in Uncategorized by coach mike on 19 Apr 2009
In the day-back when or back then. I remember going to the Orphan Relays at the old track, Evert Field I think is the name of the football field. Teams from all over came to the meet, teams from the northern part of the state, teams from the metro area. The meet was held on Friday night, under the lights. The stands were packed, the PE annoucer was calling the races, excitement in the air. I remember some big races. Fun to watch, seeing Purcell make a big come back in one of the relays, either a SM or DM or maybe even the 4×8. Last leg the other guy having a 50 to 60 meter lead, but it was not enough. I remember seeing Amason from Centralia doing the same thing a few years earlier. I might be getting some of this mixed up. I was there the night Salem won, I remember getting up early the next morning to get a copy of the Sentinal. Wildcats win the Orphan Relays. The meet is still fun, the format is the best. But its not the same excitement, the new track has no press box, not even a grandstand. Just a few bleachers. The track is great, the meet is well ran, maybe even better than it use to be. Use to be a real problem at the finish line at the old track, some nights a big crowd would grow around the finish line, the runners be yelled at as they passed. The meet went well for us, our times are starting to drop. We had several guys with personal records. Green threw 41′3 in the shot put, Logan 119′ in the discus, Dan was over 130′ in the discus, and Shane also threw 41′3 in the shot. Q was his solid self in the jumps and i was pleased with Doug in the his first long jump in a couple of years, going over 18′. Had some problems in the vault, but Sam had a school function and didn’t get to warm up. Its tough to vault with only one run through. I’m not sure even Superman would of cleared a heigth with no warm up. At least Travis made a clear. The hurdles looked good, two freshmen and two juniors. Byrce and Cory both made the finals, Bryce took 3rd. Heminover made the finals of the 100’s, thats a first for us at the ORS since I have been coaching. Other highlights-Matt Brummel with a 2:02 split in the 4×800 and a 50.4 in one of his 400’s. The 4×8 looked better, Kubicki was as tough as Brummel, 4:39 and 4:44 in the 1600 and a good 800 split. Thats tough. Back to the 4×8-Mr. Goff looked stronger and his time was better. Adam needs to start dropping his time in this race and we will be ok. There were others that perform well-the sprint relays looked better, we had our best time of the year in the 4×200-A Har, Hemin, Hanaus and Prosise looked strong. Our 400 crew Hop and J Brum, times are getting better. Clark ran a great mile, Nix pr in the 1600. Freshmen sprinters did a good job, Goose and Cross. Fred in the 300’s-Klop and Harris were tough running all those premlin’s and races. The talk of the track might of been Peanut Butter cups all the coaches were asking about him, he ran a good 3200, lowering his time again. Also JJ and his talking to me on each lap of his races, the last couple he quit talking, I later, why? He said he ran out of things for him and I talk about. The first two times he came by the O’Fallon coach looked at me fun, like why is he talking to you when he runs by? I told him JJ is special and just not right! Anyway I feel like we had a good meet, we had some fun, we peform well. One of the highlights had to be Kubicki trying to hold Walters off in the DM, only to have him pass him and then to take it back to finish in front and then the best part-the two of them with a pat on the back and hand shake for a job well done. Thats what makes track different than other sports, the guys respect each other, they battle during the race and then they will be real sports after.