The annual track and field meet, held under the auspices of the National Scholastic Sports Foundation, takes place March 15-16 at the Prince George\'s Athletic Complex in Landover. Many of the nation\'s top high school athletes will compete.
Outback Steakhouse of nearby Largo, Md., is providing main courses and side dishes at a social gathering at the Athletic Complex after competition on Saturday, March 15.
\"Outback\'s contribution gives the Nike Indoor Championships a special touch,\" says NSSF director A.J. Holzherr. According to Holzherr, around 1,800 athletes will be on hand for the meet, along with an estimated 750 coaches, officials and parents.
Adina Lavoie, managing partner of the Largo restaurant, will lead a team of some 15-20 Outback staff members, including several from steakhouses in nearby Hyattsville and Oxon Hill. \"It\'s a collaborative effort,\" says Lavoie. \"We use the efforts of a couple of different stores located in the Prince George\'s Country area --- one in Hyattsville one in Oxon Hill. Since I\'m so close, all the food comes from my restaurant.\"
Serving a group as large as the Nike Indoor Championships crowd takes about eight kitchen staff and around eight servers, Lavoie explains. \"Then there\'s myself and another director. We pretty much get everyone to the right place at the right time.\"
This year\'s social gathering will feature high protein foods --- \"basically grilled chicken,\" Lavoie says, adding that chicken was the preference of diet-conscious athletes at the 2002 meet. \"That\'s what they gobbled up last year,\" she says. \"We\'ll provide rice, vegetables and salad, too. Also fresh fruit and cheese trays.\"
Outback\'s involvement in the Nike Indoor Championships, says Lavoie, is \"a win-win situation. The kids were really pumped up. They were eager to get in line for the food.\"
Lavoie sees Outback\'s involvement having a national effect, since qualifiers for the meet come from all over the United States. \"We talk about grass-roots marketing,\" she says, \"but this event is such a different scale. Most of the kids come from other areas. When they\'re back home and they see an Outback in Los Angeles, Chicago or Denver, we hope they tell their folks, 'Hey, we ate at Outback last week. Let\'s go there!\'\"
For the kitchen help, servers and directors, Outback\'s involvement has a bit of a down side. \"We didn\'t get to see any of last year\'s meet,\" says Lavoie. A softball and volleyball player in high school and college, Lavoie says she covered plenty of track competitions as a photographer on the school newspaper and yearbook staffs and enjoys the sport.
\"A.J. Holzherr\'s offered us passes to the meet, but it takes us two days to prepare for the social gathering,\" says Lavoie. Then we have a pretty long day preparing for kids to come through the lines, and at the same time we have to staff our restaurants.\"
But Lavoie says it\'s worth it. The athletes, she points out, are \"very self-disciplined. Pretty low-maintenance, and that\'s nice to see. Whatever it is they like, we\'re more than willing to provide it for them. It\'s just nice to see them having a good time.\"