C
Coach Hunt
Guest
Howdy,
The price of victory is sometimes so dear and so great, that the victory itself becomes secondary. I use for example this latest State Championship in Track and Field which my team won. During the first day of competition, called the 'prelim day,' my best high hurdler, a senior, was walking up to the blocks for his 110 meter high hurdle race. As a coaching staff, we had just been informed that back home, some 500 miles away, his mother had just passed away. It was to be our job as his coaches, to break the bad news to him after this race. He was rated second in the entire state in this event, and second by only 6 one-hundredths of a second. He had been training for this one race for his entire track career. He had been offered scholarships based on his placement at the State Championships. He got into his blocks and got ready. The gun sounded, and he was charged with a false start. In our state, the false start disqualified him. Later cameras and videos proved he was indeed innocent, the false start was by the young athlete next to him, but there are no appeals allowed! He was out.
He ran to the middle of the stadium, fell on his face, and cried because in his own mind, he had let his team down. It was my unenviable job to pick him up, take him to the shade of a large tree some 200 yards away, and explain to him that in addition to false starting, his mother had just passed away.
With the bad news, our young athlete fell again to the ground to once again begin his agonizing weeping. I held him as I would hold a 2 year old who had skinned a knee. All three coaches and our hurdler cried shamelessly for about half an hour. When at last his composure begin to return with time and fatigue, his first words were, "I'm not going to let this team down!" We explained that whatever he decided to do, he would not be letting his team down. We were prepared to fly him back home to be with his father and the rest of his family, but his decision was firm. He decided to stay with his team. He called his team his family!
With that decision made, we informed the rest of the team about what had happened. All of a sudden, the year long quest for a state championship was of secondary importance, and the team rallied around a hurting "family" member.
An incredible thing happened next. As word of the unfortunate circumstances spread throughout the stadium, our team started performing on the track in memory of our family member's mother. All of a sudden, everyone was running personal record times, jumping personal bests, and throwing further than ever before. The second day, finals, the incredible efforts increased. The 400 relay team got 4th, they were seeded 8th, a freshman high hurdler was not seeded at all but ran 3rd in the finals of the race where our senior hurdler was disqualified. At the awards stand, in one of the classiest acts I have witnessed in over 30 years of coaching, the freshman GAVE his third place medal to our greiving senior. To make a long story somewhat shorter, at the end of the day, just before the mile relay, our greiving hurdler had placed second in the 300 hurdles with the best time of his life. We had the meet won, we did not have to run the mile relay. Our team voted to run the race anyway, and let our greiving hurdler anchor the relay as an honor to him and to his mother. With nothing to win, they were dead last, but it was our anchor leg, our greiving senior hurdler, not the first and second place relays who got the cheers from the crowd. As he crossed the finish line, there was not a dry eye in the entire stadium, and the classy greiving senior hurdler was awarded the state championship trophy and banner. He then gave the trophy to the coaches and the banner to me. I have no words to express the maturity and class of youngsters like that. I just feel extremely priviledged to get to work with them.
The State Championship Banner now hangs in my classroom. I would give it up in an instant for my young hurdler to have his mother back again, but as he told me..."that was the only way my mom could have watched me run!"
I enjoy coaching champions like that!!!
So you see, all you folks' words of encouragement, and all the kind things you say here on this forum my kids read. What a wonderful blessing you folks are to my students. From the bottom of my grizzled old heart, THANK YOU.
Coach
The price of victory is sometimes so dear and so great, that the victory itself becomes secondary. I use for example this latest State Championship in Track and Field which my team won. During the first day of competition, called the 'prelim day,' my best high hurdler, a senior, was walking up to the blocks for his 110 meter high hurdle race. As a coaching staff, we had just been informed that back home, some 500 miles away, his mother had just passed away. It was to be our job as his coaches, to break the bad news to him after this race. He was rated second in the entire state in this event, and second by only 6 one-hundredths of a second. He had been training for this one race for his entire track career. He had been offered scholarships based on his placement at the State Championships. He got into his blocks and got ready. The gun sounded, and he was charged with a false start. In our state, the false start disqualified him. Later cameras and videos proved he was indeed innocent, the false start was by the young athlete next to him, but there are no appeals allowed! He was out.
He ran to the middle of the stadium, fell on his face, and cried because in his own mind, he had let his team down. It was my unenviable job to pick him up, take him to the shade of a large tree some 200 yards away, and explain to him that in addition to false starting, his mother had just passed away.
With the bad news, our young athlete fell again to the ground to once again begin his agonizing weeping. I held him as I would hold a 2 year old who had skinned a knee. All three coaches and our hurdler cried shamelessly for about half an hour. When at last his composure begin to return with time and fatigue, his first words were, "I'm not going to let this team down!" We explained that whatever he decided to do, he would not be letting his team down. We were prepared to fly him back home to be with his father and the rest of his family, but his decision was firm. He decided to stay with his team. He called his team his family!
With that decision made, we informed the rest of the team about what had happened. All of a sudden, the year long quest for a state championship was of secondary importance, and the team rallied around a hurting "family" member.
An incredible thing happened next. As word of the unfortunate circumstances spread throughout the stadium, our team started performing on the track in memory of our family member's mother. All of a sudden, everyone was running personal record times, jumping personal bests, and throwing further than ever before. The second day, finals, the incredible efforts increased. The 400 relay team got 4th, they were seeded 8th, a freshman high hurdler was not seeded at all but ran 3rd in the finals of the race where our senior hurdler was disqualified. At the awards stand, in one of the classiest acts I have witnessed in over 30 years of coaching, the freshman GAVE his third place medal to our greiving senior. To make a long story somewhat shorter, at the end of the day, just before the mile relay, our greiving hurdler had placed second in the 300 hurdles with the best time of his life. We had the meet won, we did not have to run the mile relay. Our team voted to run the race anyway, and let our greiving hurdler anchor the relay as an honor to him and to his mother. With nothing to win, they were dead last, but it was our anchor leg, our greiving senior hurdler, not the first and second place relays who got the cheers from the crowd. As he crossed the finish line, there was not a dry eye in the entire stadium, and the classy greiving senior hurdler was awarded the state championship trophy and banner. He then gave the trophy to the coaches and the banner to me. I have no words to express the maturity and class of youngsters like that. I just feel extremely priviledged to get to work with them.
The State Championship Banner now hangs in my classroom. I would give it up in an instant for my young hurdler to have his mother back again, but as he told me..."that was the only way my mom could have watched me run!"
I enjoy coaching champions like that!!!
So you see, all you folks' words of encouragement, and all the kind things you say here on this forum my kids read. What a wonderful blessing you folks are to my students. From the bottom of my grizzled old heart, THANK YOU.
Coach
