Cool Day

Well the coaching is going along swimmingly, i mean runningly, er I mean jumpingly. We were hoping to qualify one of my high jumpers for this weeks elite meet. We thought she might get in with a qualifying jump of 5'3" as that would have been good enough last year. Unfortunately this year required 5'4". :(

But the sun was shining and fate was on our side and one of the jumpers who had qualified pulled out and my jumper qualified. It was doubly sweet as in today's meet she jumped a new personal best of 5'4". Meaning had she been one week faster she would have qualified anyway. But how tough would it have been to miss this meet knowing you were good enough. So yay us.

I feel very lucky. The last time I coached was twenty some years ago. My last year I also had an elite jumper. It's very rare, you're talking about one of the maybe top 10-12 in the whole state. that's a lot of schools and a lot of jumpers. The thing is that you don't create elite athletes, you uncover them. It requires coaching sure, but also a lot of luck. What's extra cool is that she's only a tenth grader. Not that she can go much higher but she has two more years to perfect her jump. If she can find another four inches over the next two years she could be a state champ. Not bad.

The coaching is going well. I'm not sure what the other coaches think of me, I'll probably quiz them in the next few weeks, but I'm having a blast. The middle school coaches have pawned off their high jumpers on me, and I think it's great. So altogether I'm working with close to twenty kids.

I'm starting to wonder about the future. I'm getting vested in these kids, and I don't know if I'll be able to coach next year. I don't know if they'll want me back, or if I'll be working a job that won't let me continue. It's completely possible the school will get their funding for another coach and it will go to a past coach or someone internal and they won't have a need for my services. I guess I'll have to take that as it comes.

One kid told me he thinks I'm the best coach there. I know what it takes to be a good coach, and I'm quite sure I'm not as good as the two head coaches or the distance coach, and i know the weight coach is also doing very well, but it was still nice to hear.