On a Cold Tuesday Afternoon

Today I had three of my hurdlers hug me. They aren’t really fast, but they work hard. Their last set was their best one, and I gave them a fist pump to congratulate them. They even said, “Hurdling is fun!” without my having to convince them or manipulate them into believing that jumping over dangerous wooden structures passes the time on the track quite well.

They even said this wonderful exclamation after I intensely drilled them and introduced new techniques that can get pretty tricky. I admit that I can get a little focused and forget to “keep things fun,” I guess because track is something that holds a special place in my memories from high school. But in spite of myself and my desire to relive athletics through these fifteen year-old-girls, they found their own way to loving a challenge.

Just when I thought this next generation of teenagers was going to prove lazy and unmotivated, my hopes were brightened when one of the girls said, “Thank you Coach Doss.” And I melted. The girl might have just as well said, “Thank you for making me run my guts out. Most people forget to cause me pain during the day. But not you. You remembered not only to create the opportunity for pain, but you yell across a flat field to make me keep going.”
Today I had three of my hurdlers hug me. And that was enough to remind me that simple things like that make life worth living.