Angels of Autumn
XC runners take off at Willow Hills
When I look at the calendar, I see that it is now autumn. When I go outside for a run, I still feel the iron grip of summer’s heat holding fast to Sacramento. But there are signs of change. The teams are back.
Nothing says “autumn is coming” like the herds of high school cross country teams hitting the bike trail. It harkens me back to a fictitious time in my youth, testing myself against my own preconceived limits. Learning that the pain was temporary but the accomplishment of a goal had permanence.
I’m embarrassed to say that the naked and less flattering truth is while I did go out for cross country in my sophomore year, I only made it through about a week’s worth of practices. I showed up the first week of school and got thrown into the pack that was running at what seemed like break-neck speed around the campus.
By the end of each workout, I was barely hanging on. There was the pack. There was that guy Milt. There was an ever-growing gap. And then, there was me.
What I didn’t realize was that the rest of the team had already been practicing for a month, and the faster guys had been running all summer. What I remember most is the grinding suffering and the embarrassment of finishing all the workouts dead last.
What I don’t remember is anything about the coach who was there. When I check my old yearbook it appears that a guy called Coach Grace had the honor of shepherding us gangly teens around.
Thirty years later, I’m back on the high school cross country scene. This time, it’s my daughter doing the running and I’m just driving her home from practices and watching her run in the meets. The meets, I now realize, are giant, complicated, events overrun with eager kids and anxious parents.
Teams line up to race under the watchful eyes of an army of coaches and volunteers.
Overseeing all this chaos, and making it all happen, is an army of underpaid coaches, assistant coaches, team parents, officials and volunteers. These are the Angels of Autumn.
If you ask them “Why?” you’ll hear a wide variety of answers. Some will tell you that now their own competitive days are over, but they still enjoy the fun of competition with the kids they coach. Some say they hope to share the life-long benefits of the sport. They all just really seem to love the sport.
Whatever the reason, they each do a ton of work and together make the sport possible for thousands of kids ever year.
Be sure to tell ‘em “Thanks!”