Coach Mikes Blog

in meets by coach mike on 19 Apr 2008

Finished the week with a earthquake and the Al Joyner East St. Louis Classic in the rain. The field events, except the high jump was canceled. It rain, then it rain some more, then finally it stopped and then a cold wind started to blow. The meet went on, two teams went home, one being the last years state champs. We decided to stay through the 3200M run, distance guys like the rain. Well we won the 4×800, easily. Then when they announced the team score we were in 2nd place, so we stayed longer. Jones was 2nd in the 3200, and Kubicki who decided to run it after running the 4×800, was 5th! Some of the guys wanted to stay and see if we could score enough points to place as a team. Three team trophies are handed out, so we wanted to take a shot at that. Wilkins goes out and leads the 800M with Pruden hot on his heels, Pruden finished 2nd and Wilkins 3rd. Jones gets us a point in the 1600. Brummel points in the 100M and 400M. The 4×400 team of Wilkins, Pruden, Conklin and Brummel take 2nd place. Pontious runs the 200M but doesn’t place, he’s a shot putter! For all the efforts by a few we ended up short in the team total by 3 points! Now for the really sad part, I decided early on in this meet if someone came up to me and didn’t want to run, I would give them the option to bail out. Some what of a test. Looking back on the past is easier than predicting the future. As a coach, as the adult, I should been more forceful, we were there to compete, we should of did just that. We would of taken 2nd with out any problems, we were the 2nd best team left there, no doubt in my mind. I take some of the blame, the guys get some of the blame. There was a lot of messing around while we waited to see if the meet was going to be called off, we were not getting prepared because we didn’t want to be there in that type of weather. I realize that the field event guys would of did their events if the conditions would of been good, Josh and Sam wanted to vault, Matt and Dan wanted to throw, as did Pontious. The jumpers were there to do just that also. I should of put the 4×200 out there, the 200M runners and the hurdlers and high jumpers!!!! As they say now a days “my bad!” For those of you that read this, next time we will be there to do what we have to do, so don’t ask to bail, you already now the answer!

Couple more thoughts: Logan Pontious was out in the weather all night long, helping carry things, wanting to do something, so we let him run the 200M for fun. Also Thomas Goff was out there all night long. Kory Pruden wanted to step up and run the 200M right before the 4×400, I won’t let him, he was trying to pick up some more points for the team, for now on  KP, you do what you have to do for this team, I saw some leadership and I like to see that. Kubicki running that 3200M after the 4×800 was a sign of toughness, as was Wilkins in the 800M, and Matt Brummel was that old farm workhouse never giving up!  Some good efforts that should of been rewarded with a team trophy, but then again it wasn’t a total team effort was it?  So maybe that is the moral to the story-as it has been for Wildcat track for several years-Total Team Effort!!!

in meets by coach mike on 16 Apr 2008

Its starting to look a lot like…………no not Christmas! Like another track season rushing toward that time of the year! Big meet time, time to start making some improvements. Time to start seeing some senior leadership! And I’m not talking about old guys like Cummings, I’m talking about Kory Pruden, Matt George, Ryan Knapp, Caleb Branch, Kevin Sager, Tony Bartley, ect ect. This is your team, your place on the history chart of Wildcat track and field. Its tough being a senior in a spring sport, lots of things going on, your heads are spinning around! But we need to stay focus on the jobs in front of us! How do you want to be remember? Conference champions? State qualifier? Its time to step up in practice, making sure you are ready for practice and ready to work hard in practice, lead by example! Then back down from no one in the meets! No matter where they are from or how good they are. Set the table for the big meal coming the first three weeks of May! This starts Friday night at East Side!

in meets by coach mike on 15 Apr 2008

Just got back from the Benton JV meet, the boys stepped up and won for the 3rd year out of four. Things didn’t start real well- we were getting hammered in the field events-well not hammered but not winning any events. As a team you are only as strong as your weakest links. Some say just fill the holes and move on, I think you need just to work harder and find someone, somewhere that can do the job! Highlights from Monday’s rescheduled Orphan Relays: Josh Jordan in the pole vault- a month ago- I would of bet the house Josh was done! Wasn’t showing for practice, was working, had given up. Something changed, he has now cleared 11’6 two meets in a row and is looking good at 12′. Sam is looking better also, so an event I was ready to give up on is now looking up! The hurdle shuttle 1st place! Knapp, Harris, Klop and Sager beat them all- I would of never thought about winning that at the O Relays! Good job young men! Matt the discus man threw one for a 138′ and second. The 4×800 was 2nd, the 4×400 was 2nd, the distance medley was 2nd. The distance kids are staying tough. At Benton the hurdles won both races, the discus relay won big Dan throwing 122′. JJ won 11’6 in pole vault to lead the way. Q Garrison was 39’9 in the triple. The 4×800, distance medley and 4×400 all won. Good day for the Jv boys! Two more meets this week, reminds me of grade school, easier to have a meet than to practice! The big event is getting close-Apollo Conference meet!

in meets by coach mike on 09 Apr 2008

Nice job-lots of good things-the relays were good-4×200 were a couple hand offs from having a real good time-the 4×800 battled for a good win-the 4×400 ran their guts out to take 2nd-Little Q keeps amazing me with his jumps-Harris and Klop have a thing going with the 110 hurdles. P-H x 3 starting to bond as a group, could make things interesting. Big Dan, oh Big Dan!  Good throw in the discus-need to be consistent and have a good sequence, but 119′ is a good start-and that split in the 4×400!  Thomas “Big T” Goff, is he the next beast of the Wildcat land? Jared B look strong through out the night. P-H x 3, Hargis, Heminover, Hanus had good nights-Hanus some of our fastest times in the 100 and 200. Middle H rode the bus home with the guys that was a highlight! You know even the extra guys did a good job! Don’t forget O’ “I’m not one of H’s” Dell handle his split in the 200 x4. Good night and Good Night!

in meets by coach mike on 06 Apr 2008

Wake up and check your hat at the hat check. I have never liked this meet, we never compete well there. Thats a excuse and not much of one. We are a young team, ands its twice as tough on them. We did talk about this on the bus before the meet. Told them it would be a difficult meet and all we could do was try and turn in some good times. Try to improve. Good news-the 4×800 ran their best time of the year and placed 2nd behind a good Belleville West team. Belleville West still talks about the race last year at the sectional when we beat them, we lost two of our horses and can’t race with them right now. But this group might have a shot of getting out, if we stay health. Cory Nix had his best race in the 3200, looked strong. Matt Brummel race hard and placed in the 400. Sager cleaned 6’0 in the high jump, but 6’2 is giving him problems. The throws were bad. George had a terrible day. To be fair, Pontious and Barecroft did as well as they have been doing. Hopefully the guys will step up and move forward. Pick up your hat, pull it down tight on your head and get back to work!!!!!! Thats all we can do!

in meets by coach mike on 02 Apr 2008

If children weren’t reading this I would have a few choice words for the meet on Tuesday night. A meet that use to be 3 teams had grow to 5 teams. The meet is set up as a everybody brings everybody and everybody does something. Translated means “this is going to take all night” and guess what, it almost did. I must give Marion lots of credit, they had the help and did a great job of running this meet. The weather was good for a most of the evening, until the sun went down and then the temperature dropped. Back to the issue of Marion running the meet, I have never understood how, you can host a meet and then ask your guest to work! At Salem and Marion, we always find the help, but some places, not to mention names, but the schools are located to the west, can’t get anyone to help, so the coaches work or you have to get someone to work. To me thats like come to my house for supper but you have to cook and do the dishes. On top of that the IHSA keeps giving these schools sectionals to run or to have the coaches run! But next year we go to 3 classes and no more BIG SCHOOLS! Now to the meet, the bus ride was fun, almost 50 boys on a bus is too many thats for sure! But we got there thinks to bus driver Tim, make that preacher Tim! We tied with Carbondale for top place in the meet, the guys for the most part performed well. The distance guys under the leadership of Coach K continue to shine. The 4×800 of Pruden, Wilkins, Kubicki and Jones won as did the 4×400 team of Pruden, Wilkins, Conklin, and Stud Brummel won again, easily. We are only 12 to 15 seconds behind the big schools to the west. George won the discus, he is 3-0, this weekend will be big for him. Sage Sager won the high jump in jump off! Pruden won the 800 with his best time of the year. Knapp is getting better in the hurdles as is Harris and Klop. The kids battle, they put out a good tough effort for the most part, I just wish we had one good sprinter, oh my kingdom for a sprinter! Oh well, we will do with what we have been given and be thankful!

in meets by coach mike on 29 Mar 2008

Not the best weather but at least it wasn’t real windy. A little bit on the cold side. We competed as well as we can against schools next year that will be in a different class from us. It would of been nice to have the 3 classes the last few years when we were stronger in some areas but it is what it is. Matt George won the discus, he is 2 and 0 as he pointed out to me. A couple of throws in the 144′ range. Otherwise we are weak in the throw area, this is an area I’m going to start trying to develop some young throwers. Over all the field events are struggling for us, probably Q Garrison has been are best surprise and he is part time, sharing with baseball, he tripled 38’9″ and just missed placing. Bartley is having problems finding the board. The high jump is ok, Sam and Kevin both over 6’0 and Sam looked good at 6’2. The pole vault is another story, problems there, all the schools over in the Metro east have “pole Vault” coaches, to be honest we are clue less, except for this point-you must be able to invert and if you are scared to do that, then you aren’t going any where but back to earth with the cross bar. When that pole bends you have to wait on it and ride it back up to the top, we aren’t doing that, we get scared and bail out! To the track-JJ was 2nd in the 3200M run, around 10.23, nice race, needs to maintain his form on the last “sprint.” He is tough and will work hard to get the job done. The sprint medley, the 4×110 shuttle and the 4×400 were all 3rd. Matt Brummel had a nice day as did Pruden and Wilkins. The sophomore and freshmen sprint teams ran well, but I needed to have them in the faster heat. Need to do some tinkering on these relay teams.

All in all when you can finish 4th in a meet like this, you should be pleased, and we are. And we know times will drop as it gets warmer.

in meets by coach mike on 20 Mar 2008

Well we had our first outdoor meet of the season. We hosted a tri-meet with Mt. Vernon, Marion. After 6 plus inches of rain the past few days we were lucky to get this meet on the books. The grounds were marsh like, but we were able to get all the events in, we had to throw the shot put on the parking lot with the indoor shots. The meet went very well, the girls team stepped in big to provide a lot of help. High lights of the meet, or at least our first place finishes were as follows: Jones in the 1600 and the 3200. There was a real good race in the 1600 between our three guys; Jones, Nix, Kubicki and Cross from Mt. Vernon, the three broke from Nix after 3 laps and then the battle was on. The race came down to the final 100 m with Jones pulling it out, Kubicki 2nd and Cross 3rd. The race was fun to watch, probably the best of the day. Jones 4:48, Jacob 4:49 Cross 4:50 and Nix went 5:03. Brummell was good in the 400m and the 4×400, Pruden in the 800m and the 4×400. George in the discus was 1st with a throw of 142′. Lots of work in other areas, the throws need help, the jumps are not up to par yet, but we haven’t had a lot of time to work these areas. A group of sophomores looked good in the 200′s. Hemiover, Hanus and Hargis had good times for the 200′s. Things get tougher the next meet is a relay meet at O’Fallon, so foward we go, and we will see what happens.

in meets by coach mike on 16 Mar 2008

Back to the real world! The meet at SIU was good for a lot of reasons. The indoor meet at EIU brought us back to the small school in a big school world. We placed in only one event, the difference being, the difference between north and south, big and little, East St. Louis, Cahokia, Springfield Lanifer, and so forth and so forth. In  truth the quality of the meet seemed down to me, no great pole vaulter, no great high jumper, no real standout. Our distance people looked better, their times were better, our field events didn’t have a good day. Kory Pruden placed in the 800M with a time of 2.03.8. Wilkins won his heat in the 800M, Jones and Goff both broke the 5 minute mile mark. Jones runs a tough 1st 800 and then fades a little, Goff negative splits his 800′s in the mile. Things to work on, things to improve on. Nix looked better in the 4×800 and the 2 freshmen did a good job for their first times running that event. This week will be tough, its spring break and getting people to practice will be a real treat everyday. I almost thought about practicing like the colleges, here’s your workout for the week, do it on your own! This year will be a great challenge to get this group ready for the conference meet, I’m looking for some leadership. Not the type that puts the young kids down but the type that builds them up, because we need the young guys this year, for sure!

in meets by coach mike on 09 Mar 2008

Finally a track meet! The Wildcats par took in the first track meet of the 2008 season. The SIU High school boys meet held at Carbondale. I didn’t really know what to expect , practices had been limited and some of the guys had just came off basketball season at the end of last week. But we ended up with some very good performances. Who needs practice? Field events started off real well, in the high jump, 3 guys, one who had never jumped, one that was injured all last year. So when we cleared the opening height, we were off to a good start. Sager, the injured one, ended clearing 6’2 looked good, and has 6’5 or better in him. Follet, number 1 from last year, struggled some but cleared 6’0″ to tie his best from last year. Then the 1st time jumper/middle distance/senior has no form, but has a lot of hop, cleared 6′. Thats Pruden. So those were highlights. Follet also pole vaults and he either pr’ed or tied his best from last year at 11’6″. That in its self is amazing since we had not been able to bend a pole or get steps down due to the weather. The other vaulter Jordan, no relation to Michael, cleared 10′. The other jumpers were ok and will get better, had a couple nice jumps from Hargis in the long jump. Our main jumper is having some ankle problems. Jones who has been ready to race for a month had a good outing in the 3200M, finished 4th in a time of 10:29. Back to Pruden, this guy has had no preseason training, went out and ran a 2:06 800M, finishing 4th, winning his heat. Kory was part of the school record setting 4×800 from last year. Brummel ran a good 400M in a time of 54.22 finishing 5th. After a long day, its always nice to see the 4×400 relays toe the line. We weren’t sure what some of the guys had left in the tank, but they sure showed us. We were in the next to last heat, Pruden got us off to good lead, Wilkins battled to keep us there and then Brummel opened it up a little, handing to our unknow Dan Conklin, Dan is about 6’4 or 5 and he was racing against a much shorter but a very fast kid from Belleville East. Dan did a great job of holding him off and keeping him in the 2nd lane and then pulled away. Officially this group set tied the school indoor record for the event. Coach Cummings and I were a little shocked but not totally. Pride goes a long way as does tradition. The last few years we have been good in this event, so the guys knows what it takes. Great job guys!

The team looks to be strong in some areas and needs some work in some, but the group has some talent and as long as we all work hard we’ll get better and hopefully reach our team goals. We have some nice additions in Doug Hanus in the sprints and some young freshmen that could help us.