Huh? Who is the new track organizer?

Austin Huh has made an immediate impact on the high school track and field scene in Niagara.

The recent teaching/coaching arrival at Lakeshore Catholic from the Region of Peel where he served as the Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletic Association track and field convenor made a splash last season by hosting 570 athletes from 18 schools at the inaugural Lakeshore Catholic High School Track and Field Meet.

The former head coach of the Niagara Spears bantam football team has taken his organizational skills to a whole new level this season.

On April 28, he organized the Ridin’ Turbo meet at the Niagara Olympic Club which saw 844 athletes from 24 schools get a jump start on the track and field season. On Friday, he organized the High Octane meet which attracted 536 athletes from 18 schools.

“I knew I wanted to run two meets. Our first meet last year was limited in terms of what we could offer so that is why we switched venues to the Niagara Olympic Club,” Huh said. “Track teams need to get results in so having two meets allows us to have virtually all of the events.”

He feels the Niagara Olympic Club is a great venue to stage the meets.

“I am very familiar with the Niagara Olympic Club just from a ROPSSAA standpoint. We used to come here for South Regionals and the space is incredible. There is so much open space and green grass, it has great sight lines for all the field events and it’s not like other venues where everything is jam-packed and tight. And they have a lot of history here and they do a real good job.”

Huh has been surprised by the numbers of athletes competing at the meets.

“The track community is small and I have had a lot of experience at ROPSSAA in the Region of Peel. A lot of the teams from Brampton and Mississauga are coming here to support me and then we have had support from our convenor, Jen Benoit, and she has spread the word to all the associations. I have a lot of confidence in this meet because I have a lot of great people working it and I feel we are well organized and are a professionally run meet.”

Helping Huh run the meet were about 40 volunteers from Lakeshore Catholic, Saint Francis, Saint Paul and Huh’s former Peel colleagues, including three former ROPSSAA convenors and the current convenor from Hamilton.

“You cannot run a track meet without manpower and people doing some work.”

Huh feels the meets fill a need on the track and field calendar.

“These are tuneup meets and from a Niagara Catholic standpoint our Zone 2 championship is next week. It is also a tuneup for everyone else’s zone meets or ROPSSAA and SOSSA (Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association),” he said. “Really and truly if you are one of these aspiring athletes wanting to move on, the more races you have and the more times you compete, the more practice you get at it. It is really difficult if you have no invitational meets and you are jumping straight into your championships.”

He expects the meets to continue to grow.

“We have established ourselves now and I would like to grow this as big as some of the other track meets I know. I want to grow it as large and as well-functioning as possible because sometimes certain meets are large but they are not as tight as possible. I want to find a happy medium between a well-participated meet and a well-run meet.”

He has a simple motivation in his role as organizer.

“I am just a lover of athletics and track and field. Running track meets is a difficult thing and there are only handful of schools that offer high schools track meets and it’s because there are only a handful of people who know how to run them. Me being new to the area I knew there was a need to run them and that was a service I wanted to provide.”

On hand to help Huh Friday was Jody Miller, a former ROPSSAA convenor for at least a decade.

“I love cross country and track and field and those were the sports I coached at my school in Peel. Since I retired from teaching, I got involved with Athletics Ontario and I also get asked to do some of these high school meets,” she said. “I love them, I love being involved. I love seeing the kids progress and it’s as community of coaches and officials that you see over the years that you make real friendships with.”

She is a big fan of Huh’s.

“Austin is the most genuine person you will ever meet. He coached football, his kids loved him. He coached track, his kids loved him. When he moved down here and wanted to start track programs, he knows what he knows and he never fails to ask questions. If he doesn’t know something he will ask for our advice and help and because he is who he is we are so happy to help him because he is just that person.”