As the season starts to draw to a close with the advent of divisional championships, I’ve had the opportunity to hang trackside a handful of times and soak in the atmosphere in a way I haven’t in twenty five years. I get to shoot the breeze without the spector of having to be responsible for anything. I see many other coaches do this even when they have a team competing, letting the meet simply go on without any concern to the function and timeliness of the meet proceedings. To those meets I am truly just a spectator, I’ve had to refrain from hopping the fence to drag hurdles to their appropriate spot on the track or move cones that might not be in the correct spot.
But I’ve also pitched in at a couple meets as well, as I have friends who host meets and I’ll always be willing to lend a hand in those instances. Not to mention I still sit on the Wilderness Board of Directors and play a role in those championships that just happened this weekend. I still enjoy being track side, helping a meet move efficiently in an effort to make the experience the best it can be. Nothing worse than a track meet that takes more than three hours that can be completed in two. I was at a Belmont meet a couple weeks back working as the announcer when I heard an athlete say the meet was moving too fast.
So I asked them what they meant by the meet was moving too fast. Here she is, standing there, not warming up or cooling down from or for an event, and she feels the meet is moving too fast? She really didn’t have an answer so I suggested that the meet was moving at the right speed but she was just accustomed to a slower pace at her usual meets. To this she agreed.
In my last article I wrote a piece about being championship ready with the concept being to prepare your athletes for whatever is coming their way for the rest of the season and for the intensity and efficiency that we see when there are all hands on deck by the officiating crew and the meets move right along. This is a coaches responsibility, to ensure their athletes understand the format and timing, along with being self-sufficient to manage the meet themselves. I don’t really want to harp about things I’ve already written about, however it’s meets like Wilderness with all its efficiency, that reveals those that don’t do the prep work.
And while being track side for many of this season’s meets, I’ve been asked whether I missed the coaching aspect of things and do I wish I was out on the track, giving my athletes instructions or handling whatever coaching duties required from the meet. The answer to that is no, not really. For those who know me, I never really needed to be seen as the coach at Mascenic. The only shirt I ever had that said “coach” on it was ¼ zip the kids got me 15 years ago. I’d wear it when it was cold enough and it had a permanent residence in my coaching backpack, but I never felt I needed to publish I was the coach. My athletes knew who I was, and the other people involved with track that I would call friends, knew who I was and that’s certainly all I needed.
It was pretty rare I’d even be geared up in specific Mascenic garb, often choosing to wear one of our other team materials won at the EggNog 400 challenge or a Berserker shirt. I liked being a little incognito, a better opportunity to overhear what people thought of the way that at certain meets Mascenic might “play” track. We’ve heard some pretty funny comments during our Berserker workout meets with most of our kids running the 1600, 800, 3200 and the 4×400.
And I still get to do a little coaching. Obviously I still know kids on the Mascenic team as I was at the helm just a year ago. But over the years, either through our Valhalla cross country teams or simply through relationships I have with coaches and their athletes, I still get to lean in, provide some encouragement, and hopefully give them something that aids them in their trip around the oval. And with no specific team affiliation it doesn’t seem so odd that I might be cheering for athletes from multiple teams at the same time. Actually frees me to do so.
But all of this came to an end this past Saturday. Next Saturday I’ll be in the booth, commentating for the remainder of the season. And we all know there is no cheering in the broadcast booth. I am interested to see how this all goes with next Saturday’s D2 and D3 meet that will be running concurrently, with separate divisional heats run within the scope of the same meet; both for the athletes competing and how it all comes together for the broadcast. I think it might be easier for the athletes to jump back and forth between divisions than it will be for me. Whatever it is, it will be interesting.
Good luck to all the teams and individuals competing next week.
I’ll see you out there.
