Coach Mikes Blog

in meets by coach mike on 08 Sep 2007

Things change and not always for the better. Not to long ago, this was a big meet. Probably close to twenty teams. So big there were two open races. One for your JV team and another for the rest of your team. First thing that changed has been the numbers on each team. There was a time when there might be 20 plus guys on the boys team and 12 to 14 on the girls team. Now your lucky to have 7 girls and a dozen boys. This meet has a different format, its a flighted race. This means each team puts their number 7 in the first race and all the number 7’s race. Then you move onto the number 6’s and so forth. Makes for a long day, but can be very exciting. I remember going to the meet and watching that number 1 race with a pack of 10 good runners all together. Fighting for position, fighting for an inch. Fun to watch. Time has changed that. Other schools decided to have meets on the same day, some schools have went to different meets in the state, the teams from out of state, have started attending meets closer to home. So the meet is down to 6 teams on the boys side and 4 teams on the girls side. Its sad.

Like most meets there were good stuff for us and some bad, I have to say probably more good. We raced well, this format is tough on the kids, because if you have one runner that has a “bad” race it can kill you team wise. There is no where to hide! We battled today, Kubicki bounced back for his best race of the year, he was our only first place winner. Drew was solid again in the number 2 race. Nix raced very well in the number 3 spot. I decided to “bark” a little today at Nix, he was setting number 3 in his race, I ask him during the race, if he was going to give up or make a run at this guy. He didn’t answer me, I reminded him I wanted an answer! “Yes Coach” He finally caught him. Number one on the boys side was also a good race for 2nd place. Jordan and the Centralia runner was side by side the whole race. I knew Jordan was going to have problems with the finish, because he doesn’t have much of a kick, he needed to get away from him early, he wasn’t able to make that move, so he got out kicked. We talked after the race and he told me fear had held him back. Thats a good point. Its the fear of making a move to early and not having anything to finish with. But its a fear you have to conquer, you have to trust your training. A lesson learned, when racing someone with a better kick, you have to put some space between you and him sometime before the last 200 meters. The rest of the boys had good days Tyler in number 7, Goff in the number 6. Jaron had some problems in the number 4 race, his hip or lower back started to bother him, once again there are no timeouts no subs. But to his credit he finished the best he could. Now we have to get him healthy.

On girls side, best race of the day was probably LB or Lindsay, her race was a lot like Jordan’s. Side by side the whole race then got out kicked to finish 2nd. She is still not in the best of shape, but I like her racing toughness. Mollie had the best  time for the team in the number 1 race, Meghan finished 3rd in the number 2 race, she got a little to far behind, had to battle back to get 3rd. Courtney and Alyssa keep looking strong and are working hard, thats all you can ask. Abby and Paige race well in their races. We were without Kaity today, sore ankle. Ellie raced the open, so we are getting her back in shape. Tessa seems to having fun with the team.Open race- Clark continues to race well, Davis had a good day. Grayson looked strong, Alec is still trying to get in shape.

Boys were 2nd, girls 3rd. Mt. Vernon’s teams both won.

Still was a sad day to see this meet struggling to stay alive!

in Practice by coach mike on 07 Sep 2007

At the end of practice today, the bus pulled up with the Mt. Zion  Braves high school football team. As the young men started to unload, the first thing you noticed was the dress shirts and ties. Thats over 2 hours on a bus dressed in your Sunday best. They beat us like 42 points. Good football team!

in Practice by coach mike on 07 Sep 2007

Anybody out there with any good workouts to help with being better on the 2nd mile, I’m open to suggestions. Send them my way!

in Practice by coach mike on 07 Sep 2007

Finally the state has posted the regional assignments, we are going to Olney, along with Centralia, Mattoon, Charleston, Effingham, Mt. Carmel, Paris, Bresse Meter Dei, and us.

We are very excited about the regional, should get the kids worked up about having a chance to win a regional championship.

Bus leaves at 7:30 am this is like sleeping in, unlike leaving at 6 am. This is a flighted race, which means there are seven different races plus a couple of open races. Starting with your #7 runners, boys and girls are out there at the same time. At the end of the day you total the points and low score wins. Based on early races should be the host school Mt. Vernon winning both boys and girls, but I think we’ll go ahead and show up and see what happens.

At practice today, the boys thought they were being sneaky by starting to run and then going to play Frisbee football. Nice try guys! Most of the girls went to order team shirts, then ran 2 miles or so, with 200m stride outs on the track. Going to the big football game tonight, should be a good one, high school football at its best! If any of you cc people are reading this after the game-GET IN BED!!!!!!!!

in Practice by coach mike on 06 Sep 2007

When it comes to athletics, what is toughness? Is it being the best player on the team? The top scorer? Most points? Number 1? Would you rather be the best on a weak team or a member of real good team? If you just work hard enough in practice to keep your spot but never work to improve does that make you tough. I have seen athletes that have a lot of talent but don’t work at their skill.  Most coaches have a plan for their workouts, a reason, usually the reason is to work on something to make their athletes better. If you are having problems running the 2nd mile, then you set up your workout to improve that 2nd mile. Once again I couldn’t make practice, couldn’t get away from work. Michael and I set up the practice, he was there to run it.  You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You tell your runners to hit certain times, but you can’t force them to.  You can yell at them I guess, can’t really punish them, what are you going to do make them run?  They have to want to get better!  When your top runners run in the back in practice, what message does that send?  Specially when on race day they run number 1 or 2 for, what does that tell the ones working hard but not racing as well?  Today we were to do 2, yes only 2- 1 mile repeats, trying to hit  certain times. Jones did 4 all between 5:20 to 5:28.  Jaron hit his, as did Drew, no one else seem to be able to hit the marks. The girls were lead by Courtney on the first one, with Alyssa stepping up on both. Kissner had a good practice. I’m not sure whats up with the rest of them! I’m about to give up. We’ll see how they race on Saturday.

in Practice by coach mike on 05 Sep 2007

I didn’t make it to practice today-couldn’t get away from work. Sent directions with Geffrow, 6 miles steady for top boys. 4 miles for girls, Geffrow ran with the girls and kept their pace up. Then back to the track for pull outs. Sam from WJBD came by to interview some of the kids for a weekly sports show they do each Saturday. Its a good idea, since these kids work so hard and don’t get noticed very much. Thanks to WJBD.  Last year the boys surprised me and won the Mt. Vernon invite, it will be tough  to repeat, the host are  running well this year. On the girls side the hostess  are the favorite.  Still haven’t set up this race yet, may wait until Saturday.

in Personal by coach mike on 05 Sep 2007

Heard Bruce Hixon is heading back to Illinois. Might settle in Carlye. Thats good news.

in meets by coach mike on 04 Sep 2007

Ok this is one of those you need to win. With our schedule its tough to bring home many trophies. This was one of those meets where both teams had a chance to win and both teams were able to come home with first place wins. This is a 12 team meet with at least 4 class 2A teams and the rest are 1A teams. The girls were up first and C’Dale beat us early at Murhysboro. The race was close and I wasn’t sure who had won. A lot of coaches try to figure points, keep track, I have never had time for that. Once the race is over there is nothing you can do to change it. Probably the best races of the day belonged to Courtney and Alyssa. Courtney went out strong and held on. She had nothing left at the end. Alyssa raced about the same, hard as she could from the beginning to the end. The team was short handed, our number 4 Lindsay was home sick, so the girls knew they needed to step up and they did. Kaity had a good race as our number 5. Meghan went out strong, faded, then fought back to run #3 for us. Mollie went out with a 6:25 first mile and finished 4th overall and number 1 for the team. The team won by 6 points. Good one to get!!

The boys won the race a little easier. The point spread was over 20. Jordan went out to the front, had a good race, he wasn’t happy, he felt a little heavy in the legs. But he battled! And sometimes thats all you can do! He finished up 3rd. Drew had another good race placing 6th overall. Nix was 11th in his first varsity race. Jaron battled for 16th and Jacob running sick was 19th. the pack time between 2 and 5 was 60 seconds, better, but it needs to more like 30 seconds. The legs are tired, thats 3 races in less than a week. Sometimes these kids think that are super human, practice, then go and play tennis or basketball, your legs and bodies can handle only so much. You need to eat right and get your rest! Specially with all these early season meets and the hot humid weather we continue to have. Another meet on Saturday. Forward we go!

in Practice by coach mike on 03 Sep 2007

Next week after we get through the two meets this week, its time for some am runs before school!

in Practice by coach mike on 03 Sep 2007

Labor Day Practice- We have a meet tomorrow, the Herrin Invite. We have won this small meet for the last several years, a few 2A teams, but mostly 1A schools. The girls will have their hands full with C’dale, they have some good front runners. At practice today two of my top 4 were sick, at practice but sick. So who knows what things will be like tomorrow.

I tried something different today, we only ran 2 miles, but it was a fairly hard 2 miles. The boys had to average under 7 minute miles and the girls 8. Thats a little slow for the boys, but it is the day before a meet and its still hot. We also did a warm up and cool down. This workout was designed more for the girls, they do everything so slow, we are trying to get something faster out of them, today we did that. We will see if our times drop at the meet.  Saturday we have  flighted races at Mt. Vernon, I have to decide who runs which race.  I hope we have some fans the race is only 20 minutes from home.