Braves,
We had a pretty busy week with meets Thursday-Saturday. The
week was filled with pretty sweet performances. With the effort and work that
was put in this week we are setting ourselves up for a great region meet on
Wednesday and Thursday. It is crazy to think that region is here.
A few highlights from the week included taking two busses to
the meet on Thursday, showing that we have a big group that wants to compete.
Kiwi had a solid PR in the 300H on Thursday. It is fun to watch her race
because she always has a big smile on. It turns out that her grimace/game face
looks like a smile. Another highlight was watching Marcus run the 800 at East. He
has been working hard for years and went out fast on the first lap to go get a
PR. Even though he didn’t PR, he ran a tough race and looked spent – it was
clear that he gave all he had on that day. After the race his one frustration
was that he didn’t PR. He didn’t care that he was exhausted or in pain (because
the 800m is straight up the most painful race ever created in Track & Field),
what he cared about was his goal. To me that shows a determination and
fearlessness that is required to be successful in this sport and in life during
and after high school. Too often we are scared to give our all in practice or
at a meet because we are scared to put ourselves through the pain of a race
done with full effort. Too often we are scared to give our best effort because
if we fail to reach our goal we won’t have any convenient excuses.
Goals are ever evolving (as we continuously set new heights)
so failing to reach a goal is not the determination of failure, just as
reaching a goal set too low is not the determination of Success. What you do
and what you become in your journey towards reaching your goal is what really
defines success or failure. Would any of us really consider 4th place
at the Olympics to be a failure? Yet I’m sure many Olympic favorites who don’t
perform their best and end up in 4th do not feel like it was a
success. Goals are ever-changing and are different based on perspective. What
is good for one person may not be for someone else. Marcus was disappointed by
the 2:11, but many of us would be thrilled to run that time. Results cannot be
the determination of success, only the process can. What you do day in and day
out to reach your goals is the true measure of success. I’ve coached region
champions who were not successful because they didn’t put in the work and
squandered their potential. The 1st place finished only fueled selfishness
and rewarded a lack of effort, all because they had enormous natural talent. I’ve
coach people who didn’t even qualify for region who were profoundly successful
because they put in the work each day and as a result became a better athlete,
a better teammate, a harder worker, and so forth.
Marcus came back in the 4x400 (another example of his work
ethic) and ran a 56 split, which was an awesome result. It feels good to get
the result, but he would have been successful with or without it. The fact of
the matter is that most of us on our team (and every team for that matter) are
not insane natural athletes, so everything we get is something we have to earn.
The process drives the results. Marcus ran a great 400 because of the work he
put in over the years.
Rachel Whipple set a new school record on Friday in the
100H. That was an incredible accomplishment. School records don’t come around
every day or year. The last school record was in 2015, and before that 2013,
and before that, 2009. Rachel is another example of what hard work every day
can accomplish. I can tell you she didn’t earn that spot based on talent alone.
She worked her way over a 3-year high school career to get there, and I would
bet big that she worked as hard or harder than anyone else on that list – and that is how she got to the top.
Another highlight at BYU was Nate Losee finishing 6th
in the discus. Scoring at the BYU invitational is incredibly difficult given
that you compete against the best athletes from 3A, 4A, and 5A, which is why only
3 people on our team did (keeping in mind that we didn’t enter them in all
their events) – Rachel (100H, 300H), Adam (110H) , and Nate (discus). Nate didn’t
have his best throw but still placed – that is a great performance. Again, it’s
a testament to what our throwers do every day at the track. They have to get
there earlier to practice every day so they can get some throws in before the
baseball team gets out there. We’d let them keep throwing anyway, but they are
getting so good we don’t want them hitting some poor kid in left field.
Norris came with us Friday at 5 AM and stayed the entire day
to watch and support his teammates even though he no marked in the morning.
Finding joy in your teammates success is an essential ingredient to a
championship team, and this week is the week of our region championships. We
will talk about entries and details of the meet on Monday at practice.
Throwers, instead of getting out to the discus early come up in the stands so
we can talk about the region meet briefly before getting to work. We have an
opportunity in front of us that doesn’t come around every year. I don’t know
how I am going to get through the next three days before the meet, because I
just cannot wait. I am excited to put our team on full display and reap the
rewards of a hard fought season. Come tomorrow ready to work and refine so we
can be at maximum performance on Wednesday/Thursday. If we are going to win
region, we have to make good things happen in each of our events. we can’t just
hope that we have a good time by the time we cross the line, and we can’t just
hope that we make it into finals. We have to put pressure on the athletes
around us and will our way across the line and battle every step, or spin, or
glide, and fight our way into finals or into the top 4 or top 8. If we make
good things happen instead of letting things happen to us, we will have a
chance at the end. If we are complacent or lack determination, the trophy will
go to another team, most likely the one that made good things happen. Let’s be the
ones that make things happen in our favor. Let’s be the ones who fight for
every point and put pressure on the rest of the heat/flight to perform at our
level or to miss finals. Let’s be the ones who are mentally tough and can fight
through adversity. Let’s be the ones who put ourselves and our teammates in
position to perform our best. If we can do those things we can win as a team.
Good things to come. See you all on Monday.
Coach Jacobson
