Sedona Red Rock High School head track coach Harry Schneider knows that if his boys and girls teams are going to take home state titles this spring, they’re going to need help from many sources.

Those include volunteers from the community at large, who will be called upon at the preseason parent meeting Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. in the SRRHS cafeteria for help with three home meets.

“Every track meet needs 40 helpers, when you consider all the different areas needed to operate and all the teams there,” he said. “Our first [home] meet has 10 schools, the second meet will have 25 and the third will have 15.

“Track is a numbers game. That’s how you win, with depth.”

These numbers crunch a little short so far for the Scorpions boys, who currently have 17 athletes available for the 17 meet events both teams will need to win the Division III title — denied the Scorpions girls by Mingus Union High School, 89-68, at the championship meet May 11 in Mesa.

Senior Travis Okie, the defending Division III 800-meter champion, will have to carry a good deal more of the team load this season, as the Scorpions’ state champion and their 11th-place finisher in both shot put and discus have graduated.

“Nobody came out for those events,” Schneider said. “If we had dual meets, I’d have to turn someone into a thrower and a shot-putter, but it just doesn’t matter, since we don’t.

“We have a great group of kids; there’s just not enough of them.”

For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Feb. 26, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.