Compound Track & XC · Spring 2027 + Cross Country 2027

Track & Field Season Plan

Week by week from now to the summer club season and the 2027 cross country pre-book, following the wrestling rhythm: style guide, pre-book, bundles, limited-time offers, showcases, promo kits, online stores. Click any email for its brief.

~20track/XC coaches in Mailchimp today
15track bundles, $40–$323
Oct 2790-day window opens
Jan 6first order deadline (South)

First: the coach list

Mailchimp holds about 20 track and cross country coaches (Sport field), plus 11 tagged CROSS_COUNTRY_COACHES. Baseball had 34,000 by now. Every coach email below needs a TRACK_COACH list built the baseball way first: league-first (USATF clubs, AAU, state coaches associations, high school staff pages), scrubbed, Bouncer-checked, imported in batches. Target: first verified batch by Oct 27 so wave 1 goes Oct 28. Until then, ads and the shared AD sends carry track.

The rhythm

The wrestling sequence, carried over to track and timed to the spring deadlines, then extended into summer club track and the 2027 cross country pre-book. Track and cross country share one coach list: most programs run both, under the same coaches.

    Order-by dates

    Every deadline email points at one of these. Order deadline = first meet minus 33 days (28 production + 5 shipping), the same rule as the marketing calendar. Regional versions are split by the State field.

    South · GA FL AL SC LA MS TX
    Jan 6
    GA first practice Jan 25 · first meet Feb 8 (GHSA)
    FL + TX estimated · TX dates set by district
    Mid · NC VA KY OK AR CA AZ
    Jan 27
    NC first practice Feb 15 · first meet Mar 1 (NCHSAA)
    Others estimated · verify per state
    Tennessee
    Feb 3
    First practice Feb 15 · first meet Mar 8 (TSSAA)
    North · NY PA NJ OH MI MD DE WI IL MN MA …
    Feb 17
    MD + DE first meets Mar 22 · NY + PA practice from Mar 8
    Estimate · NY, PA, MI may run a week later
    Summer club · USATF + AAU
    ~May 3
    June championships · AAU Junior Olympics Jul 28 – Aug 7, Houston
    Estimate · AAU dates provisional
    Cross country fall 2027
    Jul 7
    First practice ~Jul 26 · first meet ~Aug 9 · window opens Apr 27
    Projected from 2026 (marketing calendar)

    Indoor track (winter) is already under way: NC indoor meets start Nov 11, and New Jersey can compete from Dec 7, which puts its order-by at Nov 4. New indoor uniforms are out of reach this winter, so indoor states get warm-ups and stores in December. Indoor 2027-28 goes in next year's plan with an early-September deadline.

    Calendar

    Coach emails go out Wednesday mornings, so they never land on the same day as the baseball and softball Tuesday sends. AD emails are the Thursday sends already in the Field Sports plan: one email covers every spring sport. Every launch gets the standard follow-up: non-openers get the automatic resend 2 days later, and clickers and openers get the nurture email.

    Email briefs

    One card per email: the topic, subject lines to choose from, the call-outs, the link, who gets it, and what content we have or still need. Headlines get drafted at build time, four or five options each.

    Banner ad sets

    Masters at 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1 for Genius Marketing, following the same steps as the emails. Targeting: once the coach list exists, upload it as a customer list for lookalikes; until then, interest targeting (track and field coaches, cross country, USATF clubs). Weight spend toward the HubSpot heat-map states, and retarget style guide and Quick Quote visitors. The marketing calendar had spring track ads starting Oct 6, so start as soon as the creative is ready.

    Content

    The archive already holds a finished track version of most steps from the '26 season, with studio on-model photography.

    Already have

    • '26 sends to build from (_Emails/26_XC_TRACK): "New Track & Field Spring Bundles & Styles", XC free custom design, "The Best XC & Track Uniforms You Didn't Know Existed" with the online store block, XC bundles with 7 bundle cards, Online Shop Explained (men's and women's), Wingfoot promo athletes.
    • Older sends: '23 track online store, track performance hooded long sleeve and fleece hoodie emails, women's Velocity, Relay and Speed bundles; '23 spring sports store and spring practice emails.
    • Studio on-model photos: Eastern Union and Comets (men's and women's race kits), the three-athlete lineup, 56 XC product images.
    • Bundle art for all 15 track bundles; 2026 track style guides (men's 5, women's 3) and the TRACK_XC apparel set in Drive.

    Need from you · before Oct 22

    1. Go on the coach list. Build TRACK_COACH the baseball way (separate session). Nothing below sends without it.
    2. Style guide. A 2027 track guide, or open with the '26 guides? The women's guide is missing ST01 and ST03, and the picker found too few track styles to group.
    3. Sender. Compound Sportswear <cliff@cmpsportswear.com> as on wrestling, or a track rep?

    Need from you · before Nov 17

    1. Bundle prices and contents for 2027 (same 15 as '26?).
    2. Black Friday offer (Nov 24–30) and New Year offer (Jan 13 to the Mid and North deadlines). No offer = those weeks become showcases.
    3. A real track team store link for the store emails.
    4. Deadlines: OK the South, Mid and North dates, and the summer club date.
    5. Wingfoot. What is it (the Wingfoot Ready bundle and the WINGFOOT_PROMO athletes), and does it get its own send?

    Decisions

    1. Tags: TRACK_COACH for track and cross country together (matches BASEBALL_COACH), plus CLUB_TRACK for USATF and AAU club coaches?
    2. Indoor: skip new indoor uniforms this winter and sell warm-ups and stores instead?
    3. Ad budget per phase for Genius Marketing.