Hagerstown Community College Announces Indoor Track Resurfacing

Hagerstown Community College Announces Indoor Track Resurfacing
Work, to be done next June, allows for 2009-10 indoor season

Hagerstown Community College has had an indoor track for the past 22 years. Never designed for track but as a surface to “go around 3 hardwood basketball courts,” the track, while 202 meters long, has served the high schools of the tri-state area for meets and regional competition. In June the Washington County Commissioners provided funds to resurface the track. Far exceeding the expected life of such a facility the upcoming reconstruction has been met with emotions on both sides of the spectrum.

With little time to plan and with the urgency to expend the funds in a shaky economy, the college made provisions to construct the track during the college’s semester break, which of course coincides with the indoor track season. Plans were made and parties affected were informed. “I made sure that everyone who would be affected by this move was informed from the beginning of the bid process,” said HCC’s Director of Athletics and Leisure Studies, Robert T. “Bo” Myers. Myers, former Hagerstown Junior College Track and Field Coach from 1977-88, has been an internationally certified T and F Official and sits on the National Federation of High Schools’ Track and Field Rules Committee,

Local coaches and supervisors were scrambling and wondering what would become of their indoor track season. “Are they going to cancel the season?” “What will we tell the kids? HCC is the only facility west of the Prince George’s Learning Center.” Finally Myers made an announcement at the Interstate X-Country Classic on Saturday September 5, 2009. The coaches present took a sigh of relief.

The HCC Athletic, Recreation, and Community Center not only houses the track but is home to 14 sports and leases space to the Washington County Parks and Recreation Department and to community groups for their activities. This facility is filled with activity from August until June. “I always wanted the construction to take place after our graduation in May,” stated Myers. “I am pleased and thankful that the decision was made as this will benefit every one.”

The reconstruction will provide a 200 meter track by “cutting and filling” the corners of the side basketball courts and will be marked from 55 meters to 5000 meters to cover all of the various track events.

HCC will host and administer 3 meets in December and January and this year has 3 “B” meets on Monday evenings in an effort to provide plenty of opportunities for athletes to display their talents in competition. The “B” meets are designed to allow those athletes who often have to “wait in line: at the end of regularly scheduled meets to participate before the “time limit of the contract” expires.