Mid-October Update

My third season at N-City is more than half over and nothing has changed from the previous two years. The runners are still out of shape, they come to practice sporadically, and the amount of time we have to practice isn't enough to form any kind of respectable team. The AD and myself scheduled 3 races for the year. The first is an Invitational meet this Saturday in Morris County for the boys on the team. But I found out from the meet director that the N-City AD did not send in the entry form nor the fee. Just as well. Our runners would have been embarrassed in the meet. The second meet is on October 22 for the girls against another N-City school (all girls). One of our girls quit due to poor grades so racing with only four runners will definitely shift any advantage to the opponent. And while this school is not a great team, I've been monitoring their results in their weekly races, and we will have our hands full with them. The third and final race (if everyone is in shape by then) is the CTC Championships on November 6. This is the Catholic Track Conference meet held at W-Park in E-City. This is the same race that one of our runners entered back in year 1. He's about the only one who is dying to get back there and have a good race.

So again, nothing has changed at N-City. I'm just baby-sitting a few runners who show up once in awhile. And getting paid less this year than the past two years. So I have slowly realized that I can't have a decent X-C team at N-City. And I have found out in the past three years that nothing will probably happen at E-City either. My three failed attempts to land a position at other schools this past summer (because of my age?) seems to seal my fate. I finally realized that my dream of coaching a decent X-C team was never going to come true.

So I decided to make some changes. I decided that the E-City school, especially the girls, needed another sport. Preferably in the fall since I'm busy in the winter and spring with other sports. In the fall, there are five major female sports in NJ. One is X-C. Another is Tennis, and E-City already has a team. Field hockey and soccer are two others but equipment and field locations present real obstacles. The fifth is volleyball. Practices and games would take place in our gym. And it seemed like the easiest of the three sports that I could learn quickly.

So I wrote up a proposal for the E-City AD and Principal. The principal liked the idea because we need to attract more females to the school. The AD said he would think about it since it would mean more work for him (he's not an energetic AD). So I left both meetings with the plan to forever give up X-C and to try volleyball in the fall of 2011.

Enter Mr. Murphy. The man who wrote the famous Law. That very same night, just eight hours after my volleyball proposal meetings, I'm at the Freshman Parents Orientation Meeting at the school. Two females who were in attendance with their parents came up to me and wanted to know why we don't have a Cross Country team. Yes, unbelievable. Murphy works in such strange and mysterious ways. Well, I was cautious and knew that fool me three times I'm an idiot. Fool me a fourth time, and I'm a bigger idiot. But they seemed so sincere and passionate. I told them that if they could get a list of girls who were SERIOUS about running next year, and give it to me by Columbus Day, I would think about it.

Well, today they brought me a list. Seven names, five females and two males. Only the five females were definite. The boys were maybes. So I decided my next step would be to have a meeting with the definite females. I may have two other females (two Juniors) who may be interested. But for my next step, I decided to try something new. I would empower these two freshman who seemed passionate about running. I told them it was too early to name captains, but they would be my "leaders". They would need to talk to the other runners and come up with a date when we could have a team meeting. By giving them this responsibility, I'm hoping that they will try to get the others to be as serious about the team as they are.

So hopefully, next week, we'll have a meeting and I'll have a better idea if this is going to happen.