March 18, 2014

Got back from New Balance High School Indoor Nationals early Monday morning. It was an exciting meet at an excellent track and field venue – the Armory in New York City. I had one female hurdler who competed in the 60m hurdles. She finished seventh overall and set a huge personal best in the finals. I was happy with that, and am honestly not too disappointed that she didn’t finish higher. We’ll work on things and see if we can’t finish higher by the time outdoor nationals rolls around.

I don’t know how other coaches feel, but I find meets like this one to be so emotionally exhausting. I constantly find myself poring over every little detail regarding warm-ups, mental focus, and the logistical things like check-in, hip numbers, bib numbers, lane assignments. In the back of my mind I’m always remembering that fiasco in the 1972 Olympics when two American sprinters missed their race because the schedule had changed but their coach was still going by the old one. read more

Sunday February 23, 2014

There are moments when sports goes beyond winning and losing and has a huge emotional impact. For me, one of the most memorable of such moments occurred on January 3, 1999, in the NFL wildcard playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. The moment I’m referring to is what is now referred to as “The Catch 2,” when 49er quarterback Steve Young threw a game-winning touchdown to receiver Terrell Owens.

After making the catch, Owens lie down in the field, swept up in emotion, as his teammates surrounded him to celebrate. Walking off the field to the sideline, Owens was in tears. He hugged teammates and coaches with one arm as he clutched the ball in his other hand, almost as if he hadn’t believed he had caught it.

Earlier in the game, Owens had dropped three balls. As an up and coming star at the time, he wasn’t supposed to drop three balls. And as the clock was winding down, it was looking like Owens’ drops would go down in history as a huge reason why the 49ers lost that game. There was no reason to believe that Young would go to him with the game on the line. Not with the legendary Jerry Rice on the field. read more

Wednesday February 19, 2014

As a lifelong lover of reading and writing, I’ve written my fair share of poems, and a lot of them are either about hurdling or include something hurdle-related. Yeah that’s me; everybody else is writing poems about flowers and trees and I’m writing about hurdles.

I find that writing poetry is a good medium by which to probe into the deeper layers of ordinary life, so that the ordinary is appreciated for how extraordinary it actually is. Earlier this week I wrote a poem that was inspired by one of my many distance runs in my neighborhood. It’s entitled “Hurdles on my Mind.” Here it is:

Hurdles in my Mind                        2/15/14

I run down a road that doesn’t end.
Past construction sites,
bus stops,
family barbecues,
growling dogs,
children drawing suns on the sidewalk,
teenagers hanging out on the corner.

I run up hills,
I run down hills,
I run on winding turns,
past street lights,
stop signs.

I run past office buildings,
banks,
shopping centers,
single-family homes. read more

Monday February 17, 2014

For my first blog topic, I’m gonna go to the NBA, as I’ve been a big fan of NBA basketball since my childhood.

Recently Lebron James was asked to identify the four players he would put on his NBA Mt. Rushmore. To put it another way, he was asked to name his top four players of all time. He named Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and for his fourth he named Oscar Robertson. I guess throwing Robertson’s old-head ancient-history name in there was his way of showing he had some knowledge of basketball history.

Kobe Bryant was asked to name his Rushmore crew, and he too identified Jordan, Bird, and Magic. His fourth was Bill Russell. Kevin Durant also went with the big three, and his fourth was Kareem Jabbar.

To Lebron, Kobe, And KD I say, Come on bruh. How can all three of y’all ignore the most dominant force the game has ever known, Wilt Chamberlain? Wilt was so dominant, they had to change the rules to prevent him from absolutely destroying everyone. Because of Wilt, the three-second lane was widened. Because of Wilt, offensive goaltending was made illegal. read more