Driving The Bus

 

Patrick Scott driving the team home from yet another meet.

 

Any good head coach will tell you, any success you have is most likely due to the athletes and your support staff. The athletes are the ones doing the training and are out there competing. Good assistant coaches make all the difference because they are hands on with the athletes on a day-to-day basis. Behind the scenes you also have the trainer, strength and conditioning coach, and a host of other vital people who comprise a track & field program. This past season the Sacred Heart Cathedral track & field team had one other key player who contributed to our success – one of our bus drivers, Patrick Scott.

We first met Patrick last spring when he drove the team to the Central Coast Section (CCS) Finals in Gilroy, and then waited patiently in the parking lot at Applebee’s while the team shaved my head to celebrate our three state meet qualifiers. During the fall cross country season we often had Patrick again, and I requested him specifically for our two overnights, to the Mt. Sac Invitational and the state meet in Fresno. He was always laid back and flexible about things. The kids liked him and he genuinely showed an interest in getting to know them. One time when we pulled into a shopping center for lunch, Patrick got on the PA system and told the kids where all the “hot spots” were – “In ‘n’ Out is in this section, cross the street to the right to get to McDonald’s, cross the street to the left to go to Starbuck’s.” It was awesome. While we were at the meet, Patrick had been scouting the area to help us quickly find the food of our choice right after the meet.

This track & field season, week after week, meet after meet, when I walked up Gough Street to our bus, there was Patrick sitting in the driver’s seat. An avid sports fan, Patrick admitted to not knowing too much about track & field. But at most meets he would come in and watch and cheer. He got to know the kids and what events they did. One afternoon, it warmed my heart when I saw Patrick giving fist bumps to the kids as they boarded the bus. Another time when we coaches got our wires crossed and we only had one coach (me) for two buses, we had no choice but to send the kids on the bus with Patrick with no coach. When we got back from the meet, Patrick sent me a text message reporting that the kids had behaved superbly and that they left the bus extra clean. I was proud of our kids that day, but also it reinforced the idea that since Patrick was so polite to them, they just naturally reciprocated. Almost every kid thanks Patrick by name for driving us when they get off the bus back at school.

Halfway through this season I was having problems coordinating my ride home after meets. My wife was picking up our car at the end of her work day and going home. This season I had no assistant coach living near me to give me a ride. On a lark, I asked Patrick if he was going back to the Coach USA yard after dropping us off, and if he was, could I get a ride there. The Coach USA yard off of Evans Street is an easy three minute drive for my wife to pick me up, as opposed to a thirty minute drive (fifteen each way) if she had to come to school to get me. A ride with Patrick to Evans Street became our weekly ritual. Patrick would comment on some of the things he saw at the meet and I could explain some of the nuances of track & field to him.

As if this wasn’t enough, when one of the kids left her laptop on the bus, I called Patrick. Typically a forgotten item like that is placed in the Coach USA office and the kid and their parents have to go retrieve it during business hours the next day. Even though it was 9:30 P.M., Patrick went back to the bus to retrieve the laptop. He called me saying he had it. I had walked to dinner so I didn’t have my car with me and couldn’t go get it from him. Patrick’s solution? He asked for directions to where I was having dinner and he drove the laptop to me.

Because of this terrific relationship that our team has with our bus driver, I look forward to opportunities to buy Patrick a meal when we’re on the road or invite him to our end of year banquet. I think he’s become a real track & field fan, too. Although we probably won’t be using a bus for the CCS meet this year, Patrick has already indicated that he’s kind of hooked on our team now and wants to see us through to end. He’s texted me after CCS Trials, asking “How’d we do today?” and I know he’s trying to take the day off and driving himself down to Gilroy to cheer us on at the CCS Finals.

Now that’s a bus driver that’s part of the team!

Running for Sherry

On Saturday, February 11, 2012, I had the privilege of running for more than just myself.

As a high school coach, I look for opportunities to teach the students about life and how running can be a part of their life beyond high school. “Running is more than just training to run in a high school meet,” I began. I went on to mention that I was living proof that even after high school, one could run in order to compete and accomplish goals. I pointed out that running is often used as a means to raise funds for charities, through organizations like Team In Training. “Finally,” I said, “Running is a way to honor and remember people – sometimes people you don’t even know, and that’s what we will do today.”

I went on to describe Sherry Arnold, someone about the same age as me, a math teacher at Sidney High School in Montana, a mother, a wife, and a fellow runner. I told the team that on January 7, 2012, she went out for a run and didn’t come home and that it appears she was abducted and killed.

It was a good reminder to all of us runners to be as safe as possible when out running. I reiterated to the team that they are not to wear headphones while running so that they can hear things all around them. I re-emphasized the importance of paying attention to the traffic and people around them. I re-stated our policy that they run the exact route the coaches prescribe and that they try to always be with a teammate or at least in earshot of one.

I then told the team that we would join thousands of other runners around the country in honoring Sherry Arnold by participating in a virtual run. I passed out the running bib for Sherry and safety pins. When everyone had their bib on, we gathered for a prayer led by my assistant coach, Natalie Martinez:

Let us remember… That we are in the holy presence of God.

Let us pray in the memory of Sherry Arnold. A wife, mother, teacher and fellow runner whose life was cut too short one Saturday morning. Her tragic death is a simple reminder to be thankful and appreciative of the many blessings we have especially the chance to run on this team. Let us celebrate her life, her spirit, her strength and courage as we run in her honor today.  And we pray we have a safe and successful track season. 

Holy Founders…Pray for us

Live Jesus in our Hearts…Forever.

After that, we headed off for our run. We ran what the kids call the “box run,” a route that includes the beauty of Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach. We’ve done this run many times but today, running for Sherry, it was just a little bit more meaningful.

Assistant Coaches – Tomas Palermo, one of the best

SHC Coaches always in sync.

I’ve had plenty of great moments as the head coach of the Sacred Heart Cathedral (SHC) cross country and track & field teams. I’m now in my fourteenth year of being the head coach and my list of successes on the track, in the field, on the race course, and most importantly in the development of young men and women is endless. I am smart enough to know that I owe much of the program’s success to the athletes out there training and competing, and to the assistant coaches.

Assistant coaches work behind the scenes teaching techniques, offering encouraging words, providing motivation, and being a good listener; they make or break a program. I would love to be able to teach every athlete on the team techniques, offer them all encouraging words, provide them all with personalized motivation, and have time to talk to and listen to each athlete one-on-one every day. But there is just one of me and forty-five athletes in cross country and ninety-five athletes in track & field. I can’t be everywhere and I can’t be everything for every athlete everyday. This is where strong assistant coaches are vital.

I’ve been fortunate to surround myself with good assistants. My main criteria when looking at potential assistant coaches is passion for the sport, patience, and a sense of how the high school athletic experience fits into the life of a high school student. I’m not looking for tons of technical training experience. It’s nice if they know the sport, but if not I can teach it to them. First they have to be passionate about the sport. Their enthusiasm will rub off on the kids. Also, with passion comes a willingness to learn coaching and training techniques. Patience is a virtue, and it certainly is necessary when working with high school kids. You have to be willing to sacrifice your time for the kids. You have to be able to cajole them into doing things. You have to not judge the book by its cover, but instead take the time to find the hidden gem inside each of the kids. High school athletics is a co-curricular experience. There are rules that need to be enforced, and the goal is to train hard and to be as successful as possible. But this needs to fit into the framework of the activity being only a high school sport, not life and death. Coaches are educators and the top priority is to teach life lessons. Kids won’t remember in ten years what place they came in at the league finals but they’ll remember the bus ride to the meet with their friends. That’s how it works and there’s nothing wrong with that. I want assistant coaches who can make sure the athlete is challenged and having fun at the same time. If the kids get both, then being on the SHC cross country or track & field team will be one of the highlights of their high school days.

Coach Tomas in his first season in 2004.

On Monday, January 30, the 2012 track & field season will officially begin. It will be the first season since 2004 that Tomas Palermo isn’t on my SHC coaching staff. I first recruited Tomas to coach with me in 2004. He ran with the adult track workout group that I coach and he clearly possessed the traits described above that I look for in an assistant coach. He didn’t have previous coaching experience but that didn’t matter to me. The fact that he ran at St. Francis High School, one of our league rivals, counted neither for him or against him. For the last fifteen seasons, eight in cross country and seven in track & field, Tomas has been there. We’ve celebrated school records, Central Coast Section (CCS) and State Meet qualifiers, as well as kids just developing into fine young men and women. We’ve mulled over meet line-ups, training plans, and disciplinary issues. What’s best for the program? What’s best for the kid in the big picture?

Over the years Tomas has developed great coaching skills. His familiarity with my style allows him to echo my thoughts to kids and tweak workouts as necessary. He’s been a mentor for numerous SHC kids. Ironically, seven girls from Tomas’ first cross country season in 2004 have been or are going to come back and be an assistant coach at SHC. At meets he meticulously records splits with the exacting detail that I like (first leg of the 4X4 splits at the 800 start line and the rest of the legs are split at the finish line). At practice he helps come up with the assistant coach assignments so that all the assistants get to interact with different kids and still perform the necessary assigned training duties. He has an uncanny sense of when something memorable is about to take place and he grabs the camera to photograph the moment.

His relationships with the kids are, however, what make him special. He can talk Giants baseball during a long run with Nate W., sit in the stands with Izzy A. before practice, start a pull-up competition with Geoffrey Y. and Dominic R., discuss music with James M. and Bryan F., video games with Daniel K., and writing and movies with Sophie C-B. “DJ Tomas,” “Tommy,” and “Coach T” are just some of his nicknames, and we coaches all know that getting a nickname from the kids is basically their stamp of approval. In our end of season evaluations kids always reference the good advice and inspiration that he provides. One student thanked him for staying with him for a long run, both to help him not get lost and also for motivating him to run the whole way. Another evaluation red, “Coach Tomas is the bomb diggity” (Urban Dictionary translation: totally the awesomest, no lie).

I will always remember Tomas’s first season in 2004. It had been an emotional season. In September the top returning girl, Melanie S. broke her leg on a freak fall at the end of practice. The girls were devastated and it took a lot of energy to keep them from falling apart emotionally. Our chances of the girls team qualifying for State Meet went down significantly without Melanie S. At the same time we had a good young boys team but no one that was expected to make it to State. That was the team dynamic as we headed to Toro Park in Salinas for the CCS Championships. Melanie S. came with us and gave a great speech the night before the race. As a first year coach, Tomas came to me the morning of the race and commented that the kids were all going to really “leave it all out there” and we coaches should be ready at the finish line to help carry some of them through the finish chute. Tomas couldn’t have been more right. He read the mood of the team and the look in their eyes and thus we were ready with extra water and staff at the finish line. “Leaving it all out there” is now pretty much a hallmark of the SHC teams. I often associate the beginning of this tradition to that day back in 2004 and Tomas’ first CCS meet as a coach.    

At the 2004 CCS Championships - we left it all out there on this day!

It’s been a great run of eight years with Tomas as a SHC assistant coach. I’m sure he’ll still come around and cheer on the team because not only is he passionate about the sport, he’s passionate about seeing the SHC teams compete. Life takes many turns and I suspect someday he may wear the SHC coach hat again because his heart is definitely in education. But for now, I must face the 2012 season without my trusted friend and fellow coach. Tomas, that evaluation had it right, you are the bomb diggity!

Coach Tomas is the bomb diggity!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I’ve seen various “12 Days of Christmas” lists so I thought I would put together my own. Re-capping my year in running and coaching, I give you They Chanman’s 12 Days of Christmas:

 

12 – Twelve dogs (and two Eskimos) in a Bay to Breakers Pamapede Iditarod centipede.

11 – Eleven (and a half) miles, the least number of miles I ran every week this year.

10 – Ten (and a half) miles from Wunderlich to Huddardt and back. I finally made it all the way to both ends. This was one of many long trail runs this summer that got me into great shape.

9 – Ninth row at the finish line, our seats at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu.

8 – Eighth master runner at the Zippy 5K, a race where I achieved a major goal of mine, breaking 17 minutes for a 5K as a master.

 

Racing at the 2011 Zippy 5K

7 – Seven events at CCS Finals, in which the Irish Track & Field team had an individual qualify. We had someone place in the top five in all seven events.

6 – Six Irish athletes qualified and competed at the State Track & Field meet. First time we’ve had someone qualify since 2003.

5 – Five dollars, the new price for Thursday night track workouts. After seventeen years at the original $4 price, I raised my rates effective July 1, 2011.

4 – Fourth place overall in the Pacific Association Grand Prix (Short) Road Series in the masters division.

3 – Three cherry picker race first place overall finishes: Run For Recess 5K, July Fourth Rocket Run, Miles for Migraine 10K.

2 – Two years in a row the Irish qualified both the boys and girls teams for the State Cross Country Meet.

1 – One hundredth of a second, the amount of time by which Shannon Rowbury beat the fourth place woman in the 1500 meters at the USA Championships to qualify for the World Championships in Daegu.  

Shannon Rowbury battles Christin Wurth-Thomas at the finish of the women's 1500 meters at the 2011 USA Championships

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. And to all, Happy Running!

How I Became A Coach

One of my first meets as a head coach, the 1998 Lowell Invitational

The theme for the academic year at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory (SHCP) is “Connect.” At the opening day meeting Principal Gary Cannon asked us to think about how we came to work in education and to be a member of the faculty or staff at the school and to share their story with colleagues as way for us co-workers to “connect” with one another.

It didn’t take much thinking for me to figure out my story.

Me during my podiatry days.

After graduating from UCLA I enrolled in podiatry school. My plan was to be a doctor of podiatric medicine and specialize in sports medicine. In 1996, during my third year of the four year program, I realized that podiatry wasn’t for me. I found myself studying the same material over and over for board exams and interviews. I just couldn’t seem to commit the information to memory. It made for some stressful and un-enjoyable times. I noticed that some of my podiatry colleagues seemed to have no trouble remembering the information for exams and interviews. One night, I thought to myself, “If tomorrow’s interview was about coaching running, I wouldn’t have to stay up late to study because I just know that stuff.” That was my enlightenment moment.

My podiatry classmates felt the same way about podiatry that I felt about coaching. They were meant to be podiatrists. I was not. I was meant to be a coach.

I finished my four years of podiatry school and did a one-year residency, but after my enlightenment things were different. I was quite certain that I wasn’t going to pursue a career in the podiatry field. I finished school to get my degree (Yes, that’s Dr. Coach Chan to you) and completed a residency just in case I had a change of heart later on. During that time, however, I was looking into ways to have a career that included coaching.

Right after my residency ended, I began a master’s program in Sports Management at the University of San Francisco (USF). I wasn’t sure where this would lead but it seemed promising. The sports management program was a two year program with one nightly class a week. Since I had no job and nothing else going on, I decided to condense this down to one year – so I took two classes a week. In addition to the classes and the associated work load, I also started an internship with Special Olympics Northern California (SONC). Three days a week I drove out to Pleasant Hill to volunteer at SONC as the sports program intern. My job was to assist with the 1998 SONC Fall Classic, a multi-sport competition in Sacramento. This internship was required to earn my master’s degree but it was also an opportunity to see if I liked running competitions from the management side of things.

That same summer that I began the master’s program and the SONC internship, my mom saw an advertisement in the San Francisco Independent that said Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory was looking for a head cross country coach. I had wanted to be a head high school cross country coach since high school so I applied. I interviewed with Ms. Jo Ann Momono and gave her my resume. Before I even got home I got a call from one of my references at UCLA; Ms. Momono had already called to check my references. The next day I got a call and was invited to be the SHCP head cross country coach. A few months later I accepted the additional position of head track & field coach at SHCP.

Working for Special Olympics.

At the same time my internship with SONC was taking off. Kimberly Kellett and Roger Slingerman were giving me more and more responsibilities. At first I was only supposed to be an intern for the Fall Classic in November. But I stayed on after that to help prepare for the next year’s Special Olympics World Games in North Carolina. Before I knew it was getting a small stipend from SONC and was invited to be part of the SONC delegation to the World Games in the summer of 1999.

At the start of the summer of 1998, I had very little on my plate. For the first time in five years I had no podiatry obligations. I also had no job. But 1998-99 turned into the busiest academic year of my life. I spent two nights a week at class at USF. Three days a week I worked at SONC. Plus I had daily head coaching responsibilities at SHC. By the time the summer of 1999 rolled around, I had completed my master’s degree in sports management, gone to North Carolina for the Special Olympics World Games, been offered a full-time job with SONC as the Sports Manager for the San Francisco program, and coached a then freshman named Shannon Rowbury, who would go on to some great achievements in the sport of running.

It just goes to show that you never know where life will take you. I spent five years working for SONC. During those five years I continued as the SHCP head coach, juggling the two jobs as best I could. It wasn’t easy being an off-campus coach but I loved both jobs even thought it was quite hectic at times.

In the summer of 2003 there were some changes at SONC and I was not going to be able to continue to work there and coach at SHC. The decision was really quite easy. I was not going to give up coaching. I left the job at SONC with the idea of coaching one more season while looking for a job that would allow me to continue to coach. There were no guarantees I would find such a job but coaching meant enough to me that I was going to give this a try.

That same summer of 2003, SHCP was about to open the Sister Teresa Piro, DC Student Life Center and they were looking for a Facilities Coordinator. I interviewed for that job and was hired. Due to some fortuitous timing, I never had any interruption in medical insurance. I never really even had time to go looking for another job. All I had to deal with was a two week summer vacation between the end of one job and the start of the other.

I started as a full-time staff member the first week of September 2003, eight years ago this week. I am now embarking on my fourteenth year as the head cross country coach, my ninth as an on-campus coach.

Life may have a change or surprise or two left for me. Maybe another Olympic caliber athlete will come my way? Maybe another job change? Who knows? But what I do know is that I love coaching runners. The sports of cross country and track & field have been good to me. They’ve opened doors to opportunities to meet and interact with wonderful people – athletes, assistant coaches, fellow coaches, and opposing runners. Coaching high school runners is especially rewarding because they are young and impressionable. It’s a privilege to teach life lessons and my passion for the sport to the next generation of runners.

One of my favorite things about coaching - talking to the team.

The California State Track & Field Meet

In 1915, the state of California held its first ever state championships track & field meet. The meet took place in Fresno with 91 male athletes representing 28 different schools. Points were scored in 13 events (100, 220, 440, 880, Mile, 120 Highs, 220 Lows, 880 Relay, Shot Put, Discus, Pole Vault, High Jump, and Broad Jump). In addition, there were non-scoring competitions in the javelin and hammer throw. In 1974, the first official girls competition took place at the California state meet.

Over the years the California state meet has garnered a great deal of respect for its elite competition. There are no divisions or classes at the California state meet based on school size. To win a track & field state championship in California means that the athlete is number one in the entire state. It is no wonder that since 1994, future Olympians including Mebrahtom Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, Allyson Felix, Shannon Rowbury, Chaunte Howard-Lowe, Stephanie Brown, Joanna Hayes, Lashinda Demus, Sharon Day, Jill Camarena, Suzy Powell, Michael Stember, Tyree Washington, Monique Henderson, and Angela Williams have won California state championships.

The last time an athlete from Sacred Heart Cathedral qualified for the state meet was 2003. Future women’s Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier Michelle Gallagher represented the Irish that year. Gallagher had a terrific regular season, setting personal records of 2:17 (800) and 4:57 (mile). Her best race was a 10:33.04 that earned her fifth place in the 3200 meters at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational and ranked her in the top fifteen in the nation. At the West Catholic Athletic League (WCAL) Finals, she was second in the 1600 (4:57.13) and set meet record that still stands in the 3200 meters (10:49.11).

One week later, Gallagher came down with the flu. She attended the SHC graduation ceremony and then her mom drove her to the Central Coast Section (CCS) Trials Meet. When she arrived she didn’t look good. She was determined to run the 3200 to try to place in the top 12 to qualify for the CCS Finals. Fortunately she was talented enough that it didn’t take her best effort to qualify on. In the days that followed that race she was still not feeling great so she did pretty light workouts leading up to CCS Finals. At CCS Finals she faced some tough competition in defending champion Ruth Graham of Gunn High School and Melissa Grelli of Presentation, who beat Gallagher at the state meet in cross country. We decided that since she was not 100% healthy, it was in her best interest to not go for the win but instead to run for third place to qualify for the state meet. Tough as it was for her to let the other two beat her, it was the right decision. Gallagher ran conservatively for most of the race, finishing in 11:01.45, eighteen seconds behind Graham and twelve seconds behind Grelli – but more importantly eight seconds ahead of the fourth place runner.

Now that she was qualified for the state meet, I had some decisions to make. Normally I fill the week between CCS Finals and the state meet with light running to rest up for the championship race. But in Gallagher’s case she had missed a great deal of training, and she was a runner who thrived on hard training. I consulted with a coaching friend that I respect, Don Paul, and decided that I would do something a little different. I gave Gallagher hard interval workouts on Monday and Wednesday, leading up to the Saturday state championship race. On Monday she ran 2X400 (80, 79), 4X800 (2:41, 2:40, 2:41, 2:38), and 2X200 (34, 33). On Wednesday she ran 1600 (5:20), 3XPower 500 (94, 95, 98), 2X200 (33,33). This was much more intensity and volume than I would give any other runner I’ve ever coached in high school the week of a big race – except for Gallagher.

Throughout Gallagher’s career we always battled about the race plan. She tended to go out fast and would fade in the final laps. I liked it when she ran even or negative splits. Her best paced race was the 10:33 at Arcadia when she ran 5:21 for the first 1600 and 5:12 for second 1600. I wanted her to run a similar race at state. After the first lap, run in 76 seconds, she was in eighteenth place. Then she locked in. She ran 80, 81, and 81 for the next three laps and moved up to eleventh place at the midway point, splitting 5:19 for the first 1600. On lap five she ran another 81 but passed three people, including Grelli, to move into eighth place. On lap six she ran an 80 and passed three more people, including Graham, to move into fifth place. It was going perfectly. She was running a steady pace and as everyone else slowed down she moved up. On the seventh lap she ran an 82 and passed one more runner to move into fourth place, where she stayed. Her final time was 10:41.37. She moved from eighteenth place to fourth place during the race. She had the satisfaction of being the top runner from the CCS, beating the two runners who had beaten her the week before at CCS Finals, when she had to just let them go in order to make sure she qualified. It was a proud coaching moment for me.

A photo essay of Michelle Gallagher's 2003 State Meet 3200 meter race.

Eight years have passed since that state meet. We had a near-qualifier in 2007, when James Mabrey placed fifth at CCS Finals in the high jump and triple jump. On Friday May 27, 2011, the Irish have athletes competing in seven events at the CCS Finals. We did a great job to qualify so many people this far. I believe that anything can happen at CCS Finals. There are eight invitations in each event to the CCS Finals and we are happy to have one of them in seven different events. On Friday we will compete in the girls shot put, the girls 400, the boys 100, the boys 800, the boys 200, and both the girls and boys 4X400 relay. The top three will go to the state meet. We have seven shots at getting to the state meet. Maybe we’ll qualify in all seven. Maybe we won’t qualify in any. It’s the unknown that makes this week so exciting.

The California state championship meet is an amazing meet to be at. The competition is fierce. It’s an honor and a privilege to compete at a meet of its caliber. I would love the honor and privilege to be coaching at the state meet this season. I’ve even promised the team that if someone qualifies they can shave my head bald. The road to state goes through Gilroy this Friday. Go Irish!

The first day of practice

One of my favorite parts of coaching - gathering the team for an inspirational talk

The first day of practice

The first high school track & field practice of the 2011 season is just days away. I always look forward to the first day of practice because it’s a day of beginnings – a day full of hope and optimism for what is ahead. I always try to have some inspirational words to kickoff the season. Below are my opening remarks from last year.

“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” – Juma Ikangaa, marathoner

Has anyone heard this quote before?  What does it mean to you?

First off, to me in our sport, winning is about personal achievement, not the conquest of an opponent. To improve, to surpass goals, and to set personal records (PR’s) are “wins” in our sport. You don’t have to be first across the finish line or have the best mark in a field event to be a winner in track & field.

By that definition, I think we all want to “win,” right?  We have goals like sub-60 in the 400, 21 feet in the long jump, 100 feet in the discus, sub-6 or sub-5 in the mile. Or, maybe your goal is just to make this team?

The will to want to win is not enough by itself. We can talk about wanting to achieve those or other goals all we want. But that’s just talk. Every athlete in the WCAL is sitting at the first day of practice right now and they all want to win just as much as we do.

But, if you want to actually hit those marks, to actually “win” by this definition of victory that I have given you, then you must have the will to prepare. That is what can separate you from the hundreds of other athletes in the WCAL.

Some of you have been preparing in the weight room, up to three times a week since last summer. Others have started preparing for this track & field season in the last month or two. Some of you start today.

Now we all start preparing together. Because those PR’s, those goal, those “wins” will not happen if we don’t prepare. Starting now. Every day.

It will be challenging. Right now, everyone wants to win and is willing to prepare. But will you feel the same way in half an hour when we’re working out? Or next week, when it’s raining? Or when we’re doing a very hard workout in April? 

My hope is that the answer is YES. Because that’s what it takes. That’s the mentality that I want from you. That’s what makes you special…maybe more special than other track & field athletes. That’s what makes you FIGHTIN’ IRISH!

The track & field dual meet

Last weekend Croatia hosted the inaugural IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup. It was a competition between four teams – the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Each team had two entries per event (except the 1500, 3000, 3000 Steeplechase, and 5000 where each team got three entries) with no more than one athlete from a country. In individual events, eight points were awarded for first place, seven points for second place on down to one point for eighth place. In the relays, it was fifteen points for first place, eleven points for second place, seven points for third place, and three points for fourth place. Points were combined for men and women, with a single team emerging as the Continental Cup Champion. In the end, Team Europe edged out the Americas for the win, 429-419.5, with Africa in third with 291 points, and Asia-Pacific in fourth with 286.5 points.  

It was nice to see a meet with a team aspect and team scoring. The $2.9 million in prize money insured that the top athletes were there to compete for their team. But the way the teams were made presented the problem that athletes often had no real allegiance to their team. Athletes think of themselves as being from a particular country and usually have national allegiance, not a continental allegiance. Also, putting athletes onto teams based on continents created teammates out of some athletes who are normally rivals. For example, Nancy Langat (Kenya) and Geleta Burka (Ethiopia) are bitter rivals in the women’s 1500 meters but they were supposed teammates at this meet. Neither athlete was hoping for a 1-2 finish in their race. It was also somewhat strange to see sprint rivals, Jamaica and the United States of America, teaming up in the relay events together. That being said, David Oliver, one of Team America’s team captains, found himself being very team oriented. He cheered on his teammates and talked to and supported athletes from events that he does not normally follow.

A meet that really gets the passions of a country and its citizens going is a dual meet between rival countries. That’s the case at the Finland vs. Sweden track & field dual meet. This meet, called “Finnkampen” by the Swedes, has been taking place annually since 1925. Team scoring is separate for the men and the women at this meet and, in addition to the elite athletes, the meet also hosts a competition between junior athletes from the rival nations. The 2010 meet, held in Helsinki, Finland drew over 54,000 spectators for the two days of competition. Finland was victorious in the men’s competition and both junior competitions, with the Swedes winning the women’s competition. How important is this meet to the athletes? Three Finish javelin throwers arrived at the meet after competing in the Brussels Diamond League meet the day before, just four hours before their dual meet competition began. They went to a lot of trouble to be able to throw at this dual meet. They also swept the javelin for Finland!

A dual meet between rival countries can stir up a lot of interest. The USA took on the USSR in a dual meet, that was held almost every non-Olympic year between 1958 and 1985. The dual meet in 1962 took place at Stanford Stadium and drew a crowd of 72,500 on day one and 81,000 on day two. At the time, It was the largest two day crowd to ever witness a non-Olympic track & field meet. A reporter from the San Francisco Examiner called it the “greatest track (& field) meet of all-time.” Two world records were set:  American Harold Connolly (who passed away on August 18) threw the hammer 231 feet, 10 inches and Soviet Valery Brumel cleared seven feet, five inches in the high jump. Among the star athletes from the USA who competed at this meet were, Wilma Rudolph, Al Oerter, Ralph Boston, and future football stars Bob Hayes and Paul Warfield. The final score had the USA winning the men’s competition, 128-107, and the USSR winning the women’s competition, 66-41.   

The sport of track & field, at least in the United States, could use more dual meets. A dual meet between rivals like the USA and USSR, with easy to follow team scoring and some political intrigue, has the potential to win over the casual sports fan. People get excited to see a battle between two rivals. Most people may not know the difference between a good time and a mediocre time in the 800 meters, but everyone can certainly follow who beat whom in a head-to-head competition.

At the high school level the dual meet is the main type of competition. Star athletes compete at Arcadia and Mt. Sac, but for all the other high school athletes, the dual meet is the meet to get pumped up for. One of my best coaching memories is from a dual meet in 2002 when Sacred Heart Cathedral ended a long drought of losing dual meets by beating Mitty in dramatic fashion – winning the last event, the 4X400 relay.   

In college, although most of the season emphasis is on conference, regional, and national meets, teams get excited to compete against their rival in a dual meet. Some examples: Cal vs. Stanford (116 year history), UCLA vs. USC (as a Bruin alum, this was a painful hyperlink to include), and Harvard vs. Yale (a meet that dates back to 1891). These dual meet rivalries are flamed by the schools’ proximity and long history of competition.

A good dual meet also occurs when the two teams are evenly matched. The men’s coaches from UCLA and Oregon got together in 2008 and decided to renew the rivalry between these two venerable track & field programs by having an annual UCLA-Oregon dual meet at Eugene’s Hayward Field. The 2009 meet was particularly close and exciting; the winner was not decided until the 4X400 relay. I won’t give away the result (you’ll have to watch the video of the race), but let me assure you, it was a dramatic race. The race leader changed several times during the race. UCLA Bruin and Oregon Duck athletes can be seen on the infield cheering on their respective teams. It was track & field dual meet action at its best!

At the elite level of track & field there are very few opportunities to compete in dual meets. With an emphasis on not over-racing and over-competing, and on achieving fast times and big marks, winning  head-to-head competitions takes a backseat on most elite athletes’ competition calendar. These are reasons the dual meet is becoming a thing of the past. The Finns and Swedes are lucky, they get to enjoy a dual meet with the drama and excitement of their national pride on the line every year.

The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Those words, made famous by ABC’s Wide World of Sports in the 1970’s certainly sum up sports. It is probably why I love sports so much. It’s the competition that keeps me involved in running and coaching. I am the first to acknowledge that winning is not everything. But at the same time, I find nothing wrong with competing. I often tell high school athletes when they graduate that what they will miss most is the competition. That’s what I missed – the drama of not knowing how the race was going to turn out. Being able to still experience that type of drama is what brought me to coaching.

The AGONY - Walking dejectedly off the track in 1989. We didn't qualify in the 4X400. My high school running career was over.

The emotions of track & field qualifying meets capture the “thrill of victory and agony of defeat.” I’m talking about “sudden death” types of meets where you need to place in order to move on to the next week. It’s the track & field equivalent of a sudden death overtime playoff football game or a bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two-outs situation in baseball. Perhaps the ultimate sudden death situation is the single elimination NCAA college basketball tournament. It’s win and move on, or lose and go home.

That’s what happened during the semi-final races on Wednesday and Thursday at the NCAA Championships in Eugene. To qualify from the semi-final to the final athletes needed to place in the top eight. Eighth place was as good as first place. Ninth place, even if just one centimeter or a millisecond behind eighth place might as well have been last place. I’m not a big fan of the saying, “second place is the first loser,” but the sentiment rings true in these qualifying meets. That’s also what makes them exciting. It’s why I am a ball of nerves on qualifying meet days.

Track & field athletes of almost every ability level experience this type of qualifying meet pressure. Using the Sacred Heart Cathedral team as an example:

-          I had athletes in the last dual meet of the season trying to have a strong performance so that I would enter them into the WCAL Trials meet.

-          At WCAL Trials, some athletes knew they were unlikely to qualify for WCAL Finals. Some were pretty confident they would qualify. Others were on the bubble, experiencing the qualifying meet’s “win and move on or lose and go home” nervousness.

-          At WCAL Finals, again there were some athletes hoping to qualify for the CCS Trials.

-          At CCS Trials, there were athletes nervous about qualifying for CCS Finals.

-          At CCS Finals, the nervousness was over qualifying for the State Meet Trials.

-          At the State Meet, there are always athletes hoping to continue their season one more day by qualifying to the State Meet Finals.

-          Finally, on State Meet Finals day the nervousness is the pressure of trying to win a state championship.

No matter what ability level you are, there is probably some meet during the season that is your “win or go home” meet.

At any given meet, the level of nervousness depends on your seeding. If you are a low seed, not expected to move on, it’s probably an accomplishment just to be at the meet. You are happy to be there and will probably compete relaxed, trying to just give a strong effort. As a low seed, you probably had your “nerve-racking” meet the week before when you qualified to get to this week’s meet. The athletes seeded in the middle have the most pressure. They are on the bubble. Perform well and they may qualify on to the next round. Don’t do so well and their season may be over.

Qualifying meets are very stressful for the high seeds, too. “Live to run again” was a saying I had when I coached Shannon Rowbury in high school. She was often a high seed and my feeling was that nothing good could really happen. If she qualified to the next round, it was expected. And if she didn’t qualify, it would pretty much be a disaster.

I spent hours coaching her on the nuances of making sure she qualified when she was a high seed. If the top two runners in a heat qualified automatically, I tried to give her a race plan to get second place. We didn’t worry about winning trials races when it wasn’t necessary. Another of our mantras was to run slow at trials to save energy for the finals. Shannon described this to a reporter saying, “You want to go slow to save a little for the finals but if you go too slow you won’t be in the finals.” When Shannon won the state meet in the 800 in 2001, I distinctly remember that she had one of the slower trials times of the eight finals qualifiers. We were cooling down together when we heard the names and times of all the qualifiers read over the PA system. I told her that her time at trials didn’t matter, all that mattered was that she qualified. “No one remembers what your trials time was,” I told her, “You have to run with your head on Friday and then with your heart on Saturday. What people remember is your Saturday race.”

In talking about Oregon’s chances of winning the NCAA Championship, Oregon head coach Vin Lananna said, “We’re going to have to have a great Saturday,” referring to the final day of the meet when most of the finals will be contested. “To make Saturday count, we’re going to have to have a good Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,” referring to the trials.

The most exciting, nerve-racking, and dramatic moments are when you are on the bubble. Maybe you’ll qualify, maybe you won’t. Those are the competitions that define what sports are all about. At the recently completed CCS Trials I was extremely nervous. With good races we could qualify athletes to CCS Finals in the 4X100 and 4X400 relays and the 100, 200, and 3200 meters. Yet, we could easily have had no one qualify on in any event. The margin of error was very small. The fact that failing to qualify meant the end of the season only added to my apprehension.

Our first two legs of the 4X100 relay were great but we failed to get the baton into our third runner’s hand. Boom! Just like that the season was over for the 4X100 relay team. Since we didn’t have another race for two hours, I had the agony of defeat in my head non-stop for two hours. Fortunately we got some great races in the 100, 200, and 3200 meters to qualify for CCS Finals.

Then in the final event of the day, our 4X400 relay team ran 3:27.26 in the second of four heats. We would have to wait and see if that time would be in the top eight, qualifying us for CCS Finals. In heat three, three teams beat our time. We were in trouble. We had to hope that our time was faster than whoever came in second place in the last heat. If we were faster we would qualify. If not, the season was over for the 4X4. There were four teams battling it out and on the last exchange and I knew it was going to be close. I had tears in my eyes thinking that the season could be over in less than a

The THRILL - My heat sheet from CCS Finals listing the 4X4 qualifying times. The small dash meant we qualified!

minute for the 4X4 boys and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. With 200 meters to go I muttered to the assistant coach next to me, “This is bad, four teams battling it out means they are going to run fast down the homestretch.” Then at the top of the final turn, one of the runners fell and he tripped up one of the other runners. All of a sudden there were just two teams battling it out and both seemed to slow down just a tad. That was all we needed. The boys came over to the fence by me and we waited for the results. We all agreed that we felt pretty guilty for being excited to see the two teams fall because it helped our chances. Seconds later the final times popped up on the scoreboard and then they announced our name as one of the qualifiers. Ah, the thrill of victory.

The apprehension that I feel at qualifying meets, that is a combination of nervousness and excitement is what makes athletic competition so great. I think it is both an honor and a privilege to experience these emotions. There’s a quote I’ve used with the team, “You won’t cry if you don’t care” – this defines why you often see me tearing up at the end of a big meet. Sometimes it’s tears of joy and pride, and sometimes it’s tears of sadness and agony. But always it’s because I care.

Sacrificing Graduation to Race

After the meet, Marcus and Doug got their diplomas

The sports of track & field and running require a great deal of sacrifice. Whether you are a lifelong adult runner, an elite runner, college team member, or high school athlete, there are sacrifices you must make in order to be successful. The main sacrifice is usually time. It takes time to train. Time to go for a long run, or do your core workout, or to ice a nagging injury. Much of the training required to be the best you can be is not glamorous but most of us who do it consider the opportunity to set a personal record or compete at the highest level that we can, well worth the sacrifice.

Today I share a story about two seniors I coach on the Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory (SHCP) track & field team who had to make a big sacrifice last weekend. As fate would have it the SHCP graduation fell on the same day as the Central Coast Section (CCS) Track & Field Trials. We’ve had this conflict in the past and athletes have had to leave graduation early (Nick Lien ’03, Jason Kobuchi ’04, and Christina Young ’04) or had to come to the meet immediately after the ceremony (Andy Lee ’03, Michelle Gallagher ’03, Tammia Hubbard ’09). But this year the student-athletes had to choose one or the other. With graduation scheduled for 10:00 A.M. and CCS Trials starting at 11:00 A.M. in Gilroy,one and a half hours south of San Francisco, it was impossible to do both.

I had anticipated this conflict at the beginning of the season but didn’t want to jinx our chances of qualifying to compete by bringing it up too soon. Two weeks before the league final I finally told the seniors that, if they qualified for CCS Trials, they and their parents would have a difficult decision to make. At the league final on Friday night May 14, the boys 4X100 relay team of sophomore Michael Munchua, junior Gary Moore, senior Marcus Del Bianco, and senior Doug Parrish qualified for CCS Trials. Now came decision time.

All along the boys were telling me they were going to skip graduation to run CCS Trials. But I encouraged them to go home and talk it over with their families. It wasn’t until Monday that both athletes and their families officially agreed to skip graduation for the meet.

I worked with the SHCP administration to make sure Marcus and Doug were properly recognized at other senior ceremonies during graduation week. I also worked out a secret plan to have a mini-graduation ceremony for them at the track after the CCS Trials meet. I got their diplomas from the registrar. One assistant coach downloaded pomp and circumstance onto his iPod. Another assistant coach brought mini speakers. I made arrangements to have a cap and gown for both Marcus and Doug down in Gilroy. And I dusted off my own hood and gown so that I would be properly attired to present the diplomas. The rest of the team and the families were told to meet on the warm-up field at the end of the meet for the surprise graduation ceremony.

What followed was a touching ceremony where I got to let Marcus and Doug know how much I appreciated the sacrifice they had made to run at the CCS Trials Meet.