State Track Meet 1983 - Recap

The 1983 State Meet experience was a whirlwind of emotion. When we returned from state and I shared the experience at our awards banquet several people told me that I really should write it all down because it was quite a story. I took their advice and wrote it out and saved it all these years so here it is in the same words it was originally written in. If there are any additions they will be in parentheses. The only reason that there might be a change is for clarification.

STATE TRACK MEET       1983

Several people told me I should write everything down about this years State Track Meet. The meet was held at Wilson Stadium in Albuquerque because the University track was in such poor shape. The facilities were terrible, with only one aisle in and out of the bleachers. If you went to the restroom, you would miss several races just fighting the crowd to get in and out. That's not what I really want to write about though.

We went up there the definite favorites. Anyone who knew anything about New Mexico track knew we had to be the favorites. I don't like the favorite label, but even I knew that it couldn't be ducked without sounding like an idiot. Coach Watkins (the boy's coach) started talking about us being the favorites after about the 2nd or 3rd meet of the season. I wasn't ready to think about it that early, but with 3 or 4 weeks to go, SB asked me at practice one day, "Do you really think we can win state this year"? I told her, "There's not a doubt in my mind, that if everything goes right, we will be the state champions". She said, "I really believe it then, because you never would have said that last year". And she's right, last year I told the AP writer that Socorro should definitely be the favorite and not us. He didn't listen, but I was right. Another time that I admitted that we should win was at the Rotary (I was the speaker at their meeting), I made the same statement that I made to SB. "I can guarantee you, that if everything goes right, we will be state champions by this time next week". As I was leaving the meeting, George Paul (my boss at the Hardware store) said, "I hope you're not over confident". Apparently he didn't pay attention to the 'if everything goes right' part.

On the way up, everyone was feeling pretty good, not over confident or cocky, but comfortable with the knowledge that we were good and it was going to take a lot of bad luck or a tremendous effort from another team to beat us. After going to the track to stretch, check handoffs and loosen up we still knew we should win. Many of the girls talked to other teams about times etc. and nothing was too earth shaking. Aztec did come into the picture as a previously unknown challenger, to go along with LV Robertson and St. Pius who we already anticipated as being good competition.

That night we went to see 'Porky's', bad mistake in mixed company. We ate at Furr's. We didn't have a whole lot of trouble getting them down for the night, the boys were worse than the girls and they weren't real bad. The other teams were the real problem. The next day we ate lunch at Furr's after going to the mall. Scottie and I were late getting to the mall because we had to go pick up the packets. After we ate we went back to the rooms to relax and get ready. We had a team meeting and team prayer before we left and talked about what we had to do to be the state champions. Basically all I told them was to do what they had done all year, give their best effort no matter what place they were in, our main goal was to qualify for the finals. If they all did what they were capable of, they'd win the meet.

After seeing the packets we saw that we had the best 400 and 800 relays, 2nd or 3rd best 1600 relay, 1 and 2 in the 200, 1,2 and 4 in the 100, 1st in the 400, 3rd in the 800, Kelly was close in the 1500 and 3000, we could be competitive in the medley and Kira was up there in the discus. As I said, we looked to be in good shape.

Next - The Prelims!!

PRELIMS

Disaster struck! A false start by TW in the 400 meter relay. My first thought was that it was a bad dream, our only false start all year, we were the favorites in the race by a wide margin. As soon as it happened I started calling the girls trying to get their attention and tell them to shake it off. RO and TW were both collapsed on the infield and PT and TM looked like they were in a trance. I had to calm them down because TW and RO had the 100 coming up shortly and TM had to report to the shot put immediately. I made sure they heard me tell them to shake it off and not sweat it and then I left them alone for a while. It definitely affected TM in the shot put and I think it did KB too, it happened right in front of her. Neither of them made the finals and both threw around 33' if that.

The 100 lows were next and TS was entered, she was 4th in the 1st heat with the 'better' hurdlers in the 2nd, her chance of qualifying looked bad. In the 2nd heat only two finished the race, 1 scratched and there were 3 false start DQ's. Smitty made it and looked to have a chance to pick up at least 5th.

One of our strongest events was next, the 100, we had 3 that should make the finals, TW, RO and AB. I was hoping that TW and RO had shaken off the relay and AB didn't 'choke' being a freshman. No sweat, we qualified 1,3,4. That was a relief and helped them start feeling better.

Next came the 800 relay, the same team as the 400 and we were even bigger favorites here. They wanted to prove something and in spite of one terrible handoff they won the heat easily and qualified 1st. The 400 was next after the intermission.

IB ran the race of her life in the 400 and qualified 2nd with the same time as the winner, 59.61, a lifetime best and the sub 60 she always wanted and I told her would come. She looked sure of a top 3 finish.

The 75 hurdles were the next event, TS and NA were both entered, we had come up hoping to qualify at least one if not both of them. They didn't even come close. It was particularly disappointing for NA because she had had such a great year after doing nothing last year and just starting hurdles this year. The + is that it was her first trip to the state meet and she had another year.

The next race was the Medley, the relay we were least sure about, we had a freshman, TP running the critical anchor leg. Everyone ran well and we qualified, we knew it would take a very good race to place.

Another of our strong events was next, we expected TW and AB to both qualify, they did what we wanted and qualified 1,3. An Aztec girl finished between them. AB certainly didn't run like a freshman.

The final prelim event was another relay that we wanted to finish well in, as a matter of fact, we knew that after losing our 400 team, we had to do well in the 1600. TP led off with a good leg and everyone else did the job. We qualified 3rd in 4:12.3, Albuquerque Academy ran 4:09, our PR this year.

With the exception of the 400 relay and the poor showing in the shot put we were still in pretty fair shape but it was going to be a dog fight now instead of a cake walk.

Next - Between Prelims and Finals!!!

BETWEEN PRELIMS AND FINALS!

You can't shake off the disappointment of the loss of a sure 10 points but it was up to Coach Fort and I to convince the girls that we were still the best team and if we just equaled our prelim performances and a few other people came through in events that had no prelims we could be and would be the state champs. We talked on the bus when we got back and tried to point that out to them. We also told them the teams we would have to watch were St. Pius, Aztec, LVR and Academy not in any particular order. We were certainly right, that's how the top 5 teams came out. We told them to go to their rooms, clean up and rest and we'd bring them their food when it came.

The food was a real screw up. The Ramada Inn was supposed to fix us a meal when we got back and they didn't do it so Coach Rodie went to get burgers etc. One McDonald's refused to take a school check and he had to go to another. It took almost 2 hours to get food. By then most of the kids had settled down and we had to get them all wound up again to eat lousy food. After we got it all divided up and everyone back in their rooms it took several walks around before they settled down but eventually they did with no problems. About 2:30 I went out to check and we had another catastrophe, RO had her eyes swollen so bad that they hurt so she couldn't close them and naturally she couldn't sleep which meant no one else in the room could either. I put a cold cloth on them and tried to help but they really didn't get better until the next A.M. when her mom came and washed them out. Needless to say, knowing a lot of them didn't have a real good nights rest, put us even more on edge.

I had sat down after getting the kids settled and went over prelim results plus entries for events that had no prelims and I convinced myself that if everything went right, we would win. That certainly meant no more false starts.

Scottie and I went to the stadium in the A.M. KB and AR had to throw the discus. KB placed 4th which was less than we had hoped for but it was our first points of the meet. She was disappointed but at least she placed. It was freezing cold and the wind was blowing like mad. She wore my heavy blue coat warming up and got the discus caught in the pocket and ripped it off, at least that helped lighten the mood. When we took her back we told everyone to relax for a while before lunch. After we went to eat we came back and told everyone to get their gear together, change and get prepared. I gave them a little time to meet and then we had a meeting in Coach Fort's room. Before hand, Patti Ann told me, "They want you to tell them we can still win". Even though I had already told them several times the night before they wanted to hear it again. I certainly didn't blame them and I was glad they had enough trust in me to want to hear it from me.

KB scored our first 2 points in the discus

At the meeting I went over everything we had done and everything we had to do in order to win. I told them that we not only could win but that we would win if everyone performed up to their potential. There were no questions other than, "Can we still win?" After the talk we had a team prayer and a good laugh after an incident (MA farted during the prayer and everyone cracked up) and both helped a great deal. We left the motel a little more confident but a long way from where we were before the prelims started.

Next - THE FINALS!!!!!

THE FINALS

The 3000 was the first running event final and a fantastic PR effort by KY gave us a point we hadn't really counted on. She was the first LHS girl ever to place in a race above the 800. At the same time the high jump was being contested on the infield. Although we weren't real sure how IB was doing she looked good and less and less people were hanging around. She only ended up jumping 4'10" but she did place tied for 4th, another point we weren't putting much hope in. These proved to be 2 very valuable points. +2

It was a strange and empty feeling watching the 400 relay finals. It was even more discouraging hearing them announce that the winner, Aztec had tied Lovington's State record, a time that we would have surely beaten probably in both the prelims and finals.

The 100 hurdles were next and before TS re injured her ankle on the bus after lunch we had hoped she could get at least 5th. No such luck. (She tripped over an ice chest getting out of her seat on the bus).

The 100 was next and we were hoping for a 1,2,4 finish or at least a repeat of our prelim 1,3,4 effort for 12 points. Instead we got 2,3,4 as Wilson of Las Lunas surprised RO. We got 9 points. -3

Up to this point, not counting the high jump, the score was: Lovington 12, LVR 9, Los Lunas 11, Academy 14, St. Pius 15, Aztec 13, West LV 11 and Kirtland Central 11. West and Kirtland would score only 3 more points between them but you can see what a dogfight it was.

The 1500 was next and after KY's performance in the 3000 we were hoping for at least another 5th. It was obvious after the first lap that that couldn't happen. Oxygen debt to the max. The races were just to close together. For the 2nd year in a row we finished 9th and 10th.

The 800 relay was next and we dominated it like we should have dominated the 400 relay winning by over 2 seconds. The 400 was next and we hoped IB would finish at least 2nd. A surprise from Broomfield won it though and IB was a good 3rd. -1. The 75 hurdles were next and we watched. Point totals now: Lovington 26 1/2, LVR 19, Los Lunas 15, Academy 24, St. Pius 26, and Aztec 20. Obviously it was going to be a dogfight with Academy favored to win the medley and the 1600. Balance and performing to our potential was going to have to be the key to our winning it.

The 800 was next and we needed at least a 3rd from RN. With about 180 to go it didn't look possible; she was in 6th place. I don't know if she heard me scream "Now" or not where I always do but she took off like a world champion and got us our 3rd. It was efforts like that that won it for us. She moved at the same place that RP did in '82.

The medley was next. We had barely qualified 4th and with Academy favored we knew we had to do at least that well to keep our hopes up. SB ran the best lead off leg she's ever run and the middle legs were good. TP didn't look like a freshman at the finish thank goodness. With about 30 meters to go she was 6th, she reached down somewhere and split two runners beating them both to give us 4th by 2 hundreds of a second. Another very valuable 2 points. As expected Academy won it. The score with only 2 events left was Academy 34 and favored to win the 1600 relay, Lovington 32 1/2, LVR 27, St. Pius 26 and Aztec 25.

The 200 was next and we knew we needed some good points here. Academy didn't have anyone entered in the finals. We needed to at least repeat our 1,3 from the prelims and we did for 10 big points. Now it was pretty much between us and Academy going into the 1600 relay. We had 42 1/2 and they had 34. Even if they won the most they could finish with was 44 points, we needed 4th in the 1600 relay to win the meet by 1 1/2 points. Now you see why I said the point here and point there was so important.

Since we qualified 3rd we knew we could get our 4th if everything went right. We changed and put IB on the leadoff leg to get us out good and it paid off. The next two legs were TP a freshman and MA a sophomore fighting a cold; they did an outstanding job and handed off to RN in 5th place. I knew then that we should be home free because in a battle of guts no one can hold a candle to Rosie. Then I thought disaster had struck again. Not satisfied with waiting for the back stretch to pass, RN passed into 4th on the first curve and when she cut in the girl behind her appeared to stumble. No flag went up and we were home free, the official was standing right there. At the same place she made her move in the 800 she did again and brought us home 3rd giving us 2 extra points. Talk about relief. And yet we still refused to believe it until the official results were announced. Mr. W had kept a running total for us and it was the only thing that helped us know what we had to do every step of the way because official results were so slow in being announced.

Final Totals: LOVINGTON 47 1/2; Albuquerque Academy 44; Las Vegas Robertson 34; Aztec 25; St. Pius 25. Tucumcari was a surprising 6th with 22 points on the basis of 2 1sts by Montoya and one by Kent.

Why did we win after the opening crisis? My opinion is that there were several reasons but the three main are, 1. we put ourselves in the Lord's hands, 2. we had some early doubts but we never stopped believing in ourselves and 3. it was a TOTAL TEAM VICTORY, something we had preached and practiced all season long. Add to this the support of our families and fans and it's a pretty tough combination as long as you don't beat yourself. We should have the talent to make a run at it again in 1984; whether we have the character or not will have to be seen when the time comes, beginning the first day of practice.

Head Coach - Wildcat Girls Track 1983

After our runner up finish at the 1982 state meet we came into the 1983 season with a lot of expectations. While we again had 11 returning state qualifiers the same as '82 we had 21 returning letterwinners almost twice as many as the previous year. We would be getting back an athlete who had to sit out last year because of grades and we were coming off a 3rd place finish at the state cross country meet. After reviewing the program's history, I wrote the following in our welcome newsletter:

"The potential for our continuing this success is great. We have 11 returning state qualifiers, 21 returning letterwinners including managers and over 35 people who have indicated an interest in being members of the team. In addition, we have 9 people on the team who presently hold school records. In addition to all of the talent and potential talent I just mentioned, we will need two things to be successful and we will need it from each and every one of you. They are time and hard work. You can't be winners without plenty of both and if you don't have plenty of both that you are willing to give then you may as well find another way to spend your afternoons and weekends. We are winners and we want people who want to be winners."

At the end of three pages of team information I wrote the following two paragraphs. Everyone went into the season knowing the expectations for a member of the team:

"Finally, if you have any questions about what we're having you do for workouts and why, ask. We'll do our best to explain it to you in a way you can understand and not snow you with technical talk. We don't do things just to do them, every workout has a purpose. Remember, I said, "ask" about it, not complain about it, there's a big difference.

"Your responsibility is to do each assignment at 100% of your capacity regardless of how you feel personally. It is the coach's' responsibility of directing the team to its maximum potential. You have the responsibility to carry out all assignments so maximum potential of this team can be reached".

I always believed that it was critical to be upfront about expectations and roles and I believe it went a long way towards our success during the 1983 season.

Once again we started our season competing in Texas and our first meet was the Mustang Relays in Andrews. Last year we won the meet by 1 point and it provided a great opportunity to reiterate the importance of every point; a theme I would use for the rest of my coaching career. "That one point victory last year should make it clear to each one of you how important every point is. If you can't win get 2nd or 3rd etc. Don't quit and give up. Every point can make a difference in every meet in which we run; it's something you need to think about all the time". In case anyone had trouble believing what I said the meet results proved my point in spades.

We tied with Midland Lee from Texas with 132 points. "Congratulations on winning our first meet of the 1983 season. There are many reasons to be proud of your performances, three that come to mind are; 1. it was definitely a total team effort proven by the fact that we placed in every event; 2. it was done under miserable conditions with no one giving less than 100% and 3. we did it despite only winning one event which proves what I've told you about the importance of every point regardless of your place". TM scored a 6th in the shot put, RO a 6th in the long jump and NA 6th in the 100 low hurdles; none of the three had ever competed in those events before.

We went back to Texas the next week and lost for the only time in the 1983 season. We finished 3rd behind two Texas AAAAA schools in an 8 team invitational. Obviously 3rd in a meet like that means more good than bad performances but after congratulations "on another complete team effort", we focused on the disappointments because that is what the girls wanted to focus on during the bus ride home. They realized that they were a special team and anything less than 1st was unacceptable to them. "There were a few disappointments but there often are; how you come back off those disappointments will show what kind of a competitor you are and whether you can be counted on when it really counts".

The next weekend was a unique one at the time because for the first time ever we were going to do two meets on back to back days. Coach Watkins and I knew the risks of fatigue but we both felt that we had the depth and balance to compete well. Even though it was early in the season we felt that it would be great for the kids who qualified for state later to experience back to back efforts. It was also important to get as many kids an opportunity to compete as possible. It was also a good opportunity to continue to emphasize the importance of academics and working with teachers. We were going to miss several classes for the Friday meet.

We won a 7 team invitational at Kermit, Texas by scoring 208 points. It was the first time we had ever scored over 200 points in a meet. One thing that contributed to the high point total is that we won all three relays in in Texas invitationals relays were given double points. We also won 7 other events. After getting home from a late Friday night bus ride we were back on the bus early Saturday morning. The kids did a great job being where they were supposed to be and on time. We had a standing rule that we never waited for anyone who was late. We won the Portales invitational with 68 points, Friona, Texas was 2nd with 49. There were 11 teams at the meet from New Mexico and Texas. "This weekend's meet should show you the kind of potential you have; keep up the hard work and it will continue to pay off".

One concern that came up at this point in the season was the fact that we had so many athletes it would be hard to give them all chances to compete in the next four weeks. "Our next meet is this Friday in Hobbs; I will get the entries to you in a couple of days. Remember, we will not be able to run all of you but keep working hard for District". (We had unlimited entries in District.) We also told them that hopefully several of them could compete in the Lovington Invitational as exhibition athletes.

The Hobbs dual meet was an important one for us. Hobbs was a AAAA school and as I stated in the newsletter, we needed a good workout. "It's not always easy to get excited about a dual meet but there are several reasons to get up for this one. 1. If you perform to your potential you can beat Hobbs. 2. We have had a very poor week of workouts and a dual meet with little rest between events is an excellent way to get a hard workout. 3. You will see some good competition in most events and get a chance to improve yourself under meet conditions". They won the meet 79 - 48 and according to our local sports editor it was the "first Lovington varsity win over any Hobb's team since the 70's". It was another positive effort. In the result newsletter it was the first time that I mentioned the state championship as a possibility. "Don't become complacent now, less than five weeks are left and you can become State Champions if!!! you are willing to continue to work hard".

We had one more meet before we got into the heart of the season when we could start qualifying for the state meet. We went to Roswell for a 10 team invitational that was both AAAA and AAA schools and we won the meet with 82 points. Host Roswell was 2nd with 72. We placed in 14 of 16 events and that balance was the key to our win. Once again I emphasized the possibility of a state championship. "Keep it together both physically and mentally for four more weeks and you will be the 1983 state champions. Just remember it takes all of you every week; we have no superstars and each of you is important".

With so many quality athletes we told them this before we entered state qualifying meets: "Some of you will get a chance to qualify at Artesia and whether you do or don't you will be held out of the Lovington invitational to give others a chance; then everyone will get a 2ns chance at District".

Reading what I've written so far you would think everything was going great but let me tell you the social aspect of this team was tough. There were cliques and girls who flat didn't like other girls and the fact that they were teammates didn't mean a thing to them. Thank goodness while their differences took a lot of fun out of the season for the coaches, they didn't let their differences interfere with their performance. After the Roswell meet and before we started the state qualifying meets I had had it however and created a separate handout addressing their attitudes. Here is what I said:

"I've never asked you to love each other, as a matter of fact, I've often said I don't care if you even like each other. What I have always asked for and am asking for again is that you show each other respect. From the best to the worst, everyone is an important part of this team and deserves to be treated that way. You've all heard the old saying, "IF YOU CAN'T SAY ANYTHING NICE, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL". I think many if not most of you need to think about it. I thought a lot about this over the weekend and turned to a much Higher source for help. Read these Proverbs, maybe they'll help". I then provided them with 21 Proverbs.

We had 3 meets left, Artesia and Lovington Invitationals and the District Championship. All of them allowed athletes to meet state qualifying standards. We easily won the Artesia meet with 112 points; more than the next two teams combined. We qualified for state in 9 events and set 6 new meet records. The next week we were hosting the Lovington Invitational and because the junior season ended we were bringing some freshmen up to give them an opportunity on the varsity. At Lovington the girls were amazing competing in front of the home crowd. We scored 154 points and all other teams together scored 153. It was a totally dominant performance and just what we needed going into the District Championship meet the next weekend. We set 7 meet records and scored in every event; including scoring by freshmen.

The following week we won our 5th District Championship in a row with 134 1/2 points. The rest of the District scored 137 1/2! Despite what the score implies, it was a tough District meet. District records were broken in 12 of the 16 events 7 of them by Lovington Wildcats. It was a great way to end the regular season prior to the State Meet.

It was an amazing year!

Head Coach - Wildcat Girl's Track 1982

In 1982 I got the opportunity to become a head coach when the girls program opened up. I'm not sure why Coach Stroh resigned after only one season but I was grateful for the opportunity. Stroh's '81 team had been picked as a team to beat at State that year and they came up just short, finishing in a tie for 2nd place despite an injury to one of his top sprinters. In '82 I had 11 state qualifiers and 12 returning letter winners back. All that was missing from the team that scored points at state were 3 seniors who had graduated, 2 discus throwers and a sprinter who graduated and had run one leg on a relay team. The other loss was a big disappointment, a quarter miler who as a sophomore in '81 ran on the 4 x 4 and anchored the medley that both placed in the state meet. She was also a member of my 3rd place state cross country team. She became ineligible after cross country season and could not regain her eligibility until the '82 cross country season. That was a tough loss.

My first team as a high school head coach came with a lot of potential. We started the season strong as well. I took a mile relay to the Albuquerque JayCee Indoor meet and while we were only 6th in the prelims and didn't make the finals the girls ran a respectable time and it was good experience for our next indoor meet that was held at Lubbock Christian; we went there and won an 8 team invitational over District rival Artesia and six West Texas teams. The mile relay ran almost an identical time but won the meet. Additionally we won the 440 and 880 relays and the 2 mile and placed in several more events. That was the conclusion of a very brief indoor season a week later we were back in Texas for our first outdoor meet of the season and we had some rare nice weather for early spring.

The meet was the Mustang Relays in Andrews, Texas and provided me with a great opportunity to emphasize the importance of every place, every point, in every event. (This was a point of emphasis in my newsletters right through my final season of coaching in 2005). We won the meet over second place Ft. Stockton, Texas 149 - 148 and of course I emphasized that it was a "total team victory". We had to win the mile relay and Ft. Stockton had to finish outside the top three to secure the victory. We won with a time 14 seconds faster than we ran the previous week and Ft. Stockton finished 4th securing the victory for us. The meet was also a good example of having to overcome adversity as well as the importance of having team depth. We had 3 good 100 meter hurdlers entered, our 2nd best hurdler false started and was disqualified, our best hurdler hit a hurdle, fell and did not finish the race and our 3rd hurdler finished 6th and scored for us.

While the next meet was back in Texas and we only finished 4th place out of 13 teams it was a very important meet because it showed the girls that they couldn't simply show up and win based on previous performances. We were soundly beaten by Midland 120, Odessa Permian 117 and Monahans 75; as I said, we were 4th with 47 and once again beat Ft. Stockton by 1 point. Even though we were 4th and 5th it provided another opportunity to emphasize the importance of every place, every point, every event. The meet was a wake up call. Here are some of my comments from our newsletter; "I know several of you were disappointed with your performances Saturday and there's nothing wrong with being disappointed when you know you can do better. The thing to do is shake it off and do better Friday at Portales. Personally I'm very pleased with our showing as a team and with the exception of a few minor problems that I think have already been worked out, I don't have any complaints with individual efforts. Some of you who think you can do better won't unless you have a better week of practice starting today. Last week many of you loafed every day and it showed, you know who you are".

At Portales, back in New Mexico we had a dominating team performance by scoring 114 points, Las Vegas Robertson was 2nd with 58 1/2. The bad news is that we lost one of our top sprinter-hurdlers (TW) to an injury and didn't know when or if she would be back. We returned to Texas for our last out of state meet next and won with another strong performance; we scored 135 and Coahoma, Texas was 2nd with 99. When we returned to New Mexico we were hit by some type of illness bug that kept a large part of the team from competing and others performing at less than their best. We went into the meet knowing that it would be tough because half of the teams would be AAAA schools while we and three others were AAA. We placed 4th with 37 points while the host team, Roswell won with 107. "I think you all performed very well Friday considering the tough competition and the virus that many of you were fighting. Many season best performances were recorded despite the fact that the majority of you felt below par".

While it was a tough meet it would be our last loss until the State Championship meet in Albuquerque a month later. The next three meets were the Artesia and Lovington Invitationals and the District meet where we were the defending champions. Additionally they were all meets where athletes could qualify for the state meet by hitting qualifying times or distances. We won all three meets by wide margins and qualified for state in 15 of the 16 events with multiple qualifiers in 4 of them. At Artesia we scored 118 points, runner up Santa Rosa had 53. At Lovington we scored 146 points while runner up Artesia had 63. We defended our District Championship title scoring 137 to Artesia 74, Portales 59, Tucumcari 29 and NMMI 1. We won 12 of the 16 events including all 4 relays.

One of the local papers, the Hobbs News-Sun ran the following headline the day we left for the state championship meet, "LHS Girls Big Meet Favorites". Two things that they failed to take into consideration however is that many of our state qualifying performances were what I call "soft qualifiers" meaning that while they met the qualifying standard they were long shots to finish in the top 5 at state and score any points and the fact that the defending state championship team had their top athletes back. The headline in the same newspaper after the meet was, "LHS Boys First, Girls Second In State Meet".

Socorro, the defending champs scored 49 points, we were runner up with 36 and Las Vegas Robertson was 3rd with 31. And speaking of those Socorro athletes, "Socorro with Spurlock and Pyke accounting for 44 points once again won the AAA championship with 49 points. Spurlock and Pyke virtually single-handedly carried Socorro to the AAA title".

I summed up my feelings in the Lovington Daily Leader after the meet, "We knew we shouldn't have been listed as the favorite before the meet started, " Anstey said. "With Pyke and Spurlock, we knew Socorro was going to be hard to beat. If everything would have gone exactly right for us, we could have possibly beaten them. It would have been tough though". Anstey added, "We were very proud of the girls in their second place finish. We had many seasonal best performances, including a school record by K.B. in the shot put and seasonal bests by three of our relay teams in the preliminaries".

Spurlock won the long jump, high jump and 200 and teamed up with Pyke on the winning 400 meter relay while Pyke won the 100 and finished 2nd in the 200. Quite a performance by those two young ladies.

State Qualifiers and Managers

I was fortunate to have so much success my first year as a head coach and I learned a great deal that prepared me for my continued career.

Wildcat Track - Boys 1981

1981 LOVINGTON WILDCAT TRACK

In 1981 the varsity boys track assistant job became available when Tom Stroh left the boy's team to become the head girls coach. Already working with the varsity as a volunteer and having coached most of the boys in junior high was an advantage as was volunteering with the cross country teams until I officially became head girl's coach. While I had worked with Coach Watkins in my past roles I was given a great learning opportunity working with him as his assistant. While I was a decent track coach before this and knew a decent amount, coaching with Coach Watkins is where I learned a lot and it gave me the confidence to believe that I could eventually be a head high school track coach.

Organization! That might be the most important thing I learned that year. Coach used to have a large board in his office and on it he had each event listed down the left side and then blank places for the number of people who could participate in the event. Most meets were 3 entries in an individual event and one relay team per relay event. In New Mexico there were 15 individual events and three relays requiring 4 runners and usually 2 alternates. So in an event with 3 individual entries that meant you had to place people in 45 individual places, 12 relay places and have 6 alternates ready to take someones place on a relay if necessary. That's just going into a meet. Coach had multiple tags with each athletes name on them that he would hang from the board when preparing for a meet. It is amazing how many changes took place throughout the week depending on health, fitness, eligibility, injury, and so many other factors. Additionally there were quite often changes during the meet for any number of reasons.

To me that became a big part of the magic of being a successful track coach, always thinking multiple steps ahead and having the athletes ready for any changes that might be necessary on the fly. There have been times in my track coaching career where meet victories were secured because we were able to place someone in an event rather than have to scratch the event and have no chance to score or keep another team from scoring.

While I had always used newsletters for my teams, particularly track and cross country this was the year that they became much more detailed. I would include results from that week's time trial efforts, previews of our next competition, results from the upcoming meet for the previous season, information about our former athletes who were competing in college or road races, training information, motivational information and so on. Additionally these newsletters were used to provide schedule information and reminders about academics and other things important for student-athletes. This was also where things discussed in team meetings were put in writing so no one could plead ignorance. The newsletters were provided to everyone including managers and even former athletes enjoyed receiving them. It is because of these newsletters that I am able to go back over 30 years later and write about my coaching career.

Some examples of what was written in the 1981 newsletters: In the first one I explained the purpose of newsletters and the importance of them providing an opportunity to "keep track of your progress throughout the season". It also became a very easy way for coaches and athletes to keep track of progress from season to season from both an individual and team standpoint. The second newsletter was written "four weeks to our first meet" and the emphasis was on "thinking about setting goals for the season if you haven't already done so".

Newsletter #5 is when we finally had meet results to see how we were going to stack up as a fan. The meet was held in Andrews, Texas and there were both varsity and junior varsity divisions so we had the opportunity to get a lot of athletes involved. There are times when not winning is the best thing that could happen for coaching. We always looked for meets with the most competition because we wanted to prepare our athletes for whatever they might encounter when we started District and State competition. That usually meant that we started our season in Texas. After the Andrews meet where we finished 4th of 8 and 40 points behind 3rd the point of emphasis in the newsletter was as follows: "Despite the conditions, it was still pretty obvious who has been working and who hasn't. If you're in the second category, you need to think seriously about how bad you want to compete. We go to Seminole Saturday and there won't be a J.V. division so there won't be as many places to run people"  and finished with this statement, "Once again, good job most of you, keep working hard and you'll reach the goals you've set for yourselves and we'll accomplish our goals as a team". 

The next week we returned to Texas and again finished 4th despite there only being 6 teams competing. The improvement though was shown in two main ways, first we were only 12 points out of 3rd and 35 from 1st and second the fact that as I told the team, "Good team effort, we placed at least one in every event". Team effort based on individual effort and placing in as many events as possible were both points of emphasis throughout my entire track coaching career.

We returned to New Mexico for our next meets, winning a dual meet with Carlsbad High School a AAAA school 75-70 and dominating the Portales Invitational scoring 129 1/2 points with the runner up scoring only 72 1/2. Most of the teams there were from our District so we were able to start realistically setting championship season (District & State) goals.

We went back to Texas and performed well despite the team scores. Once again we were 4th. There were 10 teams this time; we were 15 points from 3rd but 70 from first. Despite the fact that the coaches were pleased with the team effort we were certainly humbled before our return to New Mexico for the rest of the season. Our next three meets were the New Mexico Military Institute, Artesia and Lovington Invitationals. We tied for the win at NMMI giving the coaches an opportunity to reemphasize the importance of every point. We had a runner qualify 2nd in the 220 and another qualify 4th in the 440 neither of who ran the finals, guaranteed points. My comment after this meet was, "I hope you all learned the value of each and every point in a meet. We're not always going to blow people away in New Mexico and it's even less likely when we don't get top efforts from every member of the team. There are many places we could have and should have been able to pick up 1 point to be the outright winners". They must have taken it to heart because the next two meets we won and scored more points than the next two teams combined. 

The next week we won the District Championship with 110 1/2 points. NMMI the team we tied three weeks before was second with 71 1/2. Then we went to Albuquerque and won the AAA State Championship we scored 64 points followed by Albuquerque Academy 39 and a member of our District, Portales 37 1/2.

1981 NEW MEXICO STATE TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONS

I learned a lot that year and one thing that came back to me time and time again was that early season results shouldn't get you to high or to low. Even though the high school season is short there is a lot both good and bad that can happen in that three months. Lesson learned and I was always to have prior newsletters to remind me!

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.

Lovington Cross Country - Part 1

My experience coaching cross country began the same way that my volleyball experience began, by volunteering. I was coaching track at the Junior High and because our 9th graders who showed ability and interest were allowed to move up and work out with and possibly compete with the high school team. As a result I started attending the high school practices with my athletes and developed a relationship with the high school coaches, one who was also the cross country coach. I encouraged my distance runners from the 1978 freshman team to run cross country in the fall of 1979 and asked if I could work wit the team when my volleyball schedule allowed. So my first year was in a very limited role but it was enough to convince me that I definitely wanted to coach cross country when the opportunity became available.

I attended the State Championship meet in Albuquerque with the team and my eyes were opened to the disparity in talent between the northern and southern parts of the state as well as the dominance of the Native American schools from north western New Mexico. Our girl's team won the District Championship that year and qualified for state. Unfortunately, they're first experience at the state meet was less than stellar and certainly no indication of what was to come. In 1979 a team was only made up of six runners with five scoring runners. Despite a very competitive 12th place finish from our top runner we ended up with no score as a team because we only had 4 of our 6 runners finish the race.

For the first two years of state championships for girls they combined all of the teams up to and including AAA and then had a separate division for AAAA. Tina would have been 6th place had they just scored us against the teams in our AAA division. The team that won our race was Laguna Acoma with an incredible perfect score of 15. Their six runners were 1,2,3,4,5,& 8. The most dominant performance I ever saw from a team at a state meet.

The next year, 1980, I took a much more active role working with the high school athletes. I would finish coaching my volleyball team and then go to cross country practice. Logistically it worked out for me because our junior high gym was being redone and we had to practice in the small gym at the high school. My 8th grade coach would ride back to the school with our volleyball teams and I would stay and train with the cross country teams. Double duty again. Volunteer at the high school again. But some more important experience for my coaching future.

1980 was the first year that I started doing newsletters for the cross country teams, a practice that continued all of my years at Lovington and Sierra as well as the three years that I coached at the University Club level in Colorado Springs. My high school coach, Marshall Clark always provided us with post meet results newsletters that were full of information and my college coach Don Ruh did as well. When I began coaching junior high track I remembered how helpful I found those newsletters and I wanted to do the same thing for athletes that I had the opportunity to work with. It is because of these result sheets that I am able to look back and remember so many of the good and bad times from my 29 years of coaching.

Top 1980 State Meet in Santa Fe
Bottom - 1981 Girls State Qualifiers

The 1980 state championship meet was on a really difficult course in Santa Fe. Not only did we have to travel north again and contend with altitude but the course was very hilly and a good portion of it was run in sand. I was really proud of the efforts of our kids on both teams. Once again our top girl would have been a top ten runner if the divisions were divided. Sylvia was 17th overall and would have been 8th in AAA. Both teams were District Champions but once again it was a different level of competition at state. Our boys finished 7th of 7 and the girls 12th of 12.

Once again Laguna Acoma was dominant as Native American schools took the top three spots. Laguna Acoma 36, Tohatchi 108 and Zuni 124.

One thing that came up this season was something that unfortunately would be a recurring theme throughout my coaching career.Looking ahead to the next season and counting on kids that should be returning to the team. The girl who our number 3 runner at state in 1979 only ran one meet in 1980 before she quit cross country. She was a good kid and an outstanding 800 runner in track but sadly she didn't have what it took to stay with cross country. And that's not a criticism track and cross country are two entirely different sports.

1980 State Championships - Santa Fe, NM

1980 was the first year that I found myself getting involved in one of the parts of prep sports that I dislike the most. Politics! The meet in Santa Fe was poorly run, no information was made available in advance of the meet regarding conditions, and the course was unreasonable for a high school cross country course (in my opinion). After the season I wrote a letter to the Executive Secretary of the New Mexico Activities Association sharing my concerns, he in turn passed my concerns on to the Athletic Director of the host school, Santa Fe High School. The bottom line is that both responses were full of rhetoric but I can say that the state meet was never held in Santa Fe again while I was coaching in New Mexico. I spent a lot of energy in 29 years fighting for fairness for all athletes.

My comments to my team in my newsletter after the meet started off with this:

"One of you came up to me after the race Saturday and said, 'Sorry Coach". I told that person then and I'm telling the rest of you now. None of you have anything to be sorry for. Every one of you went out and did the best you could under unbelievably difficult conditions and Coach Watkins and myself are both very proud to have worked with each of you. You all heard enough Coaches talking to know that I'm not making excuses for you. The course was ridiculous and there was no way that a state meet should ever have been allowed to be held at a place like that.

With the exception of Benny DeLaCruz from Hobbs 5th place finish, no southern runner got close enough to smell the leaders. Woods, the fine runner from Alamogordo who won our home meet was the second southern runner in class AAAA and he was 33rd. The four southern schools in 4A took the last four places in the team standings, Hobbs was 6th and Goddard 8th."

Those comments pretty well summed up my feelings about the meet and the disparity of talent between northern and southern teams. I saw some promise from the girls team though even though they were 12th of 12 in the combined division again they were only 3 points from 10th. I made sure to emphasize that in our team meeting on the bus afterward and while I don't think it made anyone feel any better right then. It was a coaching point going into the 1981 season when 3A was finally going to have our own division.

This picture does a better job of showing why going north to run hills was such a challenge for our athletes. When I returned to Lovington in 2013 after running a race in Hobbs I drove to where we used to do our "hill" workouts to take pictures. Unfortunately the "hills" were no longer there. What we ran on were piles of the material they used on roads in the area, caliche. Imagine dump trucks backing up and dropping pile after pile of this crushed rock like material and you can visualize what out hill workouts consisted of. Running up, over and back on these piles of caliche. It actually helped by providing psychological as well as physical preparation. In the picture below taken of a postcard of Lovington the green area in the upper left corner is Chapparal Park where we ran our home meets and just to the northeast corner is where the caliche hills were located. Those hills taught me the importance of making the most of what you have when it comes to training. We could have complained about nowhere to run hills, instead we improvised and made the most of what was available.

No Hills! As far as the eye can see!

In 1981 I officially became the coach of the girl's team. Since I was still coaching my last season of junior high volleyball I don't know if I was actually paid for the cross country position. I was going to be the varsity girls track coach that spring so it was a normal transition into being the head girl's cross country as well. The truth is that I was probably still volunteering because we had to fight for everything we needed to get cross country the respect it deserved as a sport and not just off season conditioning for track. As a matter of fact, early pictures of the 1981 team show the girl's still wearing track uniforms for races. By the end of the season we convinced someone, school, booster club, not sure who to buy uniforms for the cross country teams. This wouldn't be the last time in my coaching career that I had that fight.

The summer before the '81 season is the first time that I started giving my athletes summer newsletters with advice on how and what to do so they might come back in the fall with at least some preparation for the upcoming season. It didn't work any better for the majority in 1981 than it did when I finished coaching cross country in 2004. With very few exceptions whatever my athletes accomplished they did within the 12 weeks of the season. Some didn't even get 12 weeks because they were still working when the season started if it started before classes did. The bottom line is that we had to do the best we could in a very short season with the majority of athletes doing nothing in the off season. I learned early to maximize the little time I had to work with a team and it was helpful throughout my entire career.

This was the year that I started making sure that the kids were aware of the tradition of the program. Despite the fact that it was a young program I knew that an awareness of the past could encourage the future. When athletes have tangible goals it is amazing to see how much their interest and effort improve. This was the very first "All Time" top 10 list that I did for my team.

First "History" of the Lovington Girl's XC program

"History" after the 1981 Season

There were other changes that I started when I "officially" became the girls head coach and the changes were incorporated by the coach of the boys team as well. I started providing much more detailed newsletters both premeet and post meet. The premeet sheets would provide as much information as I could find about our upcoming competition as well as expectations, itinerary, and other things that the athletes needed to know to be ready for a meet. Post meet obviously included team and individual results as well as comments regarding performance, effort, areas for improvement, and highlights.

The handouts also included excerpts from books or articles that I felt could be helpful, quotes from other coaches and athletes and what to expect throughout the remainder of the season. Grades and goals were mentioned in almost every newsletter as well as anything else that the coaches felt would be helpful to the athletes. They were also a place to reiterate what was said in team meetings in a more permanent format. There was a lot of time spent emphasizing character, behavior and grades. I learned the value of these handouts when I was a high school athlete myself and hoped that they would be found useful by the athletes I coached as well.

Finally another thing that I started doing in 1981 and carried over through 2004 was a 2000 meter time trial on the track. We even kept records from year to year with all time 2000 meter performances. Once again this was used to motivate current runners to beat past runners and run times that future runners would have a tough time beating. This was the first time many of the athletes had ever run against the clock at anything longer than a mile and it was hoped that they would realize their potential to go farther. We did it on the track because it was a more controlled environment and made it possible to encourage the kids throughout the time trial.

We won the District Championship again and once again qualified for the state championship meet that was moved back to Albuquerque. For the first time the girls were competing against only 3A teams. Once again the race was dominated by northern teams, as a matter of fact we were the only team from the southern part of the state, but for the first time in school history we beat another team at the state meet and finished 6th of 7. The fact that we were the only southern team showed how new the sport still was for girls in New Mexico. Our top girl was 14th and she was almost 2 1/2 minutes behind the winner, a sophomore from Zuni. It was obvious that the meet needed to be held in the northern part of the state because that's where the majority of the schools fielding cross country teams were located. While it was understandable that didn't mean we had to like going to run at their altitude and on their hills in their neighborhood. My final newsletter comment that year was:

"Gary Jenkins 9th place finish was an outstanding effort and also would have earned him 2nd team All State honors. I think everyone who knows the situation knows that Gary would have placed higher if we could get the northern people down on some flat lands. That's not going to happen though, so we'd better learn to live with it and be better prepared if possible next year".

The meet never did come south at least as of 1985 when I left New Mexico but just beating one team gave the girls the confidence to work harder to be better prepared for future state meets.

Central Junior High Track, Lovington, New Mexico

While I mentioned before that my only losing record in a team sport was my 30-31 record in basketball at Central Junior High in Lovington. If you look at just winning and losing from a team standpoint then my least successful coaching at Central would have been track. While I am one of those who think of track and field as a team sport I believe that you can be successful in the sport even as a coach by having success with individuals and relays.

Looking back at my records from the three years I coached at Central it was obvious where I placed the emphasis for my athletes. It wasn't on team wins and losses it was on individual and therefore team effort, improvement, willingness to work, willingness to compete where it could help the team as well as provide you with opportunities to improve, attitude, success in the classroom, goal setting. And if I look at my result sheets from 2005 almost 30 years later, the emphasis was still the same.

Here are some comments from my team newsletters from 1979:

"we still had many individual performances that promise some good things"
"you should all have serious goals now and be more willing to work hard in practice to achieve them"
"the type of attitude it's going to take for us to see improvement"
"we are displeased with the lack of toughness"
"best team effort......also pleased with the turnout and effort put out at Monday's workout"
"the most negative thing Saturday was some of the quitting that took place"
"Although our total points don't show it necessarily, this was by far the best total team performance of the year by both the 8th and 9th grade teams" - Border Conference Championship Meet 1979

In that final meet of the year, 15 of 19 8th graders and 10 of 17 9th graders had personal/season bests. That is how I determined success with track athletes.

Two things stand out from the 1980 result sheets that I handed out to my athletes; the first came from newsletter #1 and pretty much laid out my expectations for the individuals on the team:

"YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO YOURSELF AND THIS TEAM:
Your responsibility is to do each assignment at 100% of your capacity regardless of how you personally feel. The coaches have the responsibility of directing the team to its maximum potential. You have the responsibility to carry out all the assignments so the maximum potential of this team can be reached". 

And the final comment on the final result sheet of the season after the Border Conference Championship:

"Again congratulations to those of you who had personal bests and to those who set and met goals. Remember, goals are made to be achieved, keep setting them and making them. Good luck in track and x-country next year". 

I learned a lot about coaching track those three years at Central. Between my own experience running for Coach Clark in High School and even from Coach Ruh at Mt. SAC, a "Coaching Track and Field course my freshman year in college, reading many books and articles about track and working with Scottie Watkins the head coach in Lovington I had a good foundation to become the high school coach that I eventually became.

The results from 28 years of coaching track show that my basic philosophy of coaching track that was indicated in the 79 and 80 quotes, never changed. It was always about what could I do as a coach to help each individual become the best they could be and then to place those individuals where they could be most successful for himself as well as for the team. Future results will show that the system worked.