Thought I would take a brief look to see if, in fact, having great track speed in any way relates to team success in football.
I used the 2021-2022 school year because, obviously, boys track for the 2023 season hasn't finished yet.
What I did was list the schools that had a top-five finisher at the boys state track meet in 2022 in the following events: 100 dash; 200 dash, 400 relay, 800 relay. Those four races are all about speed.
So, here's what I found.
There was a possibility of 60 different schools appearing on my chart ... top-five finish in each of four events is 20 schools and there are three classes in boys state track (3 x 20 = 60).
Here are the schools listed in the top-five finish group.
3A) 1) Batavia; 2) Champaign Centennial; 3) Crete-Monee; 4) Downers Grove North; 5) Glenbrook South; 6) Homewood-Flossmoor; 7) Minooka: 8) Naperville North; 9) Oak Forest; 10) Palatine Fremd; 11) Plainfield North; 12) Prospect; 13) Quincy; 14) Warren; 15) Wheaton-Warrenville South.
2A) 1) Burlington Central; 2) East St. Louis; 3) Galena; 4) Herrin; 5) Kankakee; 6) Marian Catholic; 7) Monticello; 8) Mt. Zion; 9) St. Laurence; 10) St. Rita; 11) Streator; 12) Troy Triad; 13) Urbana.
1A) 1) Catlin South Fork; 2) Chicago Christian; 3) Chicago Holy Trinity; 4) Dakota; 5) Decatur St. Theresa; 6) Kankakee Bishop McNamara; 7) Lena-Winslow; 8) Liberty; 9) Newton; 10) Peru-St.Bede; 11) Pleasant Plains; 12) Virden North Mac; 13) Winnebago.
That's 41 different schools. Now, the question is: How many of those 41 schools that obviously had one or more speedsters on the spring track team in 2022 also had football success on the team level in the previous fall.
The answer, in terms of regular-season records:
24 of the 41 schools with a track "speedster" qualified for the playoffs with at least five wins the previous fall. That's 58.5 pct. success rate. Basically, 50 pct. of the teams playing football make the postseason so it would appear that anyone who says speed kills on the gridiron has a legit point.Note that two of the smaller schools that were represented in state track don't play football. And a third was Urbana which only played seven games in 2021.
In Class 3A state track, 10 of the 15 schools that had a speedster in state track also qualified for the football playoffs the previous fall. That's a 66.7 pct. relationship.
In Class 2A state track, 7 of the 13 schools that had a speedster in state track also qualified for the football playoffs.
In Class 1A state track, 7 of the 13 schools that had a speedster in state track also qualified for the football playoffs.
Note that of the 8 football state champs, only Class 1A winner Lena-Winslow also had a track speedster at state the following spring. All the champs (Lockport, Wheaton North, Cary-Grove, Fenwick, Joliet Catholic, Byron, and Wilmington) apparently defied the "speed" odds.
Finally, the number of Chicago Public League runners who finished in the top five in the 100, 200 400 relay or 800 relay in any class in the spring of 2022 was zero. Seems odd.
