Shocker recruiting update, where should I go for vacation and October always brings great movies!

I’ve been struggling to keep this blog updated but it has been a busy past month.  Here’s some of what’s been going on …

Double gold medal in Rio for Deja Young

Last time I mentioned that I coach a girl who is part of Team USA Paralympics.  Well it was a heckuva meet for Deja Young in Rio as she swept the 100m and 200m sprints and brought home two gold medals.  Since her victories in Rio, it has been a whirlwind.  She has become a media darling, got the key to the city of Wichita and had an Olympic Oak Tree planted on campus in her honor.  It’s been fun to have a part in her success and I think it has been a great experience for her!

We gave her a little time off after the Paralympics but now she is back on the track with her WSU teammates getting ready for the indoor season.  Great job Deja!

Shocker Track Update

We’ve been doing a lot of recruiting lately.  Previously I had mentioned how this was going to be an important year of recruiting on the women’s side and we’ve begun to make headway on the class of ’17.  We’ve already had nearly 30 official visits this fall and have eight commitments thus far.  The early signing period is a few weeks away and we are hoping to bring in a few more.

Recruiting is not an exact science but generally the harder you work the more success you have.  Our staff has really taken up the challenge of putting together a quality group of women this year.  So far so good!

Practice has been going well.  After 6 weeks of conditioning, we put our kids though a week of testing (that went good overall).  Now we are a couple weeks into our next phase of training that will take us through the end of this semester.  It's a grind right now.  Trying to keep the kiddos focused while working them as hard as possible.

I’ll be heading up to Northern Iowa this weekend to watch our cross country team compete in the Missouri Valley Championships.  Both our men and women are picked second in the pre-meet poll.  Coach Hunter has the team running really well so we are optimistic we will bring home some hardware!  Top-2 get trophies but, as always, our kids are not going to be satisfied with anything less than the top spot.

Tomorrow (Wed, Oct 26), Coach Rainbolt will have his annual Golf-a-thon fundraiser where he will walk and play the number of holes consistent with how old he is.  This year he turns 59.  He’ll begin as the sun rises over Willowbend Golf Course and will hopefully be done with 59 holes (and around 28 miles) by sunset.  If you’re around come out and walk nine with Bolt as he tries to reach his goal and raise some money for Shocker T&F!

Travel

Since I got such a good response from my travel blog about Southeast Asia I thought I’d mention some of the places I get to go from time to time in this space.

A few weeks ago I headed out east to catch some football and hang out with some great people.  First, I took in the Florida/Tennessee rivalry in Knoxville, Tennessee.  I’ve been to plenty of big time sporting events but witnessing the craziness that is Rocky Top (as well as seeing them defeat rival Florida) is way, way up there.  That whole Rocky Top thing is pretty hilarious – they really love that song!

On the same trip I headed back home to Cincinnati to catch the Bengals home opener against the Denver Broncos.  Unfortunately the good guys weren’t able to pull this one out but it was a fun game nonetheless.  I had a couple of Cincy style cheese coneys so I was a very happy guy.

Other than that, I’ve not been anywhere too exotic lately.  It’s been a lot of traveling to see recruits and staying in hotels with continental breakfasts.  Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get out to some place that will bring some entertaining stories.

I’m thinking of taking another international vacation next year and am looking for ideas.  I’ve been to parts of Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.  What does everyone think of Iceland?  I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’m very intrigued.  Thoughts on Iceland or anywhere else fun?

Movies

October is always a great month for movies because of Halloween.  This year in the downtown Warren in Wichita they brought back a ton of old horror movies for $5.  I love a good horror movie.  Also we just had the Tallgrass Film Festival that brings in great independent films from all over the world.  Here is a recap of what I’ve seen since the last blog …

Sept 16 – Sully – This is the retelling of the Chelsey Sullenberger story where the American pilot emergency landed his commercial flight in the Hudson River (directed by Clint Eastwood).  Overall I thought it was a solid movie, with the most interesting part being how he had to defend himself through the post-landing investigation.  Rating 7/10

Sept 19 – Snowden – Oliver Stone’s latest movie about former NSA Intelligence employee Edward Snowden (played well by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his trials and tribulations about classified government documents.  I liked this movie and it makes you think what would you do in the situation?  Gordon-Levitt is also becoming one of my favorite actors.  7/10

Sept 28 – Blair Witch – Sequel to the hugely successful 1999 film that broke ground in low-budget horror.  This new version could be broken down to two parts.  The first hour is an average set up with fairly uninteresting characters.  The final 30 minutes is very good and leaves you on the edge of your seat until the end!  If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one.  7/10

Oct 3 – The Exorcist – The 1973 original was the opening film in the downtown Wichita horror month and wow was it terrific!  I’ve seen The Exorcist before but never on a big screen.  Seeing it in the theater was absolutely riveting.  If you ever get a chance do the same.  Great stuff!  9/10

Oct 4 – Halloween 3: Season of the Witch – The only Halloween movie that wasn’t about Michael Myers, it was made in 1982.  I saw this movie as a kid and thought it was kind of cool.  It is a little dated now and is probably more funny than scary but I still enjoyed it.  6/10

Oct 6 – Phantasm – This 1979 horror movie scared the crap out of me as a kid.  All I could ever remember was the scary tall man and the sphere that chased people through the mausoleum (and then killed you).  It has been digitally remastered so I gave it another look.  Still was a lot of fun!  7/10

Oct 10 – Phantasm 5: Ravager – The latest of the Phantasm sequels (and probably the last) was opening here.  Super low budget and not near as good as the original but I still enjoyed seeing all the old characters from the original back trying to defeat the bad guys.  5/10

Oct 14 – The Beatles:  Eight Days a Week – This is Ron Howard’s latest movie (part of the Tallgrass Film Festival) about the touring years of the Beatles.  The documentary focused on the quick rise to superstardom for the group and how they basically invented the stadium concert.  I could tell most of the audience was older and fans of the Beatles because half the crowd sung along with the songs.  Really good movie, rarely do I attend a movie where the crowd claps and sings through the end of the credits!  8/10

Oct 24 – Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer – Wow, this is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen.  Made in 1986 and not released until 1990 because of rating disputes with the MPAA, it was banned in most cities around the country.  I can see why.  It’s not that gory or gruesome (although there is some blood) but the disturbing thing is how real it is.  It has an eerie feel all the way through and as I walked out of the theater I was a little paranoid about every person I saw on the street.  This is daring filmmaking for 1986 and I’m so glad I was able to see it.  9/10

Next time

I’ll be back to update everyone on the latest goings in Shocker T&F, my travels and movies!  Hopefully sooner than a month from now!

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

Paralympics, Shocker T&F, No selfies and a movie update

Oh man it’s been a while since I’ve blogged (over a month).  So here’s an update as to what is going on …

Did you know I coach an Olympian?

Deja Young

This is true.  Deja Young will start competition today (Saturday, Sept 10) in the Rio Paralympics.  Last year she won the world title at 100m (silver in the 200m) and broke her division world record in the 100m at 11.92.  She’s worked very hard to keep fit all summer while most of the team took some time off and now it’s time to see how she can do.  She’s very excited for this opportunity to represent her country and we’re all proud of her at Wichita State!  You can watch her run on the NBC Sports Channel’s coverage or online.  Good luck Deja!

Here’s a couple links to stories and videos about Deja, you might find some quotes from me if you look hard enough …..

Wichita Eagle (Bob Lutz)

GoShockers.com Rio preview

 What else is new with Shocker Track?

It’s been a busy few weeks, as it is every year at the beginning of school.  There are a ton of meetings the squad has to attend explaining NCAA or WSU rules and policies.  Now we are mostly beyond all that and just finished up our first full week of practice.  Two weeks ago we had a week of learning and instruction with our newcomers.  We have a very nice group of freshman and transfers that are good people and a lot of fun to work with.

Here are the Shocker newcomers if you wanna check them out …

The first week of full practice with the entire team was also generally good.  You always have some athletes that are coming back from injuries and aren’t in very good shape but everyone is working hard.  We are trying to instill a few new wrinkles into the program this year and they are taking to them well.  We will do “conditioning” for around five weeks until a week of testing at Fall Break.

We hosted the JK Gold Classic cross country meet last weekend and our team kicked butt.  The real racing doesn’t start until October but our crew looks strong early in the season!

Lots of work to do and we’re excited to finally get started!

Reaction to my blog about Asia

I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I’d get from blogging about my two weeks in Asia but overall it’s been great!  Thanks for all the nice comments, it makes me think about focusing on the traveling part of the track and field season as something to possibly write about in the future.  We’re always so focused on the competition that we don’t take the time to appreciate where we are in the world.  I’ll think on it and see if anything interesting might come from it.

No Selfie September

Last year as a joke, me and some friends came up with the concept of “No Selfie September” on a late night over a couple of adult beverages.  I put it out on this blog and, much to my surprise, it went viral (at least locally).  After a couple television interviews I realized that there might be something to it.  So here is a link to last year’s blog and I once again challenge everyone to not take another selfie until October!

Movies

I haven’t written about movies in a while but I often get people telling me it’s their favorite part of the blog.  I’ve actually thought about creating a separate blog about movies but haven’t decided to put that much effort into it yet.  Nonetheless here is a list of movies I’ve seen in the movie theater since April and some brief thoughts about each one …

April 10 – Hardcore Henry – Shot from a first person perspective, one of the craziest movies you’ll ever see.  I liked the concept.  It was a unique movie-going experience.  Needs to be seen on the big screen.  Rating: 7/10

May 1 – Everybody Wants Some – Latest movie by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood) about a week in the life of college baseball players.  I love this guy’s movies and this one gets better with repeat viewings (saw it twice on my flight to Asia).  8/10

May 22 – The Nice Guys – Kind of a buddy cop movie with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.  I enjoyed it throughout.  8/10

June 6 – Journey to Space 3D – Saw this at the New Mexico Museum of History and Science while on a recruiting trip.  Not bad but could’ve been a lot better.  3D didn’t add much.  6/10

June 9 – Popstar: Never Stop Stopping – One of the great comedies of 2016 that no one saw!  They make fun of everyone in the pop music industry and the music is actually really good!  8/10

June 12 – The Conjuring 2 – It’s hard for horror sequels to be as good as the original but this one was.  Really, really good movie if you like horror.  8/10

June 20 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Luckily I live in a city where they put classics on the big screen from time to time.  This 1977 Spielberg movie holds up great almost 40 years later!  8/10

July 5 – The Lobster – Super weird but I give it props for being original.  7/10

July 6 – Purge: Election Year – I’ve seen all three Purge movies and I like the concept but they’re never pulled off as well as I think they could be.  6/10

July 13 – The Shallows – The best non-Jaws movie about shark attacks I’ve seen.  7/10

Aug 1 – Lights Out – From the director of the Conjuring, another really good and suspenseful movie.  I saw this in Thailand and the theater was generally screaming throughout.  Asians love horror movies (and also make the best ones).  8/10

Aug 17 – Sausage Party – Has to be the most inappropriate animated movie of all time.  And yes I thought it was outstanding!  8/10

Aug 21 – War Dogs – Very solid movie that’s based on a true story (and isn’t completely true) and is entertaining nonetheless.  Part political, part action, part comedy.  Jonah Hill is great once again.  7/10

Aug 30 – Don’t Breathe – Another really good horror/thriller.  I’m encouraged the genre is going more in this direction lately.  Hard to know who the good guy is in this movie and I think that’s awesome.  8/10

Sept 4 – Hell or High Water – One of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time.  Great cinematography and great music surround an interesting take on bank robberies.  9/10

I feel as though I’ve seen a lot of really good movies in the past 5 months.  Notice there isn’t one comic book or big budget movie on the list.  I don’t think any of these movies cost more than $30-$40 million to make and most were under $10 million.  If you do a little research you can generally find some great movie going options out there.

Next time

I’ll be back to update everyone on the latest goings in Shocker T&F.  Hopefully sooner than a month from now!

Until then, thanks for reading and Go Shocks!

Goodbye 2015 ... Hello 2016!!!

2015 was a great year and I am optimistic 2016 will be even better!

Looking back at 2015

As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned not to look back much in life but since it’s the first day of the New Year I guess a brief review of 2015 in WSU Track & Field would be appropriate.

We won only one MVC title last year (Women’s Outdoor) but was in the hunt for all four finishing second in both the men’s indoor and outdoor championships as well as a close third (lost by 18 points) at the women’s indoor meet.

A lot of teams around the country would’ve loved to win “only” one title in 2015 but our expectations are always much higher.  We don’t take for granted how hard these titles are to win and we know there are a lot of terrific coaches around the MVC that know how to get their teams ready to battle.

Besides the team accomplishments, I had a couple of notable things that I happen to be fortunate enough to coach:

Our women’s 4x100m relay team qualified for the NCAA Championships – a first in school history – and smashed the preview school record by almost one second in the process (44.30).  The girls earned Second Team All-American honors for their efforts.  There are a few reasons why getting a relay to the NCAA Championships from a school like WSU is difficult so I was very proud of these ladies pulling together and getting the job done.  It was a great experience for them and I had a blast along the way!

Many of you might not realize it but I also coached a world champion this year.  Deja Young, currently a sophomore sprinter on our team, won the 100m gold medal at the World Paralympic Championships in Doha, Qatar, in October.  Deja, who was also part of the 4x1 team, had a whirlwind few months that opened doors for her that she never thought was possible a year ago.  My job is to help her to stay focused and healthy to make a great run at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio later this year as well as becoming a top sprinter in the MVC.

I could go on and on talking about the athletes I work with but then this blog would take hours and hours to read.  Needless to say I had a blast working with our program and the athletes in 2015!

Looking ahead to 2016!

As a team our goals are simple.  Win all the MVC team titles this year.

Our men have finish second in MVC Track & Field Championship competition SEVEN times in a row.  We’ve watched Indiana State win many of those meets (as well as SIU last spring) and are determined to make this year different.  We have a hard working group of guys that are very hungry and want to bring back the big trophy to Wichita this year.

But it won’t be easy.

Obviously, Indiana State will continue to be a force to reckon with and this year they host the MVC Outdoor Championships which should yield a few extra points for the home team.  After winning last spring, Southern Illinois made a coaching change.  Former head coach Connie Price-Smith left for Ole Miss and new coach Kathleen Raske (previously at Sacramento State) will not miss a beat in keeping SIU at the top of the conference standings.  Northern Iowa, the host of the indoor championship, made a big run last year outdoors to finish third and also have a new head coach in Dave Paulsen who will be motivated to keep the Panthers trajectory trending upward.  Another team on the rise will be Illinois State, who under second year head coach Jeff Bovee is making great strides in building a team that will be tough to beat in the coming years.  And we can’t forget about former Shocker coach Randy Hasenbank at Loyola.  Last year he had a very good team with a great group of seniors and will no doubt build it back up again.

I just mentioned five teams besides WSU that will be good in 2016.  The other two teams, Drake and Bradley, have some outstanding athletes that will win championships and make the MVC tougher, but they don’t have the overall strength to battle for a title.

Our women have been more successful at winning titles than our men recently but it doesn’t mean it will be any easier for them in 2016.  Actually it might be quite the opposite.

Our team has always been built for outdoor a little more than indoor.  We’ve been really good in the Javelin, 400m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase and 4x100m relay so you would think this year our team would be the same.  But it appears we will probably redshirt our all-everything multi-event athlete Nikki Larch-Miller for the outdoor season – let me explain why:

When Nikki was a freshman she was still a developing athlete with potential so we decided to redshirt her during the indoor season and then compete her outdoors when we would redshirt her teammate Jenny Pinkston.  The plan for the next year was to alternate them in redshirting again but things don’t always go to plan.  Nikki developed quicker than expected and we felt we needed to compete her to win a championship (which we did).

Now it’s her fourth year and she has two indoor seasons and one outdoor left.  We either need to redshirt her this year or have her for only the indoor season of 2017.  So our plan as of now is to redshirt outdoor this year and hope she can qualify for the Olympic Trials, and she’ll be able to really focus on doing well at that meet.

All the schools I mentioned earlier in the men’s summary (with the possible exception of Loyola) should also be tough on the women’s side however Indiana State will probably be the toughest.  Add in Missouri State (they only have a women’s team) and the MVC will be a good as ever once again.  It’s a great conference and very difficult to win championships.  Hopefully we can win a few!

Besides the obvious goal of getting athletes to the NCAA Championships, 2016 is also an Olympic year.  Hopefully we can have a few Shockers (past and present) in Eugene for the US Olympic Trials in early July.  I think we have the potential for a few!  In 2012 I was lucky to have three hurdlers and a sprinter there and WSU was well represented by many other athletes.

Every track and field season writes its own stories throughout the year and I’m sure 2016 will be filled with lots of ups and downs as well as plenty of excitement.  I can’t wait to get started!

The beginning of the season

Our first meet will be in one week – Saturday, January 9 – at Kansas State University.  We will take most of our crew up to Manhattan to run in a race or two to get the rust off from the holiday break.

We start back with practice this Monday and I think my group has done a pretty good job of training the past month – at least that’s what their text messages say.  We will find out for sure this week as we will dive right back into some tough training.

Our second weekend of the year will be an exciting one for a variety of reasons.  On Friday, January 15, we will have our second version of the WSU-KU-KSU Triangular, this year in Lawrence.  Last year we finished second behind K-State and are excited to compete against our friendly in-state rivals once again.  The next day we will host the Shocker Prelude.  This will give some of our developing athletes, who don’t make the Triangular roster, a chance to show their stuff as well as possibly doubling back a few of our top athletes from Friday.

Let’s get going!

Next time

The track season is here so that will probably dominate this blog for a while.  I have seen some interesting movies lately so I will share some of that too. 

Until then, I hope everyone has a happy New Year and Go Shocks!

The track season ends (sort of), the recruiting hierarchy of college track and I want to ban all bib numbers

The track and field season never technically ends.  Here is why:

USA Championships

We had three athletes head to Eugene, Oregon, for the USA Jr/Sr Championships.  The two meets are held in conjunction most years (the most notable exception is usually the Olympic Trials).  The USA Jr’s is a meet for athletes under 20 years old and is a great way for a good freshman to end the year with an exciting meet.

Besides a couple of Jr’s, Nikki Larch-Miller got to mix it up with the top athletes in the USA Sr’s Heptathlon.  She came in ranked 14^th and ended up 13^th to end a sensational year that saw her score over 70 MVC points and earn first team All-American honors.  And the good news is she still has two years to go!

Is there still more T&F left?

It’s hard to believe, but yes there is.  Former Shocker (now Shocker Track Club Elite member) Austin Bahner has been chosen to represent the USA at the Pan Am Games and Deja Young qualified in the 100m and 200m for the World Paralympic Championships in Doha, Qatar, in October.

Obviously the college season has ended but there’s always something going on year round with the track and field program.  This past week we sent out our summer training packets with hopes that the current Shockers will have a dedicated and focused summer of workouts. 

Recruiting

We’ve also started a new recruiting cycle on July 1 where we can make phone calls and meet off campus with athletes from the class of 2016.  There are some schools that really get after it beginning with July 1, and we have done that in the past as well, but in recent years we have found that it doesn’t yield a tremendous amount of results for the amount of work.  I’ll try to explain.

Wichita State would be considered in the middle of the national track and field hierarchy.  There are the programs like Oregon, Texas A&M, Florida, etc. that are able to attract the top recruits in the country by name recognition and the reputation of their programs.  Generally if we are to have a chance on a “blue chip” recruit it would be because of a special connection to the school or with a coach.  Other than that it is very difficult to make a lot of headway with top recruits in the United States even though we produce All-Americans, win championships and boast national rankings ahead of most BCS schools.

So what are we to do?

It becomes a tough balancing act.  Some of those top recruits, or athletes who think they are top recruits, will become interested in a school like Wichita State later in the season when the dream of their top school fades.  And we need to be ready to have some scholarship money available later in the year when that happens.  But we can’t rely on that or we’ll have years where we don’t get any of those recruits.  So we make some phone calls and do some visits in July and look at how much money we have to recruit with.  If we are going to graduate a large number of athletes in the upcoming year we will be more aggressive.  If we don’t graduate much we’ll be a little more patient so we make good decisions.  It’s not an exact science but we have figured out what works for us and our recruiting classes have continued to get better every year.

We have to because the Missouri Valley Conference continues to get better every year too.

I want to ban bib numbers

I don’t like using the word hate but I absolutely hate bib numbers for track and field.  How is it the year 2015 and we’re still using safety pins to put paper numbers on our uniforms?  And in the biggest meets in the world!!!

Look at the picture I’ve posted here.  What country are these athletes from?  It’s ridiculous.  I know some sponsor paid a lot of money to get their name on there but let’s get rid of them.

Some people may argue that this is how you know what runner this is because of their number.  I agree for the sake of a cross country race (sometimes) or a road race but it’s no longer needed in track.  Let’s get names stitched into the uniforms so you can recognize who it is or have a permanent number on the back.  This is what we did when I was in high school in Ohio.  You checked in with that number all year long.  This isn’t very hard to figure out.

Track and Field wants to be recognized with the top sports in the world.  How would it be to see Lebron James with a paper #23 on his Cavaliers jersey during the NBA finals?  Funny huh?  Why is it not just as dumb for track in the Olympics?

Someone please convince me that I am wrong.  And if you agree then spread the word to ban bib numbers forever!

Next blog

I’m going to be doing some traveling in the next month, both for work and for fun, so I will try to keep up on here as well.  I hope everyone had a fun 4^th of July!  Happy birthday America!

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

5 Shockers heading to NCAA's and the unlikely story of our 4x100m relay

I’m a little bleary eyed from an all-night drive home from Texas last night/this morning but it was worth it as we had some terrific things happen in Austin.

NCAA West Prelims

The format of the NCAA Outdoor Championships is an unusual one.  The country is split in half and the top-48 in each event (top-24 relays) compete in the East and West NCAA Prelims in hopes of finishing in the top-12 and advancing to the NCAA Finals in Eugene, Oregon, in two weeks.

It’s truly a survive and advance situation for many athletes.  Many, many NCAA Division I track and field programs don’t advance a single athlete past the NCAA Prelims.  We are fortunate to have five athletes heading to Tracktown, USA, next week.

Hammer Time

The Hammer Throw is one of the least glamorous of events in a track and field meet so often they go unnoticed.  This year Coach John Hetzendorf has built a great group of throwers and that was apparent Thursday when Weston Cottrell placed fifth to advance to the NCAA Championships and three Shockers placed in the top-20.  WSU was the only team to accomplish that feat.

It was extra special for Weston as he has battled numerous injuries throughout his career and last year fouled all three throws at the NCAA West Prelims.

Nikki Larch-Miller continues to amaze

Without a doubt Nikki Larch-Miller is the MVP of our team this year and she had another great meet this weekend.  After narrowly missing qualifying in the Long Jump Thursday, she advanced through the rounds to finish eighth overall in the 100m hurdles and qualify for Oregon.  She is also already qualified in the Heptathlon and 4x100m relay as well so she will be competing in at least NINE events (potentially 11) at the NCAA Championships.

If the track and field world hasn’t heard of Nikki yet they soon will.

The story of our 4x100m relay

One of the most unlikely qualifiers to the NCAA Championships was our women’s 4x100m relay squad.  It’s not unlikely in terms of not having potential to do well but in the way that everything unfolded.  I work with this group so this story is especially significant to me.

We’ve had some nice relays in recent years and even won a couple of MVC titles but not had any type of NCAA success.  In fact we’ve never had a women’s relay team advance to the NCAA Championships.

Just getting into the NCAA West Prelims was a struggle this year.  They only take 24 teams and the difference from teams 13-24 heading in to the meet was 0.2 of a second.  We were on the outer edge of that all year long.  At the MVC Championships we ran 45.23 to improve from our 45.32 the previous week.  At the time I thought that would make it in easily.  After seeing more results come in that day we eventually dropped to #24 and looked like we would be the last team in!  After the declaration period, three teams decided not to enter and we ended up going into the meet ranked #21.  We had made it by 0.05 of a second.

When the heat sheets came out we got lane 9.  Most athletes hate being in the extreme outside of the track but I thought this might be good for us.  The host school, Texas, was in lane 8 and had one of the best 4x1’s in the country.  I had the feeling that if we could get pulled along by them early in the race it could get us where we needed to be.  Of the 8 teams in the race we were ranked #7.

The night before the race I got the four girls on the relay together – Senior Shanice Andrews, Freshman Deja Young, and Nikki and Taylor Larch-Miller.  We talked about that the only way that we would have a chance of advancing is if we walked into that track KNOWING we were going to advance and believing in each other completely.  Our handoffs have been one of the things that had held us back in running fast times this year and having trust in your teammates is one of the most significant things you need in a good relay.

Then right as soon as the team started warming up a lightning/weather delay hit the meet and everyone was forced to take cover and wait.  It didn’t bother our girls as they kept a great focus and eventually it was time to run the race.

Shanice Andrews, who was the only senior of 19 athletes we took to the meet, got out to a strong start and executed a terrific baton pass to our freshman Deja Young.  This was the pass that concerned our coaching staff the most and when it went well we felt like we had a chance.  Texas was running very well inside of us just like we thought and we were being pulled down the backstretch.

I need to take a short break to explain something about our second runner.  Deja Young, from near Dallas, Texas, was born with a deformity in her right arm (in fact she will be a likely representative for the USA in next year’s Paralympics).  If you’ve ever seen her run in a race you’d notice how she has to compensate her form.  It’s really an incredible thing when you realize what she has to do.  Since she doesn’t have much use of her right arm we have to have her run the second leg (because the #2 and #4 runners use their left arm in the baton pass).  On top of that, about a month ago her right arm became dislocated and she will need to have surgery as soon as the season is over.  Obviously she always has to run with pain and I don’t think any of us know how painful it really is.  Because of her arm many Division I colleges backed off recruiting her.  She never made the state meet in Texas and it was her first time running on the historic University of Texas track.

So Deja heads down the backstretch running well and once we get the baton to Nikki Larch-Miller on the third leg I am feeling very good.  Being our fastest runner, Nikki held off the rest of the field and passed off to her twin sister Taylor who got the baton just ahead of four other teams.  Early in the season I decided to put Taylor on the anchor because she has awesome closing speed and if a race is close at the end she is usually able to pull it out.

For this race Taylor ran the best leg of her life as we ended up placing second in the heat (top-3 advanced automatically).  As we were celebrating in the stands the time flashed up on the scoreboard: 44.30.  We knocked off almost an entire second from our previous best of 45.23.

When all the heat results were tabulated we were fourth overall, only behind Texas A&M, Texas and Oklahoma.  We finished ahead of schools like USC, Oregon, Arizona St, Arizona, UCLA, Kansas, Baylor … the list goes on and on.

Obviously the environment after the race was one of euphoria.  This is why you do sports and eventually want to stay involved in coaching afterwards.  Knowing the struggles we went through and to see how excited those girls were after reaching our goal of advancing to the NCAA Championships was one of the special moments of my career.

One of the other reasons it was so special is for something totally different.  If you read this blog with any regularity you might recall that after this meet last year (in Arkansas) that I had heard my father passed away.  On the ride home last year I wrote a blog that went viral (at least in my world).  So as soon as the celebration of this race was over my first thought was to call my mom and share with her our happiness on a day that both of us were probably heavy hearted.  I told the girls how much I appreciated what they were able to do for me – it was a truly great moment.

What’s next?

Now we have to refocus on the next goal at hand which is trying to score points at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon.  We’ll take a couple of easy days and then get back into trying to duplicate the performances from Austin.  At this level of track and field, every athlete and every relay team has a chance for success but the margin of error is razor thin.

We are excited for the NCAA Championships and will be heading there full of confidence!

Next blog

I’ll be back after our trip to Oregon to let you all know how it went!

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