Track Meet Two 2019 Part II
Title: Track Meet Two 2019
Part II
When I was growing up I would sometimes go out and throw the
football, Frisbee, or baseball with dad.
It’s a very traditional American image, the father and the son “having a
catch.” The weird thing was I was a
soccer player but I enjoyed those times!
Sometimes my brother and I would get up early on a nice day and go out
to throw the football before our car pool ride came. I’m sure this sort of image was what I
thought I would be doing with my kids someday... but I couldn’t have been more
wrong. In seventh grade my daughter, and
I loved doing a sport together but it wasn’t one involving throwing or kicking
a ball to each other. It involved a $15,
000 matt system ($20, 000 today) and a $400 pole. Autumn was a pole vaulter and she liked
it! Her seventh grade year she had
tested up to Varsity and we were going to have some one-on-one time pole
vaulting! We got to practice EARLY and I
do mean early! Together we began to
strip the cover off the matts and got ready to go! Then another car pulled into the parking
lot.
“It must be a community member coming to walk the track,” I
muttered to myself. It wasn’t. A track kid got out of the car and it was a
modified student no less! A seventh
grader just like my daughter. “Hang on,”
I sighed and ran across the complex to the kid.
“Hey!” I yelled. “It’s really
early for practice!” The seventh grade
boy turned to me. I stated grumpily, “I’m
just here practicing with my daughter right now! Practice won’t start for at least a
half-an-hour!”
His mother called out, “He just wanted to throw for a
minute.” Like my daughter, he was trying
to beat the crush of practice (in this case the discus circle), when the
varsity kids came in. “Oh,” I
replied. I should have been thrilled
this kid was coming in so early to work on a track skill but as I looked at him
I thought, “Thrower?” Devon
had long legs and thin body giving him the look of a hurdler or a distance
runner, not a thrower. Over the next few
years I would push Devon into hurdles and
despite the fact that he looks like a hurdler, he didn’t like it. He still likes to throw the discus
though!
It’s not like he was a natural at it either. Devon threw
in obscurity for years. I more saw Devon as a guy who ran the 800 and mile for us... and as
a hobby, he tossed the discus. To Devon it wasn’t a hobby.
It was what he had passion for.
Autumn’s grandmother bought her a pole vault pole and Devon ’s
family bought him his own discus. Last
year was the first time I saw Devon as a
thrower. We were at the “Tiger”
invitational and it was just awful. I
had given the speech to the kids about taking ever opportunity to improve and
they had listened and come over break to this invite but it was a nightmare! It was cold enough for snow but rain is what
we got at points! It was just an awful
day and little was going right! The 3200
relay team that Devon was a part of had high
hopes but when we lined up there was only one other team! I couldn’t believe it! Seventeen teams were there... at least and
there was only ONE other team? Worst,
they were about our level and we lost to them.
We didn’t even get a good time.
Four discouraged boys and myself shivered back to the tent. What an awful day! Oh, there were bright spots though. Jillian had a good day in the 3000 meter slow
heat! (Yeah, there is only ONE guys 3200
relay team besides us but there are TWO heats of the 3000 for girls?????? How does that work????) Autumn came in second in pole vault and third
in discus! AND an 800 runner named Devon
Hawkins, who always liked to throw, placed well in the discus! He was very excited!
Fast forward to last night.
Another 800 runner who throws, Dylan Draper came running up to me. “I threw a 104 tonight coach!” My eyebrows went up! That is a big PR. Last meet my guys had had an awful day and
they couldn’t throw out of the low 80s!
He added, “Hawk (Devon Hawkins) threw a 105!” Wow!
Two kids who didn’t look like throwers at all had won the meet and were
on their way to maybe getting a ribbon at sectionals in the event! It had been an awful night for it too! The wind was blowing the wrong way and it was
strong! The high jump bar was blown off
its posts more than once! What a night
to PR! Dylan and Devon
would go first and second in the 800 too!
Reese Draper, has been on a jumping rampage lately! Reese has been that kid who did various
events but was kind of a background kind of guy. Last year he would take points in a meet, but
was never a huge contributor. On Tuesday
night Reese won the Triple Jump, Long Jump, and the High Jump! Wow!!
Our new varsity guys coach was a jumper in school and so he is very
excited about Reese!
We were behind in the boys 1600 relay and it wasn’t because
Dylan and Tristan gave up. They keep
pushing even though we were losing but it looked like it was over! Then Lance caught his opponent! Lance is new to our program but ran track for
a different school and they did a good job training him in hurdles! BUT I don’t think the Lance was a big relay
guy at that school because he was right behind CG’s third guy and he needed to
exchange in lane two! “Lance,” I
screamed over the wind, “Lane TWO!! Lane
TWO!!!” Whether he heard me or figured
it out, I don’t know, but he hopped lanes and headed for the last
exchange. It looked like we were going
to win! Then the exchange went bad and
we lost precious time, while the other team rocketed away! Oh, to be so close and then come up
short! Or had we? Aaron Flint roared away, a man on a
mission! He made some progress but the
kid he was up against was pushing hard, trying to keep the win. On the last hundred Aaron began to visibly
gain! Would it be enough though? He gained a little and a little and a little,
until finally crossing the line in front and winning! What a race!
Speaking of Lance, he won the 110 hurdles and helped win the
400 relay! In the 400 relay Lance,
Tristan, Aaron team up with Tommy to make a great team! It was our second 400 relay win and we have
been up against legit teams!
When Kaeden Moore quit baseball and came over to track I
didn’t know what to make of him at first.
It wasn’t that he was bad his first day with us (he’s actually kind of
quiet) but I wasn’t sure why he had come over.
Now I know. The kid can run! At the meet on Tuesday he went second in the
100 AND the 200! He scored six points
total AND he looks like he might be a good hurdler too! He has definitely found a home on our team!
Hunter Heck did not have a great day Tuesday night. He crashed into the pole vault bar and got
buried in the mile. Why am I mentioning
him then? Last night I see him out with
the distance unit. The poor guy has
little distance experience and soon is passed by my twin distance machines Pink
and Cash but he keeps going. Toward the
end I catch up to him and we work on stride together. “I think you should join the distance unit,”
I tell him, as we are both trying to stride out. He agrees.
Poor guy, today we are doing 400 repeats... I wonder if he’ll throw up:)
I forgot to take blocks down to the line for the other
team. It has been something Mr. Davis
has done for years and I know he does this but I forgot to do it. We usually take our own blocks to a meet, so
I didn’t really even think about it. The
CG coach was not pleased to find out his runners didn’t have enough blocks for
the first few short distance races.
Immediately I apologized and dashed inside the building to get the two
new blocks we had not assembled yet.
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to work on them, so our hero from last
meet, Brock Miles, worked hard, assembling them so that they were ready for the
400 relay and the events beyond it!
Brock has been a hero more than once in meets providing handyman skills
to our team. His mom says he helps his
dad all the time at home and I believe it!!
Leland had finished his jumping and 400 hurdles and came
over to pole vault. The CG big vaulter,
Caleb, was also waiting. Caleb really
impressed my wife! I had to stick her in
vault more than once while I did other things.
She complained to the boys, “I’m just a baby sitter, I don’t know a lot
about this.” Instead of getting angry,
Caleb came right over and began to help her!
My wife had nothing but good to say about him and told me more than once
to make sure his coach knew how helpful he was!
Nice or not, he was on the other team and Leland was our big
vaulter. Leland went down the runway and
failed to launch, breaking the plane (the zero line). Dutifully I marked down the fault. When he messed up a second time he looked
frazzled. “Bud, relax and vault.” I told him.
Later he would explain that his hands were so cold he couldn’t keep a
grip on the pole. The third time he
caught fire and easily went over 8 feet.
“Dad, I can’t do this tonight,” he said.
“Can I be done?” Sometimes I
would have said, “No,” but I sensed it was not his night. “Alright, bud.” I need to bring gloves for him next cold
meet! Still he secured three points and
will have to take Caleb on a different day... hopefully when the sun is
shining!!!
*** Author Adrian Essigmann has eighteen books in print on
Amazon.com, soon to be nineteen! All of
them are $.99 cents on Kindle, with the exception of “An Assumed Risk” which
will be (Lord willing) an e-book before summer.
All of his books are available in soft cover too! Type Amazon Adrian Essigmann and his author’s
page should come up ***
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