told that your home games will be played at Yankee Stadium. The young athletes competing in this sport in our area couldn't possibly ask for anything more in a competition venue, and they are incredibly fortunate to have The Armory at their disposal.
The History
It's staggering to reflect upon the fact that this building has been here for over 100 years and has played host to thousands of track meets, almost continuously, during that time. Like any entity that's stood through an extended period of time like that, it's had its up and downs. You'll hear stories about when it was a homeless shelter and meets were run around stacks of cots that were later set back up to receive those in need for the night. There was a period of time when the building stood as a lifeless shell, unable to be used for any purpose because of its decayed condition. But history is history and cannot be changed, and every story born within the walls of this building in one way or another adds to its legacy. What stands on that site now is the culmination of all of those stories, and it has a future as bright as the sun waiting to add stories of its own in the form of the young athletes gracing its track each day.
When you enter The Armory and pay your admission fee, you will find yourself at the foot of the staircase that leads up to the track and the spectator level above it. Starting at the base of this staircase is a series of plaques, hung at eye level and sweeping upward as you climb. These plaques commemorate every record ever set at an Armory meet. Some are names you will know, while others are obscure. But each one of them represents a story born there within those walls. That's my favorite way to recognize and celebrate the history of this building.
The Atmosphere
You will often hear people use the phrase “It was electric!” to describe a place or event that was exciting and full of energy. I've rarely, if ever, seen that phrase so perfectly personified as when The Armory is going full-blast during a meet. You can't help but feel it as soon as you start walking up the stairs. You take a thousand hyped-up young athletes, throw them into a room full of bright lights, with the current soundtrack of teenage life in the form of rock and hip-hop blasting over the PA, and you wonder how the building is even able to contain all that energy. If you could harness that energy and somehow feed it into a cable, you could probably light up the whole neighborhood for as long as the meet runs.
I've gone to weeknight meets after a rough day at work, or just coming off of being sick or generally having a 'not so great' day, and almost as soon as I get inside the building, its energy finds its way into me and lifts me right up. Maybe it's something in the air of the building. Maybe it's something as simple as watching kids have fun. But whatever it is, when I leave the building and head west on 168th St. toward the subway to go home, I feel as drained as if I'd run a race myself. Too bad that doesn't burn any calories.
The Diversity
One thing that almost becomes hard to remember about the New Balance Track & Field Center is that it is legitimately a professional sports arena, on par with Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Met Life Stadium, etc. as it relates to the sport of track & field. This place is as good as it gets, and when it hosts meets like Millrose, New Balance Games, or the U.S. Open it is the equal of any of the MLB, NFL or NBA arenas in our area.
What makes that hard to remember is that for every night you walk in and see a meet of the above caliber going on, you're just as likely the next night to see a 70yr. old woman having a go at 4' high jump in her masters meet, or an 8yr.old kid stumbling down the back straight with a huge smile on his face in his very first race the following weekend. The Armory is there for anyone, and I'd bet if I went to the Milesplit indoor calendar right now I'd be hard pressed to find one single week of the season that didn't include at least one each of a youth, high school, college, open and masters event on the schedule. That diversity and inclusiveness separates The Armory from the other pro venues, and in my opinion makes it better than them. Not very many athletes outside the NFL will ever get their feet on the artificial turf of Met Life Stadium. Anyone can get their feet on the Mondo at The Armory.
You don't have to be good, or competitive, or even serious about the sport. If you have an interest in track & field then you can find a home at The Armory.
The Hall of Fame
Ok….I was a shot putter/hammer thrower in high school, and a pretty good one at that. I have never, nor will I ever, “get” running. It always looked really sweaty and tiring, and my coaches practically had to chase me around the track with a stun-gun to get a two lap warm-up out of me at practice. BUT…..even I get how insanely cool it is that Steve Prefontaines uniform from the University of Oregon is hanging in a glass case at The Armory!
Baseball has Cooperstown…Football has Canton, OH…And Track & Field has Washington Heights, NY. Ours is obviously not as “high profile” as the others, but it is just as important to those who follow this wonderful sport. The National Track & Field Hall of Fame has been housed at The Armory since 2002 and is packed full of memorabilia, throwing implements, uniforms, photos, etc. representing every era of American track & field. It includes a small theater and it is crowned by the “Wall of Fame”, a 40ft long wall of glass with all of the Hall of Fame inductees names etched onto it. This work of art is absolutely breathtaking, and if you are a true “trackie”, you must add a trip to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame to your personal “bucket list”.
The Staff
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the staff of The Armory as part of this list, because from what I've seen in my short experience there they do an outstanding job of making the place run smoothly while at the same time being almost invisible in most cases.
Though I don't know this, my guess is that the majority of the staff at The Armory is made up of young people from the community, which is a very cool thing in and of itself. When you enter the building, you're greeted by three or four people who help steer you in the right direction for where you need to be. It's no small chore getting anywhere from 20-150 track teams all herded smoothly into a building and up four floors worth of stairs, but they do so quickly and efficiently. I've never once entered the building without hearing “Welcome to The Armory.”, and most times they have the door open for me before I even have a chance to lift my hand to do it myself. The ticket sellers, ticket takers and concession workers are all courteous and efficient. If you're standing somewhere you're not supposed to be standing or entering a part of the building you're not supposed to be entering, a crew member will set you right, but they're not “jerks” about it like you will find at many other sporting arenas. Also, this is a 600,000 square foot facility with thousands of people flowing through it on any given meet day, and I have never once seen any part of it anything less than spotless, so obviously the maintenance crew is on top of their game as well.
This all may seem like small stuff and it's not anything you'd really go out of your way to notice, but it's all a part of the class and professionalism of this building, and to me that's important. If everything else was perfect, but the bathrooms were stinky or an employee was rude to you, that's the part you'd remember. The Armory staff doesn't even let that come into play…so much respect to them. If I ever hit Powerball, I might even apply for a part-time job there just for fun.
The Concessions
First of all, any track and field venue that has a concession stand called “Snack & Field” is ok in my book. That's just pure genius.
The food concessions at The Armory are excellent. They serve up your typical arena junk food (hot dogs, hamburgers, etc.), but they also provide healthier fare as well, with salads, fruit, yogurt, etc. available. The main concession stand on the track level serves fresh made sandwiches (chicken Panini w/ pesto is real good), pizza and some killer homemade potato chips in addition to all the other stuff and there's table seating available there. The aforementioned “Snack & Field” snack bar is upstairs on the spectator level if you want something quick without having to venture too far from your seat. There's also a “smoothie bar” at track level, which every time I've passed by it looks like it's even busier than the track itself. Food prices are decent enough for NYC. In fact, they're downright cheap when compared with your typical sports arena concessions.
New Balance also maintains a full service “pro shop” at The Armory where you can get anything from a handful of spikes to trainers, flats, apparel, etc.
The PA/Scoreboard
The PA system, like the things I said about the staff, can easily be dismissed as “small stuff”. Every arena you go to has some semblance of a PA on site. But from a practical standpoint, the difference between a good PA and a bad one can matter. A poor one can cause a kid to miss a race or a coach to not hear an announcement that he or she needs to hear. Like everything else at The Armory, the PA system is outstanding. It's clear, full and loud enough to fill this cavernous building, and any kid that misses a race because they didn't hear last call should probably get with their folks about arranging for a battery of hearing tests.
The other aspect of the PA is the constant stream of music bouncing off the walls of the building throughout the meet. I spoke earlier of the high-energy atmosphere of these meets, and make no mistake…the music is a huge contributing factor to that. Almost every athlete will tell you that hearing the right song at the right time can make a difference in their performance. It's that last little “psych” or burst of adrenaline from hearing “their song” at just the right time that can give a high jumper that extra 1/16th of an inch or get a sprinter out of the blocks a bit more explosively. That's real, and it matters, and the Armory does it well.
As far as the scoreboard goes, what's cooler for a kid than to look up and see a replay of his or her race on a giant 4-sided digital screen in front of a thousand of their peers? Or to see his or her race results flashed in bright lights overhead? Not to mention the occasional writer glancing up to see the front page of Milesplit displayed with his lead article right up at the top. ;-)
The "Cage"
At most indoor track facilities you'll go to, the throwing accommodations seem almost to be an afterthought. They're typically permanent circles tucked away in some dark corner of the field house, or temporary ones dragged out for the meet. Although there was a certain "cool" factor about the temporary circle at the aforementioned Westchester County Center, in that your throws were landing in about the same spot where Hulk Hogan power-bombed Randy "Macho Man" Savage at the pro wrestling card the night before, for the most part throwing facilities do not seem to be a top priority at indoor meets.
At The Armory, the entire east end of the arena is "Throwville". First of all, you have to love a throwing area that has permanently painted sector lines out to 95 feet! They could literally host indoor modified, or even most girls discus competitions here. The balcony seating running along three sides of the cage offer spectators a unique perspective of the throwing events that you won't find at many other places. If you sit on the side looking down and to the right toward the ring, you will see the top throwers efforts reaching their apex at near eye level. Those sitting facing the ring from the far side of the 'field' when top weight throwers are competing may almost fear having one land right in their laps! The warm-up area is roomy enough even for large meets and offers a full circle with a toe board for practice glides or spins. About the only thing you could do to make 'The Cage' better would be to add and automatic ball return like at a bowling alley. And maybe a Golden Corral steak buffet behind the warm-up area. heh...
The Future
I'm certainly not a psychic, and I don't necessarily believe that anyone can reliably predict what may or may not happen in the future. You can believe that, if you like, but I'm sticking with “Whatever will happen, will happen.” That stance has been fairly accurate for me thus far. However, there is a somewhat tangible, somewhat abstract thing that happens at Armory meets that gives me a little glimpse of the future every time I go there.
Before the first events step off at every meet, they open the track up to the kids for a few minutes of warm-up laps. They use that time to loosen up bus-stiffened muscles, get a feel for the track and catch up with their friends from other schools. There are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kids slowly circling the track during this time period. I always grab a seat up above during this and watch, because when I look out over that mass of well-conditioned young people, wearing a veritable rainbow of school colors, I can see the future right there before me. Amongst those hundreds or thousands of kids, I can see future world records waiting to happen. I can see a kid who one day will wear his or her country's flag at an Olympic games. I can see children who will go on to college, who may not have otherwise, because they found this place and this sport. I can see kids who will not ever do drugs, because they found something here, within this urban landscape of brick, concrete and steel, that is a better high than any drug will ever give them. I see countless children discovering amazing things about themselves and gaining confidence and self-respect every time they step on that track. And I see my own son, growing up all too fast, learning to succeed with grace and fail with dignity, and finding out for himself that hard work and determination pays off.
I realize that this dynamic isn't exclusive to the New Balance Track & Field Center. Thousands of kids in hundreds of venues across the nation do this very same thing on any given day. And their parents sit there and think of the very same things that I do, just as my parents may have done at the old Westchester County Center 30 years ago.
But The Armory is my place now. And it makes me smile every time.