Coach Mikes Blog

in Practice by coach mike on 31 Aug 2007

Its the day before again-We had our standard day before the meet practice. The girls showed a little more life today. We finished practice with some hard 200′s on the track, both groups, boys and girls hit them hard. Had some pizza after practice, something we earned by helping at a local race this past summer. The bus leaves at 6 am in the morning, I worry about the kids making it that early, I worry about me making it that early. Going to leave the lineup the same as the first meet. Will make needed changes on Tuesday.

in Practice by coach mike on 30 Aug 2007

The next day- There is no time to rest. Some think rest is needed after racing. Depends. Depends on the time of the season. Whats next, stuff like that. Right now we have a lot of meets in a short period of time, there is no time for recovering time. As mentioned before our most important races are later in the season, therefore we have to train through these early meets. With that said, todays practice was not real productive. The boys did get a good longer run in. We then did some down hill runs, I wanted us to work on some leg and arm turnover. I know some think that we need some speed work, its too early for much, our goals dictate us to be peaking later in the year. I see lots of team that are good early in the year, only to peak too soon, and have nothing left at the end of the year. We talked today about the importance of everyone. Without your #4, 5,6,7 doing the job, you don’t have a team. We have to have a pack or we are in trouble, there are no all stater’s

on the team, no yet anyway, right JJ?

Ladies-I had my first talk with the ladies today. They have too much talent to be practicing like they are. Junk miles-you can run a 100 miles and if its at a snail’s pace, its junk! Some of them don’t know, they don’t understand. I talked to my seniors, I’m hoping they take charge. Only “time” will tell!

Added two new boys today!!!!!!! Both freshmen, I think they will stick!

in meets by coach mike on 29 Aug 2007

Just got back from our 1st meet. As a coach you expect things to go a certain way, based on practice. Specially at the beginning of the season. Well they didn’t! One thing that hadn’t changed was the bus trip, I still hate riding old yellow. The first race of the day was the jv girls. We didn’t have enough for a full team, only two ran in this race. Both young ladies were first time high school racers. Abby finished 13th in a time of 25:48 for the little over 3 mile race and Tessa ran in 30:02. The temperature was in the mid 90′s and humid. By the jv boys race a breeze had kicked up and started to cool things down a bit. The team finished 2nd with Cory finishing 3rd, followed by Thomas in 6th and Jared 9th, Kolin 13th, Grayson 54th. The varsity girls were 4th in a tight race, 1st and 2nd were both 63 and 3rd was 65, we scored 66. We lost several places at the finish line. We could of won.

This is where the surprise came in. To be honest some of the girls had not been working real hard, they raced better than a couple that had been working hard. Go figure. Actually I have figured it out. Its the law of less is more and more is less. If I have less ability than someone else and work my back side off in practice, while the person with more ability does not work hard, I look good in practice, they don’t. Then comes race day, they do it on raw ability and I fall back and look bad. About as clear as mud. Meghan had a good race finishing 6th followed by Mollie in 7th, Alyssa 13th, Lindsay 17, Paige 23rd, Kaity 27th and Courtney 35th. The girls will get better. I promise!

The varsity boys finished 2nd, thats good, they finished 50 points behind 1st place, thats bad! Jordan had a fine 1st race-4th place in a time of 17:39 , followed by Drew in 18:02, Jacob 18:38, Jaron 19:09, Tyler 19:12 and Cameron 20:37. The pack time of 1 to 5 is not very good, we have to race better as a pack. Things need to tighten up. Overall the meet was ok, we have an idea where we are at, it would of been nice to bring home a first place trophy, but we have bigger fish to fry down the road!

in Personal by coach mike on 29 Aug 2007

I’m sure every coach, as do most human beings, have regrets. When I’m driving around with free time on my mind, I always seem to get to the old game of what if? When regrets come to track, one thing always pops back into my head. The boys track sectional 2006 at Marion. We were having a good day, Corey my TJ and LJ was doing well, Grant had gotten to the finals of the 110′s, even Brock the first year senior discus thrower was in 2nd place going into the finals. My youngest child TC was our high jumper, to qualify for state, you either had to be 1st or 2nd or met a qualifier. The height in the high jump was 6’5″. TC had made the mark at a meet earlier in the year. And he was having a good day, clearing all the heights up until 6’3″. We had talked about passing that height and waiting for the qualifier. So after clearing 6’1″, he called me over we talked, he decided to try the 6’3″, which he missed on his first of three attempts. At this point as his coach, I should of said pass to 6’5″, since 6’3″ meant nothing and there were 2 other jumpers left. But I didn’t and he didn’t. I couldn’t make the call when it counted. We ended up with a great meet, but I will always regret not making that choice. That’s the bad part of coaching a sport like track and cross country, you can be happy for one athlete and sad for 10 others.

in Practice by coach mike on 28 Aug 2007

I don’t like the day before-I don’t like the day before a meet, specially the first meet. i never have uniforms handed out, so we have to do that. Plus it was again in the 95 degree range. the boys ran 4 miles and then did 10 building stride outs on the track. the girls ran for over 30 minutes. then 6 pull outs. I can’t remember what uniforms they wore last year, at least what shorts. I think we are ready, at least to get on the bus and drive down to the meet.  This course is probably the least favorite of anyone. You run around the school like 3 times. There is no shade, one year they brought in a fire truck with a hose up in the air, with a fine mist spraying to cool off the runners.  I also remember the year before I started coaching at the high school, two of our runners ended up sick and in an ambulance.  The girls are in somewhat a state of  turmoil. Meghan missed practice to go to the Dr. and then her car broke down on the way back to school, i just happen to be driving by, saw the car, and wasn’t going to stop. (I’m not proud of that but I was late) Then when I saw who it was I stopped and with the help of some former cross country parents we pushed her out of the way. She called her dad. Ellie didn’t make practice due to fact she had not gotten her sports physical yet. So we will see how they look on race day.

in Personal by coach mike on 27 Aug 2007

July 22nd 2007-Vicky and I were out for supper with some friends in Fairview Heights, celebrating a friends birthday. We were almost home when we passed Green Street or Selmaville road. The road was blocked off by Emergency Services. That was a very bad sign. That road had taken the life of many people over the years . We hadn’t been in the driveway 3o seconds when my cell phone rang. The ID was Mol, thats short for Mollie, a junior on the girls team. i knew something was wrong it was almost 10:30 pm on a Sunday. I have always told my kids (cross country and track) call me anytime, if you need something or have a problem. Her words sent a chill down my spine “Brandon’s been killed in a wreck.”

What do you say to a young person? Brandon was an important part of our cross country team, even though he never ran cross country in high school. He had just graduated from high school in the spring, a leader on the football team, a very popular young man. His younger brother, Jordan is a member of the cross country team and his girlfriend Lindsay is a member of team. Add to that he was a friend of mine, a former employee, and a former athlete that I coached in grade school and high school. His parents are great people, Hard working people, good parents. they supported all the kids. Brandon had worked for me at my restaurant. Brandon came to me needing a job. I wanted him to go out for track, thought he could help us with his speed, I also thought he might be able to be some type of jumper, maybe even a pole vault. He had enough speed and enough upper body strength, that he could of vaulted.

He decided he would come out for track and I hired him on his word that he would come out for track. And he came out for track, but he found out later he had hurt his back during football, I think his back ended up being fractured, so no pole vaulting. He kept working for us. The reason I’m telling this story, my business started to fail, my employees knew it, some of them started to bail, not many but some did. I don’t blame them for that. But not Brandon, he stayed, he told me he was staying until the end. Brandon was that type, loyal to the end. I enjoyed talking to him on Sunday mornings about Friday nights football game. He loved his football, he played with all his heart. He was always planning his life after high school, he was going to figure it out. And he had it figured out.

The days after the accident were tough on the community, specially the young people. the visitation was the biggest I have ever seen. The cross country teams went together, as a group.

Sometime in life there are questions without answers. Why did this happen? Why was this young person taken from us? There are no answers. Brandon was full of life, he played hard, he worked hard, he looked after his friends. I don’t know why Brandon was taken, but it was not to leave his brother heart broken, it was not to leave his girlfriend with a heavy heart, and it was not to leave his parents with so much pain. But knowing Brandon, I’m sure that he has God’s ear, as he tries to convince him to start a football team so he can run that ball one more time, just as I’m sure he’s rooting for his brother and girl friend to race like he played football, with all he had, all the time.

God bless you Brandon, we will miss you and we will never forget you!

in Practice by coach mike on 27 Aug 2007

its Monday and hot again-The Monday before our first meet and the temperatures soared back into the middle 90′s. But the Wildcats continue to work. Sounds like the boys got a big run in over the weekend. I’m not sure what the girls did. We started the practice after warm-ups with 4 hill repeats for boys and 3 for girls. Then we turned in a 3 mile run back to the track for 4×400. Then a 1 mile cool down.   Had problems with the top group of boys, they were too fast- around 65 seconds. The girls started to slow around 95 seconds but by the 3rd and 4th ones had started to get it down under 90 seconds and then hit a real good one on the 4th one of about 75. I was pleased with the workouts. We were missing Lindsay, she had a Dr.’s appointment.  I’m ready for Wednesday, just see where we stand.

in Getting Started by coach mike on 26 Aug 2007

Goals-When I started helping with Selmaville, I was an unpaid assistant coach. I was helping Wayne Steavens coach. Wayne was getting paid like $150.00 or something like that. We both had other jobs, we weren’t teachers, no one wanted the job. Wayne’ s job won’t allow him to be there some days, so I would run practices until he got there, on the job training. The previous years the boys teams had been good, winning a trophy at state each year the school had a full team. (thats a record that still is on going, having one of the teams win a trophy at the state meet). The girls on the other hand had not been able to win anything. The team consisted of a very good runner, one of the better ones in southern Illinois, her name was Megan Grizzle. She was an 8th grader, when I started coaching, so I set the goal of putting a good team around her to try to win a state trophy. So that seed was put in the girls heads. Lets work hard to get a trophy, lets make history and be the first Selmaville girls team to win a state trophy. They worked hard all season, and ended being 4th at Clay City in the state meet. The year was 1994 the girls on the team were Megan, Erin McMullen, Rene Brubaker, Audrey Hargis, Sara Spencer, and two fifth graders Erica Jansen and Shandi Murphy. The fifth graders saved the day. Megan had a great race, along with Erin, and the girls made school history. Last time I checked the girls are still winning those state trophies out there at Selmaville!!!!

in Getting Started by coach mike on 25 Aug 2007

Talk about hot-I don’t remember what year it was, just that it was one of those first days of practice at Selmaville, its me and 65 graders.  Grades 3 thru 8. The temperature had to be around 95 plus degrees, a typical hot August afternoon. Humidity had to be almost 100. Practices consisted of stretching, agilities,  and then running around the school property.  There is almost no shade. Sun is beating down. I watch as these young kids run past for one lap, then start another, by the time they get less than half way thru the second lap, its over. They are walking, stopping, unable to go another step. My thoughts? Next practice the school nurse needs to be my assistant coach!   Things got better. They all came back the next day. Moral of the story- adjust your workouts to the weather and don’t try to over do things at the beginning. Good luck but try to make running fun!

in Practice by coach mike on 24 Aug 2007

Mile repeats-JJ wanted speed work so we did speed work. the weather broke a little, cooled down a bit, so that was good. the boys did 4 -1 mile repeats. i was impressed. JJ hit all of them around 5:25, Drew and Jacob ran well also. Jaron is starting to come around. from top to bottom I was pleased with the boys. the girls ran 3-1 mile repeats. Meghan and Courtney ran very well, Meghan was in the 6:33 range and Court not too far behind. The third one the all the girls ran better. They can be good, but it probably won’t be early in the year. Pretty good week of practice, considering the heat.