First Week of Track Practice

9/20 it started, 7am, we all were happy and anxious for it to start.  Then it happened, boom alarms going off, music playing, and everyone up and early ready for the first day of practice on the baseball field.  Getting up early now is no where compared to the wee morning hours of 6:15 practice when we start our Indoor Season practice at Weaver High.  Walking towards the field you see a lot of nervous faces and a lot of faces of just wanting to be there.  This day started the last pre-season for 8 seniors on the team and they knew they had to make the last year the best.  As everyone started to slowly get there and you can tell from the first initial instance of who was a returner and a freshman. As the team waits for Coach Joe and Coach Nicole to get there to start the very first practice of the year.  As most of us anticipated it to be just drills to get everyone familiar with the routine, we were faced with learning a new routine.  A dynamic routine as most of us have known over the years, but also with different drills.  Teaching an old dog new tricks as it is said in society.

As the days went by, the routine has started to become second nature to us and we are getting it done in the way it should be done.  Warming our muscles and bodies up for what was coming to us at practice. We expect nothing but the best during the pre-season to get us ready for the season.  As the coaches repeat to us everyday, no one is safe during this tryout period, we as a team have to realize it is not a game, and you can be easily cut if you don't put your best foot forward.  A lot of the athletes are coming together and getting to know a lot of the returners and talking to everyone to become closer as a family.  As a team we succeed together and as a team we fail together.  The days of this first week have taught us a lot not only about ourselves, but also as a team and what weak areas we need to work on to make us a balanced team.  With the XC team still in season, we are missing the other 20 on the team, but if you look at the team now, we are more of an army.  With cuts coming quicker in time, we have to make sure as a team we sweat, bleed, cry, breakdown, and etc. as a team.

As a team with very little resources given to them from the start, we are probably one of the best teams on this campus with the biggest hearts ever.  Yea we might complain that we don't have a track or that we can't use the main gym to get a good workout in, but we deal with what we have and we go out there and practice hard together. This week we were on the baseball field early morning, the back field sharing it with rugby, and the Unitarian Church down the street from the school.  We go every where and anywhere to do our workouts.  I have never seen a group of 70 kids put their hearts out where ever they practice.  It is true that as runners we tend to get lazy, but when we step on the track you would think you are looking at another person.

As the week comes to a slow and roaring end, we take what we learned and apply to our lives. We look towards the future with our heads held high and get ready to tackle the next week ahead of us, only to know that it will get worse as the weeks go by, but we are ready.  As Coach Carr would say, "If you have a pulse, you can lift."  Running is what we do and you won't see us doing anything better than that.