Do you ever catch yourself talking to yourself? There’s that moment where you would be embarrassed if anyone was around, but once you realize you’re alone, the embarrassment passes. I think that’s kinda like writing a blog no one is reading. The difference is, while you may continue right on talking to yourself, taking the time to write the unread becomes less and less of a priority.
As with many things in life, my attention to this site ebbs and flows based on the other things I’m working on. Since I’m getting ready to post a lesson on www.coachtube.com, I thought this might be a good time to throw another message into the ocean in case someone happens upon it.
Continuing with the theme of the title of this post, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit our girls state championship from this spring.
Kansas is divided into six classifications (more or less depending on the sport, but for track it’s still six). It’s all based on ranking with the largest 32 schools in 6A, the next 32 in 5A, followed by 64 each in 4A, 3A, and 2A with the remaining schools in 1A. Cheney is a 3A school with approximately 250 students enrolled each year (we did just end a five year stretch in 4A in the fall of 2012).
On the surface, our girls won the 3A state title with ease, finishing 15 points ahead of local rival Garden Plain. We knew we were one of the favorites heading into the season as we were returning everyone to a team that finished as runners-up the year before by half a point, plus we gained a strong freshman class and brought back a senior who had been injured the year before. From the outside it looked easy as we turned in several strong performances. I talked to other area coaches who all viewed our squad as the one to beat.
But being the favorite doesn’t always mean you win. There were countless times where I thought all hope was lost. At one point or another during the season all eight girls we qualified to the state meet were struggling with some sort of injury or illness – mono, pulled muscles, a rolled ankle, shin splints bordering on stress fractures, etc. Losing any one of them had the potential to derail everything.
Going in to the state meet I knew we wouldn’t have to have a perfect meet to win, but if just had an average weekend there were a handful of team who could capitalize and beat us. Day one went right in the middle. It wasn’t perfect, but neither was it disastrous. We earned 11 points from three field events and qualified all but one of our sprint races to finals. Day two slowly but steadily fell our way. I had expected a single moment of exultation, but it just gradually become more and more obvious that we were going to win.
Not sure the exact point of this rambling. Just maybe to have you think about the story behind every success you see. It’s easy to think the winning team didn’t have to struggle. I can’t speak for other teams, but our girls embraced the challenge, put in the work, and stayed focused all the way to the end.