[Junior] High School Glory Days

On Saturday I awoke bright and early to drive 15 miles south to the town of Meridan, NH. The purpose: to serve as 1/5th of a track coach for the Hanover junior high track team at their meet. The meet included local teams from Lebanon, Plainsfield, Woodstock and Windsor. Upon my arrival at Kimball Union Academy I was greeted by a group of rowdy youngsters camped out alongside the homestretch of the concrete track. After much corralling we led them through their two-lap warm-up, drills and strides. The meet proceeded surprisingly smoothly despite the lack of luxury offered by a fully automatic timing system, officials, and a strict time schedule. It’s been a long time since I’ve attended a low-key track meet – and I really enjoyed watching these kids compete, and even post some impressive times. We had a successful morning with no one missing their race and numerous event wins.

The biggest challenge was persuading some of the kids to compete – and enjoy it. Luckily in these cases, there were five of us ITAers against one little whippersnapper, and we eventually won out.

Girls competing in the 200m on 5/14

Watching the spectacle that is a coed junior high track meet brought back memories of my first track meet.

I had always wanted to run track but didn’t get the opportunity to compete until 7th grade – the first year that interscholastic athletics are offered at my school. The first week of track practice consisted of an introduction to the various events. Day one we played with hurdles. I did gymnastics for a number of years and hopping over hurdles was right up my alley. I was particularly pleased with myself when, after watching me jump over a few hurdles, my coach asked me to demonstrate my technique for the rest of the team. “This is exactly what you don’t want to do,” he said. This is when I decided that hurdling was not going to be my event. I knew right away that throwing was not for me. I refused to try the high jump because I was uncoordinated and didn’t want to make a fool of myself, again. I tried the long jump and triple jump but knew they’d never be my events. The last event group that was presented to us was distance. Everyone on the team was required to run four laps around the track. I remember being the only girl to run the entire distance without stopping. From then on I was doomed to be a distance runner.

My first race was a mile. The race was mixed boys and girls. My warm-up consisted of running from the long jump pit where I was also competing to the starting line for the race. I finished in 6 minutes and 1 second, just behind two boys and ahead of several others. We only had a few meets during the season. The following year the high school coach suggested that I compete on the varsity team, putting an end to my junior high glory days.

Me (#9) in an early HS race