Old Trophies

Track Clinic

I worked in the high school last Friday, and substituted for a friend.  He’s the coach who took over when I left the track program five years ago, after forty years.  John went to the state Track Coaches Clinic. I’m sure he went to hear what the speakers suggest are the “best” practices in track and field.  But it’s also “old home week”, time to catch up with all the coaches you’ve met along the way.  

There’s always something to learn, though. John’s had decades of experience and success. He probably has the same goal I had towards the end of my forty years.  I sat through the speeches, and hoped that I’d walk out with just one thing that I could use, or change, or add to make my team better.  Some years it happened, some it didn’t.  

Old Friends

I don’t attend the Clinic as a coach anymore.  I do teach the two-hour Pole Vault Safety Certification class. That’s been shuffled to first thing, 8 AM on Saturday morning.  It’s usually well attended, a combination of anxious rookie coaches and bleary eyed veterans who need the three-year renewal and joined in the “social” events late into Friday night.  My goal is to teach them to coach vaulting safely – and to keep everyone awake.  I’m not always successful, at least in the staying awake department.

There are many old friends there as well, guys I’ve coached with for decades. And almost always, a surprise. This year: one of my favorite vaulters from the 1990’s. It’s been decades since we’ve seen each other. Now his kids are in high school, and he’s taken on a head coaching role. He wasn’t the best vaulter I ever coached, but he was always the best future coach I ever coached. And now, twenty-seven years later — it’s come true.

Jerseys

Walking into John’s classroom brings back a flood of track memories for me.  Not because it’s an “old” room – it’s the first year for the new high school, so everything is brand-spanking new.  No the memories are hidden in the corners, or high on the shelves, or sitting in the back rows of the classroom.

Like any good track coach in season, John has track jerseys stacked in the corner.  It’s indoor season, and even though John is deep in with his swim team, he still has the uniforms out for the indoor track team.  Those are the “Spider Jerseys”, the “signature” Watkins track jerseys for the past decade.  They came about from a conversation at a football game between the sprint coach and myself, about some little kid’s shirt.  I think we scared the kid – but the shirt was a black and gold “Spiderman” shirt, and we both thought it would make an amazing track jersey.  

End of an Era

The ”Spider Jerseys” were distinctive:  we could pick our kids out across the field or on the backstretch of the track.  And they were special – no one had anything like them.  It made our kids stand out.  They might have been “a little” cocky, but in those years, with multiple Conference and District Championships, so were we.  The Spider Shirts replaced the black and gold “Speed Suits” that much of our team wore before, and there was nothing more exciting than watching the kids light up when they got to first wear the new apparel.

It’s been a decade, and time for the next generation of kids to get excited about something new and different.  John is replacing the jerseys this year with a new (and more modern) design.  As a coach, you need to make each team special, and each era its own.  So it’s high time for new jerseys.  But I’ll still mourn the end of the era of the “Spider Jerseys”. 

Mansfield

Up high on the shelf is the championship trophy from the Mansfield Relays track meet from 2016.  That was the best team we ever coached, strong in almost every event.   On that Saturday at Mansfield we fought a team from Grand Rapids, Michigan to the wire, the points lead altering from event to event.  Finally we  won in the last event, the 4×400 relay, running one of the fastest times in the State, to secure the championship.  

Winning Mansfield was a huge deal for the kids, but an even bigger deal to the team coaches. We grew up in the era when Mansfield was the legendary Ohio meet, with hundreds of teams and thousands of participants over two days.  Placing at Mansfield was a huge deal, and winning an individual event sometimes even bigger than winning the state.

That era was over, and Mansfield was down to one day with “just” forty teams.  But it was still a big deal to come out of the meet, not only with that trophy, but with the medalists in fourteen out of seventeen events.  It was the early high point of that amazing year, one with incredible peaks and valleys.  I remember most of that meet like it was last week, standing on the backstretch trying to coach both the girls pole vault and the 300 Hurdles.  I even can recall the bus ride home down I-71, the immense pride in those kids, and just a few minutes to enjoy the moment.  Then the “clock” of coaching kicked in, and I began to plan for the next meet down the road, Lancaster’s Fulton Relays.  We won that one too.

The Back Row

This is the fifth season since I retired.  There’s only a few kids in the school that even know who I am.  But looking at the back row of one of John’s classes the names are still there:  echoes of older brothers who competed for the “Black and Gold”, who went from young freshmen fighting to just get a varsity letter, to kids standing on the podium at the State Track Meet.  I must be getting “old” – those memories come flooding back, with all the struggles and the ultimate successes.  

Memories aside, there is a job still to be done in this classroom. John actually set up a lesson that I could help the kids with.  That’s unusual for me subbing a science and math class.  But we did some “measuring”, and I got to practice my other former profession, being a teacher, just for a bit.  I’m definitely an “all in” guy when it comes to teaching.  Like coaching, it’s hard to be “in” just a little bit, but it’s still good to be a small part of the learning process once again.

The Sunday Story Series

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.