Falk 1 Chase Falk Gardner English 1 24 October 2013 Unattractive, Uneven, and Unmaintainable

*Rhetorical Question

Have you ever tried running on the track at Casa Grande High? You probably have noticed the unappealing terrain of the dirt track. The effort to get an all-weather track has been brought up constantly for many years, but just about 2 years ago The Casa Grande Track Project was created. From fundraisers at Applebees to fundraisers at As games, from ten dollar

*Parallel Structure

donations to two thousand dollar donations, from a Facebook page to the front page of The Press Democrat, Casa Grandes progress has grown throughout these years, but we are still far from the amount of money we need to get an all-weather track. Around the same time the new track project was proposed, Petaluma High School decided they wanted a new floor in their gym. When both schools asked the district to help fund for their projects, the District stated that both ideas were equally important but there was no money for either project. However, on August 22, 2013, The Press Democrat posted an article online titled New Floor for Petaluma High Gym, and in it stating, The school district has paid for the floor replacement. Well what about us? Casa Grande High is the only school in the North Bay league and the Sonoma County league without an all-weather track. All-weather tracks are designed to grant runners with the highest levels of surface performance for competitions and safe training. Constant pounding on a dirt track forces a high impact on your bodys bones and joints. An all-weather track reduces the probability of accidents and injuries, minimizing musculoskeletal fatigue and stress. Runners on

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*Metaphor *Short Sentence *Alliteration

the Casa Grande track are punching bags, being beaten up by the rough terrain with every stride they take. The surface you run on makes a huge difference. Our unpleasant, uneven, and unmaintainable dirt track should be a safe, attractive, and easy all-weather track. Our track has a bumpy, uneven, rough surface that is intolerable. Hurdling is a sport that Casa Grande offers during track season, but there is no way to set up the hurdles properly. They tilt on the uneven track, and with no proper lines or lanes, aligning the barriers is impossible. In hurdles every step has to be consistent. The smallest bump in the dirt can throw off your step and ruin your race. An all-weather track is smooth, easy and consistent. In June 2012, Casa Grandes Adam Lundquist was seeded into the fastest hurdle heat and ran a new school record of 14.56. He rarely practiced his hurdles at Casa Grande. He knew if he wanted to succeed he would need to practice on an all-weather track. So, Lundquist would work out after school with his teammates but then haul across town to use Petaluma High Schools allweather track for his hurdle workout, which resulted in Lundquist becoming the best hurdler at Casa Grande. The dirt track doesnt just poorly effect hurdlers. When it rains, which is a huge percentage of track season, the shot put facility turns into a pool, the high jump and pole vault areas become mini-lakes, and the entire track evolves into a muddy swamp that is impossible to run on. Rain doesnt bother all-weather tracks; it can even help by providing moisture to wash down the track. As my track and Cross Country coach once said, There is no such thing as bad

*Allusion

weather when running, unless you go to Casa Grande High and its raining. Obtaining an all-weather track doesnt just help the Cross Country and track teams here at Casa. Football, softball, cheerleading, even PE; all sports contain at least a small amount of running. Members of our community use our track daily for their own exercise. The junior high schools could use a new track for meets. An all-weather track would contribute to the community

Falk 3 largely. You might be asking yourself, how much money would this cost our school? But what about those new snack shacks on the football field, those solar panels in the parking lot, the new outdoor classroom and garden, the new Google Chrome laptops in the library? I wonder what the price tags on those were. The cost of an all-weather track is around 800,000 dollars, and we are only about 100,000 dollars in. The Varsity girls and boys Cross Country teams are ranked number 2 in the North Coast Section. Imagine what we could do, where we could go, how much
*Antithesis *Imperative *Chiasmus *Direct Address

better we could be if we had an all-weather track. This is where a minor difference can make a major difference. Now its your turn. Dont ask how an all-weather track can help our school, ask how you can help our school get an all-weather track. So my fellow students, go check the Facebook page called Casa Grande Track Project for updates on how you can donate to the project of gaining an all-weather track at our very own, Casa Grande High School.