The 100th Coos County Meet will be filled with pageantry and history, befitting the oldest annual prep track and field gathering in Oregon.

Rather than just the traditional Friday twilight meet this year, the county festivities will spread over two days, starting Thursday night with a gathering for the athletes, as well as community members.

The meet itself starts with a series of field events at 3:30 p.m., but the real festivities begin at 5 p.m. with the opening ceremonies, which will include a parade of current and former athletes from each of the counties six high schools, as well as speeches from two former county standouts.

Marshfield coach Fran Worthen can’t wait for the festivities.

“I think the Thursday and Friday events are going to be wonderful,” Worthen said. “We’re going to get the track stories from different perspectives.”

That starts Thursday night, with a history lesson from North Bend coach Steve Greif, who spent the past few months digging up details of the meet’s history. He will share some of the highlights of his research Thursday, and more that will be included in the commemorative meet program on sale Friday night.

Thursday’s event begins at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Marshfield High School and is free and open to athletes and community members. The evening program should take about 45 minutes, and will be followed by a social time in the school’s cafeteria.

After Greif talks about the meet’s history, two of the better athletes from more than 60 years ago will talk about what the meet was like when they were competing.

Sam Dement, a 1938 Myrtle Point High School graduate and the first 200-yard hurdles county record holder, went on to play basketball for Oregon State University and become an Oregon state senator.

George Johnson was the most valuable athlete at the 1946 county meet when he was a senior at Coquille High School and also set a record in the 200-yard hurdles. His son, Mike, later set a record that stood for many years in the 300-meter hurdles.

While Dement and Johnson will talk about their county experiences, the highlight of the night might be at the end, when a video is played showing Steve Prefontaine’s attempt to break the 4-minute mile in 1969, his senior year at Marshfield.

“I look forward to the kids watching the DVD of Steve’s last (high school) race here,” Worthen said. “It always brings tears to my eyes. The kids will get to see the essence of who Steve was.”

The idea for Thursday’s event came up when Greif was doing research for the county meet and found similar events were held many of the early years of the meet.

Greif said they were held for at least a decade and included a banquet with poetry readings and dramatic performances..

“I think it has to do with the fact that (some) teams were coming by train and they had to entertain them,” Greif said.

This week, the coaches from at least Marshfield, North Bend and Coquille plan to have most or all of their athletes at the Thursday event.

Greif said he’s tried to get his kids excited from a historical perspective.

“I’ve told the kids that they’re really lucky,” Greif said. “They’re here in a year that we dedicated our football field, had the 100-year anniversary of our school, and now this.

“There’s so many businessmen and leaders in our community who were at some time involved in the county meet.”

History will again be a theme Friday night.

The county meet’s opening ceremonies include a parade of current and former athletes from each school. County record holders will be presenting awards throughout the evening and the final outstanding athlete awards will be presented by Linda Prefontaine, the sister of Steve Prefontaine.

The opening ceremonies also will include speeches by both Keith Shriver, one of the top track athletes in North Bend history, and former Marshfield standout Julie (Goodrich) Bright, a state champion for the Pirates.

Bright went on to compete for the United States in the 1991 Pan-Am Games, where she won a bronze medal in the long jump. She also was an alternate for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team. Her husband, Tim, was a three-time Olympian, twice in the decathlon and once in the pole vault.

Bright has a lot of memories of the county meet and is looking forward to returning to Coos Bay from her Portland home Friday.

“There’s not a lot of things that are 100 years old,” Bright said.

Admission for the county meet is $3 for adults and $1 for students.