By Roscoe Nance

 

One of the best-kept secrets in college athletics is the high quality that exists among track and field programs in the MEAC.  

 

The conference is known first and foremost as a football league, a reputation that is well-deserved, given the rich gridiron traditions of member institutions such as Florida A&M, Hampton, South Carolina State, Morgan State and Howard and the high-level of football that is played in the conference.

 

But track and field in the MEAC track and field doesn’t take a backseat to any conference.  Year in and year out, the conference produces a flock of All-Americans, national champions and Olympic caliber athletes.

 

“We have excellent talent,’’ says Maurice Pierce, who has coached Hampton University to seven consecutive MEAC women’s indoor titles and five outdoor crowns, including the last three in a row.

 

MEAC members schools have produced a long line of Olympic athletes, including Bob Hayes and Rey Robinson of Florida A&M and Tim Montgomery and Steve Riddick of Norfolk State.

 

Four current or former MEAC athletes competed in the Beijing Olympics last summer. 2009 MEAC Hall of Fame Inductee Chris Brown and Chandra Sturrup of Norfolk State represented the Bahamas; David Oliver of Howard represented the United States and Allodin Fothergill represented Jamaica.

 

Seventeen MEAC athletes are listed on Track and Field.com’s men’s top performers list for the 2008-09 indoor season, and eight are listed on the women’s list. Of that number, 15 men and all eight women have times and distances that provisionally qualify them for the NCAA Indoor Championship March 13-14 at College Station, Texas.

 

Hampton sophomore Francena McCorory has the best time in the nation in the 400 meters (52.06 seconds) and is an automatic qualifier in that event. Bethune-Cookman sophomore Ronnie Ash is an automatic qualifier in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.68, and Corey Vinston of Hampton is an automatic qualifier in the long jump.

 

 “When you look at the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), the Atlantic 10 and some of the comparable conferences that are not HBCUs, you’d be surprised where we fit in,’’ Coppin State women’s coach Alecia Shields-Gadson says.

 

MEAC athletes’ times and distances compare favorably with those produced in the Southeastern Conference and the Big 12 Conference, which are generally considered the track and field leagues in the country.

 

The winning times in four men’s events and five women’s events at this year’s MEAC championship would have placed in the top three of 2008 SEC and Big 12 Championships (those conferences’ 2009 championship are yet to be contested).

 

Norfolk State men’s coach Kenneth Giles says MEAC schools’ track programs compare so favorably with programs at Bowl Championship Subdivision schools because they are able to successfully recruit the same caliber athletes as their higher profile counterparts.

 

That’s a different scenario than in football and even in basketball, where blue chip athletes rarely choose non-BCS programs.

 

 “Some we get some; some we don’t,’’ Giles says. “But we bring in some of the top track athletes in the country.’’

 

MEAC schools are able to recruit top track athletes ? Norfolk State signed James Taylor of Suffolk, Va., who is ranked in the top five in the country in the long jump, the 300 meters and 500 meters ? in part because they can sell them on the idea that can compete on equal footing with the BCS programs.

 

“The good thing is it is head-to-head competition,’’ Shields-Gadson says. “That’s what we love. When you get at that (starting) line, it doesn’t matter what’s on your chest. You have an equal opportunity to get to the finish line first. You have to just compete.’’

 

The MEAC benefits from the purity that exists in track and field. Schools don’t try to avoid competing against schools that may not have great name recognition for fear of being embarrassed and meet organizers don’t get hung up on the idea that because an athlete is from a small school or black school that somehow his time or distance is inferior to that of an athlete at higher profile school.

  “We don’t get involved with all of that,’’ Pierce says. “We run against the clock.’’

 

Despite generally having a low profile, MEAC track programs are well-respected in the track community. The number MEAC schools that are invited to the more prestigious meets each year is testimony to that.

 

The MEAC is also home to a number of coaches who have impeccable credentials.

• Pierce coached David, the silver medalist in the 110-meter hurdles in the Beijing Olympics, and is considered one of the top hurdles coaches in the world.
• Roy Thompson, North Carolina A&T men’s coach, has coached five All-Americans and two Olympians during his 29-year career.
• Morgan State coach Neville Hodge was a three-time Olympic sprinter for the Virgin Islands, and he coached the Virgin Islands National team in the Barcelona Games in 1992 and the Atlanta Games in 1996.

 

MEAC schools’ success has given the name recognition among high school athletes and coaches, which makes recruiting easier. Giles says a coach from Dayton, Ohio, called him recently to inform him about a high jumper who has cleared 6-10. He also says when he called one of the top recruits in the country and was told his call had been expected because Norfolk State is one of the top programs in the country.

 

 “It’s not like it was when I came out of college in 1987,’’ says Giles, who grew up in Florida and competed at the University of North Florida and acknowledges he wasn’t aware of the quality of MEAC track and field programs. “Kids know, most of the time, in this high tech era.’’

 

But that’s still not necessarily the case with parents. Shields-Gadson says a number of parents said to her, ?We didn’t know there was this kind of talent. We didn’t they were running that fast, jumping that high.’’

 

The secret is getting out , however.