After the meet, I felt like the largest weight ever had been lifted off my shoulders. It was really a tough call to decide to go the full length. I really worried about every athlete who toed the line, but in my heart of hearts, I was positive we were prepared to aid the runners and that was not an emmenient health danger. I knew our athletes were prepared to face the obsticle which confronted them. In the end, it worked out fine, our athletes performed well, and we toughened up to challenges of life, by facing the heat. I think we got a good look at both teams potential and what we can possibly do in future (although I saw what I assumed was there already). This week in general is about those 1st races and creating benchmarks in which future performance will be gauged (Austin's 16:41 might be the best race I have personally seen a Westby athlete start year with ever). Girls rallied and medaled top 4 which match 2012 performance which is a nice symbolic sign. Heat looks like it will be impactful at Cashton on Friday afternoon as well, but we have the KT experience as our base so I think we should be in a good place. By the way, Girl's race began with temperture at 94 degrees, Boy's race was 91, and by end of races and awards it was about 88---good reference points!
Today's scrimmage was very successful. Once again I loved the enthusiasm of the boys team (with almost our complete team running today). Boys totaled 5 miles on the day and girls logged about 4. Weekly mileage totals are good with senior boys logging about 35 miles, underclass about 28, and 1st year runners about 22 miles. I believe we will mix it up racing head to head with Brookwood, but it appears we do not have fire power to beat them early. It looks like the boys could end up with 4-5 runners running sub 18:00 minutes and probably the deepest team ever with as many as 11-12 being able to run sub 20 minutes during the season. Girls were equally as good. I appreciated the individual efforts, but we are going to need to really work to close time gap between our 4th runner and 5th runner. In conclusion, scrimmage wraps up a great week and we stare down the barrel of a heat wave and alot of decisions on my part as a coach and how hard do we need to push with tough heat conditions.
So, tonight we had our second practice of the day and ninth of the week by doing a 30 minute water workout. We have had really great practices so far and the boys team is really showing signs of being a really special group-hope this continues. Look forward to seeing what we accomplish tomorrow.
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Brian HuebnerThis is my 19th year of coaching and my first website. Archives
September 2014
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