November 2010
Monthly Archive
in Uncategorized by coach mike on
25 Nov 2010
Well its nasty weather outside. But inside all my kids are asleep under the same roof. Only missing Rachelle! Audrey and Ryan drove all night from New York and got in around 5:30 am. So I’m sitting here with some free time because I have to be quiet so they can all sleep. Sleep is a waste of time. Seems like as you get older it gets tougher to sleep. Maybe your mind and body knows you only have so much time left and not to waste it asleep. Of coarse a lot of people go through life asleep. Never seeing the butter flies flying. Thought I would send out some thanks to the many fans of my blog. (That won’t take long!) This past cross country season went by way to fast. I hear other coaches that can’t wait to get to the end of their seasons. I hate the end. I hate missing the kids and this year seems worse. We were just getting things going and then its gone! Back to the long days at the office!! I just love coaching. Got off track there! That happens a lot! Also get lost once in awhile don’t I?? At least this past weekend when Bruce went to D111 nationals he got lost without me!!!!!!!! Backing to Thanking people-lets start with Bruce-you have been a great help and a friend. Someone with great ideas and someone that is willing to listen. Thanks for your help Bruce! And just so everyone realizes this-Bruce does this because he loves it! He loves the sport! His trip to SC with us, was on his vacation time from work-I know he was as proud of the team as I was. So if you see him tell him Thanks!!! Forward I go! What about the parents of this years team-we had a great showing of fans in SC. Susan Jones you have been great-(for years) Grandma and Grandpa Fitzwaters (Jordan’s grand parents, in case you didn’t know who and if i missed spelled the last name) right there with us, thank you so much! And big Jim, I know you wanted to be there! And I know your thoughts were with us-thanks for all your support and thank for the pictures all year. M/M Voss, there for us the last two season-great folks-type of parents that all kids should have! The Huffs were there with us-supporting us all season. Thank you and thank you for the great pictures. And what about Tom and Robin? They have had my back for years! Probably tired of carrying me around! Love you! Other parents followed us during the season as well-thank you for supporting us and for supporting the team. I would also throw out there a thanks to the parents that could not make the meets. But still support us in other ways. Thank you Chuck Voss! (Never would of met a great kid like Colin! If I had a 20 year old daughter, well I don’t. so never mind) Thank you to a great bunch of young people! Love you all! Thanks to my wife, Vicky, you know I love this! Thanks for trying to make me a better coach, don’t give up! Love you! Have a great and safe Thanksgiving! Blue Devil and Blue Angel Cross Country catch that wind and ride it!
in Uncategorized by coach mike on
13 Nov 2010
This has been a crazy few days. Its 11:32 pm right now and I’m setting in a motel room. Due to the some mix communications, our groups got disconnected and ended up in different areas. Seems we or I spend most of the weekend lost on the streets of Spartenburg, SC. I would like to know who invited the round about! I would like to have a word with them in private! Also the person who made up the directions for the banquet-when the directions shows coming from different area of the town and you have no idea where you are at to begin with, that’s not much help. The area is beautiful, the course was great, the weather was fantastic. How did we race? The men were 31st out of 36 full teams and somewhere 50 total schools represented. We had talked about trying to be in the top 30 and have 5 guys under 30 minutes, close but no cigar! We had three guys under 30, thought Dirty had a good race and Jordan had a good race. Colin wanted to run faster either though he was somewhat disappointed, he gave a great effort as he did all season. I was glad to see JJ finish his NJCAA career with a good solid race, finishing in the top 100 out of 250 plus runners. My other two freshman struggled some today (Nix and Goff) so now we know what we need to do to get better. I have confidence in them to do the work for next season. Davis gave his all as usually and Tyler finished what he started and now can be done with the 5 mile stuff. We should have some Academic All American members later this winter on both sides. The ladies had a good team effort. Finally Mollie you can be done with the racing-finished on a good note, we didn’t quiet get the time where we wanted it but gave a great effort. Toni has her first year under her belt and now has an idea of what it takes on this level to drop those times. The rest of the ladies had good races, Shannon finished strong, Chelsea had a good last race for the season, as did Megan and Janelle “sticky fingers” J. I have spend what seems like a hundred hours in a small area with moving wheels with these ladies this long weekend and have learn many things-most of which I can not repeat. I can tell you this, these 6 girls have become good friends and teammates and it has been an enjoyment coaching them. (For Christmas I’m going to get a few of them a bar of soap) You know what I’m talking about. I hope you remain friends-that’s is one of best parts of being part a team-that lasting bond that you create. Some teams do and some do not. I think part of reason that this group “bonded” is that there is some crazy girls on this team!!! Its been a fun year and it will be tough to replace Jordan-Colin with their work ethic and racing. Cameron with his dedication to the team and Tyler for his ability to just off set certain things. Mollie with her niceness and quiet leadership-she improved so much from last year in different areas. And what do I say about Shannon? Her leadership was one of being up front and vocal. She can things hopping and once we got past her fifty questions, she help get the team ready. Couple more thoughts as it approaches midnight-extra thanks to Jordan for allowing me to bounce workout ideas off his shaved head and for providing lots of the workouts ideas, he is a real student of the sport. And thanks to Bruce, you don’t realize how much help you have been, (sorry about the drive home but thanks for taking care of the guys or putting up with the guys, in case you didn’t know you are now a hero in the eyes of the girls! But there is no way you could of survived what I had to listen to in my van on this trip!) So I going to be stole (not sure that’s the correct word?) the honor of being All Kaskaskia All American on you! That’s all for now heading to bed and hope to home in time to see some of the Rams game!
in Uncategorized by coach mike on
12 Nov 2010
Anybody know where Jim Ryan is? And who knows Jim Ryan? I could not find Jim Ryan but I know who he is. I’m bad at directions. But I’m real bad when the directions are bad. I had google this church weeks ago and thought I had the correct church. Well I guess I didn’t. Never again, if there is a next time, I’m go out and search and find mission prior to the event and find where I need to be. The girls were good sports about the whole thing, I would almost guess that had not laughed so much and so hard. And you know the best part, none of them got real upset. I would not had blame them, if they had got testy about it, but they didn’t. They just laugh some more. It has been a lot of driving the last two days, but the sights have been beautiful. The mountains are just fantastic this time of year.
The race is tomorrow and it will be the last for some-at this point, Mollie, Shannon and I guess Megan and maybe Janelle will be running their last races. On the men side Jordan, Colin, Cameron and Tyler will finish up tomorrow, but there is more on the horizon for Jordan. Really Colin should continue some where. Good luck to and thanks for your two seasons at KC. More later.