One Week Later

It has been one week since I was at N-City meeting with 25+ runners and the Athletic Director was handing out physical forms. At that time I told him to call me as soon as he had four runners who had completed and turned in their physicals. So far, no call.

In the meantime while I wait, I have continued to have fall practices with members of the E-City Softball team. More new sophomores have shown up and a couple of them show some minor talent. There are now 21 names on our "40-man roster" and 12 of them are sophomores.

I mentioned that during the summer there were a few X-C jobs posted on the Internet. There was one school, an all-girls one over in nearby C-City, which I presumed had a team but I never saw them entered in the Catholic Schools Championships in November. This same school hosts a softball tournament which we (E-City) have been invited to for the past two years. I took a chance and sent an e-mail to the AD that was listed on their website offering my services if they needed any help with their X-C team. I never heard back from her one way or the other.

Now one of the teachers at E-City asked me to tutor her daughter (in Math) for the upcoming SATs in October. Today was our first session. When we were finished I asked her and her mother what the status was at her school regarding X-C. I found out that the AD has been out for a while due to a pregnancy which is probably why I never heard back. I then asked this student to find out what she could about the team's status and who the current AD is. Once I find that out, I'll send another letter offering my services for next year. It's a good school and I think it would be a nice place to coach X-C.

And finally, I'm still running slow 2 mile workouts (today was 6 days in a row) with an occasional hard run. The pains are still there but they are milder.

Here We Go Again

For those who are tuning in for the first time, this is the fourth name this blog has had. The first was "E-City Runners" when I tried to start a team at the school where I teach. Then I changed it to "N-City Runners" when the E-City team quit and I took a coaching job over at an N-City school. The third version was "No City Runners or Just Me" when I was fired by the N-City school and I was expecting this blog to then be about my personal running only. But now I am back at N-City and thus the new title (with apologies to the late John Updike).

This past week I stopped in at N-City. The AD had a sign-up sheet of 50+ names. And about 20-25 kids of both genders showed up at a brief meeting after school in the gym (why can't E-City kids be this enthusiastic?). There was only one runner from last year that I recognized. The AD handed out physical forms and told the attendees to get them back to him as soon as possible. The meeting broke and I told the AD to call me as soon as he had four runners with returned physicals. With four I could start practicing. If these kids are as bad as the kids in my school in getting physicals filled out, it will be another week before practices start at N-City. My previous prediction of 9/24 as the first day of practice could very well come and go. We'll see.

I also found out that the school day now ends at 3:35 PM (2:50 last year), so practices won't be starting til about 4:15 PM. That will allow me ample time to drive up there after teaching at E-City. It will also make for a shorter practice session.

In the meantime, while I wait for N-City to be ready, I've been working out my E-City softball team. Some of the regular freshmen from last year seem to be hitting the ball hard this autumn. A good sign. A few new sophomores have also come out for the practices. The highlight though is a transfer senior from Virginia. A large girl who will have to play first base, but she has a good bat. She has been playing ball since about the age of 7. But enough about my other team.

On the personal front, I've started running again. About 3 times a week, usually a very slow 2 miles. The aches and pains are still around but diminished. The hammy is still there too but I am able to run with it. In fact, I'm not so sure it is a legitimate hamstring pull. You would think that a hammy would heal after 4 weeks of non-running rest. I wonder (this is probably how "doctors" thought during the Dark Ages) if it could be a hybrid hammy pull. Maybe it's a mixture of a hammy pull and a touch of bursitis. Maybe the bursitis is the more dominant of the two and that's why it doesn't go away.

I could probably get some kind of answer if I asked the AD (who is also an athletic trainer and a Health class teacher). But if I did I would be subjected to a 40 minute talk about himself and his injuries. And then there wouldn't be an guarantee that I'd get an answer after listening to him for that long of a time. So I won't mention it to him.

You're Hired?!?!?

I wonder if I jinxed myself again in my previous post, because when I got back to my school (E-City) after summer vacation, there was a message from the Dean of Students at the N-City school. To refresh your memory and to save you from going back thru previous posts, he was the contact in that school that informed me that the new AD had chosen another coach for the X-C program.

He wanted to know if I would be interested in coaching there again. It turns out that the new AD and his new coach had left the school after only a few months and I didn't ask for details. A new AD was in place and they were looking for a new coach. I told my contact that I would like to come in and discuss it. And that is what I did today.

When the new AD came into the room, I said to him, "I know you!!" So let's rewind back to the 2008 N-City X-C season. We practiced in the park near the school, and there was always a guy, who lived near the park, walking his dog nearby. He got to talking to me while the team was running the loop. It turned out that he was a former athletic trainer at I-City (that will be an easy one to figure out) school who was involved in some injury related lawsuit or something. Anyway, he is a scruffy old guy who likes to grab your ear and talk incessantly about himself and his life. I'm sure you all have met some guys like that before. It got so bad at times that I was asking some of my runners to come over and "save" me if I couldn't get away from him. While he was out of work he had asked me if N-City was doing any hiring, especially athletic trainers which was his specialty. I was never able to help him but it now appeared that he had gotten a job there.

It was supposed to be an interview for me and the X-C job, but he spent most of the time talking about himself and his situation at N-City. He was athletic trainer, was teaching Health classes, and was the new Athletic Director. He told me point blank that he wasn't too happy about the last one but he more or less had to do it as part of his hiring.

So long story short, he is also going to interview a friend of his, but I know that my contact, as well as the principal, like me for the job. So I told him that I would be interested in the job again if 1) he can get runners signed up (the program is inactive right now so we don't know how much interest there will be), 2) they get their required physicals (that was the hardest part for the AD last year--these kids took forever to get the physicals), and 3) my fee would be the same as last year.

Now I'm about 90% sure I'll be coaching there this fall but when will be the question. Based on this guy not thrilled about being the AD, I can envision him taking forever to get kids signed up and physicals turned in. So I'm predicting that our first practice will be September 24. And then once that happens I will be totally shocked if he goes out and gets us a meet. The time before we start practice will come in handy for having softball practices at E-City.

So why am I doing this? Two reasons: 1) the coaching stipend will offset my expenses incurred during the summer (see my personal blog), and it will give me a good place and time to get my own running in. Last year I was always able to beat the team in the 2 mile loop except for one male runner (that gives you an idea of what we had last year).

As for personal running, I am into week 4 resting my hammy and it feels almost 100%. So tomorrow I will be testing it after school.

The Jinx is Up

Just like Sports Illustrated cover stories, my previous blog became a jinx for my running. Just two days after my cross country run in W-Park, my legs were besieged by the old aches and pains that I have come to know too well. This time they were accompanied by a sore hamstring. The aches and pains took a little longer to go away this time but the hammy lingered. Today, after being on the shelf for three weeks, I tested the leg out, and while it wasn't painful, the sore hammy was noticeable. So I'll rest it for a few more days and test it again.

On the coaching front, a third job appeared on the net. It was a charter school in N-City. I didn't want to go down that road again (lack of training location, not an NJSIAA member, questionable commitment from the runners, etc.) so I didn't bother looking into it. Unless a major surprise happens in the next week or so, I'll be devoting the autumn to helping my softball team (those who are interested) improve their hitting and fielding.

And I am also going to commit to making any blog postings in the future less verbose.