Good things don’t last forever, unless they’re supported.
Look no further than the Korf/Schultz Saginaw County Track Meet, which pre-dates the Record-Eagle/John Lober Honor Roll Track and Field Meet by five years.
The Korf/Schultz meet was an all-star type meet, much like the Honor Roll, bringing Saginaw County’s best track athletes together to square off, regardless of school size.
Sadly, the word “was” in the previous paragraph is pretty on point. That meet hasn’t been run for two years now.
Traverse City Central Athletic Director Justin Thorington hosted the meet once when he was AD at Saginaw Heritage years ago before taking the same job at TC Central in 2021.
Last year, Heritage worked on several upgrades at its track, canceling hosting the Korf/Schultz meet because of the work being done. No other school picked up the baton, and the meet just didn’t happen. It isn’t scheduled for this year, either.
The Saginaw meet began in 1970 and was named after Saginaw High coach Herb Korf, who passed away in 1969. The counterpart girls county meet, named after former Michigan Lutheran Seminary Athletic Director Armin Schultz, merged with the boys in 1996 to create the Korf/Schultz Saginaw County Meet.
Heritage’s athletic director said he’d welcome a rotation of hosting the meet to share responsibilities. Luckily, TC Central has hosted the Honor Roll every year since 1978. The meet started in 1975, first running at Suttons Bay because that was the only area school with an asphalt track at the time.
Here, it all falls on Central, but John Lober had it down pat and it’s run like a well-oiled machine in the years since he officially retired, even though he’s still around to eagerly answer any questions about one of his babies.
Having a home for it doesn’t seem like an issue, but seeing an event like the Korf/Schultz meet die off after such a long, successful run doesn’t sit well, either.
The Record-Eagle has financially supported the meet since its inception, although that really just means buying the medals (which aren’t cheap, let me tell you).
I pick the medals up and cover the meet as in-depth as most people would want it; that’s about it. Last year’s meet story was 67 inches long. For comparison, a typical football, basketball or hockey story of mine is about 30 inches, and that’s probably longer than most attention spans.
Let’s forget that one year where I forgot to pick the medals up and Lober pulled some strings with the nice folks at Maxwell Medals (I’m assuming Keith Smith) and got them after hours. Ever since, picking up the medals has been done well ahead of time.
Now, if I can just remember sunscreen this time.