Hi Again!

Hello everybody! I just wanted to apologize for taking so long to post again, I know its been a long long long long long long long long long time (and I’m sure still longer than the amount of time it took you to read that).

The soccer season is over by now, and since starting in July, I would say a 4 month season was plenty. However, despite all the complaining I did about the long practices and endless conditioning, my time has never been as well spent as it was during this season. Monday through Saturday I spent with my team, out on the fields working on drills and running and headers and crosses and running and corners and free kicks, and did I mention running? Back in July we welcomed in the new freshmen after saying goodbye to the old seniors, and rebuilt our happy, misfit, and sometimes dysfunctional family.

In previous years people have said that our coach, Stan, was like the second Uncle of the family. For a long time he was the authoritative leader that was not to be crossed, and even, although we hate to admit, feared by the team. But this year, he listened to what we had to say and what we wanted to change, and went above and beyond to make it happen for us. And in return, we recognized that although some may disagree with his coaching style, none can say that he is not dedicated to each and every one of us as players.

And this year was fun. We were winning, and somehow balancing working hard with having a good time in both our games and practices. With an undefeated record by the end of the season and a conference championship, we were excited and happy and pumped for the play offs.

There are many reasons that I wish our season hadn’t ended as early as it did. Yes, I wanted to win states. And badly. But also, I wanted that for my teammates and coaches as well. Although I probably wouldn’t have admitted it then, I loved spending all of my time with my crazy soccer family. Some of the seniors being a few of my closest friends, I’m sad to be past the last game I’ll get to play with them. But I look back on this season and see an amazing run, with so many high points that they almost completely hide the disappointing lows.

And don’t worry readers. Because next year, we’ll be back.

A Very Long Jump

This past weekend, I went with my Hawken track team down to the Jessie Owens stadium for the State meet. Due to pesky shin splints, I went down to Columbus to support my friends and cheer them on as they ran the girl’s 4 by 8 and the 1600. (Yes, I’m assuming that all of you know what that means. Because us track runners like to think we’re cool when we speak in our secret code of numbers. And we like to think we’re twice as cool when we measure things in meters instead of the friendly American yards.)

However, as I got distracted while at the track (partially due to my short attention span, and partially due to the angry glares I got from the people around me as a incessantly cheered for the girl’s 4 by 8 warm up laps), I found myself somehow at the long jump pit. Now I don’t know how I had managed to get over there, if I had walked or scootered or floated or flew, but I was suddenly watching the Division I boy’s long jumpers as they got ready to mark up the perfectly-groomed bed of sand. I felt like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, clearly not in Kansas anymore (although, to clarify, I never was in Kansas. I’ve actually never been to Kansas).

These boys flew. And I’m not exaggerating or emphasizing. These boys ran down the runway, leapt into the air, and flew. When spectators do what they do at track meets (spectate, of course), each person ends up being fascinated by a different event. True, at the State meet each event is spectacular in its own way, but there’s always that one event that a person walks away from the track thinking, How? And for me, this event is long jump.


Now I didn’t tell you all this to make you jealous, or to make you feel guilty for not making the trek to Columbus on the first weekend of June. So here’s a video for you of some insane long-jumping! And of course, if I’m going to show you long jumping, than I’m going to show you some of the best long jumping in the history of track and field. This is a video of Bob Beaman, the U.S. olympian who held the world record for long jump until 1991, achieved in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Let me know if you feel the same way about long jump that I do! (And feel free to secretly enjoy the British narration just like I did when I watched this video for the first time.)