A Long Fall Back to the Top

As every post of mine begins, I will start off with an apology for my lack of updates. My only excuse is that these kids have worn me out. I will start off by giving a quick rundown of how the season finished up, then a quick update on whats currently happening and finish with what I have planned for the next few weeks.

I had two primary goals for the season: a personal best for every runner and to qualify for the state meet. I was fairly confident that every kid would pr, but the state meet was a bit of a long shot, ecspecially considering the school has not had an individual nor a team qualify since I was running in 1994! But, I have always set lofty goals for myself.

One thing that I quickly found out about most high school runners is their lack of consistency. I think part of that has to do with asking them to race twice a week for 2 plus months and the other is just a typical lack of concentration. I was fortunate to have 3 solid and consistent on the front end, but as most know, it takes 5 to win. As the season unfolded, I found it very difficult to keep them all on their A game every weekend.

On the varsity side, we went into the the conference meet as the 4th ranked team against 3 other teams who were ranked top 25 in the state, and that is where we finished. Every kid pr'd. The big suprise though, was that my quiet group of fresh/soph kids came out and won the the fresh/soph race! Every kid on that team pr'd and freshman Alec Gonzales became the first East Peoria cross country conference champ since 1994!

The next weekend was our Regional meet, and we were coming in ranked 2nd (and actually ranked 23rd in the state, a first in a very long time) against the 3rd ranked team in the state. My only goal for this race was to qualify for the next weekend, the sectional meet, which qualifies you for the state meet. As I watched the race unfold, it looked like we had ran pretty well. After the race I wandered back towards the finish and on the way I got several congrads and well dones. Come to find out, we had actually beaten on the of the best teams in the state (a bit of a fluke, but I gladly took it), and in the process won the Regional meet!!! The girls side won as a team as well, making it the first time in school history. The best part about the whole day was that one of the dads told the team before the race that if they won he would take us all out to the best steak joint in town!

I tried to keep a lid on the excitement of that weekend, knowing that we had a big task ahead of us. Our sectional had 9 of the top ranked 25 teams in the state, and I guessed we were right around 6th give or take a spot. Top five qualify. Although it had been a long shot from day one, I had convinced the kids it could be done. There is not a better feeling in coaching then when you have a team full of athletes, who one year before had not a lick of success, who are totally focused on one singular goal; qualifying for the state meet.

From my position, it looked like we had ran really well. Top five looked certain. Every kid was right where he needed to be. When I got back to camp everyone was smiles. We had run as good as we could have. It was a long wait for the results, and when they came I was in shock. Every kid had run a pr and we ended up 7th, 2 places and ten points out of qualifying. I admit that it was the first time since my freshman year that I got choked up about running. To see a group come so far and come up just short was a bit of a heartbreaker, ecspecially for the seniors who had a new found passion for the sport. The bright spot was that senior Shane Leiby finished 10th and qualified as an individual, the first for EP since 1994. What impressed me more than anything was that after their cool down, I heard them all talking about how much they were going to be running over the winter.

Shane went on to finish 62nd at the state meet. Not to shabby for a 50 sec quarter miler who had never done much of anything in cross before. He had 8 teammates running the warm-up, race and cooldown with him shirtless and painted in school colors. It was really nice to hear people talking again about EP cross country, a team that once was a real factor. Although it was a bitter-sweet ending to the season, I cannot put into words how proud I am of all these kids. They have seen first hand the benefits of sacrifice and hard work. I believe only good things to come from EP cross country.

A week later we had our steak dinner!

We are already in the building phase for track, and almost every kid from cross is out with us, minus the wrestlers (who are doing some recruiting for me). Due to ridiculous IHSA rules, coaches are not allowed to be with the athletes while they are practicing, so I will be a bit hands off until Jan 15. The nice thing is that I do not have to worry about who is showing up and who is not. They all want to be there, and they all want to be running at that state meet next year!

On a personal note, I will be flying to New York to see Dr. John Connors to have one last shockwave treatment done next week. Hopefully this will be the end of the toe pain and clear the road for my preparation for 2008.