Ocean Breeze: A new view on indoor track

Today was the grand opening (in terms of meets) for the Ocean Breeze track facility on Staten Island. The place is beautiful. It borders the Atlantic Ocean near South Beach (no, not THAT one) on SI, very close to the Verrazano Bridge. The track is great; the practice track is great; warming up outdoors (it was 50 degrees and sunny on Saturday) on the boardwalk along the water is great. But! Like most new things, there were some growing-pain glitches. In this case, it was the timing system, which was ridden with snafus, especially during the 60-meter hurdle races (results from our athletes in that event seem to be permanently “lost in space” … which is too bad, because Hakim Cunningham had a phenomenal season-opener!).

Anyway! With a new facility like this, it’s really easy to compare – and possibly bash – the establishment facility in NYC, that being the Armory up in Washington Heights. Is this place “better” than the Armory? Well, not really. I mean, the Armory is a world-class facility. This place is certainly “newer” and equally adept at hosting great track meets. Ocean Breeze reminds me a bit of the BU Track and Tennis Center, which we love. The negatives of the Armory – from an old coach’s perspective – are the persistent, loud music and equally persistent (but sometimes entertaining) track announcers. BU has neither; Ocean Breeze, blissfully, has neither. It’s just a track meet. Might be boring to the general populace, but it works for us.

So yeah. This was a nice start to a new venue for us. It’s a bit of a longer drive, for sure, and we still have to get accustomed to it. But hey: It’s in Marty McGowan’s neighborhood, which means we get to see our Most Loyal Track/XC Alum. And the track is fast. We’ll take it. See you in 2016 and beyond, Ocean Breeze.