Coaches’ Blog

It’s that time of year again…entry time for big invitationals.  I’ve always said that I stand by my entries for my athletes.  I enter them to put them where I think they belong and not where I hope they belong.  I’ve made it a tradition to post my entries for each BU meet that we attend.

I always try to set my athletes seeds to put them where I think they can realistically finish.  Admittedly, I was off the mark on our 200m performances for this weekend, but still feel confident that I made responsible entries.  Below are the preseeds of all the Tufts athletes entered at BU followed by their eventual performance in the meet.

We had a great couple of meets this weekend between the Bowdoin Invite and the Terrier Invite at BU.  A number of PR’s, All Time Top 10 performances, and a slew of goals crossed off the wall in my office.

When you get to this level of competition and you’ve been running for the better part of a decade, a PR in January is an impressive thing no matter how you slice it.  January PRs tell you that you’re on the right path and all the hard work you’ve put in over the summer and fall is going to reap great benefits come championship season.  It was great to see so many guys get that pat on the back this weekend.  Everyone should feel like they’re on the right path now.

Seed            Performance

200m

40th            50th

47th             36th

54th             80th

72nd            108th

102nd            61st

400m

20th            14th

49th             51st

800m

21st            23rd

28th             59th

mile

37th            26th

37th            Scratch

42nd            43rd

3k

43rd            Scratch

54th             43rd

66th            41st

66th            73rd

5k

60th            100th

4×4

6th            12th

I feel that the US News and World Report rankings are some of the most useless and overrated aspects of the college search process.  They might even be some of the more useless aspects of human existence.  Well, that’s a bit hyperbolic.  Prescription drugs that grow your eyelashes and the World rock-paper-scissor Championships completely dwarf the US News rankings system.  (We all know that scissors will always win…think about it.)

Honestly though, how can you “rank” these colleges/universities.  That would be like ranking the best foods in America.  Sure, an apple is better for you than a large onion rings, but what about an apple vs a banana?  Or better yet, what about a Granny Smith vs Golden Crisp?  Who’s to say which is ranked higher?

I’ve always felt that there should be a tiered system to these rankings.  Or better yet, a quality-control system.  For example, colleges could earn a gold, silver, or bronze standard.  Then high school students could look at all the “gold” standard colleges and start to focus on more intangible aspects of the college search.   It would take out the hair-splitting that must go on in order to rank one school 13^th and another 14^th.  Honestly, what is the difference between two schools that close?  This is probably why more and more schools are starting to abstain from the US News rankings process.

Okay, now comes the hypocrisy…I feel that there should be some sort of metrics that measures some qualities of athletic programs throughout the country.  DI, DII, and DIII all have different mission statements so this would incredibly difficult.  DI is a business.  A ‘successful’ program at that level might be the one that wins the most.

However, at the DIII level, I’ve always felt that there should be other factors taken into account.  Some sort of metrics that illustrates other aspects of the program’s effectiveness.

Some programs bring in 20 great freshmen every year and have 2-4 of them improve over the course of their 4 year career.  Don’t get me wrong, Tufts has had our swings-and-misses too.  But I’m still very proud of our batting average on the whole.  Athletes come to Tufts to improve…and the vast majority do.  They take their running to the next level and are happy with their experience.

How can this be imparted to students in the process?  High school seniors should have a way to delineate between  programs that see their athletes as machines responsible for pumping out performances and programs that see their athletes as people.

That’s probably a pipe dream though.

As we prepared for the 2011 Cross Country National Championships, my 8-month-old said that he had something he wanted to say to the team.  The following is the letter that he penned to the team.  I don’t know where he picked up all the profanity, but we’ve already had a conversation about it.

Dear big, tall people who can stand up,

Remember the time when you couldn’t walk?  You had someone else carry you around and wipe your butt for you.  Oh, those were the days.  People brought you your food, put your clothes on for you, and let you sleep 17 hours a day.  Everyone told you how cute and adorable you were and every female thought you were the best thing on the planet.  Oh, so much has changed.

I may only be 8-months-old, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some epic wisdom to pass along to you all in a moment like this.  My dad told me all about this Nationals thingy and I think I have it all figured out.  No big deal.  Let me lay it out for you.  First you’re going to get on a plane.  No big deal.  I’ve been on a plane.  It’s like a big crib, but you have to share it with 100 other people.

From there, you’ll spend some time at a hotel.  Again, been there-done that.  Yawn.  The only thing here is that your mom is going to worry a lot about you crawling around on the floor getting bed bugs.  Whatever.  It’s just something that you’ll have to deal with.  Suck it up.

Here’s where it gets awesome…you get to eat out…all the time.  Really, when I eat at home, it’s all peas, yogurt, and oatmeal…blah.  But when you eat out, it’s hamburger buns, french fries, and pizza toppings…epic.  Enjoy every moment and every meal, no joke.  Soon it will end and you’ll be back home in Medford eating mashed bananas and green beans.  Oh, you have no idea what I wouldn’t give for three days of eating out.

From there, there isn’t anything that really seems too big.  It’s all stuff you’ve done before.  Honestly, it reminds me of the other day when I felt the wind blowing.  My dad brought me outside and the wind hit my face.  At first, I was like “What the bleep is this stuff hitting my face?”  But then I realized, “Oh, it’s just the wind.  I felt it the other day.  It’s all good.  I got this stuff on lock-down.”

So, when you’re on the line and looking out at the start thinking “What the bleep is this?”  Just remember that it’s nothing you haven’t done already, just another day.  Same stuff, different time and place.

We wear the tape,

Echo

Today, the office was blaring Kanye West.  Why, you ask.  Well, because life needs a beat.  And because I’ve been on a Kanye kick lately.  Apologies to the assistant coaches because my “kicks” can last about 2-3 weeks too long and I absolutely overplay certain artists.  This isn’t my point, but it is the back story to one of my latest, odd connections.

In ‘Through the Wire” Kanye talks about when the doctor told him that they were going to have to put a metal plate in his jaw.  Oddly, my next thoughts had absolutely nothing to do with Kanye West.  I started thinking about the first doctor to put a metal plate inside the human body.

How crazy is that?  What a gutsy, creative, next-generation, boarder-line insane maneuver.  Can you imagine the look on the first patient’s face?  “Excuse me, Mr. Johnson, we’re going to have to bolt this steel plate into your chest.  I took it from my ’72 Buick Skylark so it should be a good fit.”

There are people like this in absolutely every field.  The person who thought about taking a tendon from a dead body and sewing into someone’s knee?  People who are always trying to push the limit of what has been done before them.  Others sometimes see it as re-inventing the wheel.  Personally, I see it as inventing a better, more effective wheel.  Or a wheel specific to a certain task.

I’m a problem-driven person.  I love surrounding myself with other people like that too.  I love it when we get a bunch of problem solvers together from different backgrounds.  It’s a great brainstorming session of out-of-the-box ideas about how to make our program better.

Sadly in our field (athletics), we have too many people who simply regurgitate other people’s ideas.  Workouts, exercises, game-plans, everything.  People develop a cookie cutter mold and try to keep pumping out the same thing constantly.  It works for some people.  I’m not one of them.

I love puzzles.  Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, Kakuro, I’d even do the occasional word-find even though it’s a waste of time.  In the end, I love logic puzzles.  And coaching is the biggest logic puzzle of all.  I guess that’s why I’ve been drawn too it.

Coaching college athletics is like trying to solve a 5^th grade algebra problem on steroids.   This jacked-up problem has 100 different trains leaving 100 different cities at 100 different times.  If that wasn’t good enough, on 7 of those trains someone pulled the emergency chord, 8 had a cow on the tracks, and 13 others ran out of gas.  Man, I love Algebra.

So, if Billy is an 800m runner with X, Y, Z strengths and A, B, C weaknesses and you have 1, 2, 3 program assets then when does his train arrive in Albuquerque?  GO!!!

Pencils down.

All that from a Kanye song…I must be losing it.

First and foremost…Thank you Marion.  This has been a year full of firsts and I am so glad to have shared them with you.  I could write for days thanking you, but in the end, it still wouldn’t do you justice.

Thanks for keeping me upright and moving in the right direction.

Secondly, Thanks Echo.  I completely expected you to drain my batteries and leave me fatigued simply because of how everyone talks about parenting.  Honestly, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Having you to come home to made me smile and laugh so much.  You have kept me fully charged for the past 8-months.

Echo got a jump on Thanksgiving already. Thanks Little Man.

Thirdly (is that a word), Dan and Nick.  Thanks for keeping me sane this year.  When I’m on the edge, you always remind me of what I say when I’m was of sound mind.  You remind me that tings are never as good and never as bad as they seem.  You two really kept us on point this fall.

Thanks guys.

Lastly, Thanks guys.  It was a great year.  Memorable to say the least.  We had some ups and downs in this fall’s rollercoaster ride.  More than anything, I’m both proud and thankful that you kept believing in yourselves.  We knew that we underperformed at NESCAC’s and NE’s.  You didn’t let it get to you.  I’ve seen less have major impacts on some people.  Being able to take your licks and still get up ready to keep swinging…that says a lot about who you are as people.  Thanks for being fighters.  Thanks for believing in what we do.  Basically, thanks for being Jumbos.

Even in the chaos of the season, you stayed a tight pack. Thanks guys.

Tonight, I got some good advice from a person whom I usually call a complete idiot…that person would be 27-year-old me.  Typically, I look back and shake my head at younger me.  I see him as a blissfully ignorant person who had so much more to learn.

I used to think that feeling that way was a bad thing.  Recently I’ve learned to embrace this outlook as proof that I’ve learned and grown over the years.  If I looked back and thought “Man, that kid really knew his stuff.  He knew all there was to know.” then I think I’d be in an even odder place.

I came across a blog entry from years ago and it was good honest self reflection that I was able to turn back on myself.  In case you’re interested, here after lies the wisdom of a younger man…

Any good leader understands how fast hypocrisy can destroy one’s credibility and integrity. Being a reliable role model is critical to developing a successful coaching relationship with your athletes. This fact is true for both action and thought. As a young coach, I have found that role modeling actions, such as dedication, loyalty, work ethic, and making healthy lifestyle choices, is the easy part of the job. The difficult part lies in role modeling thoughts and truly internalizing my own classification for success.  I set a very internal definition of success for my athletes, yet have found it very difficult to measure myself by this same standard.

Failure and success have absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of any race or competition.  However, it does have everything to do with how well you sleep at night. If, when your head touches down, you slip into a deep, restful sleep then you’ve succeeded. Success is the absence of REGRET.

The only immunization against regret is simply doing and understanding that you did everything in your power to put your best effort forth.  Anything except striving for your best is failure. Many disagree, and say that with this definition I am destined for failure. They claim that with this approach I will always fail because perfection is unattainable.

However, that is exactly my point. Gauging success and failure by whether or not perfection is achieved reflects an exercise in futility. We are all guaranteed failure. It is in the mere drive to attain perfection that success will present itself.

This is my definition of success, one that I instill upon my teams, and one that I struggle with mightily as a young coach. Coaching embodies so much more than a profession, it is a privilege. Yet as a young coach, I can’t help but feel some external need to prove myself. I was a 26-year-old head coach whom many felt was a poor choice for the position. And maybe it was spite for those who doubted me, or a desire to validate those who believed in me, or maybe it was just a selfish desire to win, but I began to measure my own personal success by our programs’ championship performances. I lost sight of my own introspective definition. My need to be accepted by others outweighed my need to respect myself. And that should never be the case.

That being said, I have two thoughts for any other young coaches finding themselves in new roles. First off, dogs and bees may be able to smell fear, but athletes will always sense hypocrisy. If you don’t truly believe what you’re saying, then DON’T SAY IT. It’s a slippery slope to start walking. Finally, the only person who can ever decide whether or not you are a good coach is YOU. Constant and honest self-reflection is a key part of the job. So be cautious with whose advice you seek and be patient with those who have been coaching longer than you’ve been alive. I understand that this is a job and it is what puts food on the table; however, there are some things that extend beyond that fact. Peace of mind is one of them.

I really love road races. I told some of the guys last week that the only thing good about (finally) running out of NCAA eligibility—and I mean the only thing—is that you can run more local 5ks. And in that vein, I’ve really come to enjoy the Somerville 5k. Not just because it has the absolute best post-race brunch I’ve ever seen (though that doesn’t hurt). But I’ve also run it enough times now that it feels a bit like tradition.

The first time was with my dad when my parents were out for a visit.  This was probably Road Race #387 for him, something like 52 of which have been marathons, so I have a long way to go. But it’s pretty cool to see him still out there racing, and at the top of his age group, too.  (My mom’s father was a sprinter, so I must have some fast-twitch fibers in there somewhere from him.)

Last year, the Somerville 5k was the first time I had raced in 10 months since an injury. There was a certain amount of shock at how foreign it felt to try to run fast after so much time off. But toeing the line, mixing it up at the front, and finishing with two intact hamstrings was a pretty indescribable feeling.

Thanks to Kyle Marks for the sexy racing flats.

This year marked the debut of the TUXC Road Racing Squadron at the event. Our motley crew of three coaches, five 800m runners, one 400m runner (the venerable Graham Beutler), and one almost-seven-month-old had a very solid day, coming away with the team and individual wins, five in the top 10, and a slew of 5k PRs, notably that of young Echo Barron in 23:20. Our four freshmen — Alex Sheltzer, Andy Phillips, Alex Schifter, and Aaron Roseman — all equaled or set new bests for 5k as well. (Must have been those spikes they wore on the wet pavement.) And had I not looked back five times in the last mile fearing the Murner Kick, we might have broken the team course record instead of missing it by three seconds.

Frosh Andy Phillips won the Most Spandex award for the day.

Next year will surely bring something new. Maybe our bid to host NESCACs at the Somerville 5k will go through. Stay tuned. And if you’d like to reach out to Echo and congratulate him, he can be reached at echobarron@gmail.com. I’m not making this up.

Making the most of his one shot in the black uni.

I’ve always known that one day a time would come when my son would move on to find a new hero.  It would no longer be enough to simply be his father.  He’d find someone that truly spoke to him.  Someone that he could really relate to.  Sadly, I didn’t expect it to happen before his 7-month birthday.

Granted, I’m happy because I know that he chose a good person to model himself after.  He chose a smart, hard working, dedicated and loyal person.  A multiple time All American and tenacious competitor.  My only real problem is that he’s already turned his back on the hurdles.  Come on Echo, you’re only 7-months-old and you’re already choosing the 10k.  Can’t you at least wait until your as tall as the hurdles before you give them up.

For those of you who weren’t around the office this week, my son decided to come to work dressed exactly as our assistant coach, Dan Murner.  Really, Echo?!?  You can’t even give me 1-year of feeling like I’m a role model for you…you’ve already found better?  And now we have to deal with mini-Murner running around the office, saying crazy things, and wearing plaid.  And then there’s Echo on top of that.

Saturday…6am…usually I’m out the door already…got a few last minute things that need my attention before our workout/race today…somethings a bit different today…I can wait till 6:30…Echo’s starting to stir…he’ll want to wish us ‘good luck’ before we head out…

Out the door at 6:45…still got those last minute things checked off…they’re called last minute for a reason…I don’t know why I give myself 2 hours for last minute things…

Looking forward to today…great workout with the varsity and some rooks…8am workouts can be tough…gotta be done…most excited for the race…we’ll need some guys to be top 7 who normally don’t get that chance…you always have an extra gear when the team needs you out there…

Was supposed to be a crazy mud-bowl at Franklin Park today…weather looks good…still, gotta bring every length of spikes…watches, check…athletes, check…unis, check…on to the next one…

7:30am…honestly, how are people still asleep right now…what kind of life is that…

Over the years, I’ve gotten a lot of great gifts from athletes and parents.  This year, one of my graduating seniors gifted me one of the best things a tired coach could ask for…the use of a secluded lake house for a week. I couldn’t think of a better way to recharge my batteries for the upcoming season. Echo, Luka, my wife, and I just returned from a great time of being unplugged…from everything.

Sitting on the dock...just the boys.

I definitely have the personality to be unplugged a lot more than I am. I really wish I had the opportunity to leave the cell phone and computer at home for a month or more in the summer, but I understand that that isn’t in the cards for a coach. Even still, the world didn’t end this past week when we headed out of town and locked up the office.

Can't wait for those blueberry pancakes.

We got in some solid hiking, blueberry picking, and a slew of backgammon games. However, without a doubt, the best moments came during the quiet solitude of the mornings. Sitting on the dock with my wife, sipping a cup of coffee, and reading a mindless book for hours. Don’t get me wrong, I love having access to great sushi, free Shakespeare in the park, and sports talk-radio; things only the city of Boston can give me. But every now and then I just need some complete silence and seclusion.

Being an XC/Track coach can be a difficult task at times.  We get 5-6 weekends off from September to June.  That can be tough.  You need to be truly committed to the task at hand.  Going in with half effort will never yield the results that you (and your team) are expecting.  Needless to say, after a few days at the lake, I’m chomping at the bit to get the team back to campus for some workouts.