Welcome to the fall 2011 cross country season, I will be your coach. As some of you may remember from last year, I work as nam emergency room nurse for BJC from 5:45 am to 6:15 pm so practices will not be everyday after school at Marquette. For the first two weeks I will hold practices either in the morning or in the late evening around 7 pm due to both my schedule and the heat that occurs this time of year. My senior year we had a few kids that could not complete practices and others who were literally throwing up, and we did not even work out that hard. To avoid this issue, I recommend we run during the coolest parts of the day when light is still available. Right now it does not start to get dark until 8:30pm. So practices will be from 7 to 8:30 pm. On days I do not work, we will begin at 8 a.m. and will practice until 10 a.m. I still have not made up my mind on what I am going to do once school starts about practice times.
Once school starts I am going to reward anyone that can get a freshman to come to 3 or more practices. Whoever gets the most freshman to sign his/her contract will get a free T-shirt/pasta meal at Princeville’s or maybe an extra tardy. When trying to recruit freshman make sure you remind them that they letter automatically their freshman year, no other sport makes that guarantee. Also unlike any other sport you will actually be able to continue cross country until you retire and even into retirement, you cannot say that about football. Everyone thinks that when you run cross country, swimming, or a track event that you are just fit physically. The truth is that you are learning more about your body than most athletes in high school ever will. When you play basketball or football you are learning plays, how to throw or pass the ball, how to tackle or block, how to dribble, or how to read your opponent. There is a lot of running and stopping and running some more and stopping some more. In cross country its run and then run faster and when it starts to hurt you sprint. Needless to say when you can use your mind to over come the pain that your body is experiencing you are learning more about your body than most boys and girls your age will ever dream. Last year I remember telling Matt at one meet to close his eyes and just sprint to the finish. The reason I told him to do this was because it forces your mind to ignore the pain signals that are screaming at you and just put one foot in front of the other. He passed so many in the last few seconds of that race it was amazing.
Also, unlike the other sports in cross country you are forced to beat yourself, and continue getting better. Unlike other sports you cannot blame the ref or official for losing the race. You cannot blame your teammate for making you slower. In other words if you do not work hard and set a personal record this year you are the only one to blame. I have no doubt that each and every one of you can beat your best time from last year. The more effort you put in, the more reward (i.e. faster time) you will get out. Having said all that do not expect to beat your personal record every time you race. Like anyone doing anything else you will have your off days. Some days you will have a touch of the cold or your ankle hurts or maybe the last race you were feeling especially well and now you just feel par. Whatever the reason do not beat yourself up over it. Not to mention the fact that the races are not ran on the same track and thus are different lengths, yes they are meant to be measured to exactly the same but not everyone does it perfectly. Also some races are 3 miles while others are longer and are 5 K. Some tracks have more hills or rougher terrain. So if your comparing your times make sure you take these things into account.
My philosophy of coaching is to teach you to love running as much as I do and to hope that you continue running either for a college or just for fun after you graduate. Also to prepare you for becoming an adult, like any job there are rules.
1. No drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. I will leave the disciplining up to Slaughter and your parents.
2. You can only have two tardies or unexcused absences. The first time you will not be able to run in the next meet. The second time will be asked to become a manager for the team or leave. For those of you who have a problem with arriving on time pretend as if practice starts 7 minutes before it actually starts. So if you show up at 7:01 you are actually 8 minutes late if it makes you feel any better.
3. Anyone caught swearing runs a mile extra that day.
4. Have fun.
5. All the rules in the school handbook that are applicable to the sport are applied at practices and meets.
6. No standing while on the bus and no throwing anything out the window of the bus. Outside of that I do not care what you do as long as the bus is clean.
If you have to work this season for what ever reason, I am sorry. But I can and will not allow you to come to work and practices when ever you feel like it. This would be unfair to the rest of your teammates not to receive the same luxury. I understand the need to work during the summer. I worked every summer and even most of the school year at the hospital in the kitchen. It taught me a good work ethic, and a desire to work harder in school so that I did not have to work there the rest of my life. In other words I will understand and support your decision to quit the team. You are more than welcome to come whenever you want if you want to be a manager.
Unexcused absences are those in which you were not excused all day from school or those that you did not call my cell phone the morning of or day before practice and leave a message, texting is also fine. Funerals, sickness, vacation, and doctor’s appointments are all perfectly acceptable.
On this website(marquettecc.blogspot.com) I will use nicknames only since your minors. I hope to use this website as a tool to help you learn how to better run and eat, inform you of practice times and meets, and track your running ability more closely. Once the season starts the calendar on the website should be considered set in stone. If anything changes I will call you or inform you of any change at the next practice.
A quick word on diet: when in doubt eat carbs. For heavens sake please stop eating fast food before practices or meets. I do not care what you say about the food you get at McDonald’s, KFC, or Taco Bell; It is not nearly as beneficial as carbs without the greasy meat. If you are going to eat meat, eat lean meat with no gravy or fatty sauces. Also on the day of a meet and preferably on days of practice drink all day, water, water, water. Between classes drink water until you have to catch your breath. If the teacher lets you, drink water during class through a water bottle. Eat carbs not just the day of the meet but the 72 hours leading up to the meet. You can drink some Gatorade but eventually the benefits will dwindle and you will be wasting money. During practice you should drink 100 mls approx every 10 minutes. You will not get a water break, just a quick squirt from the bottle and back to work. To give you an idea of how much 100 mls is a can of soda is 360 mls.
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