Twitter serves a purpose but it would be difficult to provide any details of our first week of practice in the space it provides. Some of the kids suggested multiple tweets. I only follow one individual who uses multiple tweets to get a point across and honestly I wish he wouldn't tweet at all. Of course I don't have to appear presidential, but I find multiple tweets a ridiculous way to communicate. So, I've relented somewhat and will use this forum to give you my take on the week.
Our numbers are similar to the previous two years with 30 Boys and 25 Girls. And while I have tried to increase our numbers significantly I've been unable to do so. In 2014, my first year at Whitman-Hanson, a total of 23 Boys and 20 Girls participated. This year's totals show a modest increase over the 6 year period but I'm happy with that. Especially given the level of commitment and the talent of our athletes.
We conducted our Time Trial on Day 2 of practice and the results were impressive and in some cases surprising. The Time Trial provided us with some evidence of who did or did not do his/her summer training, and also provided us with an indication of those with natural ability in spite of limited summer training. Quickly we put together two groups . . . those we felt were ready for longer and more difficult training and those who needed additional conditioning to get to that top level. None of us are perfect and there may have been a handful of athletes being asked to do too much, or too little, but over the first two weeks things will come into focus. Everybody ends up where they belong.
Group 1 on day #7 has 14 Boys and 8 Girls who, by all appearances, are ready to take on the competition. But the entire team is working toward our first race of the year which will be held at the Martha's Vineyard Invitational on September 7. Freshmen will run a 3K (1.8 Mile) race while Varsity and sub-Varsity groups will run 5Ks (3.1 Miles.) This is the first year we will be bringing our entire team to the Vineyard and we are certain it will be an enjoyable trip for all our kids. And with a lot of great teams taking part in the meet we can get a handle on where we are now and what we will need to do to be competitive when the Championship stage of our season arrives.
Yesterday, I spoke with Nate Rollins of the Whitman-Hanson Express which will be publishing our Season Preview soon. I provided quite a bit of material to him and ask that you take a look at upcoming issues to get additional, specific information on our teams. I don't want to repeat here what you'll see there very soon.
The long and the short of it then is this . . . the coaches are happy to be back and it seems that all the kids are happy as well. We have two very talented teams full of terrific student-athletes, many of whom have put in quite a bit of effort during June, July and August to prepare for the upcoming season. I am certain a good number of them will reap the rewards of those efforts with outstanding results. Our league is comprised of very challenging opponents, who are as talented and work just as hard as our kids do. We can all expect close, hard fought and competitive meets. But each of our kids will be prepared for those challenges and will do his/her best to prevail . . . and nobody wants to see how it plays out more than me. Week 2 starts today!
No comments:
Post a Comment