The days of stopwatches held by volunteers to time high school track & field meets is about gone. For many years, the Greene County high school track & field  meets have been timed by an independent contractor on a per meet fee basis. The budget hasn’t allowed for middle school meets to be timed in this manner, but boys’ head track & field coach Chad Morton told Raccoon Valley Radio a grant from Greene County Community Foundation will allow the school district to purchase their own Fully Automated Timing (FAT) system to be used for all meets the Rams host.

“We’ve been in need of one of these for a long time. Our outside source has been great, but it we have to reschedule meets and that company is already booked, then we have to go with our backup system, called a “plunger” system, which we’ve had since the 1970’s or early ’80’s. It isn’t as accurate as FAT systems and I’m not sure how much longer we can use it due to its age. The FAT system using imaging, so we can actually see finish line videos of every race and every runner and accurately time down to the micro-second. This will be a huge thing for us and we’re very appreciative of the grant from Greene County Community Foundation.”

School, track & field, and all other school-related activities are on hold until at least April 13 due to corona virus concerns. Raccoon Valley Radio and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com will provide updates as they become available.