The Impact of a Coach

When I first started running, I was a 7th grader. I have competed in sports since I was 5, playing basketball, soccer, and softball, but I never did youth track or anything like that. I wasn't your picture perfect distance runner, and I still aren't now. When I went to my first practice, I absolutely died and thought that this was the worst thing on the planet. But I'm pretty dang glad I stuck it out.

We had a different coach my 7th grade year, and I didn't really think much about it during middle school because it was just something to pass the time until basketball season. We got a new coach my eighth grade year (they were the assistant the previous year and got promoted) but unfortunately I didn't get to run very much my eighth grade year due to a strained meniscus.

Then came high school. As a freshman I knew I wanted to go back out for cross country because I didn't like the volleyball coach and I couldn't really play volleyball all that well. I had gotten a little closer with the coach because I attended summer practices and tried my best to get in shape for the upcoming season. I thought that I would be in a somewhat decent shape going into the season, but boy was I wrong. The first race of the year was pretty warm, but not awful. I toed the line and took off strong, thinking I was gonna run my target paces that my coach had for me. Instead, I ended up coming though the mile marker 2 and a half minutes later than what was expected of me and I ended up running a 29:48 first 5K of the season. I got beat by kids that didn't train all summer long and it was very frustrating to see, watching them do good when they didn't put in any work before. I crossed the finish line and I was so disappointed. I didn't look my coach in the eye, because I had let him down and didn't rise to the expectations he had for me. But a few minutes after the race was done he came up to me and told me that he was proud of me. I was confused, because I had run an awful time and ran awful. He told me that he saw potential in me and promised me that I would get better. I didn't believe him at the time, and I just kinda shrugged it off and walked away.

The season went on and I didn't run a whole lot better, running around 27:00 consistently all season long. Now, it was time for regionals. We had sent a girls team the year before, and we had a state champion 2 years before. We were looking to go to state for the second year in a row, and leaning on our star freshman runner to lead the team scores for us. I was nervous for this race, but I didn't think we had a chance because we were going up against some very good schools. As we toed the line, our coach came up to us and told us to just run. He didn't tell us to run right next to some girl from another school, he told us to run with heart and do the very best that we could do, and that that would be enough for us to go to state. The gun goes off and we start running. I didn't start out too strong, as I have never been a strong starter, but my motivation was what he had told us before the race. As we came up to the mile marker, I came through in 7:50. This was the fastest first mile I had run all season long, and I got scared because I thought I was going to die out. But then I turn a corner and I see my coach. He starts yelling at me and telling me that I'm running great, and so I keep going. I came through the second mile at a decent time as well, and I was starting to get excited. I thought to myself, "I'm going to PR!" and used the encouragement I got from my coach to keep me going. I rounded the final turn heading into the finish line and as soon as I crossed I looked down at my watch. 24:55 is what it read. I couldn't believe that I had just ran that, and I had come in second place on the team. I looked up at the sky, thanked God for allowing me to run like I had just did, and then I saw my coach coming up to the finish line. I smiled at him and hugged him, and he reminded me of his promise he made to me at the beginning of the year. We had actually ended up qualifying for the state meet, and he told me that he couldn't be more proud of me for the way that I ran. I don't think I could have did what I did if it hadn't been for him, because he showed me that there was no limit on the time that I could run. This gave me motivation going into the next seasons I had with him, but the story doesn't end here.

Now I know that those times above don't seem that great, and that's because they aren't. My sophomore year I had ran a new PR of 23:08, but this season was battered with injuries. In mid September I had suffered from a heat stroke, and that was easily one of the scariest things I've ever been through. But my coach was the one that had saved my life. He picked me up after I had collapsed at the finish line, and called 911. He was there by my side through a good portion of it, and he drove to the hospital and waited until I had been cleared and left when I did. This was the first time I had seen him cry, but I was so grateful for the fact that he helped save my life that day. And I am still forever grateful for that to this day. After that had happened, I was scared that I wouldn't be able to run like I had before, but my coach told me that he would help me get to where I wanted to be. And it took a lot of time, but I knew I was slowly making progress.

Time jump to my senior year of high school.I had run in my junior season, and the summers in between. My coach had trained me and he had told me he had expectations for me in this upcoming season, and I had told him I was ready for the challenge. I started off the season running time that were consistent to what I was running in my junior season, and I wasn't very happy about it. I was disappointed and was running angry in practice. One day after practice my coach pulled me aside and told me that he had noticed how I was acting. At this point I had already made the decision to run in college, and I was frustrated I wasn't hitting the times I needed to be hitting for that. He told me that I hadn;t run my best time yet, and he told me I wouldn't run it until the end of the season. He told me that he believed in me and that all of my training and hard work would all pay off during this season. And he was 100% right. Late September, I dropped a 21:32 at a meet after consistently running in the 23's. The next week after that, I dropped a 21:14. Two weeks after that was my regional race. I couldn't believe how far I had come in this season, PR'ing by almost 2 minutes from the previous year. The regional race could have been my last race, and the morning of the race my coach pulled me aside and told me that this was gonna be the best race I had run in my entire career, and he told me that the drive that I had for making it to state was going to be the reason why I got there. We had gone to state the last 3 years, and we wanted to go a final time. We were sitting pretty good going into the meet, but I wanted to medal individually and shock everyone. At this point, I had already proven some people wrong by running the times I had been running and being the #1 runner on the team, so I thought I could do it one last time.

As we huddled up before the race, our coach told us that this could be our last race with him. He told us that no matter what happened, he was proud of us. He told us to run with heart, and run with motivation. This is the moment that all of our training had come down to, and we were ready. We toed the line and the gun went off and so were we. A mile into the race, I had come through at 6:15. This was much faster than before, but I shook it off because I had so much adrenaline going through me at the time I didn't think much about it. I was sitting in about 5th place at this point, and there was a decent gap between me and the next pack of runners. I knew that I couldn't let them get me, otherwise it was over. The second mile comes and I run through in 13:34. Consistent, but I still felt like I was going too fast and was going to burn out. All throughout this race my coach was screaming at us, and I had never felt more motivated to run before because he was so excited for us during this race. I was still in 5th place now, but the 3rd mile was approaching. I never look at my watch during a race (there was a person calling out times at all of the mile markers) and I knew that I had to have heart to get me through the last part of this race. I was right on 4th place's tail, and I have always had a kick, so I knew I had to save myself for that. We rounded a tree and the finish line was 100 feet away from me. I kicked the hardest I had ever done before, and got the girl right at the line. I had placed 4th and had individually qualified for the state meet. But when I looked down at my watch, I could have died from disbelief at that point. 20:57 is what my watch read. I waited until my teammates crossed the finish line too, and we were worried we didn't make it as a team. But I was looking around for my coach, and as soon as I saw him, I ran up to him and he gave me a hug and told me that he was so proud of me, as well as the other girls. He knew that I could run what I did, I just hadn't dug deep enough for it yet. As we were waiting for team results to come out, our coach gathered up me and the other 3 seniors and told us that no matter what the team results were, he was proud of us. He thanked us for a great journey so far, but he had a feeling we weren't done yet. When the team results came out, he was the first one to see them and he walked off into an opening. My two best friends and I saw the results, found him, and we ran up and tackled him. He was so happy for us and couldn't believe we had done what we had done. We had qualified for state as a team, but got regional runner up and missed the championship by 1 point. This was such a good day for our girls team, and I know that I couldn't have done it if it hadn't have been for my coach.

What I'm really getting at here is that the type of relationship you have with your coach is probably one of the most important aspects of any sport. My high school coach has been a father figure for me, has been there for me whenever I was struggling with school, or anything outside of it, and he has supported me in everything I've done, involving running and not involving running. He has always wanted what was best for us, and he still does to this day. I am currently a freshman running in college and there hasn't been a single meet that he hasn't asked me how I did. It doesn't matter how good your team is or how good the training is. Those are just small parts. The impact that a coach can have on you is one that will last for a lifetime. My coach has been the inspiration for me pursuing a minor in coaching because I want to carry on the legacy that he has left on runners now and future runners that he and I will have. The jump that I made in high school in my times (29:48-20:57) is one that I could not have done without him, and I owe all of that to him.I don't know what he saw in me my freshman year, but whatever he saw he took that and turned it into a 2x All League and Regional Medalist runner. I went from a nobody to the school record holder because of one man. I hope that this story will inspire a young runner out there who has a coach like this. Trust them, because they know what they are doing and they can see things that you can't. So thank you Coach, for being the reason why I am running in college, for spending all that time training me, and for always believing in me no matter what.

- Anonymous