Meskimen announced his decision before Christmas.
“My mom has been having some real bad health issues and it’s only going to get worse than better,” Meskimen said. “Because of that, I’m going to have to make quite a few trips back and forth to Iowa to help my sister with her, and I want to spend some time with her. So with the amount of time that I have to be missing from work, there’s no way I can continue coaching. With all the time I’ll be traveling back and forth, it would be just too hard for me, my family and really, it wouldn’t be fair to the kids. It ranks up there with one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make, that’s for sure. The only good thing I can say is I’m leaving the team in better shape than I got it.”
The George Jenkins girls, led by freshman Chelsi Williams, finished state runner-up in track last year. Chelsi’s father, Curtis Williams, a former head coach for the Jenkins boys track team, will take over the girls track team. Williams has been working with Meskimen.
“He knows all the work I’ve put into it and he didn’t want to see it fall back,” Meskimen said.
Meskimen said his mother’s health hasn’t been good, and he finally had to make the decision.
“Dale did a great job,” Jenkins Athletic Director Jestin Bailey said. “A lot of people don’t understand how much work comes along with hosting so many events, getting all the people involved. Dale and Brian (Robichaud) do a phenomenal job together with running all those events and saves a lot of cost for a lot of people in the county. Plus, he’s done a great job with the girls for what feels like forever — as long as I’ve been here.”