The Cross Country Provincial Championships are coming to the central interior in 2012 thanks to the efforts of Vanderhoof resident Brian Nemethy.
After 12 years of taking the NVSS cross country team to various places around the province, the high school coach thought it was about time the competition was hosted somewhere in the northern region.
“In the past I’ve always said it would be great to have the provincials up where we live,” said Nemethy.
“Somewhere up North so the competitors from the Lower Mainland can see what it’s like, because we have colder weather up here,” he said.
After years of thinking about it, last fall, Nemethy finally expressed an interest to BC School Sports about hosting the competition in the North.
“I spoke to them and said if I host it what are the things I have to do ... they told me that it’s really easy,” said Nemethy.
As the host, Nemethy was told he just needed to find a place to host the awards, a course for the competition, some portable toilets, and some volunteers. BC School Sports look after everything else.
Although Nemethy said he would love to host the provincials in Vanderhoof, he says at this time it’s not possible.
“I knew we wouldn’t be able to hold it in Vanderhoof,” he said.
“The problem with Vanderhoof is we’re going to have about 400-500 people coming up ... and they’re going to need a place to stay.”
Instead, Nemethy is hoping to hold the competition in Prince George at D.P Todd Secondary School.
Nemethy said the BC School Sports board members are slightly concerned about snow falling during the weekend of the event since it is always held during the first weekend of November.
“They asked me what my plan B is if there’s a foot of snow on the ground...
“We’ll have to either plow it or the participants will just have to run through the snow, but the chances of snow being over a foot is really unlikely,” said Nemethy.
“In the last 10 years it’s only snowed once and it was six centimetres...there’s a small chance of snow but you can bet there’s going to be no rain,” he added.
This year the provincial championships will be held in Kelowna as well as in 2013. They will be held in Prince George in 2012 and 2014.
“My goal as a coach is still to build a really good strong boys and girls team for those two years that we have it up here so we can place in the top three,” said Nemethy.