Trackshark Drop Box

The Trackshark Drop Box is a collection of recent email requests and questions we have received that covers everything and anything related to collegiate track & field and the operations of this website. We also get a number of questions over our AOL instant messenger screen name, Tracksharkweb. Below are some responses to what we like to call the Drop Box.

Just exactly how does the Chat Wrap sessions work?

Trackshark: As many of you know, the Chat Wrap is your chance to talk live to some of the top collegiate track & field athletes around the country. However, in order for it to be facilitated in a timely and organized manner, we have to be the moderator. In other words, every time you send in a question, we will be the first to see it -- not the athlete. This way, the athlete doesn't have to go through tons of questions all at once and for anyone to get a hold of their personal contact information. Keep in mind that this is still all done live with a slight delay in posting their replies. There are several ways in which the athlete and Trackshark can be in live contact at the same time -- from AOL instant messenger to simply the telephone. When you, the fans, send in a question, it immediately goes to a dedicated email box that is checked every five seconds and then we choose which question to send to the athlete. When the athlete is finished replying, we post it on our live javascript chat client that is updated every 10 seconds. So when some of you send obnoxious questions, the athlete never sees it.

Why don't you have more athlete journals?

Trackshark: We wish we could have many more, just as you requested, in all events as well. However, given the nature of how the journals work and the time involved, it's simply impossible. Not everyone wants to take another five minutes out of their day to post a personal journal on a national website. Believe me, in the college world, free time is precious and not many people have it. On top of that, we want the journals to cover at least a season from the athlete and that takes dedication to stay on top of it. We can't force anyone to send in their journals every week on a deadline either. If they wish to stop, we honor their position and we understand that. Looking ahead to the next cross country season and beyond, we hope to gather more females who wish to participate and more athletes in the field events.

I think you should have mentioned so-and-so in your weekend review. They deserve the recognition.

Trackshark: Yes, that is the point of our site -- to recognize as many athletes and programs as we can possible. The weekend reviews are perhaps the most timely out of all that we do. We try to have them updated as the results come in on Saturday evenings. However, sometimes given our travel schedule and other priorities, the weekend reviews will sometimes not be updated until Monday night or not at all -- such as the weekend of Easter when we were away from any computer. On the note of trying to recognize certain athletes, sometimes we simply work too fast and overlook certain people in the results. We apologize if we have overlooked anyone who deserves such recognition. Hopefully with more help from site contributors, this will not be a problem anymore in the future.

How come you never got into coaching?

Trackshark: I was actually a volunteer assistant for two years at Kent State, however, I also tried to balance out my own personal training at the same time. I wish I would have been more involved in helping the athletes out. Since my move out here to 'chowdah' land, I just haven't found the desire to go after a job for a coaching position -- even at the high school ranks. Don't get me wrong, I have the most respect for all coaches in every sport, but I just don't think it is for me. Many people also think that coaching involves, at least at the collegiate level, simply going to practice, calling a few recruits and collecting a paycheck. As all coaches know, that's so far from the truth. As TCU head coach Monte Stratton said in our interview earlier in the year, "With the number of hours and commitment it takes, there are other occupations more profitable than coaching."

Are you going to be at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships?

Trackshark: We wish we could be there, however, it's simply out of our budget. We will have a photographer out there who is paying his own way to cover the meet. Unless someone wants to offer us a free plane ticket, free car rental, free hotel stay and free food -- then we're down for attending.

View the last Trackshark Drop Box from March 26, 2003