How to Sign Up for the Junior Olympics

*Disclaimer- We at the Jacksonville Athletic Club don't have the USATF Junior Olympic National Meet (and qualifying meets) on our schedule.  Our club philosophy on these Junior Olympic meets (AAU and USATF) can be found here.  If you wish to have your child compete in these meets, that is completely fine, we just can't promise we will have coaches available to attend* 

Step 1:  Sign up for a USATF Membership.  You will choose "INDIVIDUAL YOUTH MEMBERSHIP" 

Step 2: When filling out the form, put #14-1369 for your club number.  They will also need a date of birth document (drivers license, birth certificate, etc) to verify your birth date.

Step 3: Once you have signed up, they will email you a membership number.  You will use this number to sign up for the Region 16 Junior Olympic Championships.

Step 4: They take the top 5 from this meet to the Junior Olympic National Championships.

Step 5: If qualified for the National Championships, we can walk you through the process on how to sign up for the meet.

 "Specialization aims at achieving the highest performance in an adult on the basis on versatility. A wrong understanding of the term specialization can lead to a one sided training of juniors in one particular event.  Such youngsters are generally capable of achieving good results at a relatively early age, but often do not improve, as expected, their performances when they become adults.  Track and field athletes who have reached their best performances before the age of 18, have undergone the wrong training."

         - Gerhardt Schmolinsky, "The East German Textbook of Athletics" 

Our #1 priority for the Jacksonville Athletic Club is that each athlete enjoys doing the sport of track and field, and works extremely hard at becoming the best that they can be in their events for long term success.  The long term success we try to achieve are helping our athletes obtain college scholarships.  We have the coaches necessary to make that happen, and don't feel that it is necessary to spend lots of money and time away over the summer to follow the "Junior Olympic" carrot.

For our older athletes: We have always felt that you can run fast and jump far anywhere.  When we host meets, we try to make the conditions great for the athletes.  A published time schedule, being able to run events with the wind, no early morning starts, etc.  To top things off, we don't charge our athletes or parents to entry fees / admission fees.  

The Junior Olympics (or "JOs") are not a place where you will get recruited from.  No college coach looks at placement at the Junior Olympics when recruiting.  They simply look at your times, distances, heights, etc.  

For our younger athletes: We feel that local track meets, that emphasize fun and learning are much better for your long term development than ultra-competitive age group meets.   

There are plenty of clubs in the Jacksonville area that focus in on the ultra-competitive side for youth, however not many of their athletes continue to compete at a high level down the road, as they get burnt out from having to compete so much.  It is tempting to compete a lot at a young age, however we have not seen much good come out of that when it comes to the long term success for an athlete.  Kids do sports because they are fun, and kids do the Junior Olympics because their parents want them to.

Since 2013 we have sent over 55 athletes to compete in college.  None of them did competitive track and field (ex. junior olympic meets or "age-group" track meets) before the age of  13 years old....

Finally, no matter what level of athlete you are, you should enjoy your summer!  Some clubs like traveling all summer to different competitions, which is completely fine.   That's just not our philosophy.  If you want to travel over the summer, you should do it with your friends and family!