Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtain. Kyle and Will.
I report the news. Sometimes making Kyle squirm in the co-anchor chair. Yesterday he glanced to his right, “Will, You Ignorant Slut!” Kyle gets to do that because he has demonstrated a Real caring, has made Real contributions, has earned enough Real chops for me to respect his opinion. He’s on a pretty short list.
His sage posit:
“Aside from the various issues, do you think part of the problem stems that the pool pf athletes in Nebraska is watered down based off the number of ‘true quality’ runners? For example, if you took the best 2-3 off the three clubs and put them through a well organized selection process, do you think a better product (result at club cross) would be produced?
Also, to answer your question about what USATF means to me. Right or wrong, my personal passion (outside of my own racing) is to try to get the competitive landscape in Nebraska back to where it was in the late 80s and early 90s. I’ve heard countless examples of Lincoln Track Club races where the time I would run would get me 50th place 25 years ago. Even though its a shot to my ego, I love hearing those sort of stories.
So my passion and/or what USATF means to me personally is working/promoting/coaching with ‘B-D’ level athletes to raise the competitive bar and get the depth back to where it once was. USATF for me is a mindset to instill on these athletes that even though they may never be ‘A’ level athletes, they can transform into Real Runners/Racers. By promoting this depth, it will raise competition as well as drive USATF memberships. Does it help win the USA more gold medals, probably not but its a service that I can help provide to get my generation out of the ‘Jock Nowins’ mentality and into the Bill Rodgers/Pre mode.”
Here is my response to the question in the first sentence. Right now Grant Wintheiser and Johnny Rutford and Luka Thor are the class of club running athletes in Nebraska. Three athletes, three teams. Al Sanabria must be mentioned in the same breath. So four athletes, you need five to score folks and at that level you’d better have someone at least as fast as the above 4 to be truly competitive. Truly Competitive. Bad Ass. In It To Win It.
I’ll take it further. When I founded Team Nebraska I had all the state’s best athletes at my disposal. And was never able to get, in my opinion, my top 5 dream team. Real life. Injuries.
But now, because of the opportunity and exposure of our state’s top athletes, inspiring and motivating, there is an ever expanding talent pool. Enough to staff 3 USATF Competitive Clubs. And ideally drive competition between the clubs. Which is the essence I describe. Instead of putting them all the talent together I’d rather take the next 5 years developing the competition between the clubs, that will drive more and better and more enduring.
Or I’m just an ignorant slut.
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