Next Year

The state Meet of Champions was run last week so the Cross Country season in New Jersey has ended. Some teams and some individual runners will be racing today in the Nike and Footlocker championships in Wappinger Falls and in the Bronx respectively. But there will be no more X-C races in New Jersey until next September.

And now with the off-season here, it’s time to start thinking about next year. This past year, if you read my blog, I was coaching a brand new Cross Country team in N-City. At first it looked like a golden opportunity. At my interview I was told there were about 30+ runners who had signed up in the past couple of weeks. At that first practice, there were 11 runners. But as the weeks went by, personal issues came up as well as injuries. Work days took their tool as well as a growing lack of commitment. By year’s end, there was only one runner who went to the CTC championships. A sad showing.

As of today, I am about “30-70” for coaching a 2nd year at N-City. I know it is the first year that they have had a X-C program, but the work program and the lack of commitment could be serious deal breakers. The former is an excellent program that the school has but one day a week that runner is missing practice. The latter is something that can’t be taken lightly. A lack of commitment means missed practices which translate into zero improvement during the season. So the 30-70 means that I might be coaching there next year if I can’t find anything else and I would be able to put up with those problems.

The scenario that probably fits me best would be to take on a coaching position for a school that already has an established program. Between now and September I will be looking for any openings at northern schools. Starting a program and doing the normal practices is a bit more than I would like to handle. I would rather concentrate just on the coaching aspect instead of also initiating the program.

I did get one benefit from the N-City program (besides the money) and that was one year of experience. At the end of the 2 month season, I felt that I had learned how to plan a season, how to be organized, and how to get the most out of a practice. I hope to be able to use this experience in the spring’s softball program at E-City. But that’s for another time and another blog, if I create one.

Now I would be very hypocritical of what I said two paragraphs ago if I said I haven’t given up hope of starting a X-C program at E-City. Now that I look back on that effort, I realize that maybe starting a boy’s X-C team may not have been such a good idea. The reason why I did so was two-fold. First, I felt that a boy’s team would be better than a girl’s team and would be able to compete against the other schools in our conference. Second, there is currently only one sport in the fall and that is girl’s tennis. E-City does not have girl’s volleyball, field hockey, girl’s soccer, boy’s soccer, football, or any of the other fall sports that exist at larger schools. So the plan was that since the girls had a sport in the fall, I would start a new sport for the boys.

If I do decide to try again at E-City, I realize now that I will have to change genders. The 15 boys that had signed up the previous May were a total disappointment in terms of responsibility and commitment. And since my initial effort, the school has implemented a soccer club and an intra-mural basketball program during the fall which many of the boys have joined. That leaves very few if any boys who could be candidates for a new boy’s X-C team. At E-City, the boys are either big soccer fans or basketball fans. There is no third option.

So the option for a new team may lie with the females of the school. The girls are not as involved in sports as the boys are. They have the tennis, basketball, cheer leading, and softball programs. So since they are not that much into sports, the school’s girls may be where a new sport may grow and thrive. In fact, I feel that there is a different relationship with the females in the school than there is with the boys. The girls, whether they are athletes or not, will say hi and talk with teachers, while most of the boys won’t even look at you as you pass them in the hallway. So I need to count on this rapport with the school’s female population.

Why didn’t the girls come forward last year when I was looking for potential runners? Did they not listen to the announcements over the school’s intercom? Did they not see the 40+ signs I had posted around the school? I think they did. Two did come to me and I signed them up as managers for the short-lived boys team. What I think happened was that most girls in the school thought of X-C as a boys sport and didn’t realize that there are girl’s X-C teams as well.

So once I get an idea in my head, it always begins to grow. I have devised a plan for starting a new girl’s X-C team next fall. I don’t expect to get any of the girls from the tennis team. They seem too committed to that sport. Plus they don’t seem to be true athletes—walking around the court hitting a tennis ball softly is worlds apart from the demanding workouts of a X-C team. The same could be said for the cheerleaders. True, they are a bit more active and athletic than the tennis players, but still, too dainty for me to be a X-C runner. No, my target is going to be either members of the basketball and softball teams or girls who have no sport affiliation at all. Since I coach the softball team I will know which girls I can approach about joining a new team. This past week I dropped in at an open-gym session for the basketball team and I saw quite a few new faces (mostly freshmen) trying out for the team. Next spring I might touch base with the basketball coach and ask him if he would like any of his team to run X-C in the fall as part of a training program.

My plan will kick off on March 2, 2009. That is the day of the first tryout for my softball team. From talking to the girls at the school, it seems that there will be a lot of girls trying out for the team. That means I will have to cut girls which I didn’t do last year. To quash any ill feelings toward me from a girl who was cut, I’m hoping that by having an option to join a new sport in the fall, coached by me, may be enticing enough to the girl who was cut.

Next year, instead of putting 40+ signs around the school, I’m going to keep it very low key. I will put up just three signs which will be positioned at locations where all the girls of the school will see it and probably very few boys: outside the two girl’s bathrooms and one outside the girl’s locker room. And the key selling point of these signs will be that “you don’t have to be fast to be on a X-C team, you just have to be dedicated”. That way I could get both athletes and the girls who feel that they may not be athletes.

And the most important thing I have to do is to control any anticipated excitement on my part. I was in another world last summer anticipating the approaching X-C season and when it never got off the ground it was a crushing disappointment. When the N-City opportunity came along, that too was exciting, only to fizzle out after two months time. So as March approaches and my plan either works or not, I need to control my excitement. So as I always say, “stay tuned”!

End of the Season

The N City X-C season finally came to an end this past Saturday. During the week leading up to the final day, the lack of commitment by the runners continued to show at practice. The number of runners who showed up were 3, 1, 1, and 0. On Saturday, instead of five runners going to the CTC Championship at W Park in E City, there was only 1. So off we went, me, the runner, and the AD in two cars. The AD told me that he would drive the runner back and I could go directly home instead of driving all the way back to N City.

It rained the whole time driving to the Park. When we got there, the runner and I walked around trying to figure out where the 2.1 Freshman Course was. In the morning, the Public School North II teams were having their Sectional Championships. We got there just as the last race was finishing. The grounds were wet and muddy. As we walked around, we could easily tell who had run in a race that morning. If their legs and other parts of their body were muddy, we knew that they had raced. A beautiful site.

We went over to the finish line and checked in with the officials. The Freshman girls were to go off at 2 and my runner would follow in the boys freshman race at 2:20.

What a year this had been. It started out back in early September at an interview for the coaching position when I was told that 30 some kids had signed up for X-C. That was followed by that beautiful Saturday morning when 11 students showed up for the first practice. 9 girls and 2 boys. It had the makings of a solid girls team. But the apathy crept in along with a lack of commitment. And by year's end there were no girls and just one solitary brave soul, ready to run his heart out on the muddy fields of W Park.

2:20 came and he lined up with the other runners. The gun sounded and off he went. He was strong for about the first 1/3 of a mile but then the lack of practice began to show. He dropped back steadily. Finally as he came back to me from a loop to the other side of the park, he was walking and running. I spurred him on to the finish but he was experiencing pain and discomfort that an out of shape X-C runner always would. He finally crossed the finish line and he could barely stand up. We got him to the AD's car, loaded him in, drove over to where my car was, and got him some fruit and gatorade. Then I told him he ran a helluva race and off they went. He officially finished the race and his name appears on the online results. And he actually beat two other freshmen!!!

I decided to hang around and watch the rest of the races. I was able to take in the Girls Varsity as well as the Boys JV and Varsity races. It's hard to believe, but this was the first huge high school X-C meet that I had ever attended. It was quite exciting. I got in a position where with minimal walking/running, I was able to view the start, the middle, and the finish of the races. And along with the excitement, I also felt a bit of disappointment. As I watched these teams of young boys and girls battle over the muddy course, I realized that I was a coach without a team. Or more accurately, a coach without two teams.

And now the season is over. Today I had an open gym for my softball team. There were some new students trying out who showed some promise. But that's another sport for another time. As for X-C, I don't know what my future will be. I guess you will just have to stay tuned!!!