It’s
been a while so there’s a lot to catch up on!
No Selfie September
recap
My
last blog turned out to have an interesting amount of conversation surrounding
it. It started as a tongue and cheek
entry about social media and how we are obsessed with taking pictures of
ourselves and ended up being the most read blog I’ve ever had – by a lot.
No
Selfie September actually got a bit of media attention. I did interviews with KWCH, KSN and two
newspapers about it. The blog got over twice
as many views as any of the previous ones.
The American Heart Association got on board and helped with promotion as
well. I met a lot of cool people through
the process and made some new friends.
All
in all I think it went well. “Causes”
like this that are successful don’t happen overnight. We’ll probably try it again next year and
thank you to everyone who participated!
What have I been up
to in September besides not taking selfies?
Actually
quite a bit!
We’ve
started track practice. Cross Country
has gotten off to a good start.
Recruiting is in full swing. I’ve
been watching lots of movies.
Track practice begins
The
college track and field season is a long grind but it’s necessary to make sure
our athletes stay fit year round and are ready for the 5-6 months of
competition that begins in the winter.
After
having the athletes train on their own all summer, we start preseason
conditioning about the third week of school – which means we’ve completed about
four weeks of conditioning up to this point.
We have one more full week before we do some testing and give the
athletes some time off for Fall Break.
We
are trying to accomplish several things during our conditioning phase, here are
a few:
---
Getting in shape --- most of our athletes come back to school in good shape so
there are only a few of them that we have to actually “get in shape”. What we’re really talking about here is
getting the athletes in shape enough to start serious training in mid-October. If we jump right into serious training when
we get back we would have a lot of injured Shockers so we work into things with
lots of running and jumping activities that are focused on building a base of
fitness in several different areas.
---
Establishing a tough mental mindset --- Nothing will make you doubt yourself
more than a tough running workout in 95 degree heat or intense circuit training
at 6am on a Friday morning. But getting
through these demanding workouts start to build confidence little by little in
an athlete and by the end of the conditioning period most athletes feel a sense
of accomplishment.
---
Integrating the newcomers into the group with upperclassmen --- The first few
weeks of college are a very up and down time for most freshmen. Add into the mix trying to fit in with a
bunch of new teammates and trying to impress a bunch of new coaches. Most newcomers have no idea what it takes to
be a successful Division I athlete and they start to figure it out during this
early process when they train next to athletes who have been successful at this
level already. Our upperclassmen have
done a good job in welcoming our newcomers into the fold and it’s been fun
watching them start to bond together as a team.
---
Establishing a positive team culture --- We want track practice to be a place
that everyone can’t wait to get to everyday because of how much fun they have
with their teammates. So far it’s been
pretty good and even the tough days have brought the team closer together. And when I say establish a positive culture I
don’t just mean telling them how good they are and how much we like them. As coaches we are pretty tough right now and
demand they be on time, warmup properly, complete every repetition, and so
on. We aren’t trying to be their best
friends – we’re trying to teach them how to train and get ready to be
champions. Winning championships and
reaching potential is one of the best ways to create a positive culture. Everyone wants to be part of a winner and
we’ve been fortunate to have some great athletes that continue to enhance the
positive culture of our team.
We’re
about a week away from doing some testing events so we will see how much we’ve
progressed from a year ago very soon!
Cross Country off to
a good start
Coach
Hunter has built a terrific distance program over the years and this could be
one of his best teams yet.
The
Cross Country team started with winning our own JK Gold Classic handily over
Kansas State and Oral Roberts. Since
then they’ve only competed a few athletes in a couple of small meets. This weekend they will get their first real
test of the season as they head to the University of Arkansas for the annual
Chile Pepper Festival.
After
that will be the Pre-Nationals in Louisville in mid-October before heading to
Evansville for the MVC Championships on October 31. Both our men’s and women’s teams have been
picked third in the MVC. We are hoping
for an even better result in a little over a month!
Recruiting
Since
the NCAA moved the early signing period up to November two years ago it has
definitely made our job in recruiting a little different. With more and more athletes wanting to decide
by that early date we have to be prepared and ready to start earlier.
My
office has a calendar that lists all the recruits we have coming on visits in red. The month
of October will soon be filled with a lot of red. Our coaches have been doing a good job in
locating and contacting lots of terrific prospects and we’re ready to have some
talented new future Shockers sign in November.
I’ll
be on the road this week for a couple days visiting multiple athletes and
hopefully convincing them to make an official visit to Wichita State. I always enjoy getting out on the road and
visiting athletes at their schools or homes.
The respect Wichita State gets now is much greater than when I first
arrived 10 years ago so I’m always excited to hit the road!
Movies
I’ve
been to the movie theater five times in the month of September and, as usual,
it wasn’t to see a superhero movie or romantic comedy.
I
started the month by seeing an independent movie called Mistress America. It’s about
a lonely college freshman who gets into a crazy adventure with her soon to be
stepsister. There’s no major stars
involved and it has only had a limited release.
Luckily Wichita has a theater (Warren 13th) that shows these
kinds of movies. Did I like the
movie? I’d say yes. It was interesting for the most part and had
several funny moments. It had some
underlying commentary on how some young people these days have great ambition
but not enough focus and follow through to achieve what they want. It also kind of reminded me of the 1992
comedy Noises Off with how the
actors read their lines and worked together in a sort of slapstick way at
times. I would recommend it for a
viewing whenever it comes out on home rental.
Another
great thing about living in Wichita is sometimes they play old movies in the
main movie theaters. I also happen to
live within walking distance of one of those theaters so I was able to see the
1984 cult classic Repo Man on the
big screen. I’ve never seen this Emilio
Estevez movie before and definitely wasn’t disappointed. It was funny, odd and downright weirdly
entertaining. And it only cost $5. This week they’re showing 2001: A Space Odyssey and I will be
there to watch it.
I
got invited to watch the CNN Republican
Debate, which was being shown in a theater and hosted by a local State
Senator. It was actually pretty
entertaining to watch the debate and listen the people around me talk about it
and cheer for the person they would like to become president. While I didn’t stay for the entire 3+ hour
debate I was glad to have gone. I watch
politics like I watch movies – for the entertainment.
I
saw the new M. Night Shyamalan movie The
Visit as well this month. Shyamalan
was once one of the hottest directors in Hollywood with movies like The Sixth Sense and Signs but has fallen on hard times
recently as most of his latest movies have not had critical success. So I guess you could say I was pleasantly
surprised when I really liked The Visit.
It’s about two kids that take a week to stay with their grandparents and
then find out their grandparents aren’t very normal after 9:30pm every
night. It has similarities to the Paranormal Activity movies but with
more humor. I definitely enjoyed my 94
minutes of watching and if you like humor with some creepiness then you will
like this movie too.
The
final movie I saw was one of the many faith based movies that have come out
recently, this one was called War Room. In the last couple years there have been a
lot of effort put forth from a group of filmmakers to come out with several
Christian oriented movies that Hollywood would generally shy away from
making. I enjoyed the movie Fireproof with Kirk Cameron a few years
back and the same director made War Room.
It was a decent movie that was predictable and spoke to its target
audience well about people struggling with marriage and staying faithful. I don’t think it’s going to get a bunch of
non-Christian types motivated to get out and see it but I’ve noticed it’s doing
well at the box office so expect to see more and more of these types of movies
because there are people who want to see them.
Myself, I’ll probably stick to cult classics and independent films for
the most part but I appreciate that these movies are out there because there is
an audience that wants them.
Next time
This
blog has gone on long enough, hopefully it won’t be a month before I write
another one. I’ll be giving updates on
our practices as well as Cross Country.
And I also turn 41 years old soon so anyone who wants to donate to
another good cause feel free to let me know!
Until
then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!
