~:[CH12 - Day 96]:~ Contribution from All

 
~:[CH12 - Day 96]:~ Contribution from All

Today was chaos. I arrived at school and found out that we were leaving 30 minutes earlier. Knowing that, I had to find someone to cover the end of my class and setup for that, had to send out a memo to the staff, and then get word out among the students. Typically it wouldn't be a huge deal, but today was the last day before break. I feel bad because I know how disruptive it is to a classroom to have a student out, however, with a meet of this caliber, it's a must. With our first scoring meet in league, I knew it would be an important one. I was hoping I wouldn't get many messages from athletes saying, I am going on vacation Thursday. Luckily, most of the athletes listened to me and we arrived with mostly a full squad. One of the things about track is that it's challenging when there are so many different parts. It truly requires contributions from all and while we may not have a whole lot of athletes you'd consider elite by CIF standards, we do have solid athletes in every area that allow us to find success. Our girls held a solid lead midway through the meet, but our boys were losing and our boys frosh/soph team held a slim four point lead. After a quick talk to my 800m athletes, we saw a dominating 200m effort followed by a strong 800m effort. It quickly widened the gap and truly helped us push forward. Some would say it was our numbers that helped us, but in reality, we had numbers, but those numbers include quality athletes. As stated previously, I've truly enjoyed watching these athletes blossom and today was one of those moments where their growth was highlighted. Early in the season I worried how our team would be, but today they showed me that they're ready to all contribute to this win. In the end, we swept all four divisions and enjoyed a celebratory meal together, exhausted from the chaotic day, but glad that we've arrived at the break especially with four big wins on the day, which was made even more incredible by the fact that it was achieved because of the contributions from all. Victory is sweet, but earning it as a team is truly priceless, just like today.