Becoming a head coach

This year I became a co-head coach. The biggest difference between before and now was that I “got to” deal with the political side of the job. Years 1-5 I was just coaching kids and deferring all the griping and headaches to the head coach. Now the headaches got pushed to me and it was quite a learning experience. I must admit though, coaching track is probably one of the easier sports as far as head coaching goes. The fastest runners run, the highest and longest jumpers jump, and the farther throwers throw.  Relays maybe can be a little bit subjective, but for the most part it is cut and dry who is going to be on your section roster.  The best thing about track is that there is usually a spot for everyone.  If someone is not the fastest, they could maybe hurdle or high jump.  If they have no speed at all, then they can try the different throwing events or maybe try long distance.  This year I also had one of the greatest pleasures a coach could have in track. I had an athlete in an event that I coach, triple jump, have a phenomenal section meet and make it to the state meet. She got hurt at the state meet but the goal of competing at the state meet was met and she and I were ecstatic. Higher goals were now set.        

I became a solo head coach and the “face” of our program this year.  Dealing with media, parent, athlete, and head coaching responsibilities was a lot to handle.  Thankfully I had a great team of coaches around me that helped me keep my sanity.  That is one of the most important things as a head coach, get quality assistants and as many volunteers as you can possibly manage to help your program grow and succeed.  I also got to taste my first disappointment as a head coach.  That is one of the toughest things to deal with as a coach is to have high goals set and not be able to meet them.  Not knowing if I did enough to help them was tough. Having the tears and disappointment at the end was a new experience for me. I learned that setting the bar high also has it draw backs.  But without goals to strive for, it is tough to keep motivated throughout the year.  I had the kids write down goals on a card to post in their lockers to see every day and it was fun when many of them reached or exceeded their goals.    

One of the harder things to deal with in a small school is everyone is competing for the same small group of kids.  Track is in the spring and we compete with baseball/softball and “golf” for athletes.  On a side note, golf is my favorite thing to do but not sure if golf is a sport.  We were fortunate that the head football coach kind of encouraged several to come out for track to help with conditioning and speed.  With three of the new guys, we had some speed to work with and had a relay make it to state for the first time ever in school history.  We also had a young man who was a hurdler who transferred into our school as a sophomore. We do not have a track so his hurdle practice consisted of 3 hurdles set up in our gym.  He improved every year 10^th-12^thand his senior year he took fourth in the state meet.  He ran at a disadvantage to others with a track and many hurdles to practice with, but he used that as motivation to push to be better than most.  It just goes to show that you don’t need to have the greatest set up to succeed.  With the right coaches, the right kids, and a bit of luck, you can make the unexpected become expected.  We have had a string of 10 straight years to sending athletes to the state meet and it is something they will hopefully continue without me.

Till next time, Happy November!