Coaches’ Blog

I’ve realized that I’m not much of a blogger.  I don’t write every day, or every week for that matter.  I really wait until something calls out to me.  I hope that makes it more worth while for you to read this.  I try not to post any pointless filler just for the sake of adding more fodder to the internet.  I’m a quality vs quantity blogger.  Sometimes the posts come in bursts while other times it can be weeks between posts.  This is one of those times.  

However, something rang true with me this morning when I was reading the blog of one of our alumni.  He’s a former school record holder, 2x All American, captain, and simply an all around solid guy.  Working with him was nothing short of a great experience for me.  He epitomized everything that a good coach would love about sport – desire, drive, grit, emotion, possibility, and most of all a love for everything he did.  

Ultimately, it was impossible to know exactly which Brigham would toe the line on a Saturday.  That possibility left everyone (Tufts fans and competitors alike) on the edge of their seat.  He was going to put on a show.  Sure the possibility was there that he might die trying, but he was going to put it all on the line and try to PR like never before.  Over his time at Tufts, I had numerous coaches approach me to tell me that they just loved watching him compete.  I never told him this because I didn’t want to see his head get too big, but to be honest, I really enjoyed it too.  

In reality though, it wasn’t what he did on Saturday’s that made him what he was.  It was what he did when he couldn’t suit up that showed us his true colors.  As coaches, an injury can really demonstrate an athletes true versatility as a leader.  It can also illustrate exactly who is in it for themselves and who is in it for their teammates.

Now, at this point you are probably wondering why I am telling this story.  Well, during that month that I was not allowed to run I still had to go to practice.  So, at practice I took an exercise bike and rolled it up right next to the indoor track.  From there I could watch my teammates workout while I worked out.  A bunch of guys did this, so it was no big deal.  Eventually I got bored with this concept and decided, along with a few other injured guys, to move the bikes to the front steps of the Gantcher Center…….OUTSIDE!  We would put our gear on and go out into the cold and bike for 45 minutes.  It was great.  And thus the Lance Armstrong Indoor/Outdoor Stationary Bike Circuit was born.  I even made membership cards for those that joined me outside, mine is still in my wallet.

In passing, this paragraph might seem quite insignificant, but that couldn’t be any farther from the truth.  This paragraph isn’t simply setting up a story.  It’s representative of what it takes to become something great.  

First off, let’s reread the 2nd sentence.  “Well, during that month that I was not allowed to run I still had to go to practice.”  It might seem obvious, but this isn’t a mindset that everyone has.  “I still had to go to practice.”  I’m going to say that again because it is so huge…”I still had to go to practice.”  Nothing is harder on a serious athlete than sitting on the sidelines watching his teammates train their asses off.  I appreciate that.  I’ve been there.  But in college we’re more than athletes, we’re teammates.  And a serious teammate realizes that he is far more to his friends than just another body at practice.  In fact, the role you play as a physical contributor at practice is a very small piece of the puzzle.  I really wish more athletes had this “I still had to go to practice” approach.  

Second, move the bikes outside? Make membership cards? Two incredibly small efforts.  Two small deeds.  But they had a huge impact on everyone around him. They made something painful, stressful, and emotionally draining such as an injury and turned it into something fun.  Someone much smarter than myself once said “the smallest deed is better than the grandest intention.”  And this is the perfect example. 

Don’t tell anyone I said this – Track and Field should be incredibly boring.  There…I said it.  We run in circles, we throw rocks, we jump fences.  But it’s not boring, and it’s because of who we share it with.  We have fun with it.  Any toiling drudgery can become pure enjoyment given the right mindset and friends to share it with.  And that’s exactly the case with our sport.  We take what really shouldn’t be all that much fun and we make it the most enjoyable thing in our lives.  How amazing is that?  I’m just going to sit and mull that over for a bit.  Thanks Nate.

I’m not sure if I found the college environment because I was so comfortable here or whether I’ve become comfortable with it as I’ve continued to work here.  Either way, I chose this spring to continue my course work (the goal of which is, as of yet, undetermined).  My course is about Evolution and Cognitive Development.  It has been a great experience and has kept my mind from getting stagnant.  Sadly though, the topic is so diverse and massive that each 2.5 hour class could and should be a course of it’s own.  i.e. Evolution and Morality, Evolution and Religion, Gender differences and Evolution, etc.

We barely scratch the surface of each of these topic leaving far more questions unanswered than answered.  It is one of those classes that opens your eyes to a new way of thinking, the same way a sociology or peace & justice class might.  You notice things about your world that may have just slipped passed you before.  I know I’ve started seeing evolutionary causes in almost everything we do.  And if I can’t, then I want to.  

Right now, I’m wondering how it was evolutionarily beneficial for humans to start taking on more and more responsibility.  What foundation of our hunter/gatherer past has led us to always add more to our plates?  Sure, not everyone is guilty of this, but it is a very common human characteristic.  If you can handle the workload of responsibilities that you currently have, then you add more.  For instance, you may add a course to your schedule if you’re a collegiate track coach.  

Most people who have this trait fail to realize the potential risks of these actions.  If you’re constantly adding responsibilities, eventually you will hit your limit.  And in that event, all of these things that you love and are very important to you will crumble.  You will no longer be able to do them all well.  Is it better to do 5 things very well or 10 things just alright?  

I’ve been following some of the work of Jonathan Haidt as a result of this question.  He deals more with morality, but he also addresses an interesting human trait that he calls “openness to change” in this lecture on TED.com.  He implies that this trait alone basically sums up the differences between liberals and conservatives.  I wonder if it also has some effect on those of us who are always looking to add more to our plates.  Maybe on the spectrum of ‘openness to change’ those people that are on the ‘need for change’ or ‘resistance to staleness’ side of the spectrum are the ones that are constantly taking on too much.  

Is this genetic?  My mother has it in spades.  My father not so much.  My wife-to-be has it.  Is that one of the reasons that we love each other.  I’m not sure if my brother has it, but he also has two young children.  At that point in your life, you can’t add anything if you wanted to.  

Well, congratulations, you just experienced about 1/10th of what one of our classes is like.  Absolutely no answers and laundry list of questions.  Really, if you take anything out of this blog entry, it should be that TED.com is a pretty amazing site.  They do short lectures by some pretty amazing people in just about every domain you could imagine.  Check it out.  Unless everyone already knows about it and I’m just way behind the curve.

This intraweb thingy has changed everything.  Now I realize that only a part of my life has been sans-internet, but that doesn’t stop me from noticing how much this thing has changed everything.  Yeah, you read these “internet is the devil” or “internet is the savior” articles all the time, but what has it done to coaching?  To be honest, I don’t think I could fully touch on all the aspects.  Some are great, some are worse, some are horrible.  Looking at it from every standpoint and relationship in coaching, you can easily find enormous positives and negatives with the internet.  Very quickly…

From a recruiting perspective, it is so beneficial to HS seniors to be able to research, follow, and determine which schools and programs are right for them.  It’s a great opportunity to consider so many more programs beyond your immediate area.  Now you can ‘tour’ and rule out a ton more schools without having to travel there.  You can get in contact with coaches quicker and track results so much easier.  As a coach, you can get in touch with athletes so much easier and you can verify reported PRs.  

From a coaches perspective, it is great to be able to contact 60+ people in one email.  Schedule changes, practice times, updates, everything is done with the click of a button.  I can’t even imagine how a coach did it with just the telephone (not even cellphones).  

From an athletes perspective, you can get in touch with your coach ASAP.  You’re teammates are right there too.  You can track your performances and those of your competition and teammates.  

Meet management is a snap.  Entries, performance lists, scratches, everything…it’s right there. 

But I just can’t help but get a sour feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think of some of these.  Sure the communication is easier and quicker, but does that make it better?  Is the quality still there?  Are you held to the same standard?  I get the feeling that it possibly weakens the athlete coach relationship.  There are fewer and fewer face to face interactions and conversations are replaced with gchats and emails.  

It gives people a distance from the conversation that allows them not to fully address the issue in an assertive manner. If a coach or an athlete has something negative to tell someone else, they tend to just say it in an email now.  Whatever happened to face to face?  There is so much more respect and honor in a face to face conversation if you’re telling someone something that they don’t want to hear.  

If we as coaches are trying to help student/athletes grow into self sufficient, respectable members of society, then we need to start doing more things face to face.  Role model it and require it.  Just because something is easier, doesn’t make it better.

Wednesday 3/11 – Fly from Boston to Indiana

Thursday 3/12 – Saturday 3/14 – National Championships

Sunday 3/15 – Fly from Indiana to Boston 

Monday 3/16 – Fly from Boston to Orlando

Wednesday 3/18 – Saturday 3/21 – Walt Disney Invitational

Sunday 3/22 – Fly from Orlando to Boston

A few thoughts about all this…

1) I love track. 

2) I love the national championships. 

3) It is unbelievably gorgeous in Orlando right now. 

4) We had 6 All Americans at the National Championships and so far 2-for-2 in National Qualifiers at Walt Disney.  

5) I’m still pretty tired. 

You would think that that many great performances would have me so jacked up on adrenaline that I wouldn’t even need a morning cup of coffee.  Yet still, all the traveling takes its toll.  I am so glad that I get to coach at a program that is surrounded by great meets and great competition.  I would hate to have to travel all over the country chasing fast tracks and great competition.  Flying every weekend just takes so much out of you.  That’s only one of the many reasons why I don’t have a suit-job that flies me all over the glove.  (the biggest reason is that I don’t ever want to wear a suit.)

All that being said, I am very glad to be tired.  Because if I wasn’t, then that meant that I got to catch up on sleep instead of being a the national championships.  It would mean that I wasn’t getting a great tan cheering on our decathletes with Mickey and Goofy.  Goofy doesn’t say much, but you can tell who he’s rooting for.  And it’s pretty obvious that Dumbo is a huge Tufts fan.  

See you all when we get back…bright eyed and bushy tailed.

So we kicked off the ECAC Championships about 24 hours ago.  I was very nervous going into the competition from a meet management standpoint.  150 teams and 700+ athletes is just a ton of athletes.  Things went well yesterday, but we’ll have to take a long hard look at some of the standards for next year.  30 pole vaulters in the last meet before Nationals is just obscene.  There should probably half of that.  Luckily the officials kept it moving well and we were able to get four vaulters over 15-11 still.  

All in all it was an amazingly competitive meet.  We’ve only had one event (men’s pentathlon) that didn’t have any national qualifiers.  And that one only missed by 0.3% (13 points shy of 3400).  As much as I hate all the chaos from a host’s perspective, I love it from a competitor’s.  I hate facilitating a meet when you can’t keep the infield clear and have to constantly push the crowds off the track.  On the other hand, there is nothing better for our DMR to have the entire meet standing in lane 3 screaming their faces off.  

Speaking of that, I would like to quickly acknowledge those Jumbos that took Tufts to a 3rd place finish after day 1 of ECACs.  Amazingly, Tufts is in 3rd with only two scorers.  Senior, captain Skip Pagel won the pentathlon in grand fashion making up 150 points on two competitors in the final event.  His PR of 2:45 in the 1000m left him a mere 13 points away from a national qualifier; however, he did move up to 5th on the Tufts All Time List.  It’s hard to believe that only two years ago, Pat Di Nino was still our pentathlon record holder.  Now he’s sitting at 5th All Time after the Engelking brothers, Skip, and Nate Scott showed up on campus.  It’s been a great few years for Tufts Multis.  We’ll have to keep the ball rolling this spring.  

But I digress.  Back to ECACs.  Taking a hint from Pagel’s book, the DMR decided to disprove almost all estimates for banked track conversions.  New Englanders have long said that the banked track doesn’t help you much in events above the 800m.  Yet we still sit at a 3+ second penalty in the DMR and 5k for banked tracks in DIII.  After running a 9:59 (3:05, 49, 1:55, 4:09) last weekend at the Open NE’s, the Jumbo foursome decided to come back for an encore flat track performance performance.  What would they run…3:05, 50, 1:55, 4:09.  Interesting.  It seems that great racers run great times when the competition is fierce.  It just so happens that the competition is always stacked when we go to BU’s banked track.  Very interesting.  I find it very interesting that we can run 1.3 seconds slower for the DMR this weekend, but move up three places on the national rankings because of the conversion standards.  

While I’m at it.  Congratulations to the lady Jumbos for their stellar DMR performance as well.  Two for two on DMR titles this year at ECACs.  Two DMR’s left on the schedule…

Wow, another championship season underway.  And in exciting fashion too.  The MIT track has always been a great venue for meets of that magnitude.  With such tight quarters and the fans right up against the track, the facility gets charged with such electricity.  Three years ago, we were able to impress the region with the noise and support they showed at the meet. So much so, that parents and coaches remarked that they “wouldn’t remember who won the meet, but they’d remember Tufts.”  This year was different in the mere fact that many more teams have stepped up to show their support.  

It doesn’t lessen the noise and energy that the Jumbos throw down for each other, but it has an exponential effect on the noise at the track.  Williams, MIT, Bowdoin, Bates, CGA, WPI – it seemed like every program brought a level of excitement and energy to the meet unlike anything I remember.  

I really hope that it is something that we can all hold onto.  I have a hope that the DIII New England meet will eventually return to its old roots.  Like in 1998 when Williams College edged out MIT by 2 points to win 74 to 72.  Think about it…74 points.  Actually, it isn’t as amazing as you think.  I believe we only scored the top 6 places back then.  However, the meet was Williams (66), MIT (58), Bates (58), Bowdoin (50) going into the final three relays.  

How great is that?  Four teams legitimately in the hunt for something.  Even the title if Bowdoin could really put it together.  How exciting must those relays have been?  Ironically, I was actually at that meet, but I have no recollection of any of this excitement.  I wasn’t really too aware of what was going on in the team hunt.  In fact, we may have even left early (the team I was running for only scored 11 points that year).  Looking back at the results, it seems like it must have been a pretty amazing meet to watch.  

Even still, looking back at the results for this weekend’s meet, we could really be starting something here.  I know that stats like this mean absolutely nothing, but taking out the seniors and relays makes the meet somewhat interesting.  

MIT – 78, Tufts – 72, Williams – 64, WPI – 37, CGA – 32, Springfield – 32

That being said, there are a ton of role players that were on the shelf this year…Longley (Tufts), McNeil (Bates), Olenik (MIT), Dingee (Williams), Sullivan (Williams), Mulcahy (Conn), MacPherson (Keene), etc.  

There is no way to tell which athletes will make the breakthrough next year and no way to tell which freshmen will be role players for all four years.  This year saw 80.5 points (two titles) go to first year racers.  I always find it interesting to see how large a role the freshman class can play at the NE championships.  It doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about the current competitiveness of the region, but it does tell you how those freshmen compare and whether the region will be getting stronger or weaker over the years to come.  

It seems like we could be in line for some exciting T&F over the coming years.  

See you out there.

WARNING: Prior to reading any of this, please understand that I have no certification as a medical doctor.  I just play one in the track office. 

Months ago, a recruit informed me of a very unfortunate turn of circumstances near the end of his senior year cross country season.  He had been feeling extremely sluggish over the course of the season and, well, wasn’t really performing up to his standards.  Maybe he’s just not in the best possible shape.  Maybe his “senior slide” hit early.  Whatever the reason, he couldn’t explain the plateau in his times.  Going into his state meet, he was amped to hit a huge PR.  However, that was not in the cards on this day.  About 150m from the finish line, he blacked out and crawled to the finish line in a haze.  After being rushed to the hospital, tests revealed no abnormal heart functions or failed blood tests.   The only medication he had been on was an antibiotic for acne known as minocycline. 

Minocylcine, along with its other semi-synthetic derivatives in the tetracycline antibiotic family (i.e. tetracycline, doxycycline, etc.) are antibiotics typically used to treat skin infections such as acne, lyme disease, chronic prostatitis, and rosacea.  Of course, as a coach of young men aged 18-22, I’m aware of many athletes that feel their skin might be a little too blotchy.  Hey, I was that age once. 

Unfortunately, not enough research has been done about the physiological effects of these antibiotics, in my opinion.  This young, healthy recruit had a very tragic accident while taking only one medication.  So, what’s the deal?  Come to find out, tetracycline antibiotics have produced abnormal blood tests showing severely high levels of metabolic acidosis.  The symptoms of acidosis include unexplained (often severe!) tiredness, weight loss, nausea, difficulty breathing, and poor blood circulation.  Time out.  We all experience certain levels of lactic acidosis after running.  Lactic acid is a by-product formed when the body breaks down starches and sugars but levels are regulated by the liver.  But, wait, these European doctors have concluded that tetracycline antibiotics can cause varying degrees of liver damage.  It seems like a double whammy; these medications cause acidosis AND the semi-damaged liver can’t help to regulate the appropriate level of lactic acid in the body.  To me, it’s as if your body is doing a workout BEFORE ever doing a workout or sprinting a race BEFORE even touching the line.

Again, by no means can I ever claim to be a medical doctor.  However, as more tests are being performed and more young athletes go unconscious before the finish line of big races, I thoroughly suggest staying away from most forms of acne medication.  I was fortunate to not have severe acne growing up.  But, if I knew that certain medications would affect what I loved doing the most I would’ve stayed as far away for it as possible.

“Why do we do what we do?  Why do we push myself to the edge each day?  Jut to step back and put ourselves there again the next day.  Why do we welcome the pain, agony, and struggle?  I’ll tell you why.  It’s because every Saturday we get the answer to the ultimate question.  Will my best good enough?  Today, on this day, will my best be good enough?”

How many people really get an answer to that question?  It isn’t too many.  These thoughts rang through my mind for all four years of collegiate competition.  It wasn’t until my time at Middlebury that I really started to see athletics and racing for what it truly was.  The betterment and perfection of self through personal sacrifice.  I stopped running solely to win.  I stopped running angry.  I found the rhythm of the sport and started to hunt the perfection of the event.  Sadly it wasn’t until I became a coach that I realized that the perfection was unattainable.  However, it isn’t attaining perfection that’s the important thing, it’s knowing that it can’t be reached and yet still fighting for it.   

Today a colleague that I respect very much asked me why I was still at Tufts.  “You’re young, you’ve built a pretty good resume, why haven’t you taken a solid DI job yet?”  I think I may owe him a bit of an apology because I actually laughed at the question.  I’d be lying if I said it was the first time I’d been asked that question.  However, it isn’t the question that surprises me, its the reasoning behind it.  It makes the assumption that DIII is somehow a lesser DI.  Is this because the winning times at DI nationals are faster than those at DIII nationals?  Is it because we have a BCS and March Madness for DI and the DIII national selection process isn’t broadcasted on national television?  

This assumption boggles my mind.  It makes it seem that the sole purpose of coaching is to produce Olympic athletes.  On my list of coaching purposes, that one isn’t anywhere near the top.  Sure one of my main goals is to see the athletes reach their full potential, but running is only one small piece of someone’s full potential.  Training, competing, racing – they’re all a means to an end.  

I can work to be the best possible coach/athlete/person anywhere, at any time.  To this day, one of the most knowledgeable hurdles coaches that I’ve ever spoken with used to coach at a small Vermont high school.  He never coached a collegiate athlete and I don’t even know if he ever had a sub15 hurdler.  But man could he coach.    

DIII and NESCAC especially give me the freedom to do what I want to do.  I want to coach – and I want to do it by my definition.  Luckily, I share a lot of my definition with NESCAC.  I didn’t have a clue about that when I was an 18-year-old senior in high school.  I got incredibly lucky to find my way into NESCAC.  I look back and count my blessings that I found my way to here.  And I don’t plan to leave anytime soon.   

Throughout the year, there usually aren’t too many weekend’s like this one.  Three consecutive track meets, all yielding positive results, yet still showing so much room for improvements.  Friday night pentathlon, Saturday Bowdoin Invitational, Sunday High School Elite meet – over 24 hours of track meets in 3 days.  And yet I woke up on Monday morning looking forward to getting into the office.  

When I really step back, I’m a little weirded out  by the fact that I don’t have a job.  Work isn’t supposed to be fun.  You’re not supposed to love your job as much as I do, right?  I may not be retiring at 45 and moving to my own private beach, but I don’t want to do that anyway so is that even a bad thing?  

I remember sitting in college every year trying to brainstorm lineups and crazy plans to win the conference championships.  I’ll admit that they usually weren’t the most logical of strategies.  They usually involved our 5k runners doubling back in the 10k and PRing by 60 seconds and me running 10 events.  On paper it all worked out fine, but we never really put it into effect at the meet.  Our best finish was 3rd.  

But I did all that for free.  Sometimes I feel so lucky that I can actually feed my family and dog by doing the stuff I did for fun in college.  Granted now I’m not so naive as to have anyone tackle the 5k/10k double needing huge PRs or having anyone compete in 10 events (unless its the decathlon that is).  Our plans have become more rational and logical.  More balanced attacks.  

I have to admit though, they are some of my favorite conversations when an athlete comes in with a great plan for winning conference or regionals.  I see a lot of my young self in them when they come into my office with the same insane plans of putting our decathletes in ten individual events and having someone run the steeple/5k/DMR triple.  The excitement on their face is priceless.  The conversations almost invariably start with “Coach, coach, we got it all figured out.”  (sidenote: Be wary of any information that follows the line “we got it all figured out.”) 

Regardless, I love these conversations because they take up so many evenings after a hard workout or bus rides home from the meet.  They’re just a great use of time…when you have time to waste.  Who’s the better big three – Pierce, Garnett, and Allen or Bird, McHale, and Parrish? How far could Michael Jordan long jump?  Why are the women’s high hurdles called ‘high’ hurdles?  (that’s a whole other blog…I won’t get started)  You just can’t answer these questions, but that doesn’t stop us from asking them and debating them with great vigor.  

Any good track debates out there that need to be had?  Let me know.

We have got to fix this.  Every big invitational has become a huge landslide of who’s coach will lie them to the fastest seed.  We’ve talked about this as coaches and we’re still struggling to find a way to combat it.  Ultimately, there probably won’t ever be a viable way to police this without some sort of universal entry system.  If every PR for every race went through a site like Direct Athletics then we would be able to verify some of the entries. 

However that still leads to the problem of big improvements.  For example, Nick Welch hasn’t had the opportunity to run a fresh 5k since the 2008 indoor season.  Obviously he was better than his 15:01 PR.  Ironically, he proved to be better than his 14:48 seed mark too. 

I feel that we as coaches have to be willing to call out each other.  More importantly we should be willing to advertise our entries to the whole world.  If you feel like you couldn’t make an honest argument for your athlete’s entry – DON”T MAKE IT.  You aren’t doing anything for your athlete.  The 5% chance that he pops off a big one is far outweighed by the DFL that he is more likely to post. 

This weekend I even witnessed some coaches re-lying their athletes into faster heats.  Their original, deceitful seed time wasn’t fast enough to get into the section that they wanted so they pulled even more strings to move them up a couple heats.  It wasn’t a surprise to see these athletes in way over their heads and finishing last in their new heats.  Honestly, what makes you think this is a good idea. 

As coaches, we all know the big culprits and we’re all guilty of it ourselves. I still have regrets about one of my 5k entries from the 2008 season.  I knew the athlete had the race in him, but was hoping more than thinking.  The athlete went on to run the seed time in the outdoor season, but I should have been smarter and more rational with my entries.  The problem is, too few coaches really reflect and regret their missed seedings.

I stand by my seeds for this weekend and feel as though I could make a case for each one.  Not everyone met their seed, but almost every athlete was towards the front of their respective heats.  I welcome any coaches, athletes, or officials to contact me if they felt that I mis-seeded any of my athletes.  I’m serious, please let me know.   

Names             Seed            Finish

Rotella             22.40            22.55

Fitzgerald            22.50            23.08

Crastnopol            50.70            51.62

Landy            1:08.2            1:10.08

Hale            1:55.0            1:57.34

Norsworthy          1:56.0            1:58.32

Brinkman            1:56.2            1:57.55

Hanrahan            1:56.25         1:57.81

Rose            1:56.9          2:04.34

Melnick            2:35.90         2:36.88

Faller            4:15            4:15.29

Ragazzini            8:43            8:49.66

Lena            8:58            9:21.11

Welch            14:48            14:39.64

Eisenberg Guyot 15:12            15:24.59

Brunnquell            15:30.0        15:49.02

DMR            10:06.5         10:12.43