Coach Mikes Blog

in Uncategorized by coach mike on 24 Nov 2009

oK-The season is over and I’m on the recruiting trail, well sort of. Making some calls-pouring over results and times. My past experience has taught me that a lot can happen between now and next fall. I know that Kaskaskia is not going to get the top notch state champion-wait we did have a state champion this year! So that means we can get that top runner.  Anyway that’s what I have been up to. I do hope to have some signees after December 1st.  I have notice that there is not very many Sr girls in this area, so I’m going to have to expand my search to a bigger area. I have been getting some hits from some outside sources, mostly from New York. I have several leads on the men side and are working them, but you never know

in Uncategorized by coach mike on 18 Nov 2009

http://www.icc.edu/xcnationals/FansAndFamily_programsMerchandise.asp

Not sure this link works-so here are the instructions

1. go to Illinois Central College web site. 2. Click on NJCAA logo and then look for link to photo and merchandise click on and then search for your picture-good luck.

This link should get you to the page where you can order photos if you wish. I was able to find pictures of Lindsey and Shannon.

in Uncategorized by coach mike on 15 Nov 2009

I added the link to Jennifer Shetley’s school web site her school won the USCAA National Championships and she was All American. Jennifer called me last Saturday to let me know- it was great to hear from her.

SMWC Cross Country Roster

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/nh/Nov6_USCAAN_set2.shtml

Results page-seems they ran a 6k.

in Uncategorized by coach mike on 15 Nov 2009

The Rams played well enough to win today. I had a feeling they would play the Saints tough. But playing tough does not always adds up to winning. I hear a lot of people complaining about Bulger the QB but the receivers dropped a lot of passes. Ok enough about the NFL. The National meet is over and the first season of the KC Blue Devils and Blue Angles is in the book. We were able to put teams on the line for every meet. To be honest I was not sure we would be able to do this at the beginning of the summer and then the week before the Nationals I wasn’t sure we would put a womens team on the course. But we did. Over all we raced well. We weren’t last team wise and our back runners didn’t bring up the very last spot. Both teams placed 32nd out of 35 full teams and I believe there were 48 teams represented. So we were better than 16 other schools in the nation.  We should be better next season.  Everybody improved over the season and that is all you can ask as a coach, just get better, improve. The race was fun to watch and was a tight battle on the men side, decided by 2 points. That is the slimmest of margins in cross country. If one of your kids passes only 1 runner and that could change the whole race. We are able to say the National Champions came from our Region.  The coaches meeting Friday night was very spirited with a big discussion about qualifying for the Nationals, right now its an open meet to any member, this lead to the discussion of the international athlete. Some hard feelings in this area.

Our top finishers Jordan and Danielle raced well and did a good job all season. Josh had finally started to feel better at the end of the year but I’m not sure how he felt Saturday, and Voss almost broke the 30 minute mark. Mollie ran a good race and will have more base miles next season and will be stronger. Carie finished the season with a strong race and Shannon with some knee problems raced well. Lindsey won some personal battles.   Thanks  to Wes for coming out, I hope he had some fun. Corey was a real card. Cameron had a tough finish of the year, he just never felt good racing. Tyler did what Tyler does and then did it some more.  I hope you all learn something this season, I’m sure you did, even though it might be some time before you realize what you learned. Do remember this- you are still all on scholarship and still all have to still do your 5 hours of study table and 10 hour each semester of community service.  One last thought a quote from a famous American- ” Life is tough………being stupid makes it tougher!”  John Wayne.

in Uncategorized by coach mike on 15 Nov 2009

Had a fun weekend. We left Friday morning, ran Saturday morning and came home. Our goals as teams were met. We didn’t want to finish at the bottom and we didn’t. We were 32nd which means we were only 7 spots from the top 25! Both team scores were under a 1000 points, our first season was a success. More later have to get ready for church.

in Uncategorized by coach mike on 02 Nov 2009

Not sure a golf course was made to get so messed up, but after all that rain, we were lucky to be able to run and not swim.  I was proud of the Kaskaskia College cross country runners. In the women’s race Danielle went out like a real mudder and had a great race. We were able as a team to finish 4th in our region and we even beat a team from one of the other regions. Mollie and Shannon raced well also. Mollie raced hard like she has been all season, she has been fighting that old flu bug but battled like a trouper.  Shannon keeps improving each meet not sure she liked all that mud but she gave it her all.  Carie freaked herself out before the race and I know will race better at the Nationals. Linsey had her own personal race with some runner out on the course and showed some real guts. Was real proud of the ladies from the school named for a river. On the mens side- Mr T Bo had his best race of the year, looked strong and raced well, real good for someone without any speed work. Jordan had another strong race but has the beginnings of the flu bug, so he struggled some, but still had a gutsy performance. Voss keeps getting better, raced real well at the first part of the race-tough kid. I have always been a big fan of that kid, that gives his all and keeps getting better-not the most talented-doesn’t complain-just works and wants to get better. Wesley just keeps coming to practice and working hard and it has started to pay off for him.  We didn’t beat anyone in our region but we were close and we might of beaten someone in the Iowa Region. So if we can stay health the next couple of weeks it will be fun to see who can drop their times and by how much.