Thursday - July 12, 2018

THANK YOU to ALL who helped out at last evening's youth track program.  Nearly 100 participants and many exciting races!  I deeply appreciate having team members in attendance.  The youngsters look up to you, and each of you sets a great example and serve as a positive role model for our future student-athletes.  Next week we hope to add some events and increase our numbers.

Ironically, Admiral McRaven's speech which I have been touting and which can be found at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70 provides a 3rd life lesson which can be applied to our task at hand when he speaks of the best seven man crew among the six crews that ultimately completed SEAL training with him (i.e a mere 42 out of nearly 200!)  He describes the top crew as consisting of individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds, none of whom was more than 5" 6" in height.  The crew took some heat, and were even subjected to good-natured kidding from their peers about their "tiny, little flippers" which each member wore during ocean swim training.  But he goes on to sing their praises by stating it was not their ethnicity, education or size but their "will to succeed" which pushed them to the top of the elite corps.  McRaven suggests that people should be judged on the size of their heart, and not "the size of their flippers."

We had a large group participating last evening in the program.  The group was made up of numerous age groups and abilities.  ALL are to be commended for their efforts.  Our student-athletes are to be commended as well.  Each was supportive and helpful.  Whether it was by entertaining the children as they waited to run or as they sat looking forward to their award presentation, or if you led the running or stayed with the slower runners offering encouragement to finish, you ALL did a fantastic job.

If you or somebody you know is a not a particularly good athlete or a fleet runner, please don't be discouraged. You will be surrounded by encouraging teammates and coaches.  We value each of you regardless of ability (it is one reason for the the picture at the top of the blog the past week.)  Just get out there and put in your best effort.  You'll ultimately be judged on that effort and your "will to succeed" and NOT the turnover on those Sketchers (or Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Mizuno, Asics, Saucony, etc . . .

"Core at four" - hope to see you there!