Thoughts coming into Year 10

For the most part, time passes much more quickly than I'd like these days. I'm certain it's a product of aging and hoping anyway that this never ends, as the finish line draws closer and closer.  On the other hand, I vividly recall mid-August days as a kid and those weeks seemed interminable.  I couldn't wait to return to school and being with friends, enjoying activities, and yes, even studying.  With August now approaching I again experience the mixed blessing, at least for a few weeks, the slowing of time.  Cross country season is by far my favorite, and I'm ready to go.  And though I know August 21st, our first day of practice, is around the corner, it seems like it's taking forever to get here. While I wait though, I had some thoughts coming into my 10th year at Whitman-Hanson Regional.  

First and foremost, I'm grateful for the opportunity to work at a great school with the total support of Administration, the coaching staff, the community and some truly fantastic kids.  I've had a handful of tough days, as anybody would coaching four teams each year, but +99% of the time it has been a wonderful experience.  I'm looking forward to a continuation of that in 2023-2024.

Today, although I am not an enthusiastic AI proponent, I asked Chat GPT a couple of questions.  The first . . . "Is cross country participation in high school on the decline?" I wasn't surprised by the response directing me to other sources, including the NFHS which tracks overall high school sports participation.  And I wasn't shocked by the fact that NFHS reports overall participation is down by 4% between 2018 and 2022.  I was somewhat surprised that Golf was the only sport to register an increase in participation among the top 10 Boys sports.  And I was saddened by the fact that Cross Country among Boys experienced the largest decline at 14%.  The picture wasn't much brighter among the Girls where Cross Country experienced a 13% decline.  Unfortunately, our numbers since I arrived in 2014 reflect these trends.  In 2014 I started with Boys and Girls teams of 23 and 18, respectively.  There was a small but steady increase in participation through 2018, when the numbers stood at 34 Boys, 20 Girls.  But in 2022, we had squads of 20 Boys and 14 Girls.  From the NFHS report I was able to extrapolate the average number of student-athletes participating in Cross Country in Massachusetts high schools; 19 Boys, 15 Girls.  Nearly the same as our 2022 numbers.  But I won't accept average, I am determinedly hoping our numbers improve this fall.

The second question posed to Chat GPT was "which high school sport is most often continued by a student-athlete in college?" Again, I was mildly surprised that as of September 2021, soccer was the sport most often continued by student-athletes in college, but it makes sense given the number of schools participating in the sport and the size of their teams. Other sports with many athletes continuing after high school in their sport included basketball, football, track and field, and volleyball. No, Cross Country wasn't among the leaders. This prompted me to go through the graduates of our program to determine just how many student-athletes continued distance running at the college level. Those numbers over the past 9 years total 8 Boys and 11 Girls, which include 5 Boys and 4 Girls currently running on his/her college team.

On a lark, I went back to Chat GPS and asked one final question, "Is high school Cross Country coaching a wise decision?" While the response indicated a wise decision depends on "various factors and considerations" it also provided ten points to consider. I won't elaborate upon those; if you have an interest, I'm fairly certain Chat GPT has only a single standard response to any question. But even before reading those ten points, I knew that coaching Cross Country at WHRHS was, and will continue to be, one of the best decisions I've ever made.

August 21st. Can't wait . . .