To Run, Or Not To Run....A Fan's Perspective.

Today's blog  will be one of those "reflective" musings.  I hope it sparks a little conversation, in real life if not in the comment section.  It is prompted by something I witnessed last night, for the first time in my memory, at a High School Track Meet.Track & Field is a sport into itself, not one game, but many contests, featuring many players, over many hours, in weather that may be 100 degrees in the shade, 38 and snowing, pouring rain, or on a rare occasion, a beautiful clear warm day. A sport that can, and does test the mettle of many a young athlete.  A sport not for the faint of heart or weak of will.  It is a sport that in many ways, is a lesson about life. There is a cardinal rule in Track& Field.  Coach D drilled it into us...

"Finish the race". If you fall, you get up and finish. If you drop the baton, you pick it up and finish. If you knock over the hurdle you step over it and keep going. If you are dead last and have been lapped twice, and are all but walking, you finish. Unless you have an injury that clearly prevents it, you always finish the race, with whatever dignity and grace you can muster. There is no disgrace in losing, only in giving up. That one small thing is the esssence of what track, and track athletes are about.It was an unpleasant night. The wind was blowing, there was a steady cold rain, and the shelter was sparse. In the stands, there were even fewer fans than usual...only the die hard parents and a few track junkies. Not unusual really, for a track meet.  Behind the three or four Oriole fans in the bleachers was a track coach. Three running events into the meet he told the people around him that he was going to "go home". "Its cold", he said, "one of my girls already got hurt warming up", this rain isn't going to let up, we're just going to go home". For a moment I thought he might be making a joke...but I turned around to look, and I could see that he wasn't.  Indeed, he got up during the Shuttle Hurdle relay, told his girls not to check in for the next event, and less than ten minutes later they gathered up their stuff, and left the meet.

Say WHAT !?! We (the Oriole Die-hards) were astonished, and dismayed.

"What kind of message does that send" we wondered aloud. Later, a couple of our athletes talked to us about it, voicing their own disapproval...which made our hearts glad. I don't know if the departing team had scored any points... I also don't know if they forfeited any points scored or places won, but they certainly should have.  Had they decided early in the day to skip the meet due to weather, it would have been questionable, but to drop out part way through is unacceptable.

It is fundamentally wrong in every way to tell your athletes to pack it up and go home in the middle of a contest. I cannot imagine seeing such a thing happen in any other sport that schools partcipate in. The outrage and outcry would have been swift and loud.High School track gets a bit of a bum rap... It's viewed as an afterthought sport by many. Other coaches often use it as just a way to keep the "important sports athletes" in shape for their particular season. Spectators are few, and there are no cheerleaders or pep rallys. Our girls didn't even merit a "good luck" on the morning announcements before they headed off to Drake...and I bet they are not the only ones.That's too bad really, because the young men and women who run on high school track teams are a very special kind of athlete, and they deserve a little recognition. Day after day they spend time in crappy weather, running speed & endurance drills.  They practice baton handoffs, and do specialized lifting and weight training.  They skin knees running hurdles over and over.  They run with blisters on their feet, and knees, thighs and ankles that are wrapped, taped, or braced.  They do all that so  they can stand for 3 to 5 hours in the rain at a meet to run a 12, 26, or 60 second race...or perhaps a 10 minute one...and more than that, they often do it to score no more than a point or 2 for their team, or even just to cross the finish line still standing, week after week.

The character, integrity, heart & soul of a track athlete is about doing the best they can, and crossing that finish line. They finish the race.Oriole Parents & Fans, You have much to be proud of. In the cold, wind and rain of that meet, the Orioles showed what it means to be a track athlete. Mattea Otten gutted out the 4 x 800 even though it's not her race. Sydney Vaughn anchored the Sprint Medley, finishing that 400 with pain from a wrenched knee clearly visible on her face... and the tears she shed after were not from pain, but from her perception that she'd let her team down by crossing 4th, instead of 1st.   Courtney Ruzika battled through her 800 with strength that carried her to  her strongest  finish this year.  Gentry Stewart made a huge effort on the 400 hurdles after hitting a couple in the backstretch.  Our girls had run a meet Tuesday, Drake Friday, and had Prom Saturday.  They were tired. They were cold. They were wet. Yet no one gave up. They all stayed in it till the end.We stay for the end of every meet, because it matters to us that we support the entire team...and last night, the last race was one that made us proud, and exemplifies Oriole Spirit. The rain had begun again, and a makeshift JV 4x400 stepped out on the track. The girls ran as if it were a major meet, but taking the baton at anchor, nearly half a lap out in dead last place, was April Coppess.  It would have been so easy for her to just jog that lap, and get it over with...but she did not.

She Ran. She ran as if she were an olympic athlete headed for gold.  In that last 100 meters she passed one girl,  finishing with what was probably her best 400 ever, and certainly one of the best runs we watched that night.  April finished the race with style.The night's only Oriole gold went to Brittany Clark, for stellar performances in the Open 200 & 400...and the team placed 7th.....but  April Coppess, Sydney Vaughn, Courtney Ruzika, Mattea Otten, and the entire Oriole Roster were champions last night.  They finished the race & the meet, with class, determination and pride.I am

PROUD to be an Oriole track parent...and I am confident that when our athletes go away from here, to live adult lives, they will always finish the race.

Way to go Orioles. YOU ROCK!