The track season is
underway!
Wichita
State Track & Field got the season started Saturday as we traveled up to
Kansas St for the Wildcat Invitational.
I would say about half or slightly less of the teams in the country
opened up this weekend. We used to wait
one more week but because of our meet next week (see below) we have started
earlier the past two years.
As
with all season openers we had some good, some average and some bad – and probably
evenly split between those three. We’ve
had four days of practice and there is a lot of rust to shake off after three
or four weeks of kids training on their own.
I think you especially see this in the technical events where athletes
aren’t able to work on those events over the break as much (as well as not
having coaching).
But
overall I think we were pretty happy with it.
Most of the MVC didn’t compete this week so we’ll know a little more
about our team and the conference after next week.
Second Annual
WSU-KU-KSU Triangular
Friday
we will head to Lawrence, KS, for a battle with our in-state Division I
rivals. Last year was the first time we’ve
ever been able to get this meet together (K-State won at home, we were
second). Next year we will host this
meet at the Heskett Center!
We
basically play by Big 12 rules for this meet.
26 athletes per gender compete in the Big 12 Indoor Championship events
(except 5k and multi). That means events
like the 600 yards and 1000 meters are contested besides the regular NCAA
events. That probably puts us at a
slight disadvantage but we still feel like we have a chance to compete well.
Shocker Prelude
The
next day we will be hosting the Shocker Prelude where the rest of our team (and
some from Friday as well) will compete in a scored meet with D2 schools Emporia
St, Oklahoma Baptist and Angelo St as well as NAIA Friends University from
across town. This should also be a fun
meet to see some of our developing athletes run to the front and gain
confidence.
Last
week we got the season started but this week we really get our team going.
Oh my Bengals
Most
of you know that I grew up near Cincinnati and, thus, I’m a fan of the
Cincinnati Bengals. And I’m sure most of
you saw the debacle at the end of the game where they lost to Pittsburgh in the
playoffs. Years ago I made sure to
emotionally detach myself from the outcome of games I’m not actually a part of
so, while a devastating loss, I am largely unaffected today. Many of my Facebook and Twitter friends seem
to be largely affected. To all of them,
they don’t pay you any money to play so don’t get so upset. I agree it was a terrible way to lose but if
it you watched it like a movie or a Broadway play then you would’ve been very
entertained!
However,
you better believe I’ll be talking about it with the kids I coach in how to
handle (or not handle) adversity when it comes in the most important times.
Movies!!!
It’s
been a while since I’ve chatted about movies and I’ve seen a few recently. Here are my thoughts on what I’ve seen since
Thanksgiving …..
The
first one I saw wasn’t actually a movie but a musical called The Book of Mormon. It’s one of the most successful Broadway
musicals of all time so I thought I would see what all the fuss was about when
it came to Wichita. My opinion? Awesome.
I’ve been to a few musicals in my life and, while impressed with the
singing and show, I wasn’t always entertained.
But with The Book of Mormon I was entertained throughout. Without going into detail about it, basically
it makes fun of the Mormon religion, and to an extent, all organized
religion. I’m not sensitive to crass
humor so I found it hilarious. Being in
Wichita I’m sure a few in the conservative crowd may have been offended, but
even still it was very well done and, most importantly, entertaining the whole
time. 10/10
Next
I saw the movie Creed, which is the
seventh installment of the Rocky series.
This time it went a little different route to follow the illegitimate
child of Apollo Creed from the first four Rocky movies. I wasn’t sure if this new path in the series
would be successful but it was! Rocky
becomes the trainer for young Creed and helps him through the lower ranks of
boxing until the ultimate final big-time fight. It was also financially successful so I’m sure
there will be a Creed 2 coming out again in the future. 8/10
Around
Christmas I saw the movie Trumbo in
small art house theater in Cincinnati.
It’s the story of Dalton Trumbo (played by Bryan Cranston of Breaking
Bad fame), who was Hollywood’s top screenwriter until he and his fellow artists
were jailed for being communists. First
off, it was a good movie. It was
fascinating how this true story played out in a time just after WWII. Secondly, no matter your political beliefs
you should try to find this movie since freedom of speech is such an important
part of our country’s fabric. 8/10
Around
New Year’s I saw The Big Short,
which was about the housing market collapse of the mid-2000s. Starring big names like Steve Carell, Ryan
Gosling and Christian Bale, I thought it was a pretty good movie. A person who understands finance might not
have been lost at all but it lost me from time to time for that reason. Nevertheless, it was still really good and
helped explain what happened to our economy in 2008. An interesting tidbit is that it was written
and directed by Adam McKay, who is more known for Anchorman, Step Brothers and Saturday
Night Live. I wouldn’t consider it a
comedy but it had enough humor to keep it going through the more complex
financial scenes. 7/10
The
last movie I saw was Concussion
starring Will Smith as a Nigerian doctor who discovers significant brain issues
with former NFL players and then fights to have his research heard by the
NFL. While a bit slow in parts, I still
liked this movie overall. It was set in
Pittsburgh and used named and video of real NFL players so it gave it a
legitimate feel. It’s a hard topic to explain
but I thought they did it pretty well. I
feel terrible for what head injuries have done to these former players and
hopefully this movie helps the sport to become safer. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening
unless the rules of the sport are changed dramatically. Our heads just weren’t made to bang together
at high speeds. 7/10
Next time
I’m
sure there will be a lot to talk about with the Kansas Triangular and Shocker
Prelude.
Until
then, thank you for reading and Go Shocks!
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