Letter to the Editor: Coach Kedge's Thoughts on the Year

Longing for COVID Relief
By: Coach Adam Kedge

Zap, just like that, we went from the excitement of participating at a JV track meet to nothing! Many teams were super-excited about competing against one another at the 1 st JV meet of the season in the Metro area on Wednesday, March 11, 2020. It was a 20+ team track extravaganza hosted by Coach Sal and the Rio Rancho Rams. No sooner did it get underway that a freak rainstorm hit. Immediately after the rainstorm, a notice came to all Albuquerque Academy teachers and staff about a possible intentioned individual that had contact with school personnel. Due to those concerns of future infection my assistant coaches and I were instructed to round up the group of Albuquerque Academy Chargers, 80 boys and girls strong, and let them know that school and sports have been put on hold. The delay was to last from that evening all the way through the end of Spring Break. Not knowing, of course, that their return to school would continually be pushed back and is still ongoing today. Now, a return to school and sports within a time frame of a full year seems optimistic.

At Albuquerque Academy, our training for the 2020 spring season continued remotely for a number of weeks. Kids did sprint through local parks, lifted a weight in their garage, and ran everywhere they could, no different than distance runners always do. For a while, the team was really good about working on their own and staying fit, and remaining "on-call" for the day that we would return. Many of us in the coaching world had hope that the competition would return around April 1st, or at the very latest, in time for a delayed state meet. It only took a few short weeks to understand that, due to the virus, it was going to be a long haul, and getting back to school, practices, and meets may not happen in the spring of 2020. As time passed and hope faded for a full or partial return many kids drifted. As coaches, we stayed in touch with weekly or biweekly emails and sent out structured workouts. In time, disappointment set in and the dream of any part of a track season was gone. With that, so did much focus and fitness. Some kids held out hope and ran time trials or threw implements and compared results virtually, but it was not the same.

Getting the season swept away from us was hard. It hurt. Nobody is/was to blame, but the others not involved in high school sports will never understand how much kids love what they do, and how much they invest in their activities. For my group, we had a top-notch team with some depth and balance in a lot of areas. Even with our longstanding tradition and a good winning streak of five or six state titles in a row, 2020 was going to be one of our better teams. The prospect of standing along the railing at the NM State Track & Field Championship Meet watching a Charger sneak up from fourth or fifth in the prelims to launching a good throw or jump in the finals has become commonplace (I love that!). 2020 T&F was going to be another one of those special years. Those that have faced our team know that we've had a knack for relentlessly tallying up points in the technical events during the morning hours of state while others are just finding their way to the meet to watch the races.

The hurt was mostly for the veterans. Our team had good quality Seniors in a number of event areas, we even had a few upper-level kids with Division-1 talent that were contending for individual state titles before they were to make their way to college athletics. It was those kids, the kids that had been in the program since middle school, that made it extra hard to swallow. I still hurt for a few of these kids.

It was not only the prospect of building on a legacy. We were looking forward to every part of the track and field season. New kids were excited to be part of something and to learn and grow as athletes. Returnees were ready to continue their development and make a name for themselves. Others were eager to prove they were varsity-caliber. Even the coaches we're excited to see a young kid "catch fire" and start to develop a love for the sport. As coaches, we even enjoy those silly moments when some young freshman has his shorts on backward or, despite being taught the rules, cuts into lane one during his first 400-meter race.

The lost spring track season has had more of a negative effect on the long-term health and development of our squad. What Albuquerque Academy lacks in natural talent and depth in numbers has always been offset by unity, spirit, and a team-first attitude. We've been able to overcome our lack of numbers and compete well against 4A and 5A competition due to the fact that we've worked hard to develop our younger kids and bring them along at an accelerated pace. Our coaching staffs' focus on developing technique and how to compete was not being provided. Many may feel like we churn out good kids through some form of talent acquisition. The fact is we get young bright-eyed 6th graders and, like every other good team, invest in them; show them affection, attention, and give them time to develop. The opportunities to not be able to show our up-and-coming talent the "Academy way" hurt us, and what was in reality only been the loss of one full season has set us back for future yearS (with a capital S). Track & field is going to take a while to rebuild. We will rebuild it, but it's going to take a while. The 2020 T&F season is now long lost and we've moved on. Personally, I filled my track time by following my two college-aged sons around for their workouts. During their distance workouts, I'd follow them on the bike and when they had track workouts I'd time their intervals and read splits. The three of us ran everyplace we could that was socially distanced. We used the tracks at La Cueva, Sandia, Bernalillo, even "the secret track" - - - I cannot reveal its location.

The Academy campus was locked down for months (March 12th thru early July) with gates barricaded off to all students, employees, even to those community members that used the campus to walk their dog. Still, by mid-summer, our hopes were filled with the optimism of a fall cross country season. We were all willing to sacrifice some of what we had grown to see as "normal" for simply a chance to work with students, be together as a team, and find a way to compete. We remained hopeful and the NMAA kept us abreast of what we could likely expect. All of us were excited to participate, even if it was with a reduced plan. With the numbers for the virus seemingly on the decline, things were trending in the right direction.

By mid-summer we got the go-ahead to meet on campus and practice. Our practices were modified to assure that we addressed the fact that the students may not have trained as diligently as they would if we had been able to meet on a regular basis all spring. As a school and as a parent body there was still some hesitancy. Many of our families still had concerns. Many parents had ties to the health care profession and were leery about increasing individual contacts. The general concerns, transmission rates, and the fact that in-person school may not take place were going to affect everyone's participation numbers. We were no different. Our plan was still to proceed and move forward with a reduced roster of those that found their balance between safety and a need for a physical/mental outlet. Physically kids need running. Mentally, kids need each other, in person - not each other on Zoom or linked up shoot-em-up games. The necessity of being together did not outweigh the concerns in mid-summer. Shortly after a couple of meeting dates during the summer training time slot, we as coaches and students determined that the preferred method of preparation and training would be for the students to continue training remotely through much of the summer with each student working alone or in very small groups based on what their parents felt was the best for their children as far as working alone or with a couple of friends. Many kids woke early, ran from their house, and when they were able to do so met a teammate or two.

Around the country, other states and programs were making plans for their own version of COVID-safe practices and competitions. I'm not a doctor or a government official, but my feelings were that the Colorado plan was one of the safest and easiest to implement. Their method had four main components to it: 1) start early in the fall while the numbers were low and the weather was warm, 2) limit the number and size of meets, 3) warm-up and run the first small portion of the races with masks and then allow each runner to remove their mask and carry it during their race only to put them back on as they go through the congested finish line, and 4) be done with the season before what many would believe would be a mid-to-late fall surge in cases.

Our government officials did not see things the same. As we all know, our state has been one of the most stringent in its guidelines. I don't fault others for keeping our kids safe and know that wide-sweeping blanket decisions can be viewed as effective/ineffective from different lenses. In hindsight, the Colorado plan worked really well and they and 46 other states (all but New Mexico, Hawaii, and California) with similar plans made it through the XC season before the 3 rd wave exploded.

Even with the XC season being canceled 2 days prior to the first meet, It's been uplifting to see the resilience of many high school XC runners. I always say, "You can't hold a good man down". That has never been evident across our state as right now. Kids from everywhere are not letting anything get in their way of working hard, dreaming of running fast, and getting ready for the day they return to normal competitions. I've seen kids from many programs getting in their work and not getting discouraged. With parent permission, kids from one school have reached out to their peers at another school and met in small/safe groups to build community and get better. Even here as late as November I've personally seen kids from Rio Rancho, Hope, Cleveland, Eldorado, Bosque Prep, Cottonwood Classical, Volcano, and my own school out there trying to get better. I know it's happening in all corners of the state.

On the other end of the spectrum, many of our kids are lost, depressed, lonely, and glued to their computers.

... I need to get away from this hell-box myself and go out for my run. It'll be much slower and shorter than New Mexico's finest will be doing. New Mexico high schoolers will fly by me again and I can't wait to get rolled up by them! Seeing one of my kids or any high school runner of any speed inspires me.

Now that I'm back - Our kids need exercise! Parents, Ms. Governor, everyone, please find a way to get our kids outside and moving. I'm not advocating for large or even medium-sized groups, pick-up football games in the park, or organized soccer club practices. What I am pushing for is better physical and mental health. We, adults, need to make sure, not just to allow or encourage but make our kids get out to the fresh open air and wide-open spaces of New Mexico. The fresh open air of our state is safe -- 100%. As a family, head out to the mesa, the long-forgotten trail, the alfalfa field, and hike, ride your bikes, or run!!

Where do we go from here? What have we learned? How can we adapt?

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. Author H. Jackson Brown Jr.

The whole process is not a hopeless endeavor. Even with no guarantee of an upcoming meet, "Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you can't do it. You want something, go get it. Period." -Will Smith, Pursuit of Happiness. We move forward, work even harder, dream even bigger, become more resilient, determined, and set our goals to almost unfathomable levels. We, all of us, have to not give in. I no longer dream of personal athletic grandeur. My goals are now for those that find the magic of running and its live changing powers. My hopes are: 1) to return to a full classroom of students as soon as they allow for me to, 2) to find some skinny-legged freshman that's never run a step in his life, and 3) to convince him that the real dreams are the ones that you dream while awake not asleep!