Lovington Cross Country - Part 2

While it would be nice to be able to write about every team that I ever coached it's not feasible. In this post I plan to wrap up my final three seasons as a Cross Country coach in Lovington with highlights from the '82 and '84 seasons and a more in depth look at the '83 season.

After our 6th place finish at the state meet in 1981 I told the "Lovington Daily Leader", "Our girls received a lot of compliments from the people who saw them run. These girls worked hard all year and it's been a pleasure coaching them. We only lose one senior and we plan to do better next year". As anyone who has ever coached or even followed a team from year to year knows though, you can never count on who will be back to the team from year to year. Unfortunately getting an entire team back from one year to the next is a rare occurrence. In addition to the senior who graduated we had two varsity and one junior varsity letterwinners not return for various reasons. Sadly but realistically life often got in the way in many different ways and sports was often relegated to a place on the bottom of the importance list.

Even though we had a several returning athletes to the '82 teams in many ways it was just like starting over again. The majority of runners didn't run a step after track season ended in May so they came back starting way behind other teams. This unfortunately was another common theme in all my years of coaching cross country. Trying to sell the kids on the idea of staying in shape in the off season or summer was futile for the majority. And it was always obvious who the exceptions were. In a newsletter that I wrote after our first time trial I made the following comment about "attitude"; "A quick note on attitude!!! One of the girls this week said the reason she likes 'cross country better than track was because she could quit if she gets tired'. People, it's attitudes like that that cost us a couple of higher finishes last year. If any of you really feel that way then you shouldn't be out. Walking in practice helps convince you that it's ok to walk in meets. It's not!!!!! It would have been nice if that was the last time that subject came up but it was a common theme throughout my newsletters for most of my career.

Speaking of common themes others that were brought up from year to year were the importance of team grouping, avoiding running in the 'comfort zone', positive attitude and believing in yourself and your teammates, loyalty to the program and many more. If you were to pick up a newsletter from 1982 and one from 2004 or any year before or in between you would be amazed how many themes stayed the same. Kids are kids and cross country and track require a lot of commitment to be successful as a team and individually. Fortunately I was able to get the most out of them during the 12 weeks or so that was the actual season. I acquired a reputation for being an outstanding "in season" coach because people knew, even more so at Sierra later, that all I had to work with, with few exceptions were "in season" athletes". That certainly isn't how I wanted it but as my grandson Chase always says, "It is what it is". The more my assistants and I were able to get beyond the idea that other teams had year round athletes and accept what we had, the better off we were as coaches and as a team.

Another thing that I did with the newsletters was provide the athletes with as much information as possible about upcoming competition. I would review previous year's results from the same meet and preview teams and athletes who I knew would possibly be at the meet. I always believed that it gave the kids more confidence going in knowing as much as possible as they could about the course and the competition. Particularly in cross country each athlete knew what their responsibility was to achieving the teams success. It didn't always pay off obviously but more often than not it did.

1982 State 3rd Place Finish Team and Seniors

One memory stands out for me from the 1982 State Championship meet in Albuquerque. I knew we had run well and had a chance to finish better than we ever had before. I was sitting in the bleachers waiting for the results to be announced and the team was sitting down on the infield with all of the other teams. When the announced that we were 3rd and our girls went up to receive the trophy I just started crying I was so happy and so proud of the girls. Our athletic secretary had accompanied us to the meet and she started laughing because she couldn't understand what I was crying about and I told her, "it's just so good to see the kids hard work pay off and no other team from Southern New Mexico had ever brought home a trophy from the State Championship meet". It was one of many highlights of my coaching career.

I told the Leader reporter, "We have worked hard to have a program we can be proud of and we feel we have one. All I've heard since I moved here is that we can't go up north and compete in Cross Country. Hopefully this proved to some people that we can". The top three teams were Zuni 27, Kirtland Central 96 and Lovington 101.Obviously once again everyone was outclassed by Zuni but we were surprisingly close to second. Prior to the meet I had given the team a 9 page program history and season summary so that they could see the progress we continued to make. Taking home the trophy was important but more important was the validation that hard work and believing in a system pays off.

1983 - A Magical Season (52-1)

1983 Cross Country Team

Our success in '82 and the publicity the girls received as a result of it helped us to increase participation for the '83 season. The fact that the entire program was recognized at the school assembly made an impression on the girls who were not top seven and didn't participate in the state meet. I wanted to encourage participation as well as summer training and I sent out summer newsletters to the girls in May, June, July and August stressing the importance of doing some summer running and this was the first summer that we had a number of girls get together and run during the summer. 

The following quotes are from the team's first newsletter of the season:

"You are joining a sport that is relatively young at LHS but it is already rich in a winning tradition. You can be a part of that tradition if you are willing to pay the price of hard work and discipline, particularly self-discipline. In the 4 years that we have had girl's cross country at Lovington, we have won the District Championship all 4 years and qualified as a team each of the 4 years to participate in the State x-country meet. Last year was our most successful trip to the State meet as we finished 3rd and brought home a team trophy, a first for any Lovington x-country team. No southern New Mexico AAA team has ever placed in the top three. The reason for this success is twofold, strong individuals, but even more important, good solid teamwork. To do well on the state level, you must have 7 individuals who have paid the price and are willing to do it one more time as a team at the state meet. Our 1982 team did it better than any team we have had to date. Although it is early and this may be premature, I think this year's team has the potential to be even better".

"The only thing that can prevent you as individuals and as a team from having a very successful season is you. Remember, If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me. 10 very small words but when you put them together, they have a powerful message. Good luck, I'm happy that you decided to run".

1983 Team with all of their trophies and their District Championship banner!

52-1 - That's the record that we finished the 1983 season with. The girl's won a dual meet with our AAAA neighbor Hobbs and the won 8 multi-team meets in Texas and New Mexico before winning the District meet for the 5th year in a row and qualifying for state. From the Leader, "We've now accomplished one of our early season goals of winning District. Now we're going after our second goal which is to do well at State". We certainly didn't have a goal of going into the state meet undefeated. The highlight of the season was receiving the 2nd place trophy at the State meet which was once again in Albuquerque. No tears this year The top 3 teams were the same except this time 2nd and 3rd were reversed but once again very close. Zuni again ran away with the team title. Zuni 35, Lovington 109, Kirtland Central 112.

Final Lovington Cross Country Season - 1984

I went into the '84 season knowing that it would be the last cross country season that I would be at Lovington and the '85 track season would be my last as well because we had decided we were going to move to Colorado when school was out. After finishing in the top three at State each of the past two years and winning the District every year so far we obviously had high expectations. While we didn't bring home another trophy from State we were a very respectable 4th place and had two girls finish in the top 7 which was outstanding. Our next two runners were 28th and 29th and we were still in contention for a top 3 finish but it wasn't to be because our 5th, 6th and 7th runners were to far back. It was still an excellent performance. The team scores were: Zuni 34, Tucumcari (Our District rival who beat us at District for the first time) 74, Bernalillo 78, Lovington 106 and Kirtland Central 111.

It was a successful season, the 3rd highest State meet finish in school history but many people wanted to focus on the fact that we lost the District and didn't finish top 3 at State. And I told the Leader, "I think it was a good finish to a successful season. One of our goals at the beginning of the year was to return to State and we did that. We wanted to finish in the top 3, but we knew we had some stiff competition. The kids ran as well as they could and I'm proud of them".

1984 Team and State Qualifiers

I was proud of the kids that I coached in Cross Country at Lovington the helped to lay the groundwork for a successful program that represented their school and community well. Needless to say I was very disappointed when the school district dropped the program after only one more season. I wrote a letter to the school board telling them what I thought of their decision because I felt they were denying a lot of kids an opportunity where every athlete could be successful I received a letter back from the Superintendent letting me know that I could keep my opinion to myself and that I had no right as a "former" employee to question their decisions. Oh well! I'll always wonder though if I had stayed if I could have kept the program going, the boy's coach retired the same year I left so there was no one left with a strong commitment to the program.