States, Blow-Pops, and Skiing

States
Saturday marked the end of my stint working with the Hazen Track and Field Team with a marathon day (no pun intended) at the Division 3 Track and Field Vermont State Championships. Because the meet was held further south in Vermont in the town of Chester and the field equipment inspection was scheduled for 8:30am, the bus had to leave from school at 5:30am. It was a long day for the kids, and the hot muggy weather added to the exhaustion of competing in multiple events. Towards the end of the day there were some tired bodies (see the video below), but I couldn't be more proud of the performances that so many of the teammates got out of themselves. On the day we had 18 personal records (PRs), from freshman and seniors alike. It was a great end to this project and I am very proud to have worked with this group of kids.


Only a Vermonter recovers with cheese...Cabot Sharp to be exact

PRs and Blow-Pops
A little more than 2 weeks ago I began employing a form of shameless bribery with the kids at the meets. For every PR that an athlete earned in an event, I would reward him/her with a Blow-Pop. This seemed like a way to encourage more motivation and focus throughout the 6 hour meets, and also break up any stress that goes along with competing. Besides, at 25 cents a pop how much damage could these kids bring on me? Upon reflection, I now realize that I severely underestimated a teenager's affection for sugar. The track team went from having around 2-3 PRs each day to 6 to 8 to 9 to 12 and then at States to 18.

I believe that the uptick in results certainly had more to do with the hard work the team put in at practice than anything else, but the kids certainly seemed to enjoy making me march over to the snack stand a couple times each meet. I was constantly explaining myself at the checkout register that I was not a sugar fiend, but a coach who is in favor of abandoning inner motivation speeches for the allure of tasting sour apple sugar on a stick. Or cherry, or watermelon. Sometimes the kids were a bit forward in their preference for flavors, and would even request Tootsie Pops. It turned out to be kind of a rallying point during each meet to see how many lolipops they could make me buy. Although I never thought that I would spend over $15 in less than a month on candy, let alone one kind of candy, I was happy to reward the the hard work of the team in very direct and visible way.

Skiing
I have a week off until I head to Mt. Hood in Oregon to work at a ski camp and get back on snow for the first time since the premature end of last season. I am really excited to try next year’s equipment, I'll let you know how it goes. One last time, Go Hazen!