Coming back in 1984 after getting the State Championship we had been so close to the previous two seasons brought a lot of expectations from the school and the community. In the welcome newsletter we were clear about the fact that we had great potential. After reviewing our team's winning tradition I wrote: "The potential for our continuing this success is great. We have 14 state qualifiers returning; 24 returning letter winners including managers and over 36 people who have indicated an interest in being members of our team. In addition, we have a large group of sophomores who won the Border Conference championship in both the 8th and 9th grades. We also have 5 people on the team who presently hold school records, several more than one".
Once again this initial newsletter provided multiple pages of times from various meets we would be attending including District and State as well as school records and so on for goal setting purposes. As we did in the past we outlined what could be expected from the coaches as well as what we expected from our athletes including six characteristics that we felt were necessary for the team to be successful.
"1. Be willing to invest time --- as much as necessary to get the job done.
2. Be willing to work hard --- again, as hard as necessary to get the job done.
3. Relax - learn to compete relaxed and stay relaxed between events.
4. Be competitive --- You can't hide from competition and expect to ever do your best. That means in practice as well as in meets. To be the best you must run against the best.
5. Extra work --- If you have weaknesses; starts, handoffs, surges or whatever, be willing to spend extra time working on them.
6. Be coachable --- we don't use "can't" on our team. If it's in your vocabulary, get rid of it.
We had a large number of people who had most of these characteristics last year as well as some outstanding senior leadership and that's why we were Sate Champions. Some of you are back from last year and you should be willing to do what it takes to repeat. You that are new should follow their example. We can repeat as State Champions but we will need maximum commitment from everyone, coaches, athletes and managers"
Unfortunately it looked like we would be lucky to avoid the personality issues that we dealt with and worked through last year. The reason was because so many of our athletes were multi-sport athletes and they brought a bunch of their baggage with them. Here was my emphatic warning in the welcome newsletter. There was going to be no question about what our expectations were:
"One final word and I think you all know me well enough to know I don't make threats. Because of some things that occurred in other sports this year, let me make myself very clear on some things right now. IF THERE ARE ANY PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH HARASSING OR FIGHTING WITH OTHER TEAMS, THEY WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE TRACK MEET AND POSSIBLY THE TEAM. IF ANYONE'S CONDUCT AT A MEET IS ABUSIVE OR FOUL, THEY WILL BE REMOVED FROM THAT TRACK MEET AND POSSIBLY THE TEAM. IF ANY OF YOU GIVE ANY OF THE COACHES WHAT WE FEEL IS UNNECESSARY GRIEF ON AN OUT OF TOWN TRIP, YOU WILL NOT MAKE ANOTHER ONE AND IF ENOUGH OF YOU ARE INVOLVED, WE WILL LOAD THE BUS AND COME HOME, REGARDLESS OF WHAT STAGE OF THE MEET WE ARE IN AND THE PEOPLE INVOLVED WILL NOT BE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY TO RUIN IT FOR OTHERS AGAIN. I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO MENTION THIS AGAIN. AS I SAID, OUR TRACK TEAM HAS A REPUTATION FOR BEING A CLASS TEAM AND IT'S GOING TO STAY THAT WAY WITH OR WITHOUT YOU. I HOPE IT'S WITH YOU".
That may seem harsh to someone who has never coached but believe me by addressing things like that up front a lot of problems were avoided and if there was an issue the people involved could not have acted like they didn't know our expectations.
Once again we started our competitive season in Texas. We went there to compete three weeks in a row and placed 2nd in each of the meets. The interesting thing here is that when we lost to a team one week, we went back the next week and beat them. The only exception was our 3rd meet because we did not see the team that won again that year.
The first meet was the Oil Patch Relays in Andrews and we placed 2nd behind the host team - Andrews 182 - 159. It was a really good start to our season considering many of our athletes had just come off the basketball court and weren't in track shape yet.
Next we returned to Andrews for the Mustang Relays and while we finished 2nd again we lost to Odessa, Texas 130 - 113 and Andrews was 3rd with 104. Despite feeling good about a second place finish and beating Andrews in our rematch the comments from the newsletter show that we knew we were going to have to get better. "First, let's talk about the good things. Congratulations on turning a near disaster into a very respectable 2nd place finish. At one point we were looking at the possibility of a 4th or even 5th place finish. It was a good team effort but certainly not the type of total team effort that carried us so far last year. We had to many people not perform to their ability and several just flat choke. Hopefully this meet makes it obvious to all of you that we're nowhere near being the team we were last year and until a few more of you kick it into gear, we won't be".
Our final Texas meet was the Sand Hills Relays in Monahans where we were once again runner up; we finished behind Texas AAAAA Odessa Permian 154 - 95 1/2. Odessa was 3rd 91 and Andrews 4th 67. The consistent improvement and the fact that we came back and beat teams we lost to was great for our confidence returning to New Mexico where we never lost a meet in 1983.
We didn't downplay the unbeaten New Mexico streak. In our meet result newsletter after Portales we focused once again on the idea of "total team victory". And why not? We won with 130 points while 2nd and 3rd combined scored 116. We won 10 of 18 events and set 6 meet records. Looking ahead to our next meet we had to address prom and the fact that it was going to be on the same day as the Hobbs Invitational, a meet that was equal AAAA and AAA teams. "I know many of you are going to Prom and we are doing everything we can to accommodate you. Our first goal however is still to win the meet Saturday. Go to the meet with that attitude, do your best and then have a good time at Prom. Remember, we have not lost to any New Mexico team in any class since 1982 when we were runner up at State".
We kept our New Mexico win streak alive scoring 70 points. The next 4 teams were all AAAA and scored 60 - 57 - 52 and 37. It was definitely a good challenge for us that the girls met despite the distraction of Prom. We next went to another predominantly AAAA meet at the Roswell Invitational and won with 66 points. The next 6 places were AAAA teams with host Roswell being 2nd with 53. "We're right where we want to be at this point in the season". Now we entered the state qualifying portion of the season with the Artesia and Lovington Invitationals and District.
We won at Artesia with 123 1/2 points while 2nd and 3rd had 112 combined. Once again we set meet records (5) and we qualified for state in 14 of 16 events including 3 individuals in the 100 meters and 2 in the discus. Our home meet was next and the girls continued their dominating performances by scoring 143 points. All other teams combined had 161. 4 new meet records were set by LHS ladies and they won 12 of the 16 events. We went into the District meet with a great deal of confidence.
They won their 6th District Championship in a row; outscoring runner up Goddard 122 - 83 and set 6 District records in the process. The team was returning to state to defend their title with confidence high.
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