One of my first running coaches passed away recently. Jack coached both cross country and track at Wadena High School for many years. His teams had many successful seasons in both sports and he was named Coach of the Year many times. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure Jack knew much about distance running, yet had some very good runners pass through the program. The school dug up these oldies but goodies from the yearbook, then named Indian Trails. These gems were from my sophomore, junior and senior years in case the 80's hair didn't give it away!
So how does a coach with limited knowledge of running have so much success? Attitude! Our coach was one of the most encouraging, enthusiastic leaders around. In track for sure, and usually cross country, too, we could hear Jack's booming voice at every turn urging runners to give it a little more and usually we could find just a little more effort around the curve, up a hill, etc. We were given quite a bit of freedom as far as supervision goes and usually we didn't abuse it...however there was one time we lost a girl in the cornfield and that other time the same girl opted to swim a creek during a race rather than run over the bridge. On that occasion, other coaches thought she'd been pushed. They never noticed that her brand new running shoes were on the bank of the creek nice and dry while she ran the rest of the race in her knee high tube socks! There were a couple of times that our antics went a little too far and then we'd get the disappointed look/speech. Honestly, I can't even remember what we had done, but am quite confident it never happened again. In all fairness, Jack may have had extensive knowledge of sprinting, hurdles and jumping in track. I didn't do those events, but since we had some very good competitors in those areas, they must have been getting their technique somewhere. Perhaps some limited skills along with making athletes feel valued and special was enough in these areas as well as for the distance runners. They say that people won't always remember what you did for them, but they will remember how you made them feel. I was just commenting to my family that I think every one of the kids on Jack's teams felt like maybe they were the favorite sometimes. They may not have been the fastest or brightest member of the team, but every teammate was important. Look at some of those photos...there were years where we were barely fielding a team counting on very young runners to fill a roster, yet always competitive. I am Facebook friends with several of my old cross country teammates from high school. Some of us still run recreationally and some are coaching. Without learning to love running and being with a team in a positive way in our teens, we wouldn't still love to run 30 years later. Rest in Peace, Jack. Long may you run, because you always encouraged us to run a little more. Missee
1 Comment
Sandie
12/4/2019 03:58:19 pm
Great tribute
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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