Nike Team Nationals – RACE DAY!!!

Saturday, Dec 2:
6:00am
Race day has finally arrived.  This goal of trying to getting here was realized – now the goal of trying to compete with the best in the US is finally right in front of us.  

Nike allows each team to bring 8 runners.  For the first time at NTN’s, Nike is holding an open race and invited 30 boys schools and 30 girls schools to participate in the open race. Along with the 30 teams, each team’s 8th runner is allowed to toe the line at 8am for this race.  Our 8th runner, Alex Clapp, will be running in this race.  She is a little nervous but she is ready.  Our chaperones brought her to the line with about 250 other girls and the first gun crack of the day was heard.  It was exciting.

Each team had a tent set up with a the team name banner above it.  We were next to Colts Neck, NJ. - a team we were able to beat at Manhattan Invitational.  Seeing some teams here that we have beaten already helped the girls calm down a bit. A couple of schools that were here this year are making their 2nd and 3rd appearance.  I have to believe that after you are here once, the anxiety of the unknown fades and you become more “accepted” in this group of elite teams.

It was time for our girls to head out for their warmup.  They stayed off the course during the warm up so to not fatigue their legs fighting the mud and slop.  During the stretch, the mood was light and they were all having a good time.  To run well, you have to feel like you can come here and be competitive.  Making NTN was a great goal but the team tried hard to not let that be the end all – we wanted more than just to participate.  Coming here for the first time and shooting for a top ten performance was the final goal.  Honestly, I think that we have the talent to win this event...we just have to be healthy all year.  With our #1 and #2 runners getting injured with major career setbacks this past year and now running #4 and #5 for us will definitely change where we can place.  That’s the breaks.  Every team has their issues and the what-ifs and should-have-beens can not be used as excuses.  Run the best with what you have and run well.

9:55am...(race time is 10:30am)...  
The announcers were lining up the teams on the infield and to the large crowd, announced the team highlights and had each team run together across the field toward the starting line.  It was really cool to hear the teams announced one at at time like you would see before the superbowl.  The announcer began: “And now, from the small state of Delaware, this is the Wilmington XC Club.  They are an up and coming distance power with 5 girls on their varsity having run under 5:15 in the mile in track.  They have won the last 3 state championships in Delaware and placed 5th in the Manhattan Invitational against the best schools on the east coast.”  The girls jogged proudly toward the starting line.  All teams began their drills off the starting line. I will tell you, Nike spared no expense with this event.  Everything was incredibly prepared down to our Nike rep standing behind our team at the starting line with a bag to collect the girl’s sweats.

We had several members of the boys and girls XC teams make the trip in support.  The guys went shirtless and painted their bodies – each one with one our girls’ names.  It was the so heart warming to see this support all the way from Delaware!  Tatnall had about 25 parents there as well.  I could see everyone outside the snow fence at the starting line screaming cheers to the girls as they did their run-outs.

The national anthem was played on trumpet and the starter gave his commands.  As the gun sounded, so did the boom of the fireworks that helped kick off the first of two national championship races.  Our girls got off the line well.  They all knew before the race that time meant nothing today.  The fastest time of the day won’t break 19 minutes due to the course conditions...but you know what? Nobody cares about times here.  It’s all about where your place.  The Nike slogan for this race is “Every Teammate Counts”.  How true as we were about to find out.

Every runner in the race wore an ankle chip that was used to track the progression of the teams throughout the race.  Every 1000 meters, the palm pilot that was given to each coach was updated wirelessly as you ran from point to point in the race and you could see how your team was doing at each kilometer in the race.  The race was off and running.  They came by the first 1K and we were in 7th place. Our top girls looked strong.  Each of the three loops on the course had 2 sets of 3 rows of hay bales that the girls had to jump.  The Tatnall runners have been practicing hay bale jumps everyday for 2 weeks now and this part of the course did not phase them whatsoever.  The dirt moguls definitely took something out of your legs. They were a series of 4 short ski moguls that the runners went up and down on each loop as well.  I think they handled those pretty well.  By the 3K (about 2 miles) we were in 6th place and looking good.  The mud slop was tiring all the runners legs.  You work so much harder in mud to get your leg off the ground into your next step.  At least for this race, it was going to be a surprise as to how your legs would feel with 1K left.  Roll the dice and run hard anyway.  Juliet Bottorff and Jenna McCartan were running strong.  Katie Kershner was having her best race of the season and was passing girls every time I saw her.  Freshman Molly Parsons is still figuring out how good she can be with each race.  She moved up in the pack too.  This was getting crazy exciting.  

We managed to stay in the top 10 for most of the race, however, as the final 1500 meters came, the better teams in the race proved to be able to close strong.  We traded off places with several schools but ended up 12th overall.  When the results were announced, the palm pilot and the jumbo tron screen showed we were 8th overall.  The girls not to celebrate that until it is confirmed.  It seemed to be a bit high based on how that last 1K went for us.  Eleanor Roosevelt High aka Greenbelt XC club from Maryland was running strong and the results placed them behind us - so I knew something was up with the scoring.  It turns out that it was a major debacle with several runners losing chips off their legs and some other scoring issues.  They had to go back to the video from the finish line and count the scores up by hand.  Running 12th overall was outside of where we thought we could run here but the girls ran tough.  They were visibly disappointed after 12th place was confirmed.  Just 13 points less and we would have been 10th but that gets us back to the what-ifs!  I am proud of the girls and know that this can be the beginning for us to continue to think big.  We beat some very good schools in the United States to get here and we beat some other great schools here today.  They will never forget this experience for as long as they live and they can say, at least for this day, that they were the 12th best girls cross country team in the United States.  

After the race, the kids went back to the hotel and showered up then went back to Nike World Campus for dinner, closing ceremonies, and the dance.  During the closing ceremonies, each team was asked to send one representative to the stage for a dance off competition.  Our team picked Jenna McCartan.  She is a pretty good dancer.  Lots of laughs and a great day for everyone.  Early flights in the morning.  Ill send off a wrap up tomorrow....

Final Thoughts – Sunday night after returning back home.
This whole experience has made me do a little thinking.  I feel compelled, after the NTN process, to share some personal thoughts about how we can improve high school running in Delaware – if you don’t mind.  

I can’t help but think that if little Tatnall (130 girls in the school) can get here, than other Delaware teams can too!  We have so much great talent in our little state.  So many teams have raised their game in the past 3 years in Delaware.  After being around these teams from all over the country, one thing is very clear to me.  If you want to be one of the best, you have to do the work necessary to get there.  Not just one or two girls, the whole team has to buy into it.  That is what I see here with all these teams in Oregon.  It is simply the way it is.  Nobody questions it.  The good ones expect things and are willing to work year around for them.  When I say expect things I mean the coaches and the kids.  Are you kidding me?  What kid would not want the NTN experience, the shoes, the warmups, the food, the autographs.  These girls and boys were treated like royalty for a weekend by Nike - all expenses paid.  Anyway, at this level you don’t see coaches having to convince kids to to do the right thing everyday.  I saw kids wearing shirts that said “Eat, Train, Sleep, Hyrdrate, Repeat”.  The kids here live this stuff and believe in it. They like to have fun too though. I guess it is all a matter of what you love to do.

What is so different about Delaware runners anyway?
There is nothing magical about the physiology of New York kids versus Delaware kids.  They have the same anatomy, the same amount of bones in their body, the same seasonal opportunities, the same homework, dogs to feed, trash to take out.  So then why does NY schools dominate NTN each year?  Do these kids just have better potential than our kids?  Definitely not.  It’s just a matter of where their sights are set in the beginning. Some are happy climbing to the top of the tree, others want to go to the moon.  The New York schools are in such support of each other’s success because they know it raises the bar for all.  There is not back stabbing or rumor milling to bring the top teams or kids down.

I have found over the past few years that teams here in Delaware do not necessarily support each other’s success.  I do not understand this.  There are lots of things that are passed through the grapevine about some coaches and athletes bad mouthing another team because they are winning “too much” or doing things to gain an advantage. Isn’t that what practice is for?

I am tired of hearing about this team must be recruiting because they couldn’t possibly be that good on hard work alone or that team was sneaking out on the county course early to get an unfair advantage, or this coach was spying on that team during a workout, or that team meets on sundays for illegal workouts.  WHATEVER.  This is the kind of thing you DO NOT see with New York schools.  Coaches are extremely supportive and helpful to other teams on the rise.  In fact, the coach of Eleanor Roosevelt in Greenbelt MD called me after he found out that Tatnall made NTN.  His purpose for the call was to congratulate and to ask if I needed anything (since he made NTN last year).  Eleanor Roosevelt set the national record for girls 4x800 last spring and made their second appearance this year to NTN.  What a great guy.  He even left his team for moment at the starting line on Saturday and came over to wish the Tatnall girls good luck.  We compete with his team head to head in the southeast region for the NTN bid.  Why would he want to encourage us?  Because that is how the best teams do it.  That is why they are up top.  

It is becoming clear, if you truly want to have a winning team, applaud the teams who do and allow the bar to be raised without finding a reason to bring someone down through a rumor.  It helps everyone.  I have heard of others around Delaware who are trying to pass negative words about coaches and kids who want to run well and are willing to do the extras like see someone to figure out if they could be eating better, or thinking better.  What’s the difference, every runner on every team goes to specialists all the time when our feet and legs hurt.  Why not for the other stuff?  All the greats in running pay attention to the little things that make tiny differences.  Point is, let’s all get together and support eachother’s success each weekend.  The kids will feel better about what they are doing and the level of running around town will go up.  

We have some unbelievably knowledgeable coaches here in Delaware and coaches who give their time, love, effort, money, etc to help raise the confidence of young kids.  To these coaches, I say lets continue to raise the standard of running here in Delaware so that other schools can have this NTN experience.

It was a lot of fun.

Thanks for listening,

Patrick Castagno
Coach, Tatnall School


NIKE TEAM NATIONALS, PORTLAND OREGON

NTN Report – Friday 12/1/2006

I should clear up a few things from my last entry.  The DIAA prohibits teams from competing after season.  In addition, coaches are not allowed to work with their teams and teams are not allowed to wear the uniforms of their school that we wore all year.  Most states have these rules.  As mentioned before, we are the Wilmington XC club and we are coached by my long time friend Mike Monagle.  Mike and a Tatnall parent have assumed the duties and the privilege of escorting our team through the agenda this weekend.  It is tough not to be coaching the team, however, I am here in Portland as a spectator.  
 
Also, I mentioned there were 80 teams.  I don’t know why I said that.  I knew that there are 20 girls teams and 20 boys teams!  It is usually very late when I write these entries.
 

Friday, December 1, 2006
9:30 am Friday – Course tour:
We stopped by the host hotel and picked up the girls spikes so that we could change the spike length to one half inch.  I’m not even sure half inch is long enough with these muddy conditions. Remember the Bellevue Invitational finish stretch?  Well, it is 100x worse because every step of the course is 2-3 inches deep of slippery mud. We stopped by the Portland Running Company to pick up half inch spikes and the parents changed them out in the van with a wrench.  When we got to the course, several other teams wanted to know where we got them.
 
From the running store, we headed over to the Portland Meadows Race Track.  Nike does a good job at including the parents in on most thing – so they were allowed to go over the race track to take a look too.
 
The team assembled into the indoor grandstand and were given instructions on the course changes over last year.  The guy in charge spoke about the course, everyone could look at it from their seats out the huge front windows.  All the teams were anxious to get out there and check it out…especially the mud, the hay bales, and the dirt moguls.  Soon enough, the teams got out on the course.  Our team went through the entire course and were covered with mud – we practice the mogul hills and the haybales.  We then changed into our spikes to get the feel of the the half inchers.  The temperature was 40 degrees, wet, and overcast…I could not believe it when I saw the girls team from Alaska running the course in job bras and shorts! All of us East Coasters were bundled up in hats, double sweats, etc.  Those girls from Alaska were actually overheating!  They are used to their daily practices being held after school in -20 degree temperatures.  I thought we had it bad in DE.  Anyway, as they finished the course run through, those girls from Alaska were doing belly mud slides through the puddles.  It looked like lots of fun but If I was their coach, I would have been worried that someone would break a collar bone the day before the big race!  Oh well, guess I should lighten up.
 
It was also very cool that each team has their own tent with a team name banner hanging off of it.  

12:00 noon – Back to Nike World Campus

The team headed back to the hotel and had lunch then headed back to the Nike World Campus for a talk and autograph session with Allen Web, Shalene Flanagan, Bernard Legat, Paul Tergat, Adam Goucher, Kara Goucher – all sponsored by NIKE and all world class.  Paul Tergat has the world record for the marathon...approx 2:04:55.  That is an insane 4:45 per mile for 26 straight miles!  Of course you know Allen Webb – fastest high school miler in history (3:53).

I have to go now....more later.



NTN Report – Thursday 11/30/2006
 

8:00am thursday:
The day has arrived for us to leave Delaware and it started out in a bad way.  The team’s flight out to Oregon was set for 6am out of Philly.  We found out last minute it was cancelled and had to do a little scrambling to still make it out there in time to be on schedule for Nike’s agenda...which is to the minute – every minute of each day.  Very cool.

On the plane Thrusday:
Wow that was a long flight- with connections, etc it took the team about 7.5 hours to get to Portland.  There are lots of excited girls on the plane in anticipation of what awaits at the Portland airport.  Rumor has it that Nike takes over the airport with lots of fanfare and banners and welcoming groups.  On the same flight out was the Coatesville (PA) boys team who was awarded an automatic bid from northeast region.  They look like a bunch of nice boys and were pretty excited too.

1:00pm PST, Portland OR:
We finally landed in Portland and Nike had NTN banners and representatives waiting for the girls to whisk them away to their hotel.  The girls checked in the very plush hotel and as you looked up in the center inside courtyard which was about 20 stories high with huge banners hanger off the balconies for each team that displayed each team’s name. Everyone looked up to find ours.....”The Wilmington XC Club”.  Every team is named after the city where the school is located because most state regulations prohibit teams from representing their schools after the season state championship.  So Tatnall will run as Wilmington XC.

3:00pm Thursday:
The girls went for a short (20 min) run with drills and stretching to shake out the 7 hours of sitting on the plane.  Not much time for anything else.  Shower, change and off to Nike on a big bus.

4:00pm Thursday – Nike World Campus:
Everywhere  they go, the get treated very well by Nike.  A large bus transported all the girls to Nike World Headquarters for an evening of amazement.  Each girl was handed a backpack full of stuff...warmups, hats, socks, jackets – all embroidered “2006 Nike Team Nationals”.  Our warmups have “Wilmington” on the back.  The girls proceeded to the next room where they were each fitted with a new pair of training shoes and a new pair of spikes – on the house!  Think about it – 80 teams  X 8 per team = 640 pairs of shoes and spikes!  After a short tour of Nike, the teams went into this HUGE outdoor tent for dinner then for team introductions.

6:00pm (9pm for us!) Thursday:
Officials walked everyone into the Nike theater – a very impressive movie theater with a big stage, 50 foot screen, and seating for about 1,0000 people (there was no seats left open).  Each team had assigned seats.  We were seated right in front of the stage.  Now the fun begins.  Nike proceeded to bring on stage 7 world class runners dressed in jeans.  More about that later.

Each team had to get up on stage and were given 60 seconds to introduce themselves.  As they walked on stage, the team’s previously submitted song was played. The girls picked “Can’t be touched” by Roy Jones Jr. extremely loud.  Everyone jogs onto the stage in front of the large crowd and dances until the song intro stops.  The went in reverse order so the #1 ranked team in the country ,Yankton High School, went first.  We were up third and our girls grabbed the mic and did a dance step and a short rap that was pretty cool. Then they introduced themselves one at a time.  After lots of laughs and all 80 schools got up there, we went back to hotel with lights out at 9:30pm (12:30 for us).  Good day.  Tomorrow (Friday) we run through the course (this will be a true slop fest).  Stay tuned for more stuff from NTN!