in Practice by coach mike on 23 Aug 2007
still too hot! i was late, couldn’t get away from work. Michael already had them started. the boys got in about 5 1/2 miles, the girls around 3 plus. then 4 x200 on the track for the girls and boys both. 36 seconds for the girls-30 seconds for the boys. the girls worry me. but i’ve been there before. can’t wait for the first meet.
in Getting Started by coach mike on 22 Aug 2007
How did i get into this mess? I remember my first meet as a cross country coach. Sam Dale Lake Invite. I was the new coach of the Selmaville Rockets, a small country grade school. That was probably over 15 years ago. this course was neat, you had woods, a lake, sand and a lot of people. I get my jv girls to the start line and I was taking care of something else, when i got back to line for last few words of wisdom. And all seven girls were crying. i thought oh no what have I got myself into!!!! they ended up winning, so something was right!
in Practice by coach mike on 22 Aug 2007
HOT-its hot, too hot. Had to take it easy again today. temperature in the 95 plus range. I had them stay in the park, close to water. The girls definitely took the word easy to heart, they spent most the workout hiding from Geff. 1 hour later they were at the finish point, not bad 4 miles, 1 hour? Thats ok, it is hot and it is a long season. one group of boys went to the nature trail and got about a little over 4 miles. Some of the guys went to order team shirts, then came back and got about 4 1/2 miles in. Except for Tyler and Jaron, who did around 3 1/2 miles. Jordan came back and ran another mile on the track. Sure would like to do some speed work, may have to in the heat. 1 week before the first meet!
in Practice by coach mike on 21 Aug 2007
Monday- Time to recover- lots of soreness. Easy run. The boys go about 5 miles. They seem ok, some poison ivy and bug bites, lots of bug bits. Jordan seems the worst of the group, his legs are red from the ankles up. the girls do about 3 miles. we meet back at the track for 10-100M pull outs. The boys finish with push ups, leg lifts and crunches. Cameron, Jordan, Jacob and Drew go to the weight room. Ellie is not at practice, her ankle is swollen from the weekend, Paige has soreness in the flat of her foot. Only one new person Jared, a freshmen boy.
Tuesday- Decide to pick it up a little bit. I’m running late from work, pass the top boys on their run they have Kevin, my friend and asst. coach from track with them, they are to do fartlek run over 5 miles. May not had been ready for this, plus it was real hot again. Jordan and Jacob do ok, the rest have problems. The girls and other boys run the nature trail, the distance is about 4 miles and they have times to run it in. Big surprise is Courtney, she does it in about 32 minutes, Meghan and Alyssa do well. Cory runs about 28 for the boys. Clark looked good. There is still work to do, plus we need a break with the heat. Back to the track for 6- 100m stride outs. Another day- I hold Ellie out again and Paige does a easy run, her foot still hurts. First meet is a week plus one day away. Then things get crazy, i never feel we are ready! Its the head coaches fault!
in Practice & Uncategorized by coach mike on 21 Aug 2007
Final days at Little Grassy-The afternoon run on Saturday was not good. It warmed up almost unbearable. We started the girls and the boys (that didn’t run all 12), together at the end of the first spot from that morning. The beginning of this part of the trail is brutal. lots of up hills. you just have to walk part of this. so the runners are out there, Michael and I, along with Tess head for the water break stop. the temperature reads 95. I start to worry. I’m pacing the road, checking the time. Michael walks into the trail, no sign of any of them. the temperature reads 98. finally David and Colin show up, 40 minutes into the run, still almost 3 miles to go. they grab some water and take off. still no one else is showing up. i have decide that it, when the rest get there i’m loading them up and bringing them in. finally Meghan shows, its been over an hour, enough is enough its too hot. the rest make their way in, most are ok, just thirsty and hot. they are glad not to go on. we load up and take one group back to lodge to get ready for supper. the group goes to get the 2 boys that ran thru. clean up time. one of my favorite little grassy moments. eating at the Giant City Lodge. all the chicken, potatoes, dumplings, green beans, corn, slaw all served family style. the kids are on their best manners, my wife Vicky came down to eat with us. had a nice time. Mollie and Abbey spy a cute waiter and have to have their picture taken with him. after the meal, we head back to our sleeping lodge. its movie time, most of the kids want to go to the movies, so into town we go. Jordan stays, and runs more. good time at the movies. Saturday night is just getting to know your teammates and hanging around. David and Courtney decide to get married, they have been friends and neighbors for ever. i think Jacob perform the wedding, i think it took part around 1 am or something weird like that. Drew watched all 5 or 6 Star War movies. a lot of the guys crashed, it had been a long week of running. Sunday we get up and clean up. get loaded up to go home. last time for Meghan, Lindsay, and Drew. the final Little Grassy for the seniors. campers of the weekend- Meghan and Jordan. Top New comer Mckenize and Katie. special thanks to Geff, Debbie, Dee, Michael. And Bernie for the fund raiser.
in Practice by coach mike on 20 Aug 2007
the boys. Seems to me that the leaders of this group, are setting a path to follow for success. lots of miles this summer. running almost everyday, some days twice a day. the only senior is Drew. the juniors are Jordan, Jacob, Jaron, Cameron, Tyler, David. the sophomores are Cory, Thomas, Grayson. Two freshmen Kolin and Jared. Also this group is a little bit on the crazy side. Little Grassy is chance for the guys to be, well stupid, fits. Someone kept turning the heat on in the rooms. The outside temperature was in the mid to upper 90’s with high humidity. Other little things can showing up in different places. I’m not sure how anyone can stay up almost all night and still be up by 7 am to run. after the friday run, we get up early and do a 30 minute timed run around the camp ground. Eat some breakfast. Then rest until time to do the first half of the trail run. The Red Cedar Trail. 12 miles of rocks, hills, creeks, narrow pathes. Use to be 16 miles, for some reason last year, a new sign up and the trail was now 12 miles, still tough. The run starts at the head of the trail, heads down the path into the woods. sent the younger boys out first, followed by the older boys and then the girls. Mistake, send the younger boys and girls first. The top boys of Jordan, Jacob, Drew, Cameron, and Jaron decided to something that I have never had a group do. run it all at once. all 12 miles. we always set up water breaks for the runners along the way, the trail crosses the park roads in several different places. My assistance coach, (my oldest son) and i went to sit up the break, only problem, we missed the point, by almost a quarter mile. So asst. Michael had to go back up the road by foot and carry the water back, we missed a few of the guys, sorry about that. Michael and I then loaded up to go to the pick up spot. the trail is mark with red dots on pieces of wood, attached to the trees. these marks are hard to see from the road, so you have to drive about 5 miles per hour. at right under 1 hour the first group of boys came thru , got a quick drink and continued on. Jordan, Jaron, Cameron, Drew heading for 12 miles. the next group decide to continue also, Tyler, Thomas and Cory. At the 1 hour and 10 minute mark the first group of girls, Meghan, Courtney and Alyssa finished the first half of the trail, two or three of the boys finished with them. the next group of girls finished several minutes later. over 2 hours later that group of boys finished 12 miles of Little Grassy history! Nice job! Had a nice little cook out then, in the park. The morning was good, I was proud of all the runners. The afternoon run was a different story!
in Practice by coach mike on 20 Aug 2007
About the team. We took 11 girls and 11 boys down to Little Grassy. First time that the boys didn’t out number the girls by almost 2 to 1. I’m happy to have so many girls, the numbers have been slipping. takes a lot work to run cross country, at least to be good at it. We lost two girls due to graduation, Nikki who had ran for me since 3rd grade, and Britney who came out as a senior. Two good people. Nice girls that worked hard and always had a smile. Nikki was our leader, not as a runner but as far as taking care of things for me. Britney was fun too have on the team and was good runner, good enough to make All Southern Illinois. This years team of young ladies, two seniors, Meghan and Lindsay. Juniors are Courtney, Mollie, Abbey. The sophomores are Paige,Alyssa, Ellen, Kaite, and Tess. the only freshman is Mckenzie. The young ladies had a good camp at Little Grassy. Worked hard, bonded as a group. Things are looking up for the season. the only problem? its early, lots can happen over a long cross country season. Good first week for the girls, put in a lot of miles this first week. Still plenty of work a head for the team. How good will they be? i guess we will find out, many miles from now.
in Practice by coach mike on 19 Aug 2007
We, the cross country teams, just got back from our 2 nights and almost 2 days of running and fun.This has been an annual trip for Wildcats cross country for probably 20 plus years now. Started by the prior coach as a camping trip at the end of summers practices, it involved into staying at a church lodge in Southern Illinois. The lodge is located on Little Grassy Lake, hence the name the name Little Grassy. We stay in nice building with separate rooms at each end, with a big meeting place in the middle. There is also a eating area cross from the lodge, that we don’t eat at anymore. We have now started to go at the end of the first week of official practice, due to scheduling conflicts and a change in the IHSA rules. We left Friday at 3 pm and got down there around 4:30, got moved in, and headed out for our first run. The weather was ok, not too hot. Makanda run is our first little run. we run thru the small town of Makanda. This is part of the Giant City Park. The park is full of timber, creek beds, boulders and cliffs. The first run is a loop of about 4 1/2 miles of roads with one BIG hill that we run down hill into the town of Makanda. the loop is very hilly and very hot with very little shade. The top boys ran the loop then turned around to run back to Makanda, making the run almost 7.5 miles. The girls and the younger boys ran the 4.5 mile loop. As I mentioned the run is all road, we start by a park adm. building, running north down the curving road. We past a old historic church, almost straight down the hill into Makanda. Now Makanda has two or three old stores, a post office, and i don’t know what else. i think Illinois’ famous US Senator Paul Simon was from there, seems to me maybe he was. the stores are old wooden buildings, mostly full of antiques and knick nacks. Out front of one is a picnic table with what looks like car parts. the runners then hang a left and head west along the road that winds a long the edge of the park. at about the 3 mile mark, the loop heads south into the park. the trick is to make all lefts, if you don’t you could end up, well lets just say a group of boys did that once and was found about 2 hours later almost to Cobden, Il. or somewhere several miles down the road. after two lefts we finish back at the start. so thats the first days run, the same one the Wildcats have done for years. Ask any Salem Wildcat cross country runner, and they will know the Makanda run. Next how did the run go? Who did what?
in Personal by coach mike on 16 Aug 2007
I decided to start a blog. I’m not sure what a blog is or why I want to start one, or if anyone will even read it, at least more than once! Some history about myself. I’m 50 years old; I have been coaching all my life it seems. Even when I was in my early teens, I was helping with the baseball program in town. I coached my first little baseball team right out of high school. The league was short on coaches, I knew some of the other coaches, before long, I was a head coach. Head coach of Lions, well almost, before I had coached even one practice, I switched to National Bank. Why? Because that was the team I played on when I was a little leaguer, so the chance came up to coach that team, so I took it. Coached five years won two league pennants, lost two city championships, won one league tournament championships, got married, scheduled the wedding and honeymoon around the baseball games. My wife Vicky should of figured something out there? So I guess sports have been part of my life, my whole life. Played baseball, football, basketball, all thru grade school and high school. Wasn’t great, wasn’t bad. All conference in football, 1st team. 6’2” 125 lbs. With no speed. You might take notice of the sports I did play for future reference. Two years of junior college, was going to finish at a four year school, had an offer to stay in town and make some money, managing a restaurant, so I did. Married at age of 20, first child at around the age of 25, a beautiful , and I mean real beautiful girl. (she takes after her mother.) Just a normal family in the Midwest, in a small town of less than 8,000. Added two kids both boys. I was still coaching some, helping with a Babe Ruth baseball team, helping some at a small catholic school in town. The kids were growing and of course they were interested in shooting basketballs, playing baseball, stuff like that. Well to be honest Audrey was somewhat interested, as long as she could look good at it. To be honest she did look good in her little ball hat and blue shirt. The boys took to sports right off, running, jumping, shooting baskets. Just your typical boys. They played tee ball, I coached. They played pee wee basketball, I coached. Flag football, the same. My philosophy from the beginning was let the kids have fun. Teach them the fundamentals, but make sure they had fun. Guess what? It worked. We had fun, we learned about the games, and we even won a few times as a team. No yelling, no screaming, NO SWEARING! The kids were happy, the parents were happy, at the end of the day everybody got a snow cone. This has been me in nutshell. I love coaching.