Braves,
What a week and what a season. Congratulations to our state
qualifiers: Anna Sophia, Belle, Blake, Dallin, and Luke. The region meet was
quite the emotional roller coaster and epitomized our season fairly effectively
both with the ups and downs.
Even though we came up just short of our team goals at the
end of the day, that does not mean that our season was a failure. In fact, the
season was a great success and serves as a stepping stone for our program. I
encourage each of you to go compare your results from pre-region to region. I
was shocked by some of the improvements. Abby Tew improved by 10 minutes, which
is simply unbelievable. Most of you improved between 1-3 minutes and that is a
great accomplishment in less than 2 months’ time. The individual performances
were awesome to see, particularly after a long season of training. One of those
individual highlights at region was from Daniel. He worked so hard throughout
the race to try and get the team into a position to qualify for state that he fell
to the ground shortly after the finish. It is impressive enough to work oneself
into exhaustion but honestly that wasn’t really that remarkable for Daniel.
What was remarkable was that a young 9th grader who hadn’t really
run before would come down to practice at 3:15 every day jogging into the
facility eager to find out what the workout was. I can’t think of a single
workout where he didn’t physically give his best effort. And training like that
every day after 4 months for someone new to the sport is a massive challenge. That is what was remarkable. Anyone can
go run one race and work hard on a given day. But to do it all year is what is
impressive. Our team was full of people like Daniel, but to highlight each of
you is too daunting of a task.
There is so much good that is to be taken from our season,
and we are lucky to have the group that we do. The journey that we went on this
season was a special one, and is a year we will always remember. It was our
first year of many here at Bountiful and you made it special for us. One thing
we are excited about is that of the 35 people who raced at region 7 were
seniors so we are returning the majority of our team, which is going to make
for a very fun year next season. Congratulations to our seniors Amelia,
Elizabeth, Victoria, David, Braden, Marcus, and McKade on a great career here
and we wish them luck on their future endeavors, though of course we have them
for track so it’s not a complete goodbye yet. I remember the beginning of
summer training when practice was somewhat awkward at first because a lot of
you didn’t know each other or us very well, so everyone sat rather reverently. That
was not the case at the end of the year J
It is fun to how the team grows and changes over time as the team truly
develops together. Mile repeats at the rec center or 800s at Lewis park or mile
8 4 4 8 mile at our facility made for some enjoyable days. Not to mention Rite
Aid.
As coach and I reflected on the season there were three
things, among others, that stood out to us that we can improve on next season
which will increase the team success. Summer conditioning (meaning the miles
that you put in on your own on days we didn’t meet), arriving late to practice
(which cut short the warm up and in turn affects the quality of the workout),
and leaving practice early. Those will be a few of the things that will help us
in the seasons to come.
The ultimate tribute to what you accomplished this season
and the effort each of you made came from coaches around the region and
district. After the boys race when we saw that Box Elder had beaten us by 7
points their coach came up to me, even before I knew how close it was, shook my
hand, and said how impressed he is with both our teams and how you performed
throughout the season. I have had that same interaction with at least 5 other
coaches throughout the season. Those compliments, and the credit goes to each
of you for the work that you put in this season.
Moving forward now. For the state qualifiers practice will
continue normally. Anyone who is interested in practicing with them is welcome
to come. Anyone who has injuries, nagging or otherwise, come talk to me in my
classroom or at practice and we will make a plan to get you back to 100% so you
can begin training again.
As we have talked about we will be doing indoor track this
winter. Indoor was new to Bountiful last year (they had done it before but on a
very small scale). We had about 20 dedicated people last season. This year we
are hoping to triple that. There has been a ton of interest this season about
it and with better organization and understanding this season it is going to be
a ton of fun. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, our distance program
should be the foundation of our track team. One, because of our numbers, and
two, which is more important, because you understand hard work and are not
afraid of it. Indoor track will begin on November 29th with meets
going through January and into February. I suspect there will be some questions about
it so feel free to contact me with questions. We are hoping all of you come out
for it so you can be better runners, and because each of you will be part of
the reason the team is successful. XC runners know what it takes to train and
your example will be paramount for the other members of the team, especially
the new ones. I just can’t say it enough. The dynamic of training for indoor is
different from xc and is a ton of fun. Some of my best memories of training in high
school and college were during the indoor season. If you are unsure about it
come talk to me so I can paint a clearer picture. One thing is for sure, the
more who come out to run the more fun it is for all of you.
Between now and indoor I don’t recommend keeping up the same
training regime that you have been doing for xc. Frankly your bodies need to
recover while still improving your cardio. I would recommend just going out and
running on the roads or the trails and enjoy the fall weather. Get out and run
as often as you can so you maintain cardio but also where your muscles can
recover from the many intervals and repetitions we have done over the past 4
months.
Thank you for a wonderful season. I will send out a brief
update next week and after state, but then I will dissolve this email list. If
you know you will be interested in indoor track and would like to be added to
that email list please respond to this email and I will add you straightaway.
Again, feel free to contact me with questions. We are grateful for all your
support and hard work over the past 4 months and couldn’t be more proud of what
you accomplished throughout this journey.
Coach Caitlin
Coach Jacobson