The Great Moments

Our years are made up of moments that are mostly routine.

When I walk into my office in the morning, I have a list of duties to complete. It starts with checking our school website to make sure game information is correct; making sure our confirmations are set for busses, referees and opponents; updating our sports information hotline; checking the weather forecast; if the weather forecast is bad touching base with opponents; making sure dismissal times and information to our teachers is correct. The same start of day routine happens almost every day. It involves double and triple checking details. I like to do it when it is quiet. When no one else is at school. After those task are complete -- and as long as this routine goes smoothly -- I can get on to the rest of the day.

Athletes and coaches have daily routines too. On most days they have practice starting after a full school day. Practice begins with warm-up, followed by drills and plays and conditioning. After practice they travel home, have dinner, do homework, prepare for the next day and go to sleep.

These daily routines are done in part to prepare for moments -- hopefully special moments. Moments like this special moment that I witnessed this summer. Below is a film my son Tommy created commemorating American Leo Manzano's silver medal in the 1500m run at the London Olympics. On the right is the last lap race footage I took in Olympic Stadium. On the left is a bunch of Leo's friends who work for a company called Flocasts who were in London but weren't in the stadium watching Leo move through the field in the last lap. As the film starts, Leo is in about 10th place but moves to 6th on the turn and kicks down the straight to finish 2nd and win the silver medal. This was the USA's first Olympic medal in the 1500m run in 44 years.



There are lots of great things about my job, but among the best are the great moments. The times when athletes come through when everything is on the line -- like Leo did in this video to the excitement of his friends and many others.

Whether it is the Olympic Final, the State Final, the Conference Championship, each of these moments is thrilling to me. We have had a lot of thrilling moments this year where many of us jumped up and down like Leo's friends did and celebrated for our athletes and our teams. But this film made me think of what makes moments like these come together and what makes them special.

It is not all about talent. No athlete accomplishes great achievement without support: support from family, support from coaches, support from athletic trainers and physical therapists, and support from friends. Leo Manzano has a team of people who support him.

Lots of days go by even for the most talented athletes which involve repeating routines that gradually callous the body so that it can meet the demands of competition. The great ones are able to follow these daily routines having faith in their purpose without evidence that the outcome will be what they want. Although  heading into the London Olympic Games Leo Manzano was among the best 1500m / milers in the world, there was no guarantee that he would even make it out of the preliminary heats even with all the work he and his team put in. There have been plenty of 1500m Olympic finals with no American  runner even a factor.

That faith is probably what makes these moments so special to me. In many ways, we try to minimize risk in our lives. But to accomplish a great moment, you have to risk a lot. You have to risk that the way you spend the routine moments of your life will add up to something meaningful.

Every day when I go to practice, I look around the room of athletes I coach, and I hope to inspire them to dream the unimaginable. For some that may mean breaking 5 minutes for the mile. For others that may mean winning a state title. But the trick is to get them to dream and have faith. To not question every day "is this worth it?" But to dedicate themselves to the daily sets of tasks that will lead to success and repeat them over and over and over again.

We have had a great year of great moments in athletics at North Shore. I will miss 2012, but I am excited to see what's going to happen next. Many of our athletes seem to understand what Leo Manzano understood in accomplishing in London this summer what no American had in 44 years. That great moments are built on many routine days; days where all it seems we accomplish is completing a rigorous routine -- those days add up. Let's add a lot of them in 2013.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!! Thanks for reading.