Well today went a lot better than yesterday. My body felt fresh and I feel ready to go. I am a little nervous and right fully so because I don’t know what to expect, but I’m up for the challenge. As I stated earlier in the previous post this will be my first international competition and I hope to perform well and give you all a birds eye view of how things pan out. As an a track and field athlete the main goals are to make a team and compete overseas I’m accomplishing one now and I hope the results are as rewarding as this experience. I also look to accomplish the other goal in a month and that’s make the Olympic team. I will talk to you all soon. I am getting ready to leave here (Wales) soon to travel to Bedford England to compete in the B.I.G Games tomorrow. This is a 3 hour trip so we will be leaving here shortly. Some of you will just be getting up by the time you read this because it is a 6 hour time difference between the states and the UK. Wish me luck.
So yesterday I had my first workout since I’ve been in the UK and lets just say I never knew that my body could feel that heavy. I warmed up and felt OK, but as I started to do drills and sprint I just didn’t feel it. I was told that I would have these problems based on travel time, but I didn’t think it would be like this. I hope to have better results today as I go on the track, I’m going to compete in my first international competition tomorrow and I want to do well, so I won’t make this entry too long, but I will keep you posted on today’s progress and anything else that happens.
I arrived in the UK yesterday after a 10 hour flight and 3 time zones later. I was met at the airport by Sean Power Director of Athletics for UWIC, and coach of some of Great Britain’s top triple jumpers. I didn’t know what to expect once I got to the UK, but boy did I learn a lot in the short time I’ve been here. I thought initially I was going to be staying in London (England) because that’s where I flew into. I was wrong I was going to be staying in Whales, which is another country in the UK. I honestly didn’t know that I thought it was all the same, so technically I’ve been to 2 countries in a day. The city that I’m staying in is Cardiff (Wales). It’s comparable to your college town in the states, but the sites are beautiful. Things here are actually green (lol) I’m just playing, but you know how some things in the US can be. The food here is different and the same all at the same time. Here they eat certain things together that we would eat separate in the US. For example people in the UK put cole slaw on sandwiches, where in the US we would eat that separate. I tried it and it actually isn’t bad. Ham here is called Gammon and French Fries are called pocket potatoes. Cereal comes in different forms too, like in bars (oats) compared to them already being broken up in the State. Again similarities, but different. I’ve enjoyed it to this point and I look forward to seeing more of the city and the country. As I see things and things progress I will keep you posted. I learned something new did you? Talk to you soon.
Hi all. Well I know in the previous blog I said that there was going to be some good news to come. That news is that I am competing in the UK this weekend. June 1st at the Bedford International Games in Bedford England. This will be my first opportunity to compete in international competition and it will give me a glance of what’s to come during the Olympic Trials and possibly the Olympic Games. As my journey unfolds I will be updating you all daily on the sites and sounds of the UK please stay tuned for this exciting (at least to me) journey. Talk to you soon….
One of the athletes on my club team has just made the news. An article about HPC Elite Team member, Lamont Dagen is on the front page news of his hometown newspaper today. Checkout “Putting his best foot forward Kenosha Man eyes Olympics” about Lamont and his quest to make the Olympic team. To support Lamont as he pushes on to the Olympic Trials and beyond please consider donating to his Olympic Dream fund. Lamont finished the indoor season with a best TJ mark of 16.39m. This mark was the 10th best mark in the U.S for the indoor season. Costs for travelling, lodging, and meals at the Olympic trials and beyond are estimated to be over $3,000. All proceeds go directly to Lamont.
This weekend was a whirlwind of nonstop action and emotion for me. It all started Thursday as I traveled to Oshkosh Wisconsin for the Division III National Championships. My long jumper Charles “Buzzy” Brown was competing and I was in route to coach him, but I ran into a problem. TRAFFIC. The event started at 6:00pm and I was making good time considering the fact that I couldn’t leave work until later on that day. About 5:30 CST I was 17 miles away from Oshkosh and I came to stand still traffic that I sat in for 30 mins. So I had to try to coach by phone relaying information to another coach who was already there. By the time I got to the track Buzzy had jumped 6.75 and 2 fouls both, which would have placed him in the finals. I was so distraught because I drove 2 hours to miss my athlete’s event and he didn’t make the finals finishing 11th. Sorry for not getting there on time Buzz, next year you will make your statement.
Friday I attended the funeral of my teammate Howard Jones. This was an emotional ride for be because this was a guy I knew, traveled with, and handed the baton off too in the 4×100 relay for 2 years. There are still so many unanswered questions about his death and they still haven’t found the person who hit him. Although it was a sad occasion it was good to see some of my other teammate that I hadn’t seen in years.
I also was supposed to fly out to Utah for the USATF High Performance Meet at BYU after the funeral. I went to O’Hare (flying standby) and got bumped off my flight Friday night and did not get a chance to compete Friday.
Saturday was a repeat of the above I went to the airport and got bumped again so I missed out on an opportunity, but I have another coming up I’ll tell you more about that soon.
Sunday I spent time with my family, which I always enjoy.
Monday more of the same and a phone call that I had an article in the Kenosha News. Check out my article in the Kenosha News http://www.kenoshanews.com/article_comments/view_comments.php?articleNum=3016738 or go to www.hpcsport.com for more info. Talk to you soon.
Life is funny, as we go through things we tend to sometimes forget about or take for granted the little things in life that make us whole. For example family, friends, being able bodied ect. Saturday night I lost a friend who was also a teammate of mine at Chicago State University, Howard Jones. He had just returned home from serving in Iraq when he was hit by a driver as he was crossing the street, the person driving the vehicle kept going. He was taken to Northwestern Medical Center where he died from his injuries. A shameless act of another person that took a life of a family member, a friend, and a teammate.
This act made me realize that we forget that life is short and can be taken at anytime, and something simple like crossig the street can be tragic. To the Jones family my condolences. To the Chicago State family and those on the Men’s and Women’s track teams who knew or ran with Howard, stay strong. Rest in Peace Jones, b.k.a ”BIG FOOT”
The Chicago Police are looking for an Oldsmobile Cutlass involved in this fatal accident, any information on this vehicle please call the Chicago Police. God Bless
As stated in my last post sometimes as athletes we go through struggles and those struggles can range from personal to performance. I am working out the problems regarding performance, but today I am dealing with a combination of the two. Let me fill you in….
Track and field has a system or a running list of performances throughout the year. These performances are listed on 2 websites, www.trackandfieldnews.com and www.usatf.org These are the 2 major web publications regarding track and field in the US and the 2 sites that USA track and field and the USOC (United State Olympic Committee) use to fund athletes to track meets and give funding to particular athletes if they meet certain performance criteria. Well indoors I jumped 16.39m or 53’ 9” and my mark was listed on the indoor marks list. Since then the outdoor season has started the list on both of these sites have comprehensive lists listed (List including indoor and outdoor marks based on best performance) and my mark is not on the comprehensive list. Why? That is the question I’m trying to figure out. My coach and I emailed the proper parties regarding this issue and we have yet to receive a response or see a change in either list.
This is not the first time I’ve had this issue. I had this same exact issue in 06 when I jumped my PR it took track and field news and USATF all summer to put my mark on the list. Why is this a big deal some of you may ask? Well as I’ve stated earlier. USA track and field and the USOC (United State Olympic Committee) use to fund athletes to track meets and give funding to particular athletes if they meet certain performance criteria. Not only that, but meet directors and potential sponsors my use this list to see who they may want to allow into meets or pick up as a new athlete. Without this information being published “technically” I don’t exist. I can state what my stats are until I’m blue in the face, but without the physical proof then it means nothing.
Why am I or do I have the feeling that I am being blackballed out of an opportunity or opportunities? I don’t know. Who did I piss off, when and why is probably the better question. I don’t know the answer to that either, but one thing I do know it makes me mad and want to jump far. That seems like what I’m going to have to do in order to change the status of my name being excluded from these lists and stop dealing with the nonsense.
I went to Madison WI. to compete this weekend at the UW Twilight. It gave me an opportunity to try to redeem myself for the awful performance at Drake Relays. Although this weekend’s performance didn’t go the way I wanted it to, I think I almost got it. The final result was again meager, but the overall day I have to take as progress. As an athlete you go through struggles and those struggles can range from personal to performance. I’ve always tried to keep a level head in regards to what I do and what happens, but sometimes it can be frustrating. This weekend was an exception to that. Technically on the first 2 jumps I wasn’t where I wanted to be, but the next three jumps although fouls showed me that I have something to be competitive in the upcoming months leading to the trials. The three jumps I fouled were at least 52 feet or better, one was 53′ and I couldn’t get off (execute) the phases of the jump like I was supposed to which tells me if I figure that out soon there are bigger things to come. Stay tuned…….
With the many hats that I wear throughout the year (teacher, coach, and athlete) this weekend I wore my hat as part-time assistant coach for Carthage College at the CCIW Outdoor Conference Championships in Chicago, IL. This season has been a productive year for me as a coach I had a conference champion in the long jump (Buzzy Brown) and a runner-up in the triple jump (Prentis Wilbourn) also during the indoor season Buzzy qualified for the Indoor Division III NCAA Championships in the long jump. In my 2 previous seasons at Carthage I’ve had 4 Conference runner-ups and 2 NCAA Division III qualifiers, who were bumped out the last week of Nationals.
This past weekend the guys that I coach and the Carthage Men’s team made me proud to be a coach. The team placed third overall as Buzzy won the long jump and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships, Prentice won the triple jump and just missed provisionally qualifying for the NCAA Championships by .01cm, Tylor Lewis won the 800 and Kenton Rauwerdink won the Decathlon PR’ing in nearly every event. Also my other triple jumpers (Austin Twomey and Tyler Jump) set PR’s this weekend. Being an athlete it’s one thing to compete and do well. As a coach I want these kids to do well and achieve the goals they have set for themselves. This weekend they accomplished that and made me proud. The scary part about it they are all underclassmen so the conference will have to deal with them for the next 2-3 years which hopefully will mean more titles and better results in the upcoming years. GREAT JOB TO ALL THE GUYS!!!!!!!!!