Become a part of the team that helps bring the experience of track meets to athletes and parents around the state.

NCRunners has a resolution for 2013: this is the year we take our coverage to another level!  After spending 2012 acquiring the equipment needed to provide bigger and faster coverage of track and cross country, everything is now in place to expand into more meets and provide more depth of information than ever before.  There's only one problem: we need more bodies to actually get out to those events!  NCRunners only has one permanent staff member (me), plus three regular paid photographers, and that only goes so far.  I know there have to be some people out there that are interested in joining the coverage team; now is your chance to contribute to the MileSplit community in one of many ways.

Volunteers Can Help With Meet Results

With meet directors from NCHSAA schools now required to send results from all meets (including small, local meets), the volume of incoming results could be three times as large as it was in the past.  NCRunners is looking for 5 or so volunteers to help process those results using RaceTab, our free meet management software.  Anyone with just a little computer savvy and an email account can help; the program is easy to learn, and the time requirements are not large.  Each meet takes about 30-60 minutes to process depending on the number of athletes in the results.  This is definitely the #1 need for this spring, so if you think you can help in that area, please email me at jgeorge@milesplit.com.

Volunteers Can Help With Meet Coverage

NCRunners has always tried to cover the largest, most important meets during the season (especially the ones with the deepest history).  There are many smaller invitationals that still have some great performances, though, and we would like to be able to provide some recognition for those athletes, as well.  This year, we will be actively recruiting volunteers to help us get to more meets than ever before, and we plan to reward them for their help!  Coaches, parents, former runners now in college; anyone can cover a meet for NCRunners and help bring greater awareness of all of North Carolina's hard-working athletes.  If you meet any ONE of the criteria below, you could be an official part of the NCRunners coverage team and provide everyone in the state with new perspectives on meets that they don't get to attend.

• Do you have a camera?  If you have a registered account (you don't have to be a subscriber) you can post photos to any meet page and share with the NCRunners community.
• How about a video camera?  You can upload videos to YouTube and then imbed them on a meet page through our very simple system.
• Can you Tweet?  Over 1200 NCRunners followers love to get updates on big performances from meets around the state.

To recognize our volunteers, NCRunners will be keeping track of the Top Contributors to the site over the course of the season.  Oh, and did I mention...you could earn NCRunners gear, too?  The top volunteer will get a package of brand new, never-before-seen NCRunners gear that only our paid staff will have!  Plus, anyone who covers even a single meet as an official volunteer will receive an NCRunners t-shirt.  Official volunteer opportunities will be posted weekly on the NCRunners Facebook page, and you can claim them there or by emailing me directly (jgeorge@milesplit.com).

NCRunners Outdoor Coverage Schedule

Although we are still ironing out some of the details, NCRunners has a coverage plan in place for the spring season.  Check out the meets where our paid staff will be on-site, providing photos and meeting new athletes and parents:

• March 1st: Friday Night Lights
• March 9th: TBA
• March 16th: Ravenscroft Early Bird Invitational
• March 16th: Marvin Ridge Invitational
• March 23rd: Phoenix Classic
• March 23rd: JJ Knox Invitational
• March 29th: adidas Raleigh Relays (high school 3200)
• April 6th: WSSU High School Invitational
• April 13th: TBA
• April 20th: Bojangles Apex Relays
• April 20th: Blue Ridge Classic

Of course, we will continue to cover the championship season as always.  The public will get to choose which conference meet we will cover in person, and then we will have staff on hand for every state meet (and hopefully a few of the regionals, too).  So look for the NCRunners photographer at any of these meets, and then be sure to check out the photos of all the great performances the next day!