I have been blessed to have been influenced by some very good coaches and great men and women over the course of my athletic career. As a junior at BHS, I wanted to be part of the cool crowd (cross country and track runners werent really looked at like they were real athletes, in my mind anyways) so I tried out for the basketball team. Never mind the fact that I had not played competitive ball since like 6th grade and I certainly wasnt good at it then. This was also at a time in the 80s when the basketball team was making the State Tournament a regularly scheduled event. Well, needless to say, when the roster was posted, my name wasnt on it and devastation set in. The coach at that time did something, that as a coach he didnt have to do, but as a man he felt compelled to. He pulled me aside, sat me down, and was honest in the words he said. That while I was not a basketball player, he admired my competitiveness and passion. He knew that I was going to focus my drive on running that coming spring and that great things were going to happen...that I was going to be more successful not being on the basketball team than I ever would being a part of it. Funny thing, looking back more than two decades removed, he was absolutely correct. He did more to shape my high school (and beyond) career than any other coach at that time...and I didnt even make his roster. That spring and summer I earned five All-American honors, three national rankings and at national title at 1,500-m. I ran into he and his wife this fall and was catapulted back to that conversation in the bleachers. I just wanted to thank Tom Elmore for being a very important figure in who I am today...
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 13:53:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015