The Joys of Private School Coaching

For a little over a month now, I've been volunteer coaching at a local Christian Private school as a track coach. A family friend has kids who compete on the team and told me that they lacked someone who could adequately coach the long jump and triple jump; the events that I made my track career on. I was a top-5 jumper nationally in high school, went to Georgia Tech on a full track scholarship, and became an all-ACC and national recognized jumper in college. Now that I'm no longer competing and have settled into a professional life, the least I can do is give back. One thing I underestimated is the culture shock of heading to a small, private school. Being the product of a public school in a fair-sized city (I'm from Charlotte, NC which is bigger than most people believe), I'm used to a certain level of talent, coordination, and athleticism. it's a little different at a small private school. But to an extent, I like the change. I'm an optimist and working with these kids who can not simply rely on their natural talent, they're very inclined to listen and try as hard as they can. That's the most you can every ask for as a coach. I'll take a less talented athlete who listens and works hard over a supremely talented athlete who doesn't listen or work hard any day. As easy as it is to let your competitiveness compel you and compare them to my former self, that would be futile. I'm trying to get them completely our of the habit of comparing to others and get them discovering what they can do and strive towards progress. None of these kids seem headed to be college athletes or win awards for their sports accomplishments. Nonetheless, individual sports like track are great for building self-esteem and work ethic because you get to directly see your hard work reap rewards through improvement in times and jumps. I'm still working on getting the full potential out. But I'm determined to unlock improvement and thus self-confidence in a relatively untalented and athletic but receptive group of jumpers. Stay tuned...

Playing Catch Up: London Olympics 2012

Anyone who knows me personally or has read this blog much knows that I'm a rabid sports fan. Despite my love for many sports, my primary sport coming up track (ultimately becoming an All-ACC track athlete in college and paying for my education that way). That shit is in my soul. Therefore, the Olympics will always hold a special place in my heart because it's the only time that the entire world is paying attention to the sport I love. The Olympics mean even more now as I have many friends who are Olympians and would have competed in the Olympic Trials in 2008 had I not hurt my hamstring months before; before anyone asks, there was virtually no chance I would have made it, but I still wanted to be there. So quickly (since I'm months behind), here is my take on the track portion of the 2012 London Olympics:

I'm ecstatic for:

• Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix (pictured above) for catching their white whales (both have dominated their events for years but didn't win the Olympics until this year). Plus I'm still waiting on one of their boyfriends/husbands to slip up to I can capture one of them as my boo.
• Justin Gatlin for coming back after 4 years suspended to run historically fast and win a bronze medal, 8 years after original Olympic glory. Track is an easy sport to give up on when you're forced to sit out what are probably the prime years for your event, 100 runner are usually like running backs in the NFL, hard pressed to compete after about 30.
• Britain's track program. Plainly stated the UK has a history of talking big shit (in their butchering dialect of the language I thought they invented) and underachieving in sports (I'm talking shameful disappointments), but some of their 'poster children' - Mo  Farah, Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford, etc - held it down and they got plenty of hardware for the host nation. Jolly Good Show Lads.
• All my friends who made it to the Olympics, especially the many who went for the first time. On another note, Fuck y'all for making me jealous posting all the Opening Ceremonies pics with various athletes I'd love to meet

I'm heartbroken for:

• LaShawn Merritt, who due to injury was not able to make it through the rounds to defend his Olympic title, opening the door for a non-American to win the Olympic 400 for the first time in a long time.
• Tyson Gay, the fastest American ever happens to have terrible luck with injuries (hamstring in 08, hip in 2012 in Olympic years. Despite his American feats, he may be somewhat forgotten historically because he never got a chance to compete at full strength in the Olympic Games. At least u got that Gillette money.
• Angelo Taylor, my personal friend and fellow Georgia Tech alumni, who did not have the story book ending that I know he would've wanted to end his Olympic story with; I doubt he'll still be competing in 2016. He's won the Olympics twice and his legacy is set, however, you'd like to leave on a better note than he was able to create this year in the hurdles and relay race. I know he had plenty of beautiful female company to make him feel better though, so I know he was still winning in the end.
• Dwight Phillips and Terrence Trammell (pictured above), two more friends of mine who were unable to make the trip and continue their Olympic successes due to injuries in the months leading up to the Games. They are the same age as Angelo and have likely competed in their last Olympic Games. They're still the pride of the East Side of the A
• Dawn Harper...this is a strange case as you ordinarily would not feel sorry for someone when they just won silver and ran a historically fast time. However, she was overlooked in terms of marketing and endorsements in 2008 when she won gold, and she likely will be again due to the reception of her outspoken criticism of how the media flocked to the more attractive but significantly less successful, Lolo Jones. Truth be told, she was right, but it was received as spiteful.

I was impressed by:

• Kirani James, who became the first non-American to ever run under 44 seconds in the 400 meters and also the first ever Olympic gold medalist from Grenada. Oh, and by the way, he was only 19 years old the day he won gold.
• Aries Merrit and Jason Richardson (pictured to right), these two American hurdlers dominated college track but then lagged in the professional scene for a few years; even on the brink of quitting the sport. This convinced many, myself included, that they peaked in college and would never be spectacular on the world scene; how wrong I was. Now, Richardson is World Champion and Merritt is Olympic champion and World Record holder. Well done Mr. Merritt, easiest way to deflect attention away from people trying to guess if you're gay or not is to perform so well at ur craft that it has to be talked about instead.
• Ryan Bailey. He's an afterthought in a field of 100 meter runners that contained the fastest men in history (Bolt, Gay, Powell, Blake, and Gatlin), but 23 year old Ryan Bailey has come from nowhere and run times that would dominate the event and any other point in history. Medal or not, I'm impressed.
• David Rudisha. I can't imagine a cooler story than coming to your first Olympics, taking control of your race early, and breaking your own World Record with the entire World watching.
• Manteo Mitchell. In the most impressive tangible display of "The Olympic Spirit" that I can remember, my friend Manteo broke his fibula halfway through his leg of the relay and not only gutted through the pain to finish, but ran an impressive split because he refused to let his team and his country down on the Olympic stage. Many old men lie and exaggerate these kinds of stories ("I ran on a broken leg cuz they needed me too"). Well, now Manteo has a such story which is 100% true and proven.
• 4x100 relays. The US women broke the world record by a half second (an eternity in track), the Jamaicans broke the world record, and even in defeat the US men broke the old world record and broke the American record (held by Carl Lewis and crew) by almost half a second. It was crazy.

I was disappointed in:

• The media's aforementioned crowning of Lolo Jones as the American Olympic poster girl despite being the last 100 meter hurdler to qualify for the games. How you gonna ignore the American 2008 Olympic champion who runs the same event as Lolo? I'll speak more on this in a forthcoming entry on sexism and media reception of female sport.
• Wallace Spearmon (pictured to left). 4th at the Olympics is a tremendous accomplishment...for most. But this dude has proven to possess all the tools to run historically fast and get the Jamaicans trouble. But he won't because he's trying to over-strategize a race that you should just get out and run, it's a little disappointing. Do you truly believe you're gonna jog the curve and then run down Usain Bolt? Spoken how a mother would say it "Boy, stop pussyfooting dun run the whole damn race."

Final thoughts:

America did their thing. Some of our bread and butter events (men's 400, 400 hurdles, 4x400 relay, etc) didn't live up to our prior standards. But we still had the most gold medals and the most medals overall. No complaints here. My only everlasting complaint about the Olympics is that I wait four years, watch every night of the Games while they're on, and they over so quickly. THEN IT'S NOTHING BUT DAMN BASEBALL ON TV UNTIL FOOTBALL SEASON. I'd rather risk overdose force feeding myself sleeping medicine to fall asleep early than to watch regular season baseball on TV. Baseball is the single reason I think TVs should still have the Picture in a Picture. u can leave the baseball game on the small screen and watch something more interesting on the larger one...like static. Am I being harsh to America's former pasttime (u can't convince me baseball is more popular than football)? It's possible, but whatever I've Been Called Worse...

P.S. If there's someone or something I discussed and you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it. We live in the Age of Technology, use it.

Back for the First Time

Me in action...