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!
