On August 15th, we will embark on the next step in our journey. To what is it we are reaching? I tell you this. It is much easier to reach than you might imagine. Do we want to win team titles? Sure. Do we want to win individual races and medals? Yes. Absolutely. But it is not those things that makes you a champion. It is not that, I tell you.
To have success, you have to be able to look in the mirror and look that person in the eye and be satisfied. You have given your body, yes, your mind, yes. But more importantly, your spirit. Your heart, your vitality and energy, your commitment. It is not the glory of winning that makes you a champion, but the knowledge that the mirror gives you.
I encourage you to commit yourself to becoming the student-athlete that you are most capable of becoming. Please define winner differently. Did you commit, then achieve?
See you all on August 15th, 8am to 11am. A new journey begins.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Out-Run Cancer Run
I write this the day before our 7th Annual Out-Run Cancer run benefiting MMC's Yolanda Barco Oncology Institute. We've raised over $5000 for cancer research over the years. I hope to add a significant addition to that tomorrow. Our runners give so much back, it is truly awesome to behold! We'll see how it goes tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Team Motto
JUST BELIEVE! Out team mantra is to help our athletes understand the difference between what it takes to participate and what it takes to excel. Our 2010 team is an outstanding mix of young talent and wily veterans. We have state quality runners and those who work very hard to participate and be part of this family.
Our team goals are to achieve individual success which will lead to team success. We believe that it is the dedication of the individual: heart, soul, and mind that determines the success of oneself and then the whole. We also plan on capturing the Region 3 regular season championships for both Boys Varsity and Girls Varsity, provided we are healthy. We follow a program that is intense and has proven successful. We have not lost a Region 3 meet for our Boys Varsity since 2008. Our Girls' teams have suffered much due to injury, but we have maintained a positive attitude that has led to much success. We are a family that works together, suffers together, and excels together. We take the positive with the negative and live with the results. Running is very much like life. You get out of it what you put into it.
JUST BELIEVE!
Our team goals are to achieve individual success which will lead to team success. We believe that it is the dedication of the individual: heart, soul, and mind that determines the success of oneself and then the whole. We also plan on capturing the Region 3 regular season championships for both Boys Varsity and Girls Varsity, provided we are healthy. We follow a program that is intense and has proven successful. We have not lost a Region 3 meet for our Boys Varsity since 2008. Our Girls' teams have suffered much due to injury, but we have maintained a positive attitude that has led to much success. We are a family that works together, suffers together, and excels together. We take the positive with the negative and live with the results. Running is very much like life. You get out of it what you put into it.
JUST BELIEVE!
Monday, November 29, 2010
What Is Cross Country?
This sport reflects life. You determine who you want to be. Your choices make you into the person you can be. If you choose to participate only, then you will be an average performer and probably live a life that is not extraordinary. But, if you choose to excel (at your own level and beyond), then you will live an extraordinary life--one that is capable of great accomplishments, both personally and for your community.
This is a family sport. We are all one unit that feels together, lives through the good and the bad together, and supports each other. Our "real" family is also very involved. They are often at our meets and invitationals, cheering on all of us. Every Cross Country family member on this team is valued as an individual and as part of the larger community of the SHS XC team.
As the head coach, I take great pride in being part of this living, dynamic creation. Our team members simply become who they are meant to be: leaders, athletes, members, and above all better human beings. I get great joy out of watching this develop each and every year. I often wonder as to how it occurs. Perhaps it is the nature of the pain and patience involved in being a runner. After all, running is not something that most people do or enjoy. It is unique in that it hurts, every time. It is in that pain that we learn to persevere and overcome the daily frustrations of our lives.
There are no cuts in this sport. Participants naturally weed themselves out because of the work, pain, and endurance that is involved. This is commitment. For that I am most happy. I am part of something that is much larger than the sport of it.
Running is a lifelong activity that will change your entire perspective on your surroundings and what and how you accomplish the things you wish to achieve. Just believe!
This is a family sport. We are all one unit that feels together, lives through the good and the bad together, and supports each other. Our "real" family is also very involved. They are often at our meets and invitationals, cheering on all of us. Every Cross Country family member on this team is valued as an individual and as part of the larger community of the SHS XC team.
As the head coach, I take great pride in being part of this living, dynamic creation. Our team members simply become who they are meant to be: leaders, athletes, members, and above all better human beings. I get great joy out of watching this develop each and every year. I often wonder as to how it occurs. Perhaps it is the nature of the pain and patience involved in being a runner. After all, running is not something that most people do or enjoy. It is unique in that it hurts, every time. It is in that pain that we learn to persevere and overcome the daily frustrations of our lives.
There are no cuts in this sport. Participants naturally weed themselves out because of the work, pain, and endurance that is involved. This is commitment. For that I am most happy. I am part of something that is much larger than the sport of it.
Running is a lifelong activity that will change your entire perspective on your surroundings and what and how you accomplish the things you wish to achieve. Just believe!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Let's Get Dirty
November 13th, Fuzzy, Mack, Q-Tip, Chris and I ran in the mud race at Slippery Rock. We got really dirty and had a ton of fun. The race was started with a mini cannon instead of a gun. Mack, Fuzzy and I clocked in at around 35 minutes and then found out that the course was 4 loops but we only ran it 3 times... Chris and Q-tip beat us with a time around 28minutes. After getting bogged down with mud and losing some articles of clothing we decided to wear suspenders next year. I hope more people can make it next year, it was definitely a fun way to end the season:)
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Banquet
Our banquet just finished and it was wonderful, as always. I have to say that this has been a long and wonderful journey. I need to thank all of those who have positively advanced the lives of this team. Without your efforts we would have never achieved the success we did. Thank you to my coaches, their families, the runners, their parents, and the Saegertown community for making this a very special season. I feel very blessed to be part of this. I believe that!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The End is Just the Beginning
The finish of the season is a great paradox to me. We work and work to get to the final race, the final day, and for some of us that is States. Then, in a blink the season is over. Good or bad on this one day, it's still all over.
Then I reflect on the time we've spent together. That first day in August and this last day in November is always a very short time. A blink. And it's over. But the beauty of things like this--things that repeat and have a journey involved--is that it is never really over. We start again and continue running and before we know it, August rolls around and we're ready.
I like that about this sport. We get a chance to move forward. Like running, this sport (and much of life) is about "what next." We must always keep in mind that the end result of the season, the last race, whether we've won or not, is not the point to this sport, just like it's not the point in life to just wait for that last day--the end of it all. It's the process, the journey, the getting there, that really means everything. We must believe that we are a better runner, a better person, a better citizen, because of the effort and the work, not the reward at the end.
Nate was behind the winner by thirty seconds. That's all. If it were me, I'd never allow thirty seconds to determine whether or not it all mattered. Whether or not it was a successful season. For sure, we all desire to do our best and for some of us that means to win. But success is not measured by first place finishes. It is measured by your attitude and effort and by the fact that when it's all said and done, I can look back and say, "My life is better because I ran this season," or even better yet, "I am a winner and thirty seconds is not going to define my season." I believe that.
Then I reflect on the time we've spent together. That first day in August and this last day in November is always a very short time. A blink. And it's over. But the beauty of things like this--things that repeat and have a journey involved--is that it is never really over. We start again and continue running and before we know it, August rolls around and we're ready.
I like that about this sport. We get a chance to move forward. Like running, this sport (and much of life) is about "what next." We must always keep in mind that the end result of the season, the last race, whether we've won or not, is not the point to this sport, just like it's not the point in life to just wait for that last day--the end of it all. It's the process, the journey, the getting there, that really means everything. We must believe that we are a better runner, a better person, a better citizen, because of the effort and the work, not the reward at the end.
Nate was behind the winner by thirty seconds. That's all. If it were me, I'd never allow thirty seconds to determine whether or not it all mattered. Whether or not it was a successful season. For sure, we all desire to do our best and for some of us that means to win. But success is not measured by first place finishes. It is measured by your attitude and effort and by the fact that when it's all said and done, I can look back and say, "My life is better because I ran this season," or even better yet, "I am a winner and thirty seconds is not going to define my season." I believe that.
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