My StanCo season follows the school year. It begins in August with the first intrasquads and ends Memorial Day weekend with the State meet in Clovis. Here are a few numbered facts that represent the year for me.
I'll begin with XC
24 XC meets attended by me
8 teams at the Screamin Scott Showdown (just after my wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer)
19 StanCo runners competing at State.
2nd: Oakdale places 2nd in D3, 3rd fastest on the day (1:17:23), fastest ever by a SJS team
6 of the top 10: Oakdale boys now hold 6 of the top 10 StanCo times for the Woodward Park course. (Jackson Oliveira is #2 and Omar Alsaidi is #3)
8th: Patterson's Natalie Arriaza placed 8th in D2 at State. Her time places her at #2 on the StanCo list for the Woodward course.
2nd team: Jackson Oliveira, Omar Alsaidi, and Natalie Arriaza earned 2nd team All Nor-Cal honors. Additionally Natalie was Nor-Cal Soph of the Year. Oakdale's Mason Oliveira made the 3rd team.
34 Runner of the Week shirts handed out
Track
25 meets attended
28 StanCo Coach shirts handed out
29 individuals make the All StanCo Track Team, by far the largest number since I have been doing this.
17 individuals earned the orange StanCo shirt for breaking 10/12 in the 3200m
11 individuals earned the purple StanCo shirt for breaking 4:30/5:30 in the 1600M
6 hoodies given out to the 6 distance event (800, 1600, 3200) champions from the StanCo meet.
16 boys go sub 10:00 in the 3200
10 girls go sub 12:00 in the 3200m
1 boy (Omar Alsaidi) goes sub 9 in the 3200m (8:57.29) twice
1 girl (Natalie Arriaza) goes sub 11:00 in the 3200m (10:46.47) 5 times
Overall
49x3000: I take approximately 3000 pics at a meet (track or XC). Sometimes it is more, sometimes it is less. I delete approximately 1/2 of the shots right after I take them. That means I take home about 1,500 pics from each meet. I then delete about 1/2 of those as I go through and edit them. I post what remains. Than mean I took about 150,000 pics this year and posted about 36,750 pics.
125 total shirts handed out. You can see the individual breakdown above. A bit about the shirts: they cost me between $20 and $30 each (the hoodies were closer to $50) depending on the style. I'll let you do that math. The point is they are not free.
4x$500 StanCo scholarships given out (Hughson's Cailin Kelley, Orestimba's Shakty Artea, Beyer's Jackson Olsen; and Livingston's Cristain Lucatero). I paid for one of these. My HS friend Michael Woody paid for one, and the other two were paid for by my generous donations and money collected at the Screamin Scott Showdown meet.
3 cameras purchased this year. The shutter on the camera that I had been using for many years failed in the middle of SubSections during XC. It was $800 to fix it, and I didn't get it back until May. In the mean time I bought another camera (same model), it was about $2000. I had trouble with it continuously. I took it in near the end of track...and bought another one...Although you are able to get my photos for free...well nothing is really free.
Priceless. I don't want any of this to sound like I am complaining. I am trying to be real. I didn't even begin to estimate the hours I spend related to StanCo activities (at meets, editing photos, collecting data, and writing the blog each week). No one forces me to spend my time or my money doing what I do. Distance running saved me in my teens, and I think many StanCo runners feel the same way. I feel that I owe a debt to the sport. The conversations that I have with coaches and runners; the smiles that I see when I hand a runner a shirt; and the comments about how the scholarships, shirts, Blog, and photos serve as motivation are priceless and mean the world to me.
It was a good year.
As always I'll see you out on the course or track, I'll be the one in orange and black.
No comments:
Post a Comment