Basically I look at three components of any program and obviously the better job you do with each of the components the better chance you have of having a successful program. The first is the athletes. I don't care how good a coach is he can't be successful without athletes to work with. They don't have to be the best athletes necessarily but they do have to be the right athletes. For that reason I always placed a lot of emphasis on having large numbers on the team because the more you have to work with the better chance of helping them to be successful and in turn the program can be successful. I believed in asking kids to come out and asking them more than once if necessary. I wanted them to know that we really wanted them in our program.
After you get them out it becomes critical to keep them out. It is too easy for kids to quit if they don't feel invested in a program and I found that the keys, for me at least, to keeping them was to show them that they were valued no matter what their ability was and that every athlete had a fair and equal opportunity to earn a letter. One way that I did this was to make sure that I found as many opportunities as possible for athletes to compete by having as many meets as the state allowed including some that only underclassmen could compete in. Another way that I showed them that I valued them as people and not just a track or cross country athlete was by encouraging them in and attending their other activities whether that was sports, fine arts or academics.
The second key component that I feel contributed to the success of programs that I headed is the assistant coaches. Good assistant coaches are invaluable and bad ones can be caustic. I wanted coaches that shared my philosophy about valuing every athlete and who would acknowledge kids outside of practice and out of season. A good assistant coach must be willing to never stop learning his specific area of expertise and that may change sometime during their career. A good example of this was Brent who coached with me for many years. He was the same coach who didn't hire me in 1986 when he had an opening. Having been a head track coach Brent had experience in all areas but he had the least experience working with throwing events. Throwing events is where I needed an assistant and as I told him, "a good coach can become a good coach anywhere and you are a good coach". I had watched Brent coach basketball for years and knew how good he was. He agreed to coach the throwers, borrowed all of my books and videos and went to clinics and produced the first state champion of any kind in our school's history when Leilani won the discus in 1994 and Melissa was runner up the same year. The assistants have to value kids, know their events and share the head coaches philosophy if a program is going to be successful. It is important that the assistant coaches feel valued and appreciated.
The final component is the program itself, making it important to all who participate so that it can be somewhat self-sustaining. This was the most difficult for us because of what I said in a previous post about how transient our athletes were. The two most important pieces to the program are organization and tradition. I never went to a practice or a meet without at least one 3x5 card in my pocket with notes so I could refer to it throughout the day. Our practices were organized and efficient without any wasted time and that was an important selling point to athletes and coaches. We didn't waste time. Another important part of our organizational structure were our managers. In many ways they were like assistant coaches in that they knew what their responsibilities were and the good ones could be counted on to fulfill them.
It takes a lot of work to establish a tradition if you are taking over a program that has been around for years and your predecessors didn't see the value of record keeping. It can be very time consuming but it will be worth it in the end. If that mediocre sprinter can come into the program with a goal of making the top 10 freshman list in the 100 meters it's a starting point for their goal setting. In the talk that I gave I mentioned two girls we had who didn't even make the freshman top 10 and yet by the time they graduated they were good enough to run in college. If it wasn't for the record keeping that I did I certainly couldn't be writing this over ten years after I retired.
Sadly not everyone feels the same way that I do about the importance of maintaining a history. I loaned the coach who replaced me as track coach my record book for over 20 years at Sierra including all of my handwritten update notes from the 2005 season. He lost it. I loaned the coach who replaced me as cross country coach the 20 plus year cross country history, told him how upset I was about the track history being lost and he gave me his word that he would take care of it. He lost it. Keeping records and honoring tradition is hard work and very time consuming but in my opinion it is critical to the long-term success of a program.
I started the 1991 cross country season and school year sick with some type of upper respiratory illness and knew that I was going to catch hell at home about staying home and resting so I asked my doctor for permission to coach since there was nothing I could do and I was already on antibiotics. He gave me permission on his prescription pad. The quietly was his addendum because I told him that I was very vocal at practices and competitions.
In this post I'm going to try to take you through a season from our first time trial through the state meet with comments from newsletters that I wrote for the kids. Maybe it will show a blue print for how we felt a season could be considered successful no matter what the outcome. From the 2000 meter time trial sheet there was a really good example of valuing both athletes past and present as well as tradition.
"It's been fun having some of our former runners back to run with us the first two weeks. Besides Art who ran the time trail we've had Jaime, Larry, Shay and Laura. Shay left Monday with Antinett, they'll both be going to Western State. Gerald will still be running for USC in Pueblo. Larry is going to be stationed in Germany, Lashon joined the Navy, Jaime is still stationed in Panama and Rashaan is still stationed in Hawaii. Steve has completed a year at Ricks College and will be doing his church mission this year. Eddie just completed his first year at UCCS. Gary will be attending USC in Pueblo. If any of you know where any other former runners are, let us know so that we can put it in a newsletter".
Prior to our scrimmage I wrote in all caps, "You are representing Sierra High School and it is a school Coach Payton and I are very proud of. Make sure you are proud of it and don't do anything to embarrass yourself, the coaches or the school. If you can't act with class at all times, we won't take you anywhere. Loud and obnoxious behavior will not be acceptable. You are ladies and gentlemen before anything else and don't forget it".
After our first meet, the Harrison Invitational, I wrote:
"The girls' team got the outstanding leadership we were looking for from Alanna and Debbie. As important however was the fact that the rest of the girls were willing to be led. You all ran well and a 7th place finish in a field of 25 teams with 5 first year runners is outstanding. Last year our team finished 7th as well when there were only 21 teams and we had 4 seniors and a junior on the team who had all run before. The important thing now girls is to not be satisfied. The top 7 should change often with the depth we have on this team. If your goal is going to be a return trip to state then everyone must believe that you can do it and everyone must be willing to work hard to get there. Good job!
Dale did an outstanding job placing 9th in a field of 121 runners. Dale set a new Sierra junior record in the process and ran faster than any runner on our team ran at Monument Valley Park. Mark and Scott ran well as did Josh and Jeff who are now on the varsity for our next meet. Robert made a valiant run at a top 7 team finish with a lifetime best effort".
Two things that Coach Payton and I always emphasized were that our athletes know their competition, specifically the individuals and teams in our region, as well as the importance of "pack running". Pack running was the time between our 1st and 5th runners and our 1st and 7th runners. After Canon City I wrote:
"We've seen every team in our region except Durango and we know they are good in boys and girls. If 12 teams field a complete scoring team then six teams from our region qualify for state. You need to start seeing where we stack up. I'll identify the teams in our region with an asterisk in every newsletter".
Comments throughout several meet newsletters all reemphasized the importance of hard work, pack running and region competition. From Falcon where both teams finished 2nd, "A few of you on both teams need to start making up your mind whether you're going to be contributing members of this team or if you're simply going to participate and not put forth any effort. Don't drag other people down by encouraging them to run with you instead of to the best of their ability. It's bad enough to limit yourself without holding others back". Then after Coronado where the girls were 3rd and the boys 5th, "Although most of the boys ran very well and had PR's the gap between the top three and the rest must close significantly if you're going to be competitive at regionals". Finally, after the Pueblo Central meet where the girls were 3rd and the boys 6th I wrote this, Alanna said it best at yesterday's meet, 'we're not here to win trophies, we're here to run our best'. Trophies are nice and most of the time if you do your best they'll come. More important however is for each of you to get in the habit of always running your best no matter what is at stake. If both teams are going to qualify for state it's going to take 7 people on each team giving their best effort on the same day at the regional meet. The region is very tough this year. Although six teams qualify nothing less than your best will let you be one of those six teams. You can do it but you must all do it".
One of the bigger challenges we faced at Sierra was having anyplace decent to train. We ran a trail along the creek behind the school but even running that we had to cross streets including one that was very busy to go very far. We had to run in the streets to get to any park or school to run repeats or what little hill work we got to do. Every season in my preseason newsletter I would write and then talk about the importance of safety and the rules that we had to follow to best insure safety. To compound the challenge we would get complaints from time to time from "citizens" and then we were even more restricted in where we could run. This year was the worst case scenario because I had some bone headed athletes who would push the boundaries on safety, one even sprinted across a street in front of our principal and we had a disgruntled unidentified citizen who frequently picked up the phone and called the administration office to complain about the kids. We had one meet left before region and state and this is what I had to share with my athletes.
"Here we go again! Crossing Streets! Someone called the school and complained about us again on Wednesday after we ran the loop. He said he almost hit some of you on Jet Wing and if he hadn't been paying close attention he would have. I called him back on Thursday to apologize for what he perceived as a problem and franklu after talking to him I came to two conclusions. 1. The man's a liar ( I already knew that because I was running with you and Coach Payton was behind us on a bicycle). The man also claimed you were out there without supervision. (Another obvious lie). The 2nd conclusion is the man simply has an attitude against kids. I apologized anyway for PR reasons.
Unfortunately, apparently that wasn't the end of it because the next day our Superintendent called our athletic director and told him we were not to run in the streets until further notice. I'm assuming after someone asks for and listens to my side of the story that this ban will be lifted but until then don't even step into the street. (I added a handwritten note that it had been cleared up and changed liar to mistaken before I gave the handout to the kids),
In addition any time we run on the streets in the future cross only at intersections and only when you're absolutely positive that you have plenty of time to get across. I know that's what you're doing but I want to put it in writing again for everyone to see. (This was all in caps). Believe me I'm not upset with any of you; as I said, I was there and I believe the man simply has an axe to grind. As a matter of fact, as I'm sure most of you remember I yelled for us to cross to all cross when we did. I'll let you know when and if the ban is lifted".
There was always so much more to coaching than just figuring out workouts and this was a classic example.
After the regional meet I was able to write: For the 2nd year in a row both the Sierra girl's and boy's teams have qualified for the state meet after never qualifying before. You did it for several reasons. 1. You set and worked towards a goal. 2. You believed what we told you and did it. 3. You all ran your lifetime bests on the same day because that's what it took. 4. You learned that hard work and commitment is rewarded. 5. You believed in yourselves and each other.". How close did we come to not qualifying? Both teams got the 6th and final qualifying spot and the boys did it by beating 7th place Wasson by one point. Both teams had their fastest 1-5 split of the season. The girls with an outstanding 1:12 and the boys 2:18. Additionally as stated above every runner ran a lifetime best. It was a hard earned trip to state.
Our performance at the state meet wasn't very impressive although the boys did beat two teams that beat them at regionals the week before. I honestly believe that they had given everything they had the week before and psychologically their season peaked at region. They ran well but the competition was much tougher. One promising thing is that the number two runner on each team was a sophomore who ran a personal best with Ramon setting a sierra boy's sophomore record for the second week in a row. Unfortunately we didn't know at the time but we wouldn't have either of them the next season.
After state I wrote, Before we ran the regional meet you were told that it was going to take evry one of you doing your best on the same day if you were going to make it to state. That's exactly what it took and that's exactly what you did. I hope you'll let that same type of commitment carry over into all areas of your life here at Sierra and at home".
I wrote about Brent Garretson earlier in this post. 1992 was the year that he became an assistant and the success he would have was outstanding. He took two events that he had very little expertise in and became one of the most successful throw coaches in the state. The same year Brent started with us we had an outstanding volleyball and basketball player join the team hoping to contribute as a sprinter. Early on I believed that with her strength and quickness in the team sports, she would make an outstanding thrower, particularly with the discus. Leilani was a sophomore and our best throwers already on the team were as well and that meant we had three years to work with them. The year before Melissa won the discus as a freshman with a throw of 116'5" and Donna failed to get a mark long enough to measure in the same meet. At state inexperience showed itself as Melissa threw approximately 97', they didn't measure anything under 100'.
Leilani wasn't interested in throwing because of the perception that she had of female throwers being "She-Ra" women. She didn't want to get all muscled up. After our first meet, the Icicle Invitational it was obvious that we had a lot of work to do if we were going to be where we wanted to be at the end of the year. My comment to the team was, "Speaking of team, some of you may be asked to try different events to help us strengthen some weak areas, don't just say no without trying". Our discus throwers that day had finished 3rd as a team with their combined throws so that really wasn't one of our weaker events. The throwers threw, Melissa 89'7", Natalie a freshman 86'3", Donna 77'8: and a junior Charlene 70'3". Based on my request I was able to convince Leilani to work part time with the throwers and then entered her as part of the discus team in the next meet. The discus team finished 2nd at Cherry Creek but their total wasn't as good as the previous week. Individually they threw; Melissa 91'2", Natalie 80'9", Charlene 76'5" and Leilani 62'4". A lot of coaches would have ended the experiment right there and given in to Leilani's desire to only run.
Our next meet was a quad with two Pueblo teams and Canon City. We won by 1 point 96-95 over Centennial and it gave me a great opportunity to emphasize the importance of every point. "Ladies the score tells it all. We haven't talked a lot about it this year but now is as good a time as any. EVERY POINT IN EVERY EVENT IS IMPORTANT IN EVERY MEET! Those of you who are always having to get out of events for various reasons think about this score every time you do. I'm not saying every reason hasn't been valid this season. I'm just saying, make sure.
Great job yesterday, you competed under very adverse weather conditions and with the exception of only a few of you, you kept the complaining to a minimum. Because of the weather times and distances are hard to evaluate but what isn't is effort. For the most part the coaches were very pleased by what we saw. Keep working hard. We have a long way to go to be a good track team but if you want it bad enough you can get there".
And the discus? Leilani 3rd 91'4", Melissa 4th 85'11 1/2", and Donna 5th 78'9". Also Natalie 72'9", Charlene 71'9", and Gwen a junior 58'11 1/2".
Our next meet was the Pueblo Invitational where we finished 14th as a team with only 11 points. Two teams from our region Pueblo South 4th with 50 and Pueblo County last year's region champion was tied for 7th with 26. While we didn't score many points the meet was positive because we were able to see how we stacked up against the better teams in our region and it really showed us areas that we would need to improve, not just on the track but as a team. I considered this meet "gut check" time and told the team afterwards, "One point of interest. Last year Wasson was 15th (61), this year 2nd. Don't be discouraged by a 14th place finish. Evaluate your efforts and decide what it's going to take for us to improve between now and District (Region) and even now and next year!"
We followed up with another victory in a quad this time outscoring Centennial 94 1/2 - 65 1/2. Leilani won the discus with 108'1", Melissa was 4th with 100' 2 1/2". Also Natalie 91'2", Donna 84'10", Charlene 80'8 1/2" and Gwen 69'9 1/2".
And then at the Panther Relays we finished 2nd as a team. "Outstanding job ladies! You're back acting and competing like a complete track team where you realize that every performance and every point is important. Good job, good job, good job!!! Now suck it up for only a few more weeks and let's continue to get stronger, get better and improve each week.Leilani won the discus with a throw of 105'1". Melissa and Natalie had no marks.
After another quad that we won Sierra 127 1/2 - East 73 - Harrison 53 1/2 - South 12 (It's obvious that they didn't take this meet serious). After this meet I took all of the results from all of the teams in our region and created a virtual meet to see how each team would do if every athlete met their best performance in a meet. Here were the top three scores from that prediction: South 119 - Sierra 116 - County 101 1/2. These scores were never shared with the kids but they were always given to the coaches so we could all see where we might pick up points and where we were most vulnerable. We never went into a District/Region meet not knowing exactly what we needed to do to win.
Next we won the Wasson Invitational defeating the host team who had beaten us by 50 points in Pueblo. We scored 129 to Wasson's 122, Durango who had beaten us earlier in the year Icicle (64 - 32) was third 101. There were a total of 8 teams. The discus throwers finished as follows: Donna 4th 98'3", Leilani 6th 96'7 1/2" and Melissa 8th 89'11". And the projected scores after this week were as follows: Sierra 127 - County 118 - South 108.
We won the District championship meet and it is amazing how close the scores came to my final worksheet. Sierra 121 - County 115 -South 100. We had a good balanced effort throughout the meet and ironically the discus turned out to be one of our weaker events. Donna was 6th with a personal best of 101'6", Melissa was 8th 95'11" (she did redeem herself by winning the shot put 35'9 after winning the discus as a freshman) and Leilani no mark. This was our 5th District/Regional Championship in 8 years and we were runner up each of the other three.
I focused on the discus in this post just to show how an event - athlete can be a roller coaster ride. Another reason that I focused on it was because it was Brent and Leilani's first year.
Some of my comments in the final newsletter after state were these. "We didn't score a lot of points or win a lot of medals but you competed, you showed class all weekend and the majority of you get another chance. Keep up the good work, NEXT SEASON STARTS NOW, not next February. You need to give serious thought to cross country unless you have a real good reason not to do it.
The season was a success no matter how you look at it if you know anything about track and field. Congratulations ladies we're proud of each and every one of you. Have a great summer, start running next week to get ready for a great cross country season and begin immediately setting your goals and getting ready for next track season".
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