From Clinic to Catalyst — IncubatorU
From Clinic to Catalyst: How One Coaching Weekend Is Building a Wellness Hub in Blue River Oregon
On February 26–28, 2027, coaches from across Oregon will gather at the McKenzie River Community Track in Blue River for the Bill Bowerman Legacy Track & Field Clinic. Harry Marra is the featured clinician and Keynote Speaker Saturday night. South Eugene coach Jeff Hess touches on program development and distance programs. Sprint Coach Nate Moreland will bring his leadership and technical acumen to the clinic and lastly Beynon Sports is the naming sponsor.
On the surface, it's a coaching clinic. At IncubatorU, we see something more: a working example of how a single, well-designed event can start rebuilding a rural community from the ground up. This post walks through the clinic using the IncubatorU 5-Step Methodology. It also shows how the clinic connects to Move Oregon and to the first steps toward the Three Sisters Meadow Wellness Hub.
The Clinic Through the IncubatorU 5-Step Methodology
The IncubatorU 5-Step Methodology (Imagine, Identify, Initiate, Implement, Integrate) is the framework behind Innovation from the Ground Up. We use it with municipalities, nonprofits and our own projects. Here's how it shaped the clinic.
1. Imagine. It started with Jon Bowerman's vision: give coaches at small schools the same access to world-class coaching that big programs take for granted. We pictured a weekend in Blue River where that access would also bring people back to the valley.
2. Identify. We took stock of what the community already had. The assets were the McKenzie River Community Track, a legacy that runs straight back to Bill Bowerman, Harry Marra and Jeff Hess, and partners who share the vision, from Beynon to the Positive Coaching Alliance. We were just as honest about the gaps. There is very little lodging in the area, and no venue that can hold a large public dinner.
3. Initiate. We turned the idea into a plan with a real budget. Registration is affordable at $150 per coach and $300 per school team. Sponsors cover specific parts of the weekend: Beynon Sports as naming sponsor, adding additionals sponsors to cover the dinner, the coach gear and notebooks, as well as the PCA session.
4. Implement. The weekend is built to be repeatable. Friday afternoon opens with Positive Coaching Alliance. Saturday is Harry's day, with mentorship and coaching on the track with athletes. The invite-only Coaches & Clinicians Dinner brings everyone together, and the Sunday community mile, inspired by the Tracktown USA inspired Pre Classic Bowerman Mile, invites the whole valley onto the track.
5. Integrate. This is where the clinic becomes more than an event. Every dollar beyond costs goes to the McKenzie Community Track. Every room night and meal supports local businesses. Every coach goes home with methods they'll use with hundreds of athletes. And the lessons from this weekend feed directly into what comes next for Blue River.
Where Move Oregon Fits
Move Oregon grew from a simple idea: communities get healthier when they have places to move and programs that bring people together to use them. It treats athletic and outdoor infrastructure as proactive health care, built for student athletes and community members alike. That matters most in rural towns that are losing local health clinics while chronic disease rises.
The clinic is Move Oregon's model at small scale:
• Infrastructure plus programming. A track is just a soft rubber surface and lines until someone runs a clinic, a mile or a training group on it. The clinic is the programming that brings the track to life.
• Values at the center. The Move Oregon Community Catalyst Playbook is built on Positive Coaching Alliance values. Opening the weekend with PCA, and carrying it through every session, puts those values into practice.
• Coaches as catalysts. Each coach who leaves Blue River takes the methods and the mindset home. That's how one weekend reaches communities across the state.
• A model to repeat. What works in Blue River becomes part of the Catalyst programming that Move Oregon can bring to other Oregon communities.
Move Oregon delivers the programming, while grants and donations flow through our nonprofit partners, McKenzie Community Track & Field and the McKenzie Community Land Trust.
The Beginning of the Three Sisters Meadow Wellness Hub
The clinic is also an early step toward something bigger: Three Sisters Meadow. It's a rural innovation, wellness, athletics, ecotourism and community campus planned for the roughly 16-acre former Mill Site in Blue River. The vision is organized around five campuses: Wellness, Outdoor Recreation, Conservation & Ecotourism, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and Community.
The work is already underway. Fifteen local organizations in the McKenzie Community Land Trust Partners Group shaped the project's mission and vision. In August 2026, a community design charrette produced two concept designs. In September, Locals Helping Locals brought neighbors out to walk the planned multimodal pathway linking the school, downtown Blue River and, eventually, Blue River Park. The next phase is feasibility work on the Three Sisters Meadow Wellness Hub.
That's where the clinic matters. A wellness hub needs more than a site plan. It needs proof that people will come, programs that work, and partners who show up. Each clinic adds to that proof:
• Demand. Coaches from across Oregon and beyond choosing Blue River for a winter weekend.
• Programming. A tested format that can run again and grow.
• Partners. Sponsors, clinicians and community members who are now invested in what happens next.
• The gaps, made visible. When there's no local venue big enough for a dinner and very little lodging, the case for the Wellness Hub makes itself.
The track was the first piece of infrastructure. The clinic is a program that brings people from outside the valley onto it. The Wellness Hub is where those two ideas grow together.
Building From the Ground Up
Rural revitalization rarely starts with a ribbon cutting. It starts with one good idea, an honest look at what a community has, and a first project small enough to deliver and meaningful enough to build on. In Blue River, that first project is a coaching clinic.
If you lead a community, school district or organization that wants to put this approach to work, we'd love to talk. If you're a coach, register for the clinic through McKenzie Community Track & Field. And if you'd like to sponsor the weekend or support Three Sisters Meadow, reach out to Michael Bergmann at IncubatorU at michael@incubatoru.com.
Michael Bergmann is the founder of IncubatorU, Move Oregon, President of McKenzie Community Track & Field, and author of Innovation from the Ground Up.
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