Kansas State meet

Very happy about how the recruits performed overall. I am very excited about next year after today. They seem excited about next year.

Spent all day at kansas state meet. Lots of people running. It is crazy how big this meet is.

Recruting

I have been out to california twice this spring to try and bring in some good Community college people. The first time I went out there I was flying blind and just went to a bunch of meets and tried to talk to as many kids and coaches as I could. I feel like I was successful at this and was worth the time and money.

The second time was to seal the deal with a few of the people I met on the first trip. I was able to do that with my top guy. I hope to have a handful of them on campus in a few weeks to sign them and get them enrolled in school. We could have a very good team on the men's side with a few of them joining us. I have added some of pictures from the trip.

Great night

Had a great night of recruiting last night. There is a ton of potential with next years team. Just need some pieces to fall in place now.

Ramzi Drug issue

Freaking Ramzi getting caught just proves that a lot more athletes than people think are dirty. I doubt he was the only one in that final that was on a PED.

trying times

This has been one of the most difficult seasons of my life. There have been individuals on the team that did not buy into my philosophy at all and have fought me the whole way. I am looking forward to next year. I feel that the kids we have coming back and coming in will help change the attitude at practice everyday to a positive one. As of right now we will have 13 new men and 6 new women. I am hoping to continue to add to this number. The kids coming in seem to be hard workers looking to succeed on the track and in the class room. I am still looking to fill a few more empty slots on the team, but we are heading in the right direction and if I can pick up a few more kids between now and August we will be fine.

Inspiration

My mom bought me a John Wooden book for my birthday. First off the dude can flat out coach. I have picked up big time lessons off of each page. Almost everything the man writes is inspirational. I find myself just wanting to read this book all the time.

His big thing is SUCCESS. Not winning or loosing but being as successful as you can be, doing the very best you can in practice day in and day out. I have found myself gravitating to this the past few years. If I work with my team and prepare them the best I can do run the best they can when it counts that is all that matters. He also speaks of holding tight to your principles and being true to who you are. This is something that I have been struggling with more than I have in my life as of late, how strong do I put my foot down on things and what do I let slide. I need to make sure that I do not feel like I am being taken advantage of and putting the team first. Wooden was very big into making good decisions for the team and what is best for the group. This is definitely the direction I want my teams to head in.

Be a team, work as a team to be the best we can. If we are the best we can be and work at that goal on a daily basis we will be successful on the track but more importantly in life. I need to make this very clear in the recruiting process so that I am getting the people on the team that will buy into the system. So far I feel that I have done a good job of this. I also feel that the majority of the people on the team are buying into this as well.

I have also gotten inspiration for some recruiting pieces for next year. I am going to stick with the success theme, more to come on that I cant give all my secrets away :)