In our house, the weekend of the third Saturday in February – Simplot Games weekend – is etched in granite every year. The Games are the nation’s premier national high school indoor track and field event, and its been at Idaho State University’s Holt Arena since 1979.
Jason has volunteered on the Games’ media team for the last 13 years – and he’s been the media team director for the last 10. He enjoys being around the high school athletes, working in sports, and doing what he calls “pure” public relations: lots of good news stories with interesting angles; short review cycles (meaning his stuff gets printed); and opportunities to try new things (like blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, and so on). Plus, he gets to reunite with a wonderful group of people every year.
For the last several years, it has been a family affair for us. We drove to Pocatello together, and all the kids old enough to volunteer went and helped at the Games. Last year Melissa worked with Jason’s team, Colin helped athletes with their gear, and Carson was a results runner.
This year, alas, it’s simply too far to drive, so we created the new “Jason plus one” rule. He’ll go every year, and take one of the kids with him.
This year, for her last year of high school (criminy!), it was Melissa’s turn. She and Jason flew on Wednesday – and with all the snow we’ve had, they were happy they were able to leave without delay. They got there early enough (thanks to Yvonne driving them to the airport at 4:45 a.m.!) to spend the afternoon and evening with Yvonne’s parents and brothers.
Thursday morning Melissa and Jason toured Idaho State as her official campus visit – and Friday Melissa toured the BYU-Idaho campus with her grandma and aunt. She enjoyed the visits to the two schools she wants to attend – she’s been accepted at both, so now all she has to do is choose. (They told her she needs to decide by June, so we’re guessing we’ll have a decision in…June).
The Games were great, as usual. Jason had a great team again this year, including his friends Amanda (her ninth year on the team) and Kyle (his fifth) and three college interns. And Melissa, who was there for her fifth Games. That experience came in handy when she coordinated athlete interviews during finals on Saturday. (To the amazement of the camera team there doing a live webcast, Melissa delivered each of the dozens of athletes – mostly event winners – that the crew wanted to interview. Jason told them this wasn’t her first rodeo.)
The flight home Sunday was long (another 6 a.m. flight), but we enjoyed getting back together as a family that night, with everyone meeting at the airport and grabbing some Potbelly subs for the ride home.
So next year, same weekend, we’ll be there: Jason, Melissa (she’ll be within a short drive from whichever school she chooses), and, uh, well, we’ll figure that one out next year…
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