A coach will impact more young people in a season than the average person in a lifetime

Billy Graham

There are very few people that I can say that have impacted me throughout my whole entire lifetime. One person that I can say that has the biggest impact on me, is my coach JT. He has coached with my dad ever since my dad became a coach and JT has been like a grandpa to me. I have truly been blessed to know him on a personal level.

JT has more knowledge in his head than an average computer and can virtually recite any statistic. JT has been coaching for over 50 years and luckily I had the privilege of getting to know him for 19 of them. JT isn’t my grandpa, but I see him like he is. I used to always go to his house when I was younger and he would babysit my siblings and I. JT has taught many lessons on how to run better, how to be a better person, and how to be a better leader. We have been through a lot together. We’ve experienced huge accomplishments and also undergone huge hardships. One of the saddest days of my life is the day that I found out that his wife, Nancy, had died of pancreatic cancer. Nancy is the one who started the website “Gosparta.com”, which is where I have gotten all these picture son my blogs from. Because of her, our school is able to look back at memories and remember all the good times we’ve lived through. We trekked through the bad and have grown stronger together through it. we still go every Halloween to trick or treat from JT even though we don’t go anymore. Everyone has a JT in their life, that helps them through life. I don’t know what I’ll do when JT leaves this world, but until then, I will always make the most of the time we have together.

Life is not a competition. Life is about helping and inspiring others so we can each reach our potential.

-Kim Chase

I never knew how much this picture was going to mean to me. This was taken after the 800m finals at the state meet and shows the top 8 (all-state) from right, being 8th, to left, being 1st. I am the only person from my team in the picture but this picture means more now than it did after being all-state.

Almost every person in this photo has impacted me either at the time or further down the road. The person to the right of me (6th) was one of the toughest competitors I had faced ever and became one of my biggest motivations to do better the next year. The next year, he went on to being mr. track and field for division 2 and helped encourage and push me to compete to my fullest. The red shirt in the middle (4th) was someone I only got to race against a couple times but pushed me in every race I competed in. The man to the right of the red shirt (3rd) ended up becoming my future teammate here at Spring Arbor. Max has been one of the people that has made my transitions from high school to college so smooth and has been such a good friend and helping grow as a person and what it means to give your all for your team and for God. To the right of Max (2nd) is Josiah Morse, who at the time had no significance in my life. As the years have gone on, I have gotten to know him past running and so how awesome of a person he is. Every meet he will come up and talk to me as though we had been friends for years. Although most of the talking is running based, I don’t mind because it’s fun to have a friend that can relate to your fun and struggles. To the right of Josiah, (1st/state champ), is John Groendyke; my mortal enemy… kind of.

To get to state, you must compete at a meet called regionals and be in the top to finishers in an event at regionals to advance to the state finals. John was in my regional, and as you can see since he’s a state champ, he was very good, but I wanted to beat him more than anything. I knew that he was the favorite to win state and wanted that more than anything. At regionals John barely outlined me, but instead of winning the race, I won his respect. After the state finals race, out of everyone that ran, including his teammates, he came and found me. He hugged me and said that I would do great things and that he really enjoyed his short time he got compete against me. Having someone this high caliber of runner that you earned your respect from was one of the biggest confidence boosters in my running.

The reason why I dove into this picture so much is because it depicts how great of a sport running is. It goes beyond racing and competing and really is one of the only sports that brings people together like it does. The friendships made from other schools and with each other is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Having a sport or extracurricular activity that gets you involved with other people is very important. I wouldn’t who I am today without the people that have pushed me to be better and have beaten me to make me better as well.

You cannot always wait for the perfect time, sometimes you must dare to jump.

-Anonymous

When I was in middle school, I wanted nothing else than to play basketball in college. It was my dream. I had huge aspirations to play at Michigan State and play there for four years. One thing I did not account for was running… and the fact that there was no way I’d be able to play at Michigan State. Although I was tugged back and forth about what sport I should continue to do, I loved basketball but had way more success in track and field. Even my basketball coaches would always say how good I’d be at running and I just felt like my destiny was already set before me. One thing I did not expect, was high jumping. High jump is a part of track and field that involves running and jumping off one foot to clear a bar (picture above). I had no idea where it would take me, but I knew my coach wanted me to try. Throughout 7th grade and I experienced a lot of success, including winning the middle school state meet. As 8th grade started, the first meet I broke our school record and set a standard that was second in the nation. I knew that now high jumping was in the mix of my every day life.

My point is that you should welcome the somewhat strange or new and give it a try. Trying something new can be scary, shouldn’t stop you from exploring new avenues of fun. I’m so glad that my coach threw me into something like high jump that I wouldn’t have tried if my coach didn’t encourage me to. you never know how far or high you’ll go so shoot for the stars.

A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change your life.

John Wooden

Growing up, I hated running. I wanted nothing to do with it at all. I felt as though I was pressured into doing as I progressed from middle school into high school. Not only was my body, friends, and hobbies changing, but our race distance in cross country was going from 1.5 miles, to 3.1 miles. I felt as though it was just too much and running in high school was going to be a ton of work. After lots of consideration, I decided to do it.

I had known the high school coach for years and I liked him but I didn’t really know him as a coach personally. Right as my freshmen year began, this coach was so encouraging. It is a tough transition from middle school to high school, but he made it smooth. As my four years with him as a coach came and went, we had gone through a lot of struggles, hardships, and accomplishments. My coach always was there for everyone equally, and gave everyone the time they deserved. Although he wanted to win and was pushing us to do our best, all he truly wanted was our best. He knew what we were capable of and wanted us to strive to want our best as well. Because of my coach, I now run in college and have made more strides in the running world than I ever thought! The picture above proves it all. I had just raced in the track and field regional and won the 800m race, placing me 3rd in the state of Michigan, and his face just says it all. He was so happy for everyone and how they did. My coach will impact me for the rest of my life and I’m so glad that I can call him my dad.

Don’t run with your legs… run with your heart

Dean Karnazes

The picture above was taken right before disaster struck. Although everyone running in the photo looks strong, the man in blue is actually feeling otherwise. About 100m before the end of the race, when this picture was taken, he started feeling dizzy and feeling as though the race was about end for him. With every everything he had, despite feeling dead, he finished the race to black out at the end. Releasing his lunch, he was helped up and taken back to our tent. Was I worried? YES! My brother was being rushed to the ER

When we helped him back to the tent, he kept saying how sick he felt and how terrible he felt. We thought possibly that he might have been dehydrated because it was a scorching day. when he was brought to the ER, he was run through many different tests. Although nothing regarding feeling sick can back positive, the doctor walked in saying something they couldn’t believe,”we need to take an MRI to make sure.” An MRI? what would they need to do that for? Of course they did exactly as the doctors said. When the results came back, they luckily found out that he wasn’t sick in any way, but something that had nothing to do with being sick at the end of the race; there was a hole in his heart. The hole would never have been found if it wasn’t for this episode that he experienced. After a few months, my parents set up an appointment to have a stint put in to fix the problem.

My brother has a huge impact on my life and continues to run today for Spring Arbor. My brother didn’t let something like a defective heart stop him from doing something he loved; No one should. My brother gave everything for what he loved even though he was in pain. in a similar way, Jesus did the same for us. Although it was painful and he could’ve given up at any time, he kept persevering to do what he set out to do. He went through the pain for something we love. Give your everything for what you love and enjoy and you will find true happiness.

A person who falls and gets back up is much stronger than a person who never fell

-Anonymous

October 27, 2018 was a moment that my team and I had been training for for the past 4 years. Every mile, every workout, every minute we put into our training led up to this day; regionals. The regional meet was run with the top 7 runners on each team competing and the top three teams with the lowest team score, advance to the state finals. Our team had committed to working as hard as we could with the goal in mind of being top three at the state finals. In the past, our track season has had more success with many state qualifiers individually, but this meant more; we needed everyone to do their part to help us move on. Going into the meet, we were the third ranked team in the state, and I had been our front runner for the team all year, so we went with high expectations to do well. No one could have predicted the outcome that followed.

Waiting at the line for the gun to sound was like waiting in line at the secretary of state; It seemed like forever. As I felt the cold, 40 degree rain drops slowly make my body more numb as time passed, I was shockingly ready for the moment we had been waiting for to end. *BANG* the gun went off… and so did we. This race was solely based on how badly a team wanted to win, and we all did. The race was back and forth and every team fought for their right to move forward in their season. Our team knew that it was going to take every person we pass and every position was going to count. As the race wound down, with 200m left to go, my body started to seize up. My vision started becoming blurry, my body felt like it was somewhere else, and before I knew it I passed out and fell on the ground. Even with the pain I felt, I knew my team needed me. I took every ounce of energy I had to stand back up and try to finish. Although I gave everything I had, I fell again, but this time, didn’t get back up. I fell after 3 miles to fall short with the finish mocking me. I opened my eyes and people were standing over me. The most unexpected part of the story was the person yelling at me to get back up; the coach from another school. Not that my coach didn’t care, because he was across the course, but the other coach cared so much to encourage me to get up even while his team was still racing. This coach yelling at me went to school with my dad so I had known him all throughout high school, but he was more concerned about my well being than seeing if his team finished well. This is when I knew how important running as a sport is, and how much it meant to me. But then I blacked out again…

I woke up about 3o minutes late in the ambulance with IVs in me and medics surrounding me. Although I was in a lot of pain, I was more concerned about how we did. My coach came into the ambulance to see how I was doing and to deliver the news. “We didn’t make it,” my coach explained sorrowfully. I took the IVs out of my arms and was filled with so much pain and disappointment, not at my team, but at myself. As I looked over the scores, I noticed our team missed the qualification to state by 7 points, and if I would’ve just finished, we would have possibly won. The emotion that was brought on upon by this destroyed my soul. I sobbed like the rain that fell during the race. I couldn’t bear to face my team knowing that I ruined our chances. As I stepped out of the ambulance, my team was waiting there, ready to embrace me. The pain went away, but the tears did not. We all cried and all the moments and memories I had made with my team began to race through my head. Obviously my team was upset, but they were more concerned about me. I didn’t want them to be but they embraced me and said that it was ok. I never felt such a mixing bowl of emotions before in my life.

Running is important to me and my team, but it’s not everything. The only reason running became so enjoyable for our team is because we were doing it together. Although we didn’t advance, we realized how important each other were. People can become so engulfed in winning and how well you do, but putting forth your best effort with your team in mind is more powerful. Our team grew closer and I know that I grew stronger. My team made me want to give my everything for them because I loved them all. Falling made me realize who I run for, and If I was willing to try and get up regardless of the circumstances, made me realize that giving your all for your team is all a team could ask for. That’s why today I use that day to motivate my running and not take it for granted. I remind myself of the pain it felt on that day, and utilize it to propel my running further.