Hosting its 14th Annual Invitational, Canyon High School Track and Field will welcome runners and athletes from all across the Santa Clarita Valley as well as the rest of the CIF-Southern Section to the 2019 Trevor Habberstad Track and Field Invitational later this month.
The meet will take place on Saturday, Feb. 23 at Canyon High School and as of Feb. 3 will feature 21 teams including five Foothill League schools as well as Bishop Alemany, Dominguez, Glendale, Highland, Sylmar and Windward.
Formerly the Santa Clarita Valley Track & Field Invitational, the competition was renamed in 2017 after one of Canyon High School’s greatest track and field athletes, Trevor Habberstad, who died on Feb. 19, 2017 at the age 27. Habberstad still holds the school record in both hurdles races.
“He was probably our best athlete ever at Canyon High School,” said Canyon coach Paul Broneer. “He ended up getting a full ride and going to college at Washington State to compete as a decathlete and hurdler. After he left Canyon, went to college and then started his stuntman career he started donating back.
“He would give us $400 a year to sponsor the meet, not too many kids do that, but he felt that being an athlete at Canyon opened up a lot of doors for him and he felt grateful for the opportunity he had and he wanted other kids to have the same kind of opportunity. He was a very generous person and that’s one of the reasons we changed the name of the meet from the SCV Invitational to his name.”
The running events begin at 8:30 a.m. and the field events will begin at 9 a.m. and will feature varsity boys and girls teams, junior varsity and frosh/soph boys teams. The top five individual runners and the top three relay teams will each get medals.
The invitational is the only one of its kind in the SCV and will be accepting sponsors up until the day before the meet on Feb. 22.
Those wishing to be an event sponsor can make a donation payable to Canyon ASB in the amount of $100. In return, an event at the invitational will be named after the donor.
The name will be listed in the meet program and announced throughout the meet over the PA system as well as appear on the display boards and on the back cover of the print program.
“We just want to have a good track meet with a chance to compete against some local competition. Usually, you have to drive to Arcadia or Mt. San Antonio College to get an invitational. It’s a preseason meet so for most of the kids it will be their first or second meet of the year. It’s not an all-day meet like some of these are and that’s the way we like it.”
For more information on the Trevor Habberstad Track and Field Invitational, visit canyontrack.com or email Paul Broneer at [email protected]