~:[CH5 - Day 316]:~ Flying into History

~:[CH5 - Day 316]:~ Flying into History

One of my athletes quoted her dad who said, "The Cubs won the World Series, Trump won the election, [Cerritos] can make CIF Finals." After months of training, days of extra practices, late nights in the weight room, runs in the blazing sun, collapsing after intervals, cramps, rolling out after practices and battling the urge to call it quits, it was coming down to our final moments, As the signed continued to point at it, I acknowledged the signs, but didn't want to make too much of. From the rainbows that painted the sky on the way to the course in a year we made "No Rain, No Rainbows" shirts to one of the practices that I felt an aura that something great was about to happen. This team survived injuries, sickness, laziness, inexperience, stress, and even getting hit by a car. Both teams battled through the storms they faced and the rainbows that we saw on the way to the course, were just a sign of things to come. So many years, we had a chance and every time I checked the results board, we were outside of the qualifiers. As the boys rounded the final turn and the last boy passed, I looked down at my phone and saw the results. While we slowly dropped down the rankings, we stopped a few places above the bubble and the results never moved. Overjoyed, I ran to the finish line to find my team already shedding tears of joy with smiles on their faces as they realized just what happened. However, I stood idly by after greeting them, waiting for it to be official. My phone had it right as the staples held the historic piece of paper to the board at the meet. For once, our team name was highlighted and to finals we were headed. While our girls team surpassed their times from last year's prelims, sadly, they did not advance to Finals with the boys; however, there was no disappointment on the day, as they fought hard to the finish and even found a few PRs. As I wandered the course after the races, I still was energized and excited even though the newness of this all means that I must start from scratch planning this week for the team. In a year when our boys wanted to win a district and league title, yet fell just short, coming up big when it counted was something I would trade for those titles in an instant. While for some teams, making it to finals is simply a cruise in the park (literally), our boys had to step up to catapult themselves into the finals to write in our program's history on a page that no team before them has ever written. I guess it's fitting that the only male qualifier I ever had was the coach for these boys when they first started, as they learned from a diverse group of coaches and were able to use all that information they gathered to arrive where we stood today. Truly, the struggles and disappointments were real, but in the end, there was something beautiful watch along the course, playing out so beautifully and incredibly. Playoffs is always about giving yourself a chance and these boys did just that. Who knows what the future holds, but today, at this very moment, I paused and from afar, I watched the team celebrate. I soaked it all in, as the emotions rained down me at once as I thought back to the rainbow we saw that morning. Was it a foreshadowing? I may never know, but regardless, I knew that every storm we had to pass through the season was worth seeing the rainbow at the end. CIF Finals, here we come.