Track’s Loss
Last week a friend of mine passed away. We weren’t that close, but we knew each other for over four decades. Bob Hollen was the track and cross country coach at neighboring Granville High School, for nearly as long as I was the track and cross country coach at Watkins Memorial, forty years. We were often competitors, and just as often, collaborators working on the “issues” of track and field.
Bob Hollen, Jeff Sheets, my “sister from another mother” Jan Heffelfinger and I were the “core” track coaches in Licking County for a long time. There were others that had big impacts, but the four of us were always there. Bob was the head coach at Granville, and when he retired, came back as an assistant coach at another Licking County school, Heath. Jeff was the head coach at Licking Valley, and when he became a Heath guidance counselor, he became part of that program as well. And Jan was the head girls coach at Watkins, and then an assistant coach for me in those final few years. Between the four of us, we impacted Licking County Track for more than forty years.
Bob and Jeff were also Presidents of the Ohio Track Coaches Association, helping to lead Ohio High School track through the dramatic changes of the last three of decades. Licking County was always well represented at the “table” when it came to the critical decisions about track and field.
Rivals and Friends
The four of us saw the Licking County League break apart in the early 1990’s, mostly over football issues. Heath and Granville went into the Mid-States League, and Watkins went to the Ohio Capital Conference. But we kept our old alliances and rivalries alive, creating a Licking County Honor-Roll meet and bringing our best onto the track against each other each spring. That meet sustained the relationships between the schools and the kids, and it kept us together as coaches.
Then in 2013, the Licking County League was re-established. Instead of the OCC teams as our arch-rivals, it was back to Granville, Heath and the rest of the LCL. And for a couple of years, it really was like old times. The difference: while we all wanted to win, we also all knew each other so well. It was good to see Bob on the field, or crack “wise” to Jeff on backstretch.
Bob Hollen would definitely be on the list for an “All Star” throws coach: he consistently had solid shot and discus athletes for all of those decades. Bob’s in the Ohio Track Coaches Hall of Fame, and was the State Coach of the Year as well.
Empty Chair
When I retired from coaching, I continue to educate coaches about pole vaulting. Each year at the state track clinic, I arrive early Saturday morning to educate sleepy and perhaps hungover coaches. Before my “bit” starts, I hang out in the staff room of the clinic. No matter what else was going on, Bob was there, working to make the clinic better. We always caught up a bit. They’ll be an empty chair this year.
Our generation of track coaches is past. Jeff and I are officiating, no longer coaching on the field. Jan, perhaps the smartest of us all, comes in for Watkins home meets, runs the high jump, then heads out. It’s hard to be involved “a little bit”. The momentum of all those decades pulls –the old line from the Godfather Part III: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
But one of us is gone. Bob Hollen will be missed.
