This really is a rewarding coaching situation. We have some really talented kids with a lot of desire and they are willing to work really, really hard (for instance, last Fridays workout was: 1 mile warmup run, 6 by 600 meter runs at race pace with a 200m jog in between, with a 1 mile cooldown). All good.
In jr. high track, 5th and 6th graders are allowed to participate, but must earn a spot as one of the top two in an event in order to go to away meets and compete. We have several 6th graders who travel to each meet. But this year we added three meets that are just for 5th and 6th graders, so they all can compete with kids their own age. Last Wed. we ran a meet at Dunlap with seven other teams, 5th/6th only. Our kids had a great time. I didn't think anything could top the fun they had at the meet. Until we left.
We seperated the boys and girls before the bus pulled away, girls toward the front, boys in the back. The bus got as far as the stop sign exiting the Dunlap High School parking lot onto Cedar Hills Drive when we heard a huge crash. I turned to look and saw the stop sign jutting through the smashed window on an unoccupied row of seats. Seems the bus didn't quite make the right turn as wide as necessary. It took some back and forth driving to dislodge the stop sign from the bus.
Of all the great races and memorable moments of this track season, it's likely no memory will last longer than this odd moment for these kids. There are likely a hundred different angled photos of this damage from the 20 or so cell phones the kids had with them. I heard the words "...could have been killed" at least 10 times (although I kind of doubt the accuracy of that statement).
CEC track 09 will always be remembered as the year the bus hit the stop sign.
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