Hey Storm Family,
What a great week of practice and a great Invitational event. We had a lot of pr’s, we won some races as a team, and had a lot of great performances. Speaking of winning, isn’t that a great word? By the standards of racing, there is only 1 winner. What does that make the rest? I heard one coach on Saturday yelling at his midget girl, who was second with a quarter mile to go, that she isn’t working hard enough so she is earning her “L”. Wow! How is it that we go so wrong to tell kids, young kids, they are earning a Loss?
There are so many factors that play into every single race. What if you aren’t full-blown sick, but your body is starting to have the effects on race day? Or what if you just didn’t sleep well for a couple nights and just can’t get it together to race hard? What if there was some issue at home that had a negative effect on your race? What if mentally you are struggling to push through and you are losing that battle? What if you lost a race to someone you never had before? What if that loss is to a friend on the team? What if on this day the other athlete was spot on and having a great day?
All of these and many more are real experiences I’d say have happened this year and every year I’ve been a coach. Does that mean you are a taking an “L” for the race? If I accepted an “L” for every race in life I’ve not achieved what I thought I could, I’d be sitting in a ditch somewhere eating someone else’s leftovers. It’s easy to let failures or sub-par performances bring you down. The true champions are the ones who keep fighting.
So back to my question, “What does that make the rest?” I’d say you’re fighters! The truth is we all know when we toe the line there are only a few fighting for first place. To those few, awesome, great job! To the rest, which is a much bigger number, we fight: to PR, to encourage our teammates, to be a better teammate, to be more humble, to be a better person. All of those traits and accomplishments I can assure you will help you more in life than being 1 st. If you get the chance to be the winner, to get 1 st place, please do so with humility and grace. No one likes arrogance…
One more thing, as we train and race together as Storm, remember that we are a family!! Your goal should be to beat anyone and everyone you can, including your teammates. How do you think over the years you guys have gotten so fast? It’s not by letting others beat you. It’s by getting beat, and then working harder the next week and beating your friend. As you go back and forth, you push each other to excellence. Next thing you know, you both have huge pr’s and are running faster than you ever thought possible! Your teammate however, should never be your enemy. Remember that this week as you train for battle!
One great example of this I have to share is Austin Duenas. Another guy, Tyler from the Sonics, has his number. They are good buddies though. They race every week down to the wire and this year Austin had yet to get the better in the race. With less than a quarter mile to go Austin was about 5 yards behind. He kicked like a scalded wild banshee and wouldn’t you know it, he beat Tyler. By less than a second!!! He fought to the end, he beat his buddy, he congratulated his buddy, and they will race again next week to get the best of each other.
There are no Losers on our team, you are all just fighting your own battles to get your victory each week. Don’t give up, don’t ever give up!!
See you Tuesday night.
Coach Jeremy
