USTFCCCA Convention recap

I’ve been bad at blogging in the last few months because of a variety of reasons but I will try to do better!  I’ve had several people ask me to keep it up so for my loyal followers (about 10 of you) I will do my best.  I have a lot of things I would like to write about and I’m not sure where to start.  With the holiday break coming up I will probably write several blogs about a variety of topics but for this week I will keep it to ……

The USTFCCCA Convention

Every year the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) holds their annual convention where track and field coaches from all levels, divisions and from all around the country converge for a week of learning and discussing our favorite sport.

A lot of people ask me what goes on at this convention so I will keep a “sort of” journal of the happenings.

Here goes …..

Monday

With the convention being in San Antonio this week, most of our staff decided to make the 9-hour drive from Wichita together (Coach Rainbolt went down early).  We have five of our full-time staffers on the trip so the 15 passenger van wasn’t too crowded.  We rolled out of WSU at 8:30am and headed south!

Our Director of Operations Ryan Patton took the first shift and drove us to Ardmore, Oklahoma, where we stopped off for lunch.  Being a night person myself, and waiting to pack until around midnight, I slept most of the morning.

Pole Vault coach Pat Wilson took the wheel next and gave us his thoughts on some of the best music bands of his generation.  Pat used to be a drummer in a local band so he definitely knows his stuff.  Don’t ever try to play name that tune with Coach Wilson.

I took over after dinner and we rolled into San Antonio around 8pm.  There were already dozens of coaches starting to socialize in the lobby of the JW Marriott.  After a quick run and shower I headed down to say hey and have a drink with some of my coaching friends.  Besides the WSU coaches, I saw my good friend Sean Lonergan from Stephen F Austin, Keith Roberts and Alonzo Webb from Pitt, Wendel McRaven from Texas A&M, Adam Bray from Pitt, the list goes on and on.  These late night socials create conversations from simply catching up with each other to talking about the future of our sport.

I was waiting up late to wait for former Shocker Nate Thiesfeld (who coaches at High Point University) to arrive from a delayed flight but eventually had to head to bed because Tuesday I’ll be playing in the annual golf outing and need to be up early.  The outing will be played on the very difficult TPC San Antonio which has been the host of the PGA’s Valero Texas Open.  I haven’t played golf in a couple months so hopefully I can keep it in the fairway.  Luckily it’s a scramble format so I only have to play ¼ as good as normal.

Tuesday

I woke up around 6:30am and walked over to the TPC San Antonio Oaks Course that is on the property of the JW Marriott.  It is host to the Valero Texas Open on the PGA Tour and fellow Kent State alum Ben Curtis won here in 2012.

There were about 20 teams of four playing in the coaches tournament and my team included our head coach Steve Rainbolt, former Shocker jumps coach (and now Southern Illinois coach) Terry VanLaningham and Black Hills State University head coach Seth Mischke (our ringer).  It was a fun and difficult course to play and led by Seth we shot 8-under par 64 to tie for third place.  We all took home about $300 worth of Nike golf stuff.  Good times!

Golfing took longer than scheduled and none of us had eaten lunch so I went with Terry and Seth to get some Chinese food around 3pm instead of hitting up some of the teaching symposiums.  I made sure our volunteer sprint coach Shamoya went to them and she filled me in on what happened later that evening.

After a power nap we all got dressed up to attend the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.  The USTFCCCA does a very professional job in all aspects of the convention and especially on events like the Hall of Fame (and later this week the Bowerman Awards).  There were six men and women being honored and after a short film each of them spoke about their careers and the people who influenced them the most.  It was a long ceremony (over 3 hours) but I enjoyed listening to the legends of our sport talk track.  There were some crazy and hilarious stories told as well as some tears shed.

Around 11pm everyone was pretty tired but we met up in one of the hotel rooms and chatted with new and old colleagues until around 2am.  I finally got a chance to meet up with Nate Thiesfeld as well as hanging out with other High Point and Stephen F Austin coaches.  I fell asleep around 2:30am.

Wednesday

Being slightly deprived of sleep, I decided to sleep in until 9am and then catch a symposium by former Illinois sprint/hurdle coach Gary Winkler about the do’s and don’ts of training.  Gary is a great coach and I always enjoy listening to what he has to say – and usually it reinforces what we are already doing.  This symposium was no different.  Good stuff.  Also Carl Lewis (coaches at Houston) sat right in front of me for the session.

Then it was off to the “Opening Session” where everyone gathers to honor national champion coaches from 2015 and listen to the keynote speaker.  This year’s speaker was Oliver Luck from the NCAA (he’s also NFL Quarterback Andrew Luck’s dad).  He gave a lengthy speech about the issues facing the NCAA as we head into the next few years.  He didn’t talk very specifically about track and field, which was disappointing, but overall it was a good speech and we were all ready for lunch.

Later in the afternoon we had our first NCAA Division I General Session.  This is where the coaches at the DI level get together to talk about issues surrounding our sport and how to make it better.  Sometimes there are entertaining arguments but usually it’s pretty cordial and informative.  After this meeting we broke out into meetings with our conferences so the Missouri Valley Conference coaches discussed some of the same issues in a smaller forum.  One of the main discussions was should we change the outdoor 1500m race to the Mile.  The 1500m is the international distance but most Americans connect with the Mile better.  We will vote on these issues Friday morning and if they pass it will go to the NCAA for approval.  Sometimes we vote overwhelmingly for an issue and the NCAA still rejects it.

After the meetings, Mondo sponsored a fantastic BBQ dinner where we all ate way too much really good food.  They also had some fun stuff like wall climbing, skeet shooting, photo booths, etc. but mostly we just hung out and socialized with our fellow coaches.  I spent most of my night with my good friend Kevin Lucas who is the head coach at Mount Union, a D3 school in Ohio.  We went to the same high school and it is always fun to catch up with him and his wife Holly who is speaking at the convention about “Preparing for your future after coaching”.  She’s a lawyer.  Kevin did good, haha.

I also got to hang out with former Shocker coach Marc Burns (currently at Missouri) and former Kent State coach Wendel McRaven (currently at Texas A&M).  It’s always interesting to hear stories from the SEC and of course they love to hear stories about Coach Rainbolt.

Turning in around 1am tonight. Thursday will be full of activities once again including the annual Bowerman Awards, which crowns the top NCAA Track & Field athletes of the year!

Thursday

I woke up early Thursday to get some complimentary breakfast and then workout before heading to hear Virginia Tech coach Dave Cianelli speak about building track and field programs as well as Ralph Lindeman talk about the high hurdles.  There was also a lunch sponsored by Nike before heading to another of the NCAA DI General Sessions.

But the highlight of the day was the Bowerman Awards, which is basically the Heisman Trophy of Track and Field.  I’ve been fortunate to attend each of the award ceremonies since it began in 2009 and it’s always a very classy presentation.  This year ESPN’s John Anderson was the host (he was a high jumper at Missouri) and, like in previous years, he was very funny and did a great job.

Oregon sprinter/jumper Jenna Prandini and Florida jumper Marquis Dendy won and everyone had a great evening.  Afterwards I got to hang out with former Shocker coach Joe Eby (now at Baldwin Wallace) and our Shocker coaches.  I went to bed reasonably early (11pm) because Friday would be a long drive home.

Friday

The main thing that happens on the final day of the convention is voting on topics that we may or may not send to the NCAA committee for review for Division I T&F.  Here is a review of the topics and what the voting results were:

The first proposal was to add scholarships that would be designated for cross country and it failed 194-191.  This was the closest vote of the convention.  This is a very complicated proposal that is hard to fairly explain on both sides so I won’t go into great detail here but, obviously, it was split amongst the coaches.  Generally the Power 5 coaches voted for it while the others voted against.

The next proposal passed easily 331-65, where the NCAA would come up with a practice schedule for the championships.  The practice days are kind of crazy at a facility with hundreds of people trying to workout so this proposal would help alleviate some of that cluster.  Hopefully the NCAA comes up with something that works for everyone.

Another vote that passed 258-113 was to define what a track and field meet competition is.  This seems obvious but it’s the first step in helping define our sport a little bit better for the general public.  This will not change most track meets in any manner.

The next one was hotly debated – should we stay with the 1500m or go back to the Mile at the NCAA DI level?  Going back to the mile won 221-169.  This was interesting because usually distance coaches generally agree with each other but this one was split.  We will see if the NCAA approves it, and if so it may go into effect in 2017.

The next proposal was also aggressively debated.  It was to reduce the number of All-American awards from the current (top 8 first team, next 8 second team, next 8 honorable mention) to just the top-8 for All-American status.  It was defeated 238-160.  This topic had the most discussion of any proposal and it looks like we will stay with the same system for honoring All-Americans.

The final proposal was a minor one that passed 311-91 where teams have to have the same uniform for the duration of each day of competition.  For example you can’t have sprinters in black and throwers in gold on the same day.

After the voting we packed up and headed back to Wichita around 11am.  I drove the final leg from Dallas and we got home around 10pm.  Myself and Coach Wilson spent most of the trip talking about our team and the upcoming season.  We’re both excited to get things going in January!  I slept in until 11am Saturday.

Final thoughts

I always enjoy going to the USTFCCCA Convention and this one was no different.  Mostly I enjoyed reconnecting with friends and colleagues that I rarely see anymore but I also enjoy learning things at the symposiums and listening to the proposals that try and better our sport.

Next year we will go to Orlando!  

Next time

So many things to talk about but I’ll probably give an update on our team, how the Intrasquad Meet went and our expectations for the year.

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

The grind of Fall track practice, XC battles for titles and Who-Dey!

I apologize for not being more consistent with these blogs – luckily I don’t write for a living.  I’ve actually been pretty busy and I’m sure you all feel very sorry for me.

What is the track team up to?

Most of the attention lately has been on our cross country team (see more about them below) but the tracksters have been busy too.

October and November are real grinds for athletes who aren’t competing.  There aren’t any competitions and the training is often brutal in building up a large foundation to be ready to compete from January until the summer.  We do our best to keep these 18-23 year olds interested and motivated, but to be honest I can’t wait for the season to start either!

We do have some important things we’re focusing towards, however.  We only have 3-4 weeks of the academic semester remaining and we stress the importance of finishing strong in the classroom just like on the track.  The other thing we have coming up is our annual Intrasquad Meet on December 4 in the Heskett Center.

Last week we had the “Draft” where the upperclassmen members of the Gold, White and Black squads pick new teammates from the class of newcomers.  It’s always fun to see everyone trying to get to know each other because of the common characteristic of competitiveness.  Our Intrasquad Meet is probably the most intense and fun “scrimmages” you would ever see – complete with a tug-of-war at the end!

Cross Country battles to high finishes at the MVC Championships

Myself and a few other Shocker coaches took the 650 mile van ride east to Evansville, Indiana, to watch our distance runners vie for titles in last week’s MVC Championships.  In a couple of exciting races we watched our women finish a strong second and our men tie for second.  Our men ended up losing a tiebreaker for the second place trophy.

Do you know how ties are broken in cross country?  Most people would think you take the best sixth place runner (our sixth guy was well ahead of Illinois State’s).  In fact what they do is compare the top five runners head to head (we lost that 3-2).  The guys only lost first place by 11 points so you can imagine their frustration when they found out they lost a tie for second.

However, we have a lot of really good distance runners on both sides and we think they’re going to score a lot of points on the track this winter and spring.  They run this week at the NCAA Midwest Regionals in Lawrence, Kansas, on the famous Rim Rock Farm Course.

It’s the early signing period!

For one week in November (Nov 11-17) athletes can sign National Letters of Intent for NCAA Division I track and field.  We are excited to have at least four new Shockers signing this week with the possibility of a few more by early next week.  We have sent out around a dozen NLI’s and are anxiously awaiting for many of them to come back.

We have some more athletes coming on visits in the next few weeks and then recruiting will ease back a bit during the holiday season.

 

The Bengals are 8-0!

Just wanted to rub it in to my Steelers and Browns friends.  Lord knows I was the recipient of the same for most of the 1990’s and 2000’s.  Who-Dey!

Movies!!!

I’ve been seeing a steady diet of movies (about one a week) and they’ve been hit and miss.

I saw the Steven Spielberg directed movie Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks.  It was also written by the Coen Brothers (Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Fargo).  It’s a true story about an American Lawyer (Hanks) who is recruited to defend a Soviet spy during the Cold War.  It started a little slow but then built into a pretty darn good movie by the end.  This is a difficult topic to make interesting for two hours but Spielberg did a nice job.  After the movie I wanted to learn more about the lawyer Hanks played and his life after where the movie left off.  I would say that is a sign of a good movie.

Next I saw the final (so they say) movie in the series, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.  I have seen three of the previous five PA’s and have generally liked them.  I thought the original was great and PA3 was equally entertaining and spooky.  This last one was pretty solid but probably not as good as some of the earlier ones.  It’s a similar plot and has a little more in the way of CGI/technology involved in the making.  If you like these movies I’m sure you’ll like this one too.  If you don’t care for these “found footage” type movies then take a pass.

The last movie I saw was Steve Jobs about the former president and CEO of Apple.  The movie had been getting great reviews but had struggled at the box office so I figured I would check it out before it was gone from theaters.  While it was well made and offered good acting from a variety of people it was just too dialogue driven for me.  And that’s weird for me to say because I generally like movies driven by a lot of clever and well written dialogue.  I think the problem for me was this movie wasn’t that clever.  It’s not a bad movie by any means but I was probably expecting more.

Next time

Shocker basketball is getting started!  Our guys are ranked #10 and looking strong again.  Depending on how long it takes me to write another blog I’m sure I’ll be talking about the Intrasquad Meet and our new recruits (and hopefully gloating about more Bengals wins).

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

Fall testing, Bolt plays 58 holes of golf and the Tallgrass Film Festival hits Wichita

Well I haven’t been able to write much recently because I’ve been pretty busy.  October is a very busy but great month for me.  Here’s the halfway recap:

Shocker T&F makes fall transition

I tell people that October is the best month for weather in Wichita and this year has not disappointed.  We haven’t had to go indoor for any practices yet and the forecast continues to look good for the rest of the month.

We have finished our early season conditioning and have moved into the first part of our specific preparation phase.  In the middle we did some testing to see how our athletes are progressing.  Over the years we have done many different tests but have settled on seven in the past decade or so.  I created a scoring chart for each event and we make a “Heptathlon” competition out of it to create some fun and to see how an athlete improves (or occasionally doesn’t) from year to year.

The top scores are usually around 6000 points.  Heptathlete Nikki Larch-Miller broke our all-time record with a score of 6348 while jumper Shazz-Michael Lindo won the men’s competition with 6043 points.  It’s fun to have something that all the event areas (with the exception of throws and distance) can compete and get intense with in the mid-fall time period.

Overall our men had an average improvement of 56 points per person.  We had two guys who went down significantly because of injury or our average would’ve been around +120.  Our women averaged around +150 so they had some great testing results.  Of athletes who had testing in previous years, 26 out of 34 improved.  Of the eight who didn’t improve, injuries were the main reason and a few only went down a few points.

What do the testing results mean?

Testing shows us two things:  1) Where an athlete is strong or weak in specific areas and 2) How well they have prepared for the track season.

What it doesn’t tell us is how good of a season someone will have.  It can give us clues but the real work is still ahead of us in the specific preparation phases and, of course, track meets.

But overall I would say we were pleased with how the fall conditioning period went and are excited about the 2016 season!

What is the rest of the team doing?

The throwers recently completed their own testing that involved some jumping and explosive throwing events.  Coach Hetzendorf does this the first week of practice as well as after Fall Break (which was last week).  Next weekend (October 24) is the annual Throws Pentathlon in which our throwers (and others) can compete in all five throwing events (Shot Put, Discus, Hammer, Javelin and Weight Throw) in a Pentathlon-type scoring competition.  It’s a great chance to see a preview of our throwers – we have some great ones!

Cross Country has been up and down in their last couple of competitions but looks poised to finish strong at the MVC Championships.  They went over to Arkansas and ran really well placing 3^rd (men) and 4^th (women) overall with several very good performances.  This weekend they struggled a bit at the Pre-Nationals in Louisville placing 36^th (women) and 37^th (men) overall in the seeded race of over 40 teams.  We are excited to head to Evansville, Indiana, in two weeks to see how we stack up with the rest of the Valley!

Coach Rainbolt’s crazy golf-a-thon

For the 2^nd year in a row, Coach Rainbolt did a birthday challenge that involved golf and raising money for Shocker T&F.  As he will be turning 58 years old soon, he WALKED 58 holes of golf.  It took 11 hours and he covered over 23 miles!  So he basically did a marathon while playing golf.  Here is a video that was put together about his day.  HERE IS THE VIDEO.

Morning workout video

Another video that was done by one of our decathletes Seth Buck has become pretty popular.  It’s about our early morning Friday workouts we do in the Fall.  Thanks to Seth for putting this together – cool stuff!  HERE IS THE VIDEO.

Recruiting

October is a very busy month in recruiting as it seems we have potential Shockers on campus almost every day of the month.  The early signing period is less than a month away so we are working hard to get kids in on visits.  So far we only have one verbal commitment but we expect to have several more in the coming weeks.  Because of NCAA rules I can’t speak specifically about who we are recruiting or signing until they actually sign so there’s not much more I can say here.  Although I can say I’ve been on the road a few times to talk with lots of coaches and athletes and it’s one of my favorite things to do besides coaching!

This guy turned 41 last week!

Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday or was part of the festivities!  Even though I’m 41 years old I only feel like …. well probably 41.  However, I’ve been told I act younger - not sure if that’s good or bad but I’m going to take it as a compliment. J

Movies!!!

I’ve really been watching a lot of movies lately – and this weekend was the annual Tallgrass Film Festival, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.  Here’s a recap:

I was able to see the 1974 sci-fy classic 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen about two weeks ago.  I had seen bits pieces of the Stanley Kubrick movie online but never had watched it all.  My initial reaction was mixed.  It looks great and for a movie that was made over 40 years ago, it holds up extremely well in terms on what a realistic portrayal of outer space might be.  It’s just really, really, REALLY slow at times.  I’m glad a saw it, I just probably won’t try to sit through it again.

Ironically enough, the next movie I saw was also about outer space, The Martian.  It stars Matt Damon as a man that gets left behind on Mars and has to figure out how to survive for several years before he can be rescued.  I thought it was a good movie.  It had a good sense of humor and was creative in how Damon’s character fought for his life.  It was a little long but overall I recommend it.  It’s killing it at the box office as well so it’s been a very successful movie.

Next I saw the drug/illegal alien/drama movie called Sicario.  This was the best movie I’ve seen in quite a while.  It stars Emily Blount as a FBI agent that joins a task force led by Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro that is fighting the drugs wars between the US and Mexico.  It’s an intense movie from start to finish and Del Toro is definitely the guy who steals the show.  What I really liked about the movie is that you never really know who the good guys or bad guys are.  And even after the movie you’re left thinking about how you might handle the same situation.  If this is an accurate description of the current state of the drug wars then there is no simple solution that any politician running for president can figure out.

This weekend the Tallgrass Film Festival rolled into town with over 200 movies around the city of Wichita.  This is a great thing for our city and I try to get out and support it as much as possible if I’m in town.  Luckily this weekend I was!

The first movie I saw was called Uncanny and was about the world’s first perfect Artificial Intelligence robot and the way it interacted with a reporter that came to do a story about him and the scientist who created it.  I thought it was a really good movie and an example of how there are so many good movies out there that never see the light of day in terms of commercial success.  The director of the movie was in attendance and answered questions afterwards.  I was amazed to find out it was done for only $200,000 (I guessed $2 million) and filmed in only 12 days.  This is why I often don’t go to see big budget movies that were made for over $100 million.  I wish more people were able to see great small budget movies like this and created more demand for them by mainstream movie theaters.

One of my favorite things at these movie festivals is watching the “shorts”.  Shorts are movies that are generally less than an hour (usually 10-20 minutes).  They will group several shorts together to have a 90 minute to two hour long show.  I won’t go into detail about all of them (I saw 16 short films over two different shows) but there are two that stuck out.  If you can ever find Texting: A Love Story or Larry Gone Demon you will not be disappointed.  It was also cool to see that five of the movies were made in Kansas and one in Wichita.

I also saw a great documentary called Bounce: How the Ball Taught the World to Play.  Basically, it was about how sports (and balls) have evolved and been a common centerpiece through history in teaching all of us to have fun through competition and games.  They did a great job with talking about a lot of different sports and a lot of different points of history.  I imagine this documentary will make its way onto Netflix or something in the not too distant future so check it out if you get a chance!

Next time

My head is spinning at the moment so I don’t know what I will talk about in the next blog.  If it’s in two weeks I am hoping to talk about a great MVC Cross Country meet and how the Bengals are 7-0!

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

"No Selfie" recap, Track practice begins and M. Night makes a good movie

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 13^th) 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!

Introducing ..... No Selfie September - spread the word!

Introducing “No Selfie September!”

Last week I shared some thoughts about what coaching young people in the age of social media was like and how we need to continue to use that platform responsibly.  Now let’s take some action!

Think of “No Selfie September” as the new Ice Bucket Challenge.  #NoSelfieSeptember

The Ice Bucket Challenge was a very effective way to raise money for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).  It seemed like everyone on my Facebook feed dumped a bucket of water over their head to raise awareness for ALS.  No Selfie September can not only benefit a great charity but it can help YOU become less of a narcissist person as well!  Win-Win!

How does it work?

Well … try to not take any pictures of yourself for a month.

None at all?

I know this will be hard to do for some of you but let’s dig in deep and do it for a great cause!

Don’t take a single picture of yourself for the entire month of September.  No Snapchats, no Facebook profile pics, no Twitter pics, no Instagram selfies.  If you receive a selfie from someone else on your phone call them out on it!

Put away your selfie sticks.  If you need a picture of yourself for some reason – have someone else take it.

What on Earth can I take pictures of if I don’t take them of myself?

Anything and everything around you!  This world is full of incredible scenes and astounding beauty everywhere!  You’re friends know what you look like already!  Show them something they haven’t seen!

In fact you don’t even have to take ANY pictures.  How about just opening your eyes and realizing what a special place you’re in and what special people are parts of your lives!

Coach Wise, I’m not sure I can do this

I know it will be a tough month.  I know how hard it will be to not take your phone and fixate it on your face until the perfect angle and expression are present.  Let’s remember the words of Olympic sprinter Wilma Rudolph, “The triumph can’t be without the struggle.”

Rudolph was born premature, contracted infantile paralysis at age four, wore leg and foot braces until nine and had bouts of polio and scarlet fever by age 12.  She went on to win three Olympic gold medals in the sprints in 1960.

I think you can go a month without taking a selfie.

How can this help a charity?

If you catch someone taking a picture of themselves, simply let them know it’s No Selfie September and now they need to make a small donation to the American Heart Association.

One out of every three deaths in the United States is a result of heart disease.  The link to donate to the AHA is ….. https://donatenow.heart.org/

Spread the word on social media using the hashtag #NoSelfieSeptember.

Can you conquer the No Selfie September challenge?

Let’s make the month of September the most unselfish month of the year! 

#NoSelfieSeptember

Coaching in the age of social media

School has started at Wichita State and we have been busy getting everyone through the initial meetings and paperwork that happens every year.  It’s all pretty boring stuff so I’m gonna skip the weekly update and talk about …..

Coaching in the age of social media

If you’re at least 30 years old and have been in charge of young people for most of your professional life, this entry should probably hit home.

I’m 40 years old and have been on the positive side of technology most of my life.  My family had Texas Instruments and Commodore 64 computers when I was a kid and I was an Information Systems major in college.  Even though I was an IS major the first time I ever heard about email was my freshman year at Kent State.  I was actually writing handwritten letters to friends before we figured out this whole Internet and email thing.  I started the website KentTrack.com sometime around 1995 and it was one of the first of its kind.  I helped design the original website for Kent State Athletics shortly thereafter.  Long story short – I’m a guy who has always been into computers and technology.

It’s something we talk about in our office on an almost daily basis.  It’s something we talk with our team about on a regular basis.

There is good and bad about what technology has done to young people.

The good …

A lot of the older generation looks unfavorably at what cell phones and social media has done to young people but there are plenty of good things that have come from it.

Kids are generally more informed nowadays because they are constantly reading things online.  They’re more worldly and aware of social and cultural nuances.  When I was growing up I had to wait for the newspaper the next day to get new information.  Now newspapers are heading towards extinction and being replaced by 140 character updates on Twitter and things like blogs (haha).

You can get information out to the public about your organization or team much easier now.  Being a track coach, it had always been frustrating to hope that the newspaper or television might put a snippet about you in their reports but now we’ve virtually created our own media markets where we can promote ourselves as much as we want.

Going online has helped the sport of track and field.  Even though this week’s World Championships of Track and Field is only broadcast sporadically on television, I’m able to watch the entire meet on my computer.  We don’t have the following of the general public like football, basketball or baseball but we have a large online community that continues to grow through the years.

I also think young people are able to multi task better than the older generation.  They might not always use their multi-tasking skills for productive things but they probably have more skill because they are constantly doing multiple things at once.

It’s been great for me to keep up to date with friends from all over the world as well.  Thanks to Facebook and Twitter I still keep in touch with people I never would’ve been able to without it.

The bad …

I feel fortunate to have been born when I was.  I saw everything evolve growing up but it didn’t consume us as kids.  We still went outside to play every day.  If we had a bad day and had to deal with our problems, we talked it out with our parents or other family and close friends.  There was no outlet to complain or seek sympathy from anyone else.

Nowadays, the smallest frustration or problem for a young person goes out on one of the many social media platforms and when adults see this we generally roll our eyes and wonder why they need to vent in a fashion that makes them look more immature than they are.

When you put a negative post on social media one of two things generally happen.  The first thing is you get a bunch of people coming to your defense saying that everything will be ok.  The other thing that can happen is no one responds or comments on the post.

Both of these actions end up bad for the kids who posts the negative or whiny message.  The people who are responding in a supportive way by saying “its ok it’s not your fault” is not really helping the person deal with the frustration they have.  They are merely just piling on and enabling that person to feel better without dealing with the situation.  As adults we (usually) understand how important it is to deal with problems head on so they don’t come back again.

Not saying anything in response to the message can make the original poster feel like no one cares about them.  This isn’t the case but when kids (or sometimes idiot adults) are so wrapped up in their online personality it can feel like they are now isolated, which obviously isn’t good.

Needless to say cell phones have made young people more easily distracted.  They can’t sit and listen to coaches talk for more than a few minutes without losing attention.  It’s not totally their fault, society has allowed this to happen.  Sometimes I feel bad for them and am thankful I’m not that way.

Social media has become a place to promote yourself which makes the user more and more narcissistic every day.  Taking selfies and talking about things in your life that pertain to no one but yourself makes you more selfish.  It’s not a coincidence the words selfie and selfish are almost the same.

How does this affect an athlete?

What we have found is that many, many more athletes now have a false sense of reality as they enter college.  They have received more attention growing up and put more focus on themselves instead of what it means to be a valuable member of a team.

At the Division I level it can be a very humbling experience.  Almost all of these athletes were among the best on their team and state and when they start competing against some of the best collegiate athletes, and get whooped on a consistent basis, many of them aren’t prepared emotionally to handle it.  Instead of looking at the big picture and how to grind their way step-by-step up the ladder they often look for support through social media and a quick fix.

How often to you see a young athlete say “Worst day ever” or some other negative phrase along with a bunch of sad face emoji’s?  This is not the foundation of a tough minded athlete.

What do we do about it?

Not every young person handles social media and technology incorrectly but as educators or mentors we have to continue to help them understand why it’s important to handle it correctly.  As I have talked about previously it’s not all bad and for us to totally trash their use of technology will only hurt our efforts in getting through.

As with most things in life, moderate usage is ok.  Is it bad to have an adult beverage from time to time?  No.  It is bad to become an alcoholic?  Yes.  Kids get “drunk” on social media and before too long they are controlled by it.

Parents need to be aware of what their kids post on social media and deal with it before it gets out of control.  That means you need to try and understand it so you can effectively monitor what your kids are doing.  It’s not going away anytime soon.  Often kids arrive to college and we have to really reign them in before they start representing themselves, their school and their team in negative light.  It’s a life lesson they need to understand.  Employers (and college recruiters) look at the online lives of young people all the time and it can make the difference in the having the chance of a lifetime or not.

Last week we had a meeting with our newcomers and I challenged them to not tweet or post about themselves for a week.  Post a message about a friend or something that is informative.  I’ve already seen many of them not be able to follow through on the challenge.  It’s ok for now because I hope the point begins to sink in and over time I hope they understand that technology isn’t always the answer.

Hey old people!  Continue fighting the good fight to help our young people understand why it’s important to have moderation with technology but we have to continue to understand things from their perspectives too.  If we don’t we’ll just sound like a bunch of old fogey’s.

Next blog

You’ll definitely want to come back next week as I will piggyback on this blog with a big announcement!

Until then thanks for reading -- Go Shocks!!!

Summer's over, MVC changes almost complete and Straight Outta Compton is really good

It’s the final days before the school year begins so this will probably be the last blog that represents summertime.  That’s good and bad.

End of summer/beginning of school year

The summer always seems a little too short for track coaches.  And the better your athletes are the shorter your summer becomes.  With national and international meets going into the month of July it only leaves a few weeks before mid-August as a “kind of break”.  I took a few days to head “home” to Ohio last week but it was only after stopping in St Louis for the MVC coaches meetings.

I got a chance to work a clinic at my old high school, Eastern Brown.  It was a lot of fun stopping by Eastern for a while (even though the school I attended is no longer there).  We also had an Eastern track alumni gathering afterwards where lots of former Warriors got together and told stories of when we were young and athletic.  I also got to see some former athletes from when I coached there from 2004-06.  It was a place that I really fell in love with coaching – lots of great memories and great people!

Our team arrived back to campus Wednesday for some meetings and other things like physicals, eye exams, etc.  School begins tomorrow (Monday) which seems pretty early but we get quite a long break over winter break.

Most of my communication with the athletes over the summer has been by text message so it’ll be great to see the Shockers back on campus and to start working with the newcomers.  The beginning of the year is always full of excitement for what could be a great year and this year should be no different.

MVC Meetings

No major changes or developments came out of the MVC coaches meetings last week although one addition to how we broadcast the championships were announced.

The MVC has gone into a long term agreement with ESPN for many things (mostly basketball) and one of the things that came out of it was they will broadcast both the MVC Indoor and Outdoor Championships on ESPN3.  Last year only the indoor meet was on ESPN3.  This is only the beginning as the plan is to expand Olympic sports coverage on the network significantly over the coming years.  We have always streamed our Wichita State home meets online but it looks like we may move towards a more professional presentation in the years ahead.  The 2016 year will be the same as in the past but hopefully by 2017 we’ll be ready to make the change for the home meets.

MVC coaching changes

Last time I mentioned the coaching changes in the MVC and there has been some movement in that area as well.

Dave Paulson, who coaches the distance runners at Northern Iowa, has been promoted to the Interim Head Coach position at UNI.  I’ve known Dave for a long time and he’ll do a great job maintaining the strong tradition for the Panthers.

SIU hired former Sacramento State coach Cathleen Raskey as their new head coach.  We’ve known Cathleen for many years and she’s had great teams at Sacramento State.  Her husband, Terry, used to be the jumps coach at Wichita State and will be moving to Carbondale as well.  They’ve inherited a great team and I’m sure will be a formidable opponent for years to come.

Movies

I’ve seen several movies recently, here’s what I thought…

I saw the music biopic Straight Outta Compton on its opening night Friday.  Growing up in a mostly white part of Southern Ohio, I was fascinated with rap music in junior high and high school.  The group NWA came out like a cannonball to kids like me who had no idea what occurred in places like Compton, California.  This movie shows the rise and eventual fall of the group while also being very entertaining the entire way.  Some parts of it were very intense and there was one person in the theater that got so upset during part of the group’s feuding that he started yelling at the screen and had to be escorted out of the movie.  Because it was produced by Dr Dre and Ice Cube I’m sure the members were glorified as better individuals than they actually were but whether you liked them or not, or agree with their message or not, it was a very good movie about one of the most influential music groups in history.  Highly recommended.

I’m a big fan of the original Vacation movie with Chevy Chase and was kind of mixed on how I felt about a new one coming out.  I saw it wasn’t getting great reviews but I went and saw it anyways.  It stars Ed Helms (Rusty) and Christina Applegate and had plenty of funny moments but overall was just average.  It didn’t know what kind of movie it wanted to be.  It seemed like a family movie with a lot of family type stuff but was rated R and had a lot of adult humor.  Obviously this didn’t bother me but I imagine this was why it hasn’t done well in the box office.

Speaking of adult humor, I also saw the Amy Schumer movie Trainwreck.  Now this was a great movie and knew exactly what it was trying to be.  Schumer’s brand of comedy is generally vulgar and this movie was consistent with that style.  It was very funny and even had Lebron James cracking us up in several parts.  The only thing I didn’t like was, just like every romantic comedy out there, you knew how it was going to end.  That doesn’t take away from the uniqueness of the rest of the movie, however, and I’m sure this will be the first of many Amy Schumer movies.

I also got a chance to see the documentary Amy, about the tragic life of singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse.  It was difficult to watch the heartbreaking downward spiral of Winehouse’s life, but the movie was very well done.  Most of her professional career was during the age of Internet and cell phone cameras so most of her unfortunate moments were caught on video and used in this movie.  It’s a hard movie to find, I was lucky to be in a city with a small art house theater, but if it comes out on Netflix or something like that I recommend a viewing.

Next blog

With the new school year starting I have decided the next blog will be about coaching athletes in the age of social media.  This is something our staff talks about a lot and I think will connect with many of you out there.

Until then thanks for reading -- Go Shocks!!!