Just like "Hoosiers"

No, we didn't win a championship. It's just that I gave the team the Norman Dale locker room speech. Not the good one at the end but the one where he ripped into them after the first game they played. Last Friday we had a 2 PM practice scheduled. With the rain I decided to have the practice in the gym. One runner showed up. I was p-o'd !!! I cancelled Saturday's practice because how could I know if anyone would show up on that day as well?

Today at our pre-practice meeting, I let them have it (those that showed up). A Norman Dale speech about commitment to the sport and the team. And a new team rule--miss two practices and you face a suspension for an indefinite amount of time. I hope I got thru to them. Then I told them to meet me at the park.

Of course you can't stay mad at a team too long, so when we met in the park, I was the usual fun-loving coach. They had a good 2.1 loop followed by Intra Squad Meet # 2. Team B won again 9-12.

Wednesday is the big day. Real Meet # 1. Tomorrow we'll have a light workout followed by an info-packed meeting about the race. The AD should have the uniforms sometime tomorrow. We should have 5 or 6 girls racing and 3 boys in their race.

Finally, a good practice

With some students always on work program and now with several out with injuries or some kind of malady, the daily attendance is always a constant 6 or 7. And I'm learning to live with that. Today we finally had a good practice with seven runners with only one hiccup. One of the boys has been having pain in his legs and it finally got too bad today, so I shut him down indefinitely like I did the girl runner on Saturday.

Other than that, the remaining 6 ran the opening 2.1 loop quite well. Two of the runners got PBs (personal bests) for the distance. And then we had a mini intra squad meet. It would be their first exposure to how a meet works, so I mapped out a course of only about 1/2 mile so that I knew that they would be able to run the whole race without stopping and be able to attain some speed as well.

I tried to split the teams up so that they would be as equal as possible. I had three boys and three girls. I was off by a little because one of the girls who I expected to finish strong got stitches and finished 6th. As a result the race was as close as it could possibly be: Team B beat Team A by a score of 10-11.

Yesterday I thought I finally had the roster at a constant, but the one girl who quit is coming back and another girl who has been taking forever to get her "papers" in order has finally done so. So there are now 9 girls, with maybe another one to join later in the week--she talked to me today before practice. And there are two more boys joining--one of whom ran in today's practice/meet. He shows some raw talent and now I have what looks like three strong male runners. This program in the beginning gave the impression that it would be a girls team, but now it's starting to look more like a strong boys team.

One week to race number ONE.

Correction still

I was right the first time. The first meet will be at Branch Brook Park in the Arts H.S. Invitational on Wednesday, October 1. Some of the other schools that I found out will be participating are Arts, Pingry, and Montclair Kimberly Academy. That leaves just five days of practice left before the meet.

Today was the first practice since Saturday's. I announced two PBs (Personal Bests) and then told the team about the meet next week. In a word, they were petrified. To a runner, the sport of Cross Country is totally new to them and to run in a meet for the very first time will be a traumatic experience for most of them especially since they are way behind all of the other schools in terms of training. My job is to get them ready physically as well as emotionally and psychologically.

After one of my sophomores went down with a sore leg (near the calf) on Saturday I decided to add a calf strengthening stretch to our daily warm ups. It was added with good intention but seemed to back fire. The seven runners who were there today took off for the 2.1 loop that we start each practice with. Four of the runners limped back long after they started, three with sore calves. I was planning to have our first intra-squad meet but with only three runners, it would have to be put off til tomorrow.

I then gave them a crash course on how the scoring in a X-C meet works and then we broke for the day.

In terms of the roster: we will be adding two more boys which will bring our total to five. They should have their medical papers completed soon and should join practice Friday or Saturday.

The girls were at seven on Saturday. One has since left the team and one that only showed up on the very first day of practice has rejoined the team. So we stay at seven, but the one who got hurt on Saturday is going to be out for abut two weeks, And another one has been to the doctor and has either an asthma or a heart problem. Which leaves us with five to run the race except one of the girls has her work program on Wednesday and will not be able to participate. So unless we come up with another girl, they will be running as individuals.

Correction

I had the wrong date for the Arts Invitational. It should be Saturday, October 4. So we have a little more than a week and a half to prepare.

The Die Is Cast

As we move into the second week of our late-starting season, it's time to reflect on the first week. The N City runners are still not in the best running shape and no one is able to complete the 2.1 north loop in the park without stopping. But they all do give it their best effort as they complete the task.

The roster is finally settling down to a constant number. I really don't want to take on any more new runners after ten days, so right now we are looking at 7 girls and 3 boys. One of the girls pulled up lame on Saturday, and she will be shut down until she is 100% healthy again.

Of the 3 boys, two show a lot of talent and it's a shame there aren't enough other boys to build a team around them. They'll probably enter any future races as individual runners.

Of the girls, 4 show some nice speed and the other three (including the injured one) are all determined to improve. Of the fast ones, there is one girl who is very talented and extremely dedicated to running. If I had a team of ten of her, this would be a team mentioned in the Ledger!!

The only concern at this time is the number of practices that the runners are missing. Most of the excuses seem to be legit: doctor's appointment, sweet 15 party practice, church, sick, too sore, etc. I'd prefer that they run if they were sore--that's the only way to improve--but I'm letting them heal. I don't want to play "bad coach" and drop any hard team rules regarding attendance on them for fear that that would turn them off towards being a member of the team. And this week will be a tough one--I mentioned in my first posting that these students work one day a week and miss school and practice. Well, once a month they work two days a week--the extra day being the Monday (today).

And now for the latest news. The AD wants us to participate in the Arts High School Invitational on Wednesday, October 1. That's only 9 days away. So in the practices available before that race, I will determine if the girls are ready to participate as a full team (need to run 3.1 miles). If not, I'll just select individual girls to run as well as individual boys.

So stay tuned.

"Eeeeet's Aliiiiive!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ah, yes, Frankenstein. That wonderful monster who came alive because some one's brain was put into ANOTHER body. Emphasis on the word "another".

During the summer as I was doing all of my research and planning for the upcoming Cross Country season, I came across two interesting items on the Internet. Both were ads for a Cross Country coach. They say hind sight is always 20-20, and if I had somehow known that the Cross Country program I was trying to start was going to be a huge failure, I would have contacted one of those schools.

But as the days went by and no new runners were coming forward, and the AD got closer to pulling the plug on the program, I decided to contact those two school just for the heck of it. I sent e-mails to each and one got back to me immediately. It was a Jewish high school located in a town next to mine. The AD informed me that the position was filled, but they were looking for two swimming coaches. I told her that was not my forte, and said thank you. She said she would keep me in mind for the future but I wanted something now.

The other school didn't get back to me for about a week. It's a special kind of school that is existing in the city north of E City, and that is why I am changing the name of this blog to N City. It is a new Catholic "high school" that resides in a Catholic high school that closed down about three years ago. I put high school in quotes because it is growing one year at a time. This is its second year and it only has Freshman and Sophomores. So in a couple of years it will have all four levels of students. It's also special in that companies sponsor a program where all of the students spend one day a week at a real job learning responsibilities about life. Their Dean of Students was also the Dean of Students at the E City school for a year and a half a couple years ago. So I had someone inside who knew me.

When the AD of that school got back to me, he said that the position was open and I could come in for an interview. So this past Thursday I drove up there after school and met with the AD and one of the Board Members (a former track star at ECHS). The school, the administration, and the Board are behind new sports like X-C 110%. The interview went well, and I accepted the job and the challenge.

I was told that about 30 students had signed up for the program, so I figured if 10 to 15 showed up at the first practice (today), I would be happy. I got there at 10:30 this morning and I waited around in the gym. Two boys showed up. Then five minutes went by. Then ten. It was deja vu all over again. I was ready to go home, when the Board Member drove up and said all the girls were waiting in the front of the school. So we finally got them all together in the gym for the first practice!!

Two boys and nine girls showed up. But we think even more may show up during next week. I'll probably stop accepting newcomers at the end of next week. I had all of the students fill out cards with their names, their grade, the day of the week they would be at their job, and in one sentence, why they want to run X-C. Three of the 11 actually had the word passion in the reason. These kids want to run, they have no problem with practicing every day, and they seem to be great kids from what I've seen today.

I gave them a brief speech about X-C, some rules and parameters for the team, then we exercised and got ready for the practice. The school is only about six blocks from world famous Branch Brook Park. So the Board Member and I drove over and met them there.

We were in the north part of the park and there is a nice 2.1 loop there. My aches, pains and bursitis were minimal so I decided to run the loop with them. They're not in great running shape, but they were able to make it around with a number of stops. I encouraged them as they made the effort. There are also a couple of runners who show some raw talent and almost made it around non-stop.

The only drawback is that there isn't an oval running track anywhere in the area. So my plan for that is to mark one out with cones in one of the open fields and do 200s, 400s, etc. there. So with the remaining time left, we did some fast runs on the gravel path and then we broke for the day.

The AD had set up a schedule of about 6 meets, but I feel we'll be lucky if we get in shape to run maybe the last two. They also have to acquire uniforms and maybe some new shoes, although almost all of today's runners had a decent pair of shoes on.

So readers, Monday will be day 2, and I'll be keeping you up to date with the high lights of the upcoming season.

The Final Nail

Well, today was Freshmen Orientation. Around 10 in the morning they were all assembled in the cafeteria to hear several speakers. Besides the principal, guidance counselors, and some upperclassmen, the Athletic Director and myself were also going to talk briefly.
The AD went thru his shpiel about all the different sports we offer and the conference we belong to. Then it was my turn. I talked briefly about the benefits of X-C and tried to make it appealing and opportunistic for them. I basically used a recruiting speech that Joe Newton (high school X-C coach extraordinaire) uses. I saw a lot of blank faces and I knew I wasn't going to get the needed number of runners to keep this program alive.
But it only got worse when a phys ed teacher suddenly got up after me and told them about the new basketball intramural program he was starting for the fall. Great! Any kid who is not in a sport is now going to go play intra-mural hoops rather than go out for X-C.
So it's over. I don't expect any freshmen to come see me before Friday.
It's a hard reality but I'm realizing that X-C is not a sport geared towards the inner city kid. Our HS is like any other inner city school--boys basketball is king and every sport is either horrific or doesn't even exist.
So this summer has been a waste of planning, a waste of money, and a waste of hope and expectations.
So I need to forget about this dream and concentrate on softball in the spring (boy are those girls gonna run laps!!!!). >:-)