MediocreMan

I Love Track and Field · 19 May 2012

I never would have dreamed I would fall in love with a sport I never really participated in, but coaching Track and Field (T&F) for the past three seasons has been a blast. I have thoroughly enjoyed it even though I never put a shot or threw a discus or javelin before I started. But like teaching and coaching (any sport), the reason I love T&F is because of the people.

What has made me fall in love with Track and Field is the interactions between people. Coaches share information and techniques with each other. They cheer on athletes from other schools. They even laugh and cry with each other and their kids. There are rivalries and competitions, but those are secondary to everybody learning and getting better as coaches and athletes.

I love the interaction between athletes too. Many of them do not care whether they win or lose to each other. They just care about whether they got another Personal Record (PR) and performed well. Everybody asks each other, “Was that a PR?” High fives and hugs are often exchanged between competitors when new marks are set. For the most part, people compete against their old times, distances, and heights rather than against each other. There are heartbreaks when somebody does not get to go to the district or state competition, but tears often dry and smiles emerge when somebody else points out the performance was a PR or at least a great performance.

Recently, we had our two-day district meet. I marveled again at the collegiality and cooperation between coaches. And I saw interactions that pointed out to me just why I love Track and Field.

During the first day at the discus competition, one of the athletes from another school in our conference rolled her ankle. She was able to compete, but was hampered by the injury for the javelin and shot put competitions, which happened on the second day. Coaches and athletes from other schools were not excited that a top competitor was not having her best days. Instead, they were all concerned for her health and well being. When it was all over, coaches and athletes were telling her that she still had a week until the state meet to get healthy and prepare for two of her events.

In all sports, athletes from opposing teams might be friends off the court or field, but I have not seen them warm up with each other except in Track and Field.

The boys’ javelin competition at the district meet was hotly contested. Sixteen athletes started the competition in two flights. Each thrower got three attempts. Then, the top eight would get three more attempts to determine the champion and which four throwers would move on to the state meet. Four of the top eight were from our conference and from different schools. They stood around together waiting to see who would be in that final flight and three more throws. These four had competed against each other all year in conference and invitational meets. They were athletes from different schools, yet they were just javelin throwers trying to best their previous marks and maybe beat the others in the process rather than fierce competitor trying to bash each others’ brains in. When the final throwers were announced, these four athletes took a jog together to warm up for their final attempts. That lap together along with the congratulations and consolations all the athletes gave to each other, both during and after the competition, made the meet special for me. It reaffirmed my love for the sport and the people involved.

Sports are supposed to help prepare students for life and I have seen how high school Track and Field does. Competitors get to see how coaches can help each other and root for everybody not just their own athletes. They understand that they can cheer for each other and compete against themselves. They gain a little perspective with each practice and meet.

I still cannot believe how much I have come to love this sport called Track and Field, but I know I will stick around because of the people.

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Tick Tock · 12 May 2012

Tick tock. You have less than an hour.

It is an ominous thought to think that we all have deadlines to meet. My deadline of posting a new blog on my website is self-imposed, but I feel that I must meet it. Every week. I do it not because I know there are thousands of readers out there waiting for me to put the link on my Facebook fan page, but because I have made a contract with the few readers I have (both real and imaginary) and with myself. And this week, I must do it in under an hour.

As my self-imposed deadline looms, I find myself thinking about all those students who are taking Advanced Placement tests or the SAT or ACT. They are all out there sweating through tests that have strict time limits. Tick. They are calculating and reading and analyzing and writing trying to get college credits or show colleges they are ready to tackle the challenges of life beyond high school. Tock. I can empathize with those students.

I empathize with the students because like them, I see the minutes passing by much too quickly. I too am composing without much of a plan. Or maybe any at all. Thankfully, I do not hear the tick tock of an analog clock on the wall. That tell tale heart foretelling my doom as the deadline draws closer and I am merely a paragraph or two into my story. I feel the same angst and anxiety as those students wondering what their readers and graders will think of the words they put down on their tests.

Fortunately, my future does not rest so heavily on some seemingly arbitrary test. It seems that I can put out words about nothing and my readers will still read. True, they might unlike my fan page, or write some nasty comment about my content, but life will go on regardless of whether anybody likes my post or not. Whether I meet my deadline or not. Life will go on for the students taking the tests too, whether they realize it or not. That tick tocking of the clock is not a time bomb ready to go off and dash any hopes of college placement or credit or of future success. It is still just the clock on the wall telling time. Tick… Tock…

Today, as I write to try and beat my deadline, I wonder whether all those students out there taking tests and watching the clock realize that life does not depend on one little test. They do not yet have the gift of time and perspective. Hopefully, they do not all believe the lie that one little test could make or break them. Hopefully, they realize that their future depends more on their passion and the price they are willing to pay for success than on one little test. And if not, hopefully, that same tick tocking clock will one day give them that perspective.

I know that my life, as a person and as a writer, will not fall apart if I do not meet my self-imposed deadline. If I do not post at the usual time. I know that life will go on if I fail a test or do poorly on a performance review. But I also know that it was not always so. I used to sweat through timed tests and wonder whether I was good enough. Whether I would succeed at anything. I realize now that only the tick tock of the wall clock can give us the perspective and wisdom to know what is truly important in life. That in the large scheme of things, one little test or one little deadline does not really matter.

I am about to make my deadline and my hour is not even up. Tick. That clock on the wall is just keeping time and giving me more perspective. Tock.

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Warning: Reading This Could Change Your Life · 5 May 2012

Warning labels seem to be on everything these days. Some are obviously necessary like the Surgeon General warnings on tobacco products. Some are ludicrous like the ones on cups saying that hot drinks are hot. Some are just ignored (or draw people to them) like the ones on video games, music, and movies. I know I ought not suggest it, but there are some pieces of literature that ought to have warning labels on them. The Bible and my blog are two.

Besides being the holy book of the Judeo-Christian world, The Bible is an important piece of world history and literature. A few years ago, I heard a student say his teacher would not let him read The Bible for English class because it was non-fiction and they were reading novels. Another year, I overheard a senior saying he wanted to read it someday because of its place in both history and literature. Both of these students and their stories showed me again how important The Bible is to world culture. But the comment from Jeffrey, the senior who said he wanted to read it someday, stayed with me for quite some time.

Jeffrey was talking to another senior during Track and Field practice when he commented about wanting to read The Bible as a piece of literature. I overheard the comment and could not get it out of my head. So as I shook his hand when he left my class for the last time as my student (I try to shake all my seniors’ hands on their last day), I addressed his comment from his conversation I overheard.

“Be careful.” He looked at me quizzically. Then, I continued, “If you read The Bible with an open mind, it will change your life.”

He smiled and simply replied, “I know.”

It was as if Jeffrey wanted to read The Bible, but knew it had power and truth between its covers. And he was not ready to have those truths revealed. I had thought about the warning label concept when I overheard his conversation, but I never realized it was more than just a silly though until I said goodbye to Jeffrey. Until he sighed, resigned to the fact that either he would never read this important piece of history and literature that has greatly affected the course of the world or that he would be changed because he did read it.

I was astounded that I had discovered something so profound with a simple warning.

My blog is not so profound very often. Nor does it have questionable content that might offend people (unless subjects such as bodily noises or functions are offensive). Nor will reading it change people’s lives. But still, it ought to have some sort of warning. The warning should be that my writing is not always polished. That it does not follow a theme except that I muse about what I want to muse about. And that it is not always funny or profound or even interesting. In other words, my warning to readers should be that I am a rambler as much as I am a muser and often, I am not very good at it. Of course, I do say something to that effect on my about page. But it is not really a warning. Maybe it ought to be.

I know it is a stretch to call what I do on my blog literature. And it is ludicrous to compare it to The Bible. But they both really ought to have warning labels. (Maybe more people would read them if they did.) After all, reading one might confuse or baffle people. Reading the other could change their lives. Both of these possible effects probably warrant warning labels.

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