From Cage to Shed

Well, weirdo week in track & field news. Monday, I spoke to new AD and he said he had seen our stuff in this place called "the cage". It's basically this nasty storage closet behind the gym. Some of our stuff was there, some was in the ticket booth, and some was in the football fieldhouse. The good news was this- remember the $4000 shed that was built last year for the football team? And I was mad b/c that money should've gone towards OUR track repairs? Well... guess who gets that shed now! We do! The new AD cleaned all the football things out and I had the whole thing for *our* supplies. Wahooo! So, Coach H and I stay after practice Monday to move the things from The Cage to The Shed. The Cage is completely, and utterly disgusting. I don't think it had been cleaned since the school was built in 1947. Dust was inches thick, cobwebs w/ dead spiders EVERYWHERE. Not to mention the randomness of other sporting supplies- dirty vintage uniforms, ace bandages, broken chairs, cups, water coolers, cones, pads, etc, etc, etc. We started moving boxes contain *brand new* hurdles to the shed. See, the coach before me really spent some money on unnecessary things. We have older hurdles that are fine for practicing. We can't host meets, so why new hurdles? I also found a throwing cage that hadn't even been taken out of the boxes! So... after about 5 VERY heavy boxes. Coach H was like, "What are we doing here? We should have the kids stay late and help do this." Um, duh, why didn't I think of that. So, that was Day 1 of cleaning. Tuesday we got rained out. Wednesday we started practicing and... it started SLEETING! Hard. So, we got the kids organized and had them start carrying boxes to the new shed. I let Coach H stand with the new shed and I was in The Cage handing things out to the kids. At this point, I had already beaten about 5 spiders to death with a Dollar Tree broom and found about 10 UFOs. I was covered in dirt and sneezing repeatedly. The last box was lifted and something hard and blue was on the ground. One of the boys leaned down to see what it was and screamed, "It's a bird!" Yep, a dead bluebird. Bleh. So... at least now we have a nice new shed for our things!

Bad news this week is that Charlene (not her real name, remember from last year) quit. Yep, she came to talk to me yesterday and was in tears. She said that her dad wouldn't let her run anymore. I asked her why and she said that he said no one was able to pick her up from practice. I told her that if that was the only problem we would find her a ride. (School employees aren't supposed to drive students.) I thought surely someone on the team lives out that way and wouldn't mind. She said she didn't think her dad would say yes. She really seemed like something else was bothering her, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. I didn't want to press too hard, so I just told her that I would be by the middle school next week and maybe we could talk.

We also had our first fall this week. During the sleet storm, I think the kids were having a HTFU moment and she just lost her footing. She was a trooper, I think more embarrassed than anything. It was pretty bad, though, blood down to socks by the time she made her way across the field to me. I DO keep a first aid kit in the car, but realized it is full of useless things like eye patches. I had very few wipes and all my band aids were small, except one. I sat her in my car and doctored her up, and she didn't cry at all. She just kept saying she was sorry that I was having to touch her blood and it was sooooo gross. (Even though I had on rubber gloves, school policy.) I assured her it was fine that it happened to the best of us. I even showed her the scars on my knees from various falls down Oak Mountain.

And... I found a mentor. The new AD gave me contact info for a coach in MS. He's won like a bazillion state champs and gives all these clinics and things there. I already emailed him twice and talked to him on the phone once. He's given me lots of great ideas for building and coaching the field events (which I am ignorant in). He also had some contacts for my everlasting project of fixing the concrete on the track.

Finally- I ran yesterday! I did 3 miles on the TM and everything felt A-okay! I'm using Pfitz's Comeback plan as to not start back too quickly and reinjure. I'm running the Ragnar Relay in AZ at the end of the month, so I'm hoping to be in a good place for that.

Phew... sorry for all the rambles. And... when I changed the blog address, I lost my list of favorite blogs. So, if you were on mine before, PLEASE link it to me in comments or you can FB or email me. :)