Coach Hirschi

I had an opportunity to coach track for 7th grade girls at Stuart. I was so excited and I loved it. Grandma watched the kids every day for about 2 hours while I went and coached. At first I was so excited to share my vast knowledge about track but quickly realized that I was more taming teenagers and teaching the very basics of track. After the first couple of weeks I really took my girls and separated them from the rest of the team and that helped reduce the chaos. After the first meet things went smoother and they had more experience. I had to remind myself that this is their first experience with track. Some of the questions that they asked were hilarious.
"what is a 200" this was asked almost daily...... seriously
"is long jump a field event?"
"is hurdles a field event"
"in 100 meter hurdles, does it have 100 hurdles" they would ask with a scared look on their face.
Some of the things I said almost every day is "sprint, run on your toes". Oddly most of the girls didn't know what that meant, but they quickly figured it out.
I was excited to coach high jump especially but quickly did I realize that I wasn't really coaching the precise physics of jumping, but the very basics like.... you have to jump off one foot. You have to jump HIGH, you have to land on your back.
All my girls really improved over the 6 weeks and hopefully will run again next year and really get a grasp of what track is all about.
I really enjoyed it and I hope that I get to coach again in the future. It also helped the time go by quickly while David was gone, so that was a bonus.

The season was very cold. Every meet was freezing, windy, snowy, and rainy. This is what I looked like most of the time, in my beanie and winter coat.

Some of the girls at triple jump.

One of the boys high jumping.

The other girl's coach. She was great.

Some of the girls trying to stay warm.

Me in my official Stuart track coat.