Chenango Forks Track and Field
Hall of Fame

Graduated:
School Record 1500 Meter Run
School Record 3000 Meter Run
School Record 6400 Meter Relay
School Record for Career Points
Second in 800 Meter Run

STAC Champion: 1500 Meter Run (1988,1989)
3000 Meter Run (1988,1989)

Team Divisional Championship: 1989

State Meet: 3000 Meter Run (1989)

After decades of being a club sport and a few years with Diane Held being allowed to compete against the boys, Chenango Forks Girls Track finally became an official Varsity sport in 1976, joining the Susquenango League.  There were a few impressive individual achievements and performances (from the likes of Held, Cindy Warren, Liz Mateyk, Janet Mishoe, and Corinne Ruggera), but for the next decade, the girls struggled to even field a team most years, usually only having five or six athletes on the squad.  This all changed in 1988.  

That was the year Coach Bond’s three daughters convinced a few of their friends to join the squad, our school joined the Southern Tier Athletic Conference (better known as STAC), and Larry Brooks began his first full offseason recruiting efforts.  Coach Brooks (hired the previous spring) used study halls, lunch, remedial, and any and all downtime in his Science classes to recruit the daylights out of the school.  This perfect storm of events enabled Chenango Forks to go from the doormat of the sport to winning the Division three years in row from 1989 to 1991, being Runner up in the Class in 1990, and even winning the Class Championship in 1991.

The individual most responsible for this turnaround was, without a doubt, Linda Bates.  A swimming standout, she was recruited so that distance training could help her lungs for the pool, but she soon found that she was a naturally gifted runner.  In her only two years running Track she won back-to-back STAC Championships in the 1500 AND the 3000 Meter Run, crushing the School Records in both races.  More than thirty years after she graduated, Linda is still ranked third and fourth All Time in School History in those events.  Bates went on to Northern Ohio University and set their School Records in the 1500 and 3000 as well! 

Despite only running her junior and senior seasons, Linda is still ranked 17th in Career Points, scoring the fourth most points ever by a junior and the fourth most points ever scored by a senior.  Linda became the first female track athlete from Forks to qualify for the State Meet her senior season, doing so in the 3000 Meter Run.  Before she led the team to our first Division title her senior season, our school did not even have a Modified girls team, but by the next year, there were 18 seventh and eighth grade girls signed up for the sport.  Undeniably, the Chenango Forks Girls Track and Field Program owes a huge debt of gratitude to Linda Bates for ushering us into the modern era.