Coach’s Blog

Okay, so I’ve decided that I don’t think I’ll be able to do the wedding weekend justice.  I’m just not the wordsmith that I’d need to be.  I hope to let a few pictures tell the story of my weekend for me and hit on a few more memorable, favorite moments of the evening. 

The first thing to mention is that I am unbelievably happy to be a man.  There are a lot of reasons for this, but right now its because of how fast we can get cleaned up.  It took me approximately 10 mins to get fully prepared for my own wedding.  I can’t express enough how amazing that is.  

I clean up pretty well, don’t I.  Ultimately though, the suit didn’t feel totally comfortable until I had Marion at my side.  With a few last words of wisdom from the Old Man, we got everything started.  After the ceremony, Marion and I chatted and realized that we had two totally different experiences with the whole thing.  She had to wait until everyone was seated before she could come out and see everything, while I got to hang out at the site and welcome everyone.  It was so great to see all the family and friends that made the trip.  

We asked some of our good friends to be our music.  We used an Ipod for the reception (thanks to Trevor Donadt for ensuring we had enough quality tunes), but we had some friends play a few select songs which was an amazing addition.  According to my nephew, Cade, once the boredom of the ceremony was done with, it was time to start the party. 

And it was an amazing reception.  Some of Marion’s family made it all the way from Korea which was amazing.  Her 91-year-old grandmother made the trip and she is one amazing women.  She doesn’t say much, but when she chooses to say something, everyone listens.  Oh, did I mention that she does 10 push ups every morning.  I think that there are a few athletes on the team who can’t do 10 push ups.  

From there, everything just kept getting better.  The food was amazing.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sushi that came out of a backwoods VT caterer.  Also, Marion’s Maid of Honor ventured to a small island off the coast of Africa to pick up her wedding gift.  It’s quite a story, remind me to tell it to you sometime.  

Oh, and if you thought that was it, you obviously don’t know Marion and I very well.  This 8-year-old ruled the dance floor.  And I mean ruled the dance floor.  She rocked house when she broke out the worm…no one could match her skills.    

And now, I’ve returned to Medford and am back in Gantcher.  Nothing changed except my left, ring finger is a little heavier.  I’m not much of a ring wearer and I need my finger to start forgetting about it.  It has totally thrown off my basketball shot.  But regardless of my basketball shot, I’d have to say I’m much happier wearing the ring than not. And p.s. - Marion looked amazing that day.  Absolutely amazing.   

She went through with it.

I don’t really know where to start.  Perfect weekend.  I can’t really put it into words yet, but I couldn’t have asked for more.  I’ll be sure to put a little more up once I process the whole experience myself.  Until then, here are a couple of my favorites.  There are so many great pics, but I won’t bore you with too many.  Really, just a great weekend. 

Everything was perfect.

Shhhh, don’t tell Marion that I just used this metaphor to describe my life.  Yes the season just ended, but if you think that a 5 week championship season and the national championships are a source of many “To Do” lists, then you’ve never planned a wedding.  To be honest, she’s doing about 10x the work that I’m doing, which is a little scary about the amount of work that you can do for a wedding.  

Needless to say, I’m really excited for the whole weekend to get here.  There are a number of really close friends that I haven’t seen in way too long.  The food is going to be amazing.  I can’t wait to put on my first suit ever.  Oh…and, yeah…I’m getting married too.  I guess that should be a big part of the weekend. 

However, I’ll be completely honest with you, what I’m really excited for doesn’t come until the end of the summer.   I’ve got three words for you, Ra, wan, da.  Actually, that’s just one word isn’t it.  Rwanda.  

If you thought last summer was great (engagement, Olympic Trials, Denali, Kenya), then you haven’t gotten a look at this summer’s schedule yet. Wedding, Denaliesque hike, classes in CD, Rwanda, coaching clinics, and a great outlook for XC2010.  Game on.  

Need I say more.

With less than a week until graduation I can’t help but look back on the last four years of my life.  This is the end of my fourth year as head coach at Tufts so this graduating class will represent the first class to spend all four years of their college career with me.  That’s a little bit overwhelming, but something that I should probably get used to because it’s probably going to happen another 30-40 times.  

I’ve changed immensely over these past four years as my mindset has evolved from that of a young assistant coach to that of a still-pretty-young head coach.  Ultimately though, this class of graduating seniors really impresses me in terms of their ability to work, fight, and improve as athletes over their four years here.  

From freshmen to seniors…

Colin Fitzgerald - 11.37, 23.48  became 11.18, 22.30

Phil Rotella - 11.48, 23.08, became 10.90, 22.23

James Bradley - 51.24, 6-4, became 50.67, 6-9

Skip Pagel - 11.88, 51.70, 5-6, 19-5, 5907 became 11.23, 50.30, 6-2, 21-11, 6871  

Maybe some pictures would put it better…

These jokers didn’t give up when it got hard.  They kept at it and battled.  It’s just like chopping down a tree.  One swing might not make a big difference, but eventually if you keep at it - it all pays off in the end.  These guys ended up becoming…

Four years is a long time.  I imagine that these graduating seniors would say that it went by in a flash, but in the end, they all made the most of it.  They could have given up when it got hard.  And trust me, it got hard on many, many occasions.  In the end, I want to say thank you to these seniors for battling through tough injuries, class conflicts, long weekends on busses and in hotel rooms.  But most of all, thanks for being flexible and understanding when you showed up for your freshman year and there was a whole new coach sitting in the Track/XC office.  It was a good four years, wasn’t it…and it’s not even over yet.

So I think that this should officially go down in history as the low point of this blog.  It will be the first (and hopefully only) time that I will draw a parallel between my life and a Shaquille O’Neal movie.  No, I’m not talking about Kazaam or Steel.  I wish I was, that would be a much more eventful post.  I’m actually referring to the one and only Blue Chips featuring Nick Nolte, Penny Hardaway, and the lesser known Bob Cousy.

  I don’t know how many of you out there actually saw this movie.  Judging by it’s grossing numbers, not many of you did.  And those of you who did probably blacked it out of your memory.  Well, I’m from VT and there’s not much for a 15-year-old to do in VT besides watching horrible Shaq movies.  

Basic premise:  A coach sells out to win.  He lets his boosters buy a recruit to come to his school.  They win, but in the end…they lose.  

What I really remember about the movie is the end scene when a heated Nick Nolte flips out on the press a la Bobby Knight.  He rants about how the press judged the previous year’s team as a failure because they had a losing record.  But yet he enjoyed coaching that team more than any other.  They battled for every win and earned everything they got.  

It was a very Woodenesque outlook on success.  

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.

I can easily say without the slightest hesitation that I have an intense peace of mind coming out of this years NESCAC Championships.  We had a big uphill battle in front of us going into the meet.  From there, we lost All American James Bradley and James Wheeler early in the meet.  A lot of other teams may have shut down either before or throughout the meet.  I was very proud to see our guys dig in even deeper and bring the best they had.

We always talk about giving everything you have and letting the points shake out however they may.  Sometimes they line up in your favor, sometimes they don’t.  In 2006 we snuck by MIT by 1/2 a point.  This year, Bates edged us out by 1/2 a point.  What goes around comes around.  However, on both occasions, each Jumbo fought to the bone.  Something that lets us all sleep well at night having no regrets for a lost opportunity.  

And in the end, that’s what it’s all about - getting a good nights sleep.  

I’ve realized that I’m not much of a blogger.  I don’t write every day, or every week for that matter.  I really wait until something calls out to me.  I hope that makes it more worth while for you to read this.  I try not to post any pointless filler just for the sake of adding more fodder to the internet.  I’m a quality vs quantity blogger.  Sometimes the posts come in bursts while other times it can be weeks between posts.  This is one of those times.  

However, something rang true with me this morning when I was reading the blog of one of our alumni.  He’s a former school record holder, 2x All American, captain, and simply an all around solid guy.  Working with him was nothing short of a great experience for me.  He epitomized everything that a good coach would love about sport - desire, drive, grit, emotion, possibility, and most of all a love for everything he did.  

Ultimately, it was impossible to know exactly which Brigham would toe the line on a Saturday.  That possibility left everyone (Tufts fans and competitors alike) on the edge of their seat.  He was going to put on a show.  Sure the possibility was there that he might die trying, but he was going to put it all on the line and try to PR like never before.  Over his time at Tufts, I had numerous coaches approach me to tell me that they just loved watching him compete.  I never told him this because I didn’t want to see his head get too big, but to be honest, I really enjoyed it too.  

In reality though, it wasn’t what he did on Saturday’s that made him what he was.  It was what he did when he couldn’t suit up that showed us his true colors.  As coaches, an injury can really demonstrate an athletes true versatility as a leader.  It can also illustrate exactly who is in it for themselves and who is in it for their teammates.

Now, at this point you are probably wondering why I am telling this story.  Well, during that month that I was not allowed to run I still had to go to practice.  So, at practice I took an exercise bike and rolled it up right next to the indoor track.  From there I could watch my teammates workout while I worked out.  A bunch of guys did this, so it was no big deal.  Eventually I got bored with this concept and decided, along with a few other injured guys, to move the bikes to the front steps of the Gantcher Center…….OUTSIDE!  We would put our gear on and go out into the cold and bike for 45 minutes.  It was great.  And thus the Lance Armstrong Indoor/Outdoor Stationary Bike Circuit was born.  I even made membership cards for those that joined me outside, mine is still in my wallet.

In passing, this paragraph might seem quite insignificant, but that couldn’t be any farther from the truth.  This paragraph isn’t simply setting up a story.  It’s representative of what it takes to become something great.  

First off, let’s reread the 2nd sentence.  ”Well, during that month that I was not allowed to run I still had to go to practice.”  It might seem obvious, but this isn’t a mindset that everyone has.  ”I still had to go to practice.”  I’m going to say that again because it is so huge…”I still had to go to practice.”  Nothing is harder on a serious athlete than sitting on the sidelines watching his teammates train their asses off.  I appreciate that.  I’ve been there.  But in college we’re more than athletes, we’re teammates.  And a serious teammate realizes that he is far more to his friends than just another body at practice.  In fact, the role you play as a physical contributor at practice is a very small piece of the puzzle.  I really wish more athletes had this “I still had to go to practice” approach.  

Second, move the bikes outside? Make membership cards? Two incredibly small efforts.  Two small deeds.  But they had a huge impact on everyone around him. They made something painful, stressful, and emotionally draining such as an injury and turned it into something fun.  Someone much smarter than myself once said “the smallest deed is better than the grandest intention.”  And this is the perfect example. 

Don’t tell anyone I said this - Track and Field should be incredibly boring.  There…I said it.  We run in circles, we throw rocks, we jump fences.  But it’s not boring, and it’s because of who we share it with.  We have fun with it.  Any toiling drudgery can become pure enjoyment given the right mindset and friends to share it with.  And that’s exactly the case with our sport.  We take what really shouldn’t be all that much fun and we make it the most enjoyable thing in our lives.  How amazing is that?  I’m just going to sit and mull that over for a bit.  Thanks Nate.

I’m not sure if I found the college environment because I was so comfortable here or whether I’ve become comfortable with it as I’ve continued to work here.  Either way, I chose this spring to continue my course work (the goal of which is, as of yet, undetermined).  My course is about Evolution and Cognitive Development.  It has been a great experience and has kept my mind from getting stagnant.  Sadly though, the topic is so diverse and massive that each 2.5 hour class could and should be a course of it’s own.  i.e. Evolution and Morality, Evolution and Religion, Gender differences and Evolution, etc.

We barely scratch the surface of each of these topic leaving far more questions unanswered than answered.  It is one of those classes that opens your eyes to a new way of thinking, the same way a sociology or peace & justice class might.  You notice things about your world that may have just slipped passed you before.  I know I’ve started seeing evolutionary causes in almost everything we do.  And if I can’t, then I want to.  

Right now, I’m wondering how it was evolutionarily beneficial for humans to start taking on more and more responsibility.  What foundation of our hunter/gatherer past has led us to always add more to our plates?  Sure, not everyone is guilty of this, but it is a very common human characteristic.  If you can handle the workload of responsibilities that you currently have, then you add more.  For instance, you may add a course to your schedule if you’re a collegiate track coach.  

Most people who have this trait fail to realize the potential risks of these actions.  If you’re constantly adding responsibilities, eventually you will hit your limit.  And in that event, all of these things that you love and are very important to you will crumble.  You will no longer be able to do them all well.  Is it better to do 5 things very well or 10 things just alright?  

I’ve been following some of the work of Jonathan Haidt as a result of this question.  He deals more with morality, but he also addresses an interesting human trait that he calls “openness to change” in this lecture on TED.com.  He implies that this trait alone basically sums up the differences between liberals and conservatives.  I wonder if it also has some effect on those of us who are always looking to add more to our plates.  Maybe on the spectrum of ‘openness to change’ those people that are on the ‘need for change’ or ‘resistance to staleness’ side of the spectrum are the ones that are constantly taking on too much.  

Is this genetic?  My mother has it in spades.  My father not so much.  My wife-to-be has it.  Is that one of the reasons that we love each other.  I’m not sure if my brother has it, but he also has two young children.  At that point in your life, you can’t add anything if you wanted to.  

Well, congratulations, you just experienced about 1/10th of what one of our classes is like.  Absolutely no answers and laundry list of questions.  Really, if you take anything out of this blog entry, it should be that TED.com is a pretty amazing site.  They do short lectures by some pretty amazing people in just about every domain you could imagine.  Check it out.  Unless everyone already knows about it and I’m just way behind the curve.

This intraweb thingy has changed everything.  Now I realize that only a part of my life has been sans-internet, but that doesn’t stop me from noticing how much this thing has changed everything.  Yeah, you read these “internet is the devil” or “internet is the savior” articles all the time, but what has it done to coaching?  To be honest, I don’t think I could fully touch on all the aspects.  Some are great, some are worse, some are horrible.  Looking at it from every standpoint and relationship in coaching, you can easily find enormous positives and negatives with the internet.  Very quickly…

From a recruiting perspective, it is so beneficial to HS seniors to be able to research, follow, and determine which schools and programs are right for them.  It’s a great opportunity to consider so many more programs beyond your immediate area.  Now you can ‘tour’ and rule out a ton more schools without having to travel there.  You can get in contact with coaches quicker and track results so much easier.  As a coach, you can get in touch with athletes so much easier and you can verify reported PRs.  

From a coaches perspective, it is great to be able to contact 60+ people in one email.  Schedule changes, practice times, updates, everything is done with the click of a button.  I can’t even imagine how a coach did it with just the telephone (not even cellphones).  

From an athletes perspective, you can get in touch with your coach ASAP.  You’re teammates are right there too.  You can track your performances and those of your competition and teammates.  

Meet management is a snap.  Entries, performance lists, scratches, everything…it’s right there. 

But I just can’t help but get a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think of some of these.  Sure the communication is easier and quicker, but does that make it better?  Is the quality still there?  Are you held to the same standard?  I get the feeling that it possibly weakens the athlete coach relationship.  There are fewer and fewer face to face interactions and conversations are replaced with gchats and emails.  

It gives people a distance from the conversation that allows them not to fully address the issue in an assertive manner. If a coach or an athlete has something negative to tell someone else, they tend to just say it in an email now.  Whatever happened to face to face?  There is so much more respect and honor in a face to face conversation if you’re telling someone something that they don’t want to hear.  

If we as coaches are trying to help student/athletes grow into self sufficient, respectable members of society, then we need to start doing more things face to face.  Role model it and require it.  Just because something is easier, doesn’t make it better.

Wednesday 3/11 - Fly from Boston to Indiana

Thursday 3/12 - Saturday 3/14 - National Championships

Sunday 3/15 - Fly from Indiana to Boston 

Monday 3/16 - Fly from Boston to Orlando

Wednesday 3/18 - Saturday 3/21 - Walt Disney Invitational

Sunday 3/22 - Fly from Orlando to Boston

A few thoughts about all this…

1) I love track. 

2) I love the national championships. 

3) It is unbelievably gorgeous in Orlando right now. 

4) We had 6 All Americans at the National Championships and so far 2-for-2 in National Qualifiers at Walt Disney.  

5) I’m still pretty tired. 

You would think that that many great performances would have me so jacked up on adrenaline that I wouldn’t even need a morning cup of coffee.  Yet still, all the traveling takes its toll.  I am so glad that I get to coach at a program that is surrounded by great meets and great competition.  I would hate to have to travel all over the country chasing fast tracks and great competition.  Flying every weekend just takes so much out of you.  That’s only one of the many reasons why I don’t have a suit-job that flies me all over the glove.  (the biggest reason is that I don’t ever want to wear a suit.)

All that being said, I am very glad to be tired.  Because if I wasn’t, then that meant that I got to catch up on sleep instead of being a the national championships.  It would mean that I wasn’t getting a great tan cheering on our decathletes with Mickey and Goofy.  Goofy doesn’t say much, but you can tell who he’s rooting for.  And it’s pretty obvious that Dumbo is a huge Tufts fan.  

See you all when we get back…bright eyed and bushy tailed.

So we kicked off the ECAC Championships about 24 hours ago.  I was very nervous going into the competition from a meet management standpoint.  150 teams and 700+ athletes is just a ton of athletes.  Things went well yesterday, but we’ll have to take a long hard look at some of the standards for next year.  30 pole vaulters in the last meet before Nationals is just obscene.  There should probably half of that.  Luckily the officials kept it moving well and we were able to get four vaulters over 15-11 still.  

All in all it was an amazingly competitive meet.  We’ve only had one event (men’s pentathlon) that didn’t have any national qualifiers.  And that one only missed by 0.3% (13 points shy of 3400).  As much as I hate all the chaos from a host’s perspective, I love it from a competitor’s.  I hate facilitating a meet when you can’t keep the infield clear and have to constantly push the crowds off the track.  On the other hand, there is nothing better for our DMR to have the entire meet standing in lane 3 screaming their faces off.  

Speaking of that, I would like to quickly acknowledge those Jumbos that took Tufts to a 3rd place finish after day 1 of ECACs.  Amazingly, Tufts is in 3rd with only two scorers.  Senior, captain Skip Pagel won the pentathlon in grand fashion making up 150 points on two competitors in the final event.  His PR of 2:45 in the 1000m left him a mere 13 points away from a national qualifier; however, he did move up to 5th on the Tufts All Time List.  It’s hard to believe that only two years ago, Pat Di Nino was still our pentathlon record holder.  Now he’s sitting at 5th All Time after the Engelking brothers, Skip, and Nate Scott showed up on campus.  It’s been a great few years for Tufts Multis.  We’ll have to keep the ball rolling this spring.  

But I digress.  Back to ECACs.  Taking a hint from Pagel’s book, the DMR decided to disprove almost all estimates for banked track conversions.  New Englanders have long said that the banked track doesn’t help you much in events above the 800m.  Yet we still sit at a 3+ second penalty in the DMR and 5k for banked tracks in DIII.  After running a 9:59 (3:05, 49, 1:55, 4:09) last weekend at the Open NE’s, the Jumbo foursome decided to come back for an encore flat track performance performance.  What would they run…3:05, 50, 1:55, 4:09.  Interesting.  It seems that great racers run great times when the competition is fierce.  It just so happens that the competition is always stacked when we go to BU’s banked track.  Very interesting.  I find it very interesting that we can run 1.3 seconds slower for the DMR this weekend, but move up three places on the national rankings because of the conversion standards.  

While I’m at it.  Congratulations to the lady Jumbos for their stellar DMR performance as well.  Two for two on DMR titles this year at ECACs.  Two DMR’s left on the schedule…