Braves,
When I went to type the subject line of 4/16, I first typed “3/”
before I realized that it is April. It’s crazy how fast this season is going,
and kind of sad that there is only a month left. I say sad because of how much
fun we are having coaching this team. We have a special group of kids that I am
extremely proud of. This team is full of good people who want to do what is
best for the team. One of the most difficult things to do as a track coach is
getting kids to buy into doing what is best for the team, because there is an egregious
misconception that track is an “individual sport.” This belief comes from the
fact that each event, excluding relays, is done by yourself. What people
spreading this belief fail to realize is that each individual event is a part
of a larger whole, the team.
One person cannot win a region title or state championship
alone. You have to have teammates contributing as well. Obviously track is
different from team sports that use a ball, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t
about the team, because it is. You can hear coaches everywhere complain about
kids missing practice or not wanting to work hard. To me this is a symptom of
the kid not understanding that their actions affect their teammates.
It is easy to not understand how missing practices, or
failing to give your best effort, might limit how high you can place at a meet –
especially when that meet is a month away. So, as teammates and individuals we
have to help each other understand that there is no time to be missing
practice, or to give anything less than maximum effort in the remaining
practices. The season is just too short to not finish what we have started.
Through the first month and a half of the season we have put ourselves in
excellent position. But we cannot become complacent or mentally fatigued. Let’s
start fresh on Monday, get back to the drawing board, and focus on the week
ahead of us. Then we will do the same over the next 4 weeks.
A small group went down to Taylorsville yesterday at
competed. Of the 16 kids that competed, 15 had a PR or seasonal best in one or
more of their events, and the 1 who didn’t ran the 2nd fastest time
in their life. That is a pretty awesome accomplishment. Anna Sophia started us
off in the freezing temperatures with a sweet 5 second PR in the 3200m (12:11),
moving her the 10th all-time at Bountiful. Laurie quickly followed
that up with a 5 second PR in the 1600m (5:30), moving her the 7th
all-time. Laurie came back and had another 3 second PR in the 800m (2:25),
making her 9th all-time in that event. (Did I mention they are both
sophomores?) Laurie lead the 800m wire to wire and beat the closest runner by 2
seconds. Before her races she is shaking her hands in nervousness, during the
race she is gritting her teeth in fury, and after the race you see someone who
not only ran hard in the race, but has been running hard day in and day out.
The PRs from these two girls didn’t just happen. PRs don’t just happen because
you run a race over and over, they happen when you put in the work at practice
when you could be doing something else.
Adam Amott won the 110H with a new PR (15.69) making him 11th
all time. He came back in the 300H with an enormous 2 second PR (41.51) putting
him 12th all-time, and 3rd at the meet. Kohle ran a sweet
new PR in the 400m (50.77) out in lane 8, to place 4th, qualify for
state, and to move himself into 17th all time. The boys 4x100
managed to qualify for state by .04s., moving our total state qualifier number
by time for the season up to 8 individuals and 3 relays – with many more to
come. I’ve included a list of qualifiers at the end of the email.
This week is a busy one. We host a junior high meet on Wednesday,
a tri meet on Thursday, and the WX invitational is Friday. Those of you not competing
Friday will run hard on Thursday. Those of you competing Friday will help us
run the meet on Thursday. EVERYONE is needed to help run the JH meet on
Wednesday. I am in the process of giving each of you an assignment to help this
thing run smoothly. It is a pain to run a meet without proper help. It is a
piece of cake, and fun, if everyone does their jobs. I will send out the jobs
list asap, but it will probably be Monday before practice. You’ll have fun with
it, working with your teammates and watching the JH kids learn the sport. We’ll
talk more about this at practice this week.
We appreciate what you are doing to contribute to our team.
Let’s keep making progress towards our goal. If you feel mentally fatigued,
frustrated with lack of improvement in your times/marks, talk to your coaches,
rely on your teammates, keep a long term perspective. PRs don’t happen every
race, even though you rightfully expect them to. More accurately you run a PR,
then you run similar times 2-3 times before having another sizeable PR. That’s
just how it goes, so if you are in this boat, know that you are the norm. Let
it bother you just enough to make you step up your game even more in practice
each day, but don’t let it nag you or hold you back.
Coach Jacobson
2017 State
Qualifiers by event
100H/110H
Rachel Whipple
Adam Amott
300H
Rachel Whipple
400m
Kohle Newbold
High Jump
Rachel Whipple
Long Jump
Julia Miller
Shot Put
Norris Tukuafu
Discus
Nate Losee
Tashena Ashby
Boy’s Medley
Relay
Girl’s Medley
Relay
