Outdoor season begins, Shocker Basketball beats KU and what it means to coach at a non-BCS school

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog so now that the outdoor season has started I thought I’d get back at it.

What have we been doing?

Most of the group has been off from competition since the MVC Indoor Championships with the exception of a few multi-event athletes that went to Rice University over Spring Break for an early season Heptathlon/Decathlon.

For everyone else – we gave them about a week of light activity to heal some aches and pains as well as refresh mentally.  We took a couple days off for Spring Break and then got back at it pretty hard.  We’ve gone back to some more significant volume as well as keeping the intensity at a moderate level as we build towards the outdoor season.

Another thing that myself and Coach Heidi Yost has been doing is having individual meetings with all of our athletes.  We have a lot of crossover in the sprint/jump group so we both met with each athlete – around 40 total – and getting the chance to sit down, review goals and have some heart to heart discussions was very productive.  It took three weeks for us to meet with every athlete but in the end we felt like it was a great way to get back and focused for the outdoor season.

The thing we took away from most of the meetings, especially with the younger athletes, is how poor their nutrition and sleeping patterns are.  I think we came away making a positive impression and now it’s in the athletes hands if they want to make some changes for the good from here on out.

Season opener in Arkansas

Our team made the short trip over to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Arkansas Spring Invitational Saturday and had mixed results.  Season openers, whether indoor or outdoor, are always up and down in terms of results.

 

We ran very well in the 4x100m relay and 400m hurdles, which are different events from the indoor season so that’s a good sign.  We came away from the meet healthy which is also a good sign.  Now we just have to grind away for a few weeks and get better – before you know it the outdoor season will be over!

Watch the replay of the meet on ESPN3 here.

Throwers come out strong

While most of the team went to Arkansas our throwers (and Pole Vaulters) made the short trip up to Emporia to open their season.  We don’t like to split the team up but the situation for throwing at Arkansas is not very good and we have a lot of good throwers that needed some quality competition.

And the results were terrific!  Big throws from several freshmen and newcomers in the Javelin and Discus shows that Coach Hetzendorf is building quite the group for the future!  On top of that our veterans who did well during indoor kept that momentum going. 

Heading West next week

Usually once a year, during the outdoor season, we take a big trip with a large portion of our team.  This week we’ll be heading to Sacramento, California, to compete at Sacramento State University in the Mondo Mid-Major Challenge with some of the best non-BCS school in the West.  It’ll be a great meet on an outstanding facility (Sac St has held multiple NCAA and Olympic Trials).

Shocker Basketball ends another great year

I haven’t written much about the Shocker Basketball team this year but it doesn’t mean they haven’t been doing well.  As most of you probably know, WSU lost to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 this week to end their season with a record of 30-5.  The highlight of the year is undoubtedly their NCAA Tourney win over in-state rival Kansas by a score of 78-65.

I don’t need to go into the details behind the “WSU/KU not playing each other thing”, but needless to say the fans of Wichita were very excited about just having a chance to compete against KU in the tournament.  The track team felt the same way, and ironically enough, earlier this year we were finally able to compete against them (as well as K-State) in a real, scored track meet.  As you might remember we were also able to beat the Jayhawks on both the men’s and women’s side.

Perspective of being at a non-BCS school

I’ve been an athlete or coach at a non-BCS school (previously Kent State) for 19 years now and whether it’s Ohio State when I was an athlete or KU/K-St now as a coach, all we want is the chance to compete at the highest level.  Honestly I’m glad I coach at a school like WSU because it’s not JUST about winning and losing, it’s about helping kids reach their potential in athletics and life – and doing it for the Shockers is about as rewarding as it can be because we have the balance of being a Division I school while also not being the most highly recruited athletes in the nation.

And oh by the way we REALLY want to win too.

Next week

I’ll let everyone know how our California trip went as well as looking forward to our big KT Woodman Classic at Wichita State!

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

Spring Break in Wichita, Abraham Lincoln, and the day the Shockers finally lost a basketball game

Track

This past week was our Spring Break at Wichita State so it was a little different from a normal week.  We let our kids off from official practice for a few days then had them report back on Wednesday and had four days of good, solid practice.  We were fortunate to have pretty good weather and even the worst of days was still around 50 degrees.  We ended our week with a spirited Saturday workout that included our 400m hurdlers having a time trial while the rest of the team cheered them on.

When our athletes don’t have class they are definitely more focused and ready each day.  I think some of the kids wish they could be like typical college kids and go on a crazy Spring Break trip during March but I remind them that every week as a college athlete is like Spring Break in terms of traveling and having fun with your buddies.  We are very lucky to be able to do what we do and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side!

We will make the short trip to Emporia, Kansas, on Saturday for our season opener this weekend.  It will be a low-key way to get things started for our team.  I’ve already talked to our group about our goals – which are to run at least three races for each person and basically get a high quality workout in.  I’m not too worried about how fast they run Saturday as much as giving a good effort and beginning our season with a positive attitude.  We have much bigger meets coming up soon and I’ll be more concerned with running fast when the time comes.

Our multi-event group had a successful meet last week at Rice University near Houston, Texas.  We had a freshman, Hunter Veith, who scored 7027 points in his first ever Decathlon!  It was a great performance for such a young athlete and, early in the season, is ranked second in the country.  This will be one young man to watch in the future for the Shockers – keep an eye out!

With half of our staff being gone for the past two weeks it’s been a little disjointed in our office lately.  That’s pretty typical as the outdoor season gets going because we all have different priorities with our groups and with recruiting.  I am planning on getting out to several high school meets in the coming weeks as well as bringing in kids on more official visits.  I have noticed I am having more and more contacts with juniors via email than ever in the past so hopefully that will yield better results next year.  Thank you to our basketball team for that!  I get emails from probably 10-15 kids every day that are interested in Wichita State and even though only a few of them are at the Division I level, it‘s great to have so many people interested in our school!

Movies

I didn’t do much movie watching this week as most of my television watching was limited to the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  I am hoping to get out and see the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel this week.  It was made by Wes Anderson who did the surprise hit Moonrise Kingdom last year and his new movie looks very funny.

I did catch the end of a movie this week on TV (don’t remember which one) and, like most times on TV, the credits scrolled by super fast after the movie was over.  I have always wondered why they even show the credits if they are going to scroll them faster than a speed reader could read them.  Is there a contract they have with the movies that they have to show these credits?  And if they have a contract then why are they allowed to show them at a rate that can only be seen in super slow motion?

I’m one of those people who sit in the theater until the credits are over.  If I’m with a friend I enjoy talking about the movie for a few minutes while it’s still fresh in our minds and with a lot of movies there is an extra bonus scene after the credits are over for those who have stayed.  It’s also always interesting to see how many people and how many different jobs there are that go into making a movie.  There’s usually some good music too!

DVD Choice of the Week (from my collection):  I recently purchased the movie Lincoln on DVD and gave it a viewing this week at home.  I saw it in the theater last year while it was doing very good business ($275 million worldwide) and thought it was a great movie.  It flew right by for me even though it was 150 minutes long, detailing the final months of Lincoln’s life and his battle within his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.  Steven Speilberg did a great job directing this movie and Daniel Day-Lewis was an amazing Abraham Lincoln.  To think of all this man had to go through to accomplish his major goals and lead our country through the toughest of times is incredibly motivating.  Sometimes I can get cynical about trying to motivate people in my job but when I watch something like this it reminds me of how a true leader deals with difficulty.  If you haven’t seen this movie please do so immediately!  It’s entertaining and highly inspirational!

Everything Else

Well the great Shocker Basketball season of 2014 has ended.  Unfortunately for most of those around here it has ended too soon. After winning the second round NCAA game against Cal-Poly, the Shockers lost a heartbreaker to Kentucky 78-76 on Sunday.  The announcers said it was the best game Kentucky had played all year and they needed every bit of it to pull off the upset against Wichita State.  That sounds like a sentence out of a bizarro world but it is true.  The whole city was saddened by the loss but everyone is so proud of what these young guys have done.  To have a 35-1 record and ranked #2 in the country is something that will never be soon forgotten.  Our #1 assistant coach Chris Jans (a really nice guy by the way) has already been hired at Bowling Green and hopefully we can keep the rest of our staff together for next year.

I was talking to someone today about how it’s funny how things seem to even out.  Last year the Shockers went into the NCAA Tourney as a #9 seed and had multiple upsets all the way to the Final Four and this year went out early as a #1 seed.  It just goes to show you how unpredictable college athletics are and how extreme the highs and lows.  On the bright side our basketball team returns most of its players next year and will probably be ranked in the top-10 before the season starts.  Well done guys!

Other than that it was a pretty quiet week around here, which is always nice.  I was able to hang out with some good friends over the weekend and enjoy the last free weekend of the track season until …… July?  Here we go!

Website of the Week

Weather.com

I know it might seem funny to put Weather.com as the website of the week but it’s definitely one of the most visited places I go during the outdoor track season.  For the most part we practice outside during the outdoor season unless it’s just a terrible day of weather and I’m always looking for what the wind is doing on a daily basis.  If you don’t live in Wichita just let me tell you … it’s WINDY.  And you have to prepare for what direction it’s blowing because we generally always try to run with the wind at practice.  I visit Weather.com about three times every morning to check the hourly forecast before heading out to practice.  How did anyone ever figure out where to have practice and communicate with their team before the Internet?  Haha.

Interesting articles and videos to waste time with

Why did the world's best juggler quit and open a construction business? 

Q&A with Oakland A's GM Billy Beane - I really like this guy 

2014 to be the biggest year ever for Tracktown, USA? 

The Best (Fictional) Quarterback of all time 

Dance Walking Fitness with Ben Aaron - great stuff here!  (video 3:08) 

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman gets nailed with a line drive and survives to talk about it 

Jarkko Nieminen beats Bernard Tomic in 28 minute tennis match (that's a record folks) 

Do you know about the best team in college football history?  Check out the 1899 Sewanee Tigers 

An oral history of FloJo's 10.49 100m world record - great track and field journalism here!