I have a lengthy history as a runner (partially because I have been around so long). I was always a football, basketball, and baseball player until I happened to walk by a middle school track meet on the way back from baseball practice in the 8th grade. I was hooked. The next year I was running and jumping. I had a good high school career in XC and track, but I drifted away from the sport for a decade.
I looked at myself in the mirror at 30 years old and knew that not running had taken its toll. I slowly built myself back up and continued to run for the next 20 plus years. My oldest son was late getting into track. He came out his junior year and found out he was one of the top triple jumpers in the state. This got me reacquainted with the sport. The next year I became the distance coach at East Forsyth. I later started coaching jumps. I coach AAU/USATF track in the summer and XC in the fall.

An offspring of the coaching involvement is photography.(see my homepage) I started photographing the events in 2006 . That has opened up a whole new avenue for me to meet many of you, not only in NC but nationally. The real reward is seeing you in a college meet later.

There are some athletes who will be coming out of the middle schools in the next few years that are going to rewrite the record books in high school track and XC I'm looking forward to it.

For photo inquiries e mail jsides3@triad.rr.com
Update: I have a new photo site that will be favoring The NCHSAA running events.
http://www.jeffsidesphotos.com