Season’s Over

This is a sort-of Sunday story.  It’s the story of why there’s been fewer essays recently here on Our America, and what I’ve been doing instead.

Officiating

“Track season” ended this week.  After over five months of officiating track, and then another month of coaching at pole vault camps, the season finally came to an end.  I put my equipment up in the rafters for a well-earned rest.  The tapes, cones, “measure stick” and level will come back out come next December.  But for now – it’s time for a break.

May and June got pretty crazy.  I officiated twenty-one pole vault competitions in thirty-one days, and served as an official in two other meets as well.  I know it was a lot; Jenn started talking about how it felt like I was coaching again.  Even I started feeling that way – especially when the heat set in.  The first week of May I remember shaking from cold, soaking wet in Lancaster (a total failure of old Gore-Tex rain gear).  But after that, the goal became how much Gatorade I could consume in a competition.  It’s no good if the “official” starts getting dizzy from the heat.  Especially in that last stretch at the State Meet, re-hydration became my serious focus in the hot summer sun.

State Meet

By the way, the state meet was an absolute honor to be part of.  I had the best pole vault officiating crew; everyone highly experienced, willing and able to assume every role in the operation.  They were “assigned” to boys and girls competitions, but they all helped with all six vaults, boys and girls.  We were doing all we could to make the “STATE” the best experience for the athletes and even the coaches.  They earned the right to be there; it’s something I worked hard to achieve in my forty years on the “other side of the line” as a coach.  I wanted to make it special, for the kids, and for those coaches as well.

 Being a part of that ultimate high school track experience, the state finals, is amazing.  Athletes and coaches are primed and focused, dealing with all of the “issues” of competition like crosswinds and delays.  To steal an old Jim McKay line, there’s the “Thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat”, six times over.  Perhaps the best part for me:  escorting the state medalists to the podium for medals and recognition.  The joy, the relief, the recognition that they are literally at the top of the state in their event; it’s always exciting.

Camp Coaching

And two days later, I was working with younger kids; remembering how much I love the profession that I followed for forty years.  Coaching pole vaulting sounds like an “arcane” exercise, a true “niche” in the coaching world.  And it is.  But, like almost all teaching and coaching, the efforts and rewards are the same.  Through a series of words, examples, exercises, drills; trying to advance every vaulter from where they are to where they want to be.  It is the whole task.  You can feel their frustration when they don’t “get it”.  And you can see the “light bulb” come on in their eyes when they figure it out.  

As a coach, I say the same thing in twenty different ways, hoping some way or another to connect with a pattern in the athlete’s brain.  I tell them to “press off the ground, jump longer, drag the takeoff leg, push the back leg back farther, toe-off, get a ‘split’”. It all means the same thing.  Hopefully one of those fits the image in their head of what I want them to do, press the takeoff leg back as they jump from the ground.  And when they do it, the whole vault changes – the light bulb comes on.  And away we go to the next problem.

Archbold

There was a camp at Newark High School, then an “elite” camp at Circleville, and finally the camp at Archbold High School in Northwestern Ohio, just a few miles from the Indiana and Michigan borders.  Archbold is always interesting: on the runway are complete rookies, not sure how to hold the “stick”.  

And along with them was one of the kids I escorted to the state podium only two weeks before.  For him a new visualization:  get completely upside down, inverted on the pole, while the pole is still bent.  That way when it unbent it would “shoot” him vertically, higher in the air.  “Press long, swing fast, invert tight” was my cue.  And he started to get it.  Maybe he can move up those podium steps next year, from seventh to – maybe – the top?  I hope I can escort him there again.

Summer

Track’s over.  There’s lots to do at the house, and, of course, there’s dogs to take care of.  Atticus needs another surgery, to take the metal plates that he no longer needs out of his leg.  Hopefully it’ll go smoother than the operation to put them in.  And there’s more time to spend with Jenn – to take a walk, to go for a beer by the lake, to laugh and have some fun.  It’s summer – the Fourth is literally right around the corner.  Pataskala is getting ready for fireworks; and so are we!

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.