in Uncategorized by coach mike on 28 Mar 2009

Friday 6 am. Roll out of bed, shower and head to work. Arrive at the office around 6:45 am. Busy Friday morning, 12 o’clock noon finally arrives and I head out of the office and head to the high school. Picked the Yukon, the vehicle, not the 3″ insulted roof. Load up the 7 track guys and head north to Bloomington. A fast trip north with no stops. “Q” would of liked to make a stop, because he was thirsty from the time we left the school parking lot. The trip up was fun, Jones and i listen to some real good music on the radio. “Q” who is now know as Leroy and Bryce kept stealing Jones candy. Wilkins listen to and watched his computer, Brummel got car sick, didn’t hear much out of Kubicki and Goff. Our little GPS took us right to gym where we needed to be and I taught the boys how to park a big rig in a small spot!  We arrived a little after 3pm. The place was packed, track people everywhere. The meet was due to start at 4 and as far as I could tell they started on time, but that was the last time anything was on time. Bryce’s event the 55M Hurdles was first. The guys started to warm up (way to early as we found out almost 2 hours later) and decided they needed some icy hot, of coarse no one had any, so being a good coach, not a smart coach, I found out where the nearest store was and walked the 3 block to the corner drug store and bought the icy hot, when I got back, found out that Brummell had some with him. 1 guy thinking a head. To kill time the guys went in search of phone numbers from all the hundreds of girls that were there to compete. Jones tried real hard to get Thomas some numbers. I think they came up with numbers to only found out later, the numbers belong to some rough sounding guys! The meet was moving at snail’s pace. A girl got hurt long jumping, she broke her leg and might of dislocated her hip, she laid in the sand pit for almost an hour before the EMT people were able to move her. This shut down all the running events,but the high jump and the pole vault continued. Saw the sophomore from Herrin clear 6′11 and set a new meet record. Also saw a 16′4 pole vaulter. Bryce ran a nice 55 hurdle in a time of 8:17 but didn’t get to the finals. Next up for us was the 4×800 relay. Kubicki ran a ok leg of 2:06 but things didn’t go well after that. Thomas went 2:11, which is what he has been doing, but then we had two legs of 2:14. Not a good race for us, but we know we have to be better. I did work the guys to hard the day before, but Jacob running a 2:06 tells me the other guys could of did better. Hopefully this will makes us better for later in the season. Brummell finally got on the track for the 400M, he was in the first heat of two and ran a good race for 350 meters and then hit the wall, but his time of 52.9 tied the school indoor record, he just needs to get better on the last 125 meters of the race. He placed 6th over all and was the only one to bring home a medal. Now we waited. The long jump was taking forever and LeRoy Q was in the last group or next to last group of triple jumpers. 9:30 came and pasted, 10:30 came and passed, I’m only guessing because it became like a dream, but maybe by 11:30 LeRoy was finally getting to jump. He had a nice first jump of 41′ 2″ and another 40′ plus jump, so he did good but not good enough to get a medal. Finally we were leaving and the meet was still running the 4×400. Marion and Carbondale were both still there when we left and they had at least one more hour of driving than we did. So about 12:30 am of the next day we were heading home. First time in the history of Salem track to compete in the same meet on two different days without stopping to sleep!  We headed out of the building and it was cold, the wind was blowing and we were parked (greatly I might say!) way back in the north forty, or maybe the east fifty. The guys ran faster to car then they did in the meet, screaming and yelling the whole time.  Even I ran for as long as I could! We needed gas so we had decided to get snacks at the gas station. We pulled into a  Huck’s store and after three attempts to match the gas tank on the same side as the gas pump I put $40 plus dollars of gas in the Yukon, the guys were inside buying a bunch of junk food. These guys confuse me sometimes, we have almost 3 hours of driving and Kubicki bought a gallon of chocolate milk?  These guys were buying energy drinks? Why? I did load up on Mountain Dew because I needed to stay a wake, I was never one of those to stay up all night  and to party guys, even when I was younger, midnight was real late for me. So I was worried about getting home. Brummell was going to be my co-pilot, well that didn’t last long, he got me to the inter state and when he was out like a light! Luckily LeRoy and Bryce talked most of the way home, about the best fights that they had seen or had been in, mostly seen I think! Wilkins added a few lines here and there, we also talked about some of different classes at school they were taking and having problems with. Byrce couldn’t fgiure out why some of the guys were taking classes that required a lot of home work? Good point Bryce!  So the trip home wasn’t too bad, except for someone snoring most of the trip( no names just initials JJ). Brummell, when he was a wake, did talk about SIU-C for awhile and the AG dorm. before he went lights out. Kubicki was busy staring at some electrical device. We arrived in the big city of Salem around 3:30 am. Thomas swearing never to go to another indoor meet, I can honestly say I had a good time, got a chance to visit a little with the guys, have some fun, see some good running and jumping. Crawled into bed between 3:30 and 4:00, woke to the sound of Bill Hawley and the Sports Show case. Somewhere in dream land, I remember dreaming about mice, they were in the wall and had chews a hole in the base board and were staring out at me. These were big furry mice. I kept thinking I needed to board up the holes, I don’t know way I dreamed this and I don’t know why I’m telling you this? Back to real life, I called the Show Case and gave a little report on the guys and the Indoor Classic. Live radio!  About the Indoor Classic, great idea, I know this was the first year for the 3 classes, but they need to make some changes, and I’m sure they will, but it took way to long, a lot of people were looking at 4 hour bus trips home. Anyway I had fun, enjoyed it, hope to do it again sometime.

After getting up, Vicky and I headed to Edwardsville to see the boys, took mom and dad with us. Had a nice trip, good lunch at 54 Street, took a nap at Rachelle’s. Had some good time with boys and then got home around 5:30 pm on Saturday, so I would say I have got the most out of the last almost 28 hours of my life. Getting too old to waste anytime, that for sure! Sorry this post was so long, but well, it just did, time to head to bed it is now10:29, time to start the 400m oh no that was last night! Later!

See ya at the finish line

Coach Mike

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