2009-2010 What Does the Future Hold

Well here we are 4 weeks till camp starts. Every season we sneak off for a few days to set goals, get to know each other and train for the upcoming season. We are still in the planning stages for this year but the place we have picked is going to be great! We have a lot of runners returning from last year Tressa, Ethan, Jacob, Nick and Jake and I hope the new ones coming in are training for the season. When we get together I'll drop in another blog.

2008-2009 End of a GREAT SEASON

It was a great year for the Spartans with high finishes at every meet highlighted with a second place finish at the Grand View College Invite, 4 runners Jake Bennett, Tessa Miller, Walter Bolingo and Peter Rotich earning all Region XI Honors, finishing 14th at the NJCAA National Championships in Spartanburg, South Carolina and having Walter Bolingo earning All-American Honors by finishing 9th at nationals. It was a dream season caused by a lot of hard work and great sacrifice. GO SPARTANS

Off to Nationals in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Off to nationals and I for one am ready to go and I think the team is as well. We have a lot miles and meets under our belts for this season and we are ready to go see how we stand up against the best teams in the nation. It was a good week and half of preparation for the race. We are done tapering and we need to race.

We stopped the first night in Lexington Kentucky and stayed at a La Quinta Inn. The rooms were great and we had a big meal of pizza down in the lobby as a team. Everyone was in great spirits and then the next morning we were off to Spartanburg. The scenery was incredible. The Appalachin's are a little different looking than the prairies of Iowa. We got in to Spartanburg around 2:00 P.M. got into our rooms and headed off to the course to get in a practice before the sun went down. Weather was awesome a bank clock said it was 82 and that was fantastic to run in. We kept the practice light and just covered the course and did a little speed work on a few of the really flat.

Everyone really likes the course. It is flat and there are no repeat sections there should be some fast times.

That night we went out to Ghetti Town to eat. An all you can eat pasta place. The food was great and the atmosphere was fun.

Friday before the race we took it easy and hung out at the hotel. We hit the course around 2:30 and had another good practice as we went through our pre-race routine. That night we attended a banquet put on by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the guest speaker was Jim Ryan. He gave a great speech and the meal was very good. Tomorrow is the day. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work and I know everyone will lay it on the line.

No Such Thing as Luck: Fantastic Practice Facilities

I really like this picture that Coach Stalker snapped the other day at practice it shows the men and women running out of the fog as we do some threshold intervals in preparation for the Regional Championships.  Great finishes at a meet have nothing to do with luck and.  You have to be prepared and the only way to do that is at practice and we are really blessed that just a mile or so north of campus we have Green Valley State Park.  A 500 acre lake with miles of trails around it. It is a fantastic place to run.  We also have a huge indoor pool right on campus that we train in too.  You can get a great workout without all the stress on the joints.  On the west side of campus we have a golf course that we run on as well.  Plus out by my house we 11 miles of continuous dirt roads that we get to every couple of weeks.   All combined we have some fantastic places to train. We stay on grass, dirt and trials as much as we can.   It cuts down on the wear and tear caused by the streets.    

Coach Stalker: Great Asset to the Spartans

We are really fortunate to have as our Assistant Head Coach Cari Stalker.  Cari was the first girl in the history of Iowa High School Track and Field to win the state championship in the 400m open four years in a row while she was a runner at Valley High School in Des Moines, Iowa.  All told she has 8 state track titles, 5 in individual events and 3 on relays.  She has 3 titles from the Drake Relays and she ran track at the University of Iowa.  Cari was also a recent inductee into the Iowa High School Girls Hall of Fame.  She knows her stuff and she is a big part of our success but she does take a lot of flak for being from Valley.    

Excellence at Every Level

So far this season we have had 3 athletes selected as the ICCAC  Athlete of the Week (Walt, Tressa and Peter) and 2 selected as ICCAC Scholars of the Week (Nick and Patrese.)  As a coach I think it is fantastic when an athlete receives an honor based on a performance.  It is a great testament to their hard work.  I think that all of  them will tell you that the awards would not have been possible had it not been for their teammates.   

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers........

The one thing that Coach Stalker and I really stress each season is that this is a great opportunity for everyone that might not come around again.  It is not just a great chance to run at places around the country but also a great chance to make life long friends from around the world, receive a tremendous education and have experiences that will shape you for the rest of your life. 

We have been fortunate to have some great people run for us over the last few years and this years group is outstanding they really believe that the most important person on the team is their teammate. Everyday at practice they show up and are ready to go.