Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Arizona Update

Some of this may not be updated for 2018.....Please email me if you have questions

Dear Parents/Athletes                                                                      RE: Spring Break Track Arizona

            We are very excited to continue a track tradition of a spring track trip to Arizona. The Chandler Rotary Invite is a big invitational that gets teams from Colorado as well as around the country. We have made arrangements to take a team of up to 30-32 athletes this spring. Here are some of the details as we move forward.
            The meet will be held at Chandler HS in Chandler Arizona. We already have up to 9-10 hotel rooms booked for our athletes  this number will be the max, but everyone will have the opportunity to participate. There is a limit of 2-3 athletes per event and a relay team. We make every effort to get those interested involved in at least two events if possible. Some athletes will be able to compete in 2-4 events, including relays. Other athletes may only compete in one or two events. Again, there is a limit of just 2-3 entries in each event, so let us know ASAP.  I may be able to add extra in some events. If multiple athletes want to compete in the same event, the coaches will take the top performer. This meet is varsity meet and should make our varsity standards for a meet like this.

            Here are some more details: Date: March 21-25th: The meet itself is 2 days with a qualifying mark needed for the second day. The meet that we will have most athletes in will be March 23rd, and we may have a few that compete on March 24th

Trips: Over the past many years, Coach Miller has taken athletes on trips to Idaho, Arizona, and for Cross Country, Arizona and Kansas. Trips are a great experience for our young athletes to experience a quality big meet and visit with other students from the region. This will be our 5th  trip with Legend Track.  Our top goal for the trip is not the performances themselves, but the team atmosphere and bonding that does occur. The trip down and back is long, but kids enjoy the socializing and comrade that will be just a memorable as the meet itself! This is truly a team trip!

Travel: As a team we are working with Arrow for our Charter bus and leave at 6:30am on Wednesday March 21st . We will travel by bus and arrive around 7-8:00pm. We will have some team plans on Thursday (including practice time) and compete on Friday and Saturday. We will leave from the meet on Saturday night (around 9pm) and travel through the night, and arrive around 1pm  on Sunday March 25th .

Hotel: We have hotel reservations for the Days Inn- Country Club in Mesa, Arizona
We reserved our room last fall, and space is very tight. There are a number of activities going on in the area, so additional rooms are going to be very hard to find.
·        333 W Juanita Ave, Mesa, AZ, 85210 United States of America 
·        map & directions

Cost:  The cost of our trip will be set at $500 –



The trip costs will cover the bus, hotel, and 3 team meals. The team will cover 2 of the main team dinners on the trip and a dinner at the meet/bus for the ride home. We will ask for athletes to bring cash to help with additional food/snacks and souvenirs at the meet.  

This year: We will ask everyone to bring in $20 cash to give to Coach Miller to help pay for part of the 3 team meals. It is easier to collect from everyone up front. Extra meal money will be for lunches or items on your own at the meet or rest stops. We will also use the money to load up a cooler. Drink donations will help!!



Breakdown:
Hoping for 30 team members (min) to make the trip affordable for all.
Bus is $9,000 not including gratuity. With a minimum of 34 athletes = $375 each

Hotel- Depending on the number of rooms we will need…..10-12 plus the driver. The cost will be around $3500 for 3 nights (Weds, Thurs, Fri) which would break down to about $100 each….maybe a little less, depending on the number in the rooms…..and the boys breakdown vs the girls breakdown plus….I know we may be able to cut down rooms if we have athletes that have parents in town. Most of the time, the kids do like to stay with the team and enjoy the team bonding. We will have a block of rooms, and the hotel does have a pool.

The remaining amounts  will help cover the team meal costs….Which puts the total around $500 each. Other teams that make this trip are charging close to $800.

Since the trip does occur over spring break, I have had at least 2 or 3 kids/parents mention that they will make a family trip of it, and fly with parents and not travel with the team. While we understand your family plans, this will not necessarily reduce the cost of our ‘team trip’.  Our team has always had 25 to 30 athletes on the trip. I think we could have as many as 36 this year. The bus is our biggest expense at $9000. This is $300 for each team member. If we don’t have 30 kids ‘ride’ the bus, then it increases the cost for the remaining teammates. Flying with a group this large is not an option. There may be a way to reduce some costs if we can get 30+ commitments. The bus is the best way to get the most kids and families to afford and participate.

Remember: The trip down and back is a big part of the experience too! We do understand that other plans may prevent this in certain situations. Please understand that we are tight on funds and the trip is all funded by our team raising money and our families. There is not a budget for these trips. The goal is 30 or more.

We have plenty of fundraising opportunities to reduce most of these costs!!!

Snap-Raise online fundraising (very popular and successful by many teams)  We raised over $8,000 last year!
We also have our Chili’s nights, our home track meets, and some ‘sponsorship’ possibilities. There is no reason that our Arizona team cannot get the entire trip paid for if they participate in the fundraising! Snapraise is team fundraising service and does take a smaller cut if we have 70% participation.

Athletes who raise monies from our fundraiser will count towards the trip. Final payments ($350 remaining after deposit, can be made online in the fees in parent portal.  We won’t be able to accept checks after March 10thYou also can split payments up. Final payments will be due on or before the first week of May. Contact us if you have questions on how to make payments.



We will have a number of fundraising opportunities as we have done in the past. Please encourage your child to get involved with our fundraising!  A $150 cash deposit will hold your spot. The balance can be determined after the fundraiser and other expenses come due sometime in April.

There will be forms to complete and more info soon. If you have questions, please ask!!!



Coach Miller    roger.miller@dcsdk12.org  Coach Wiederstein landon.wiederstein@dcsdk12.org


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