Dakota Ridge XC Track and Field

Good to Great...Dakota Ridge XCTF 2017-2018 Good is the enemy of great And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority become quite good-and that is their problem.   ------Jim Collins (Good to Great 2001)  In Cross Country...We are a good program...and recently we have settled for being just that.  For Track and Field, we are  not  a good program yet (mediocre) and we are still searching for an identity.  As the 2016 school year ended we met as a school athletic program for our annual Athletic Legacy awards night. Every year we rightly honor the fantastic efforts of our schools student-athletes and coaches who had success throughout the sc...

2017 Track and Field Season Wrap up and future thoughts... At Graduation on Friday we will see one of the most enigmatic classes in the history of Dakota Ridge leave us. They will be missed for their varied stories, personalities and talent. Enigmatic is the proper word here. It's difficult to express their value to us as they are all so beloved by our coaching staff as individuals and personalities. More then once we had tears on Saturday as coaches. For Clark, Tvrdik, Stenbeck and Hitzges, this class has a special place in our heart for how wonderful they are as a group and individually. As group they were also filled with bewildering bad luck and limiting factors that relatively to other classes led us to a lot of might-have-been feelings. For me personally, I have said it many times, this class has made me a better coach in many ways. The work put in to help them along the road of success, they may not fully understand but it was there, always there. This class was the cla...

14 Dakota Ridge historical performances this week...  This week I watched a team of kids succeed in the best way they could despite a myriad of tough circumstances. We had 14 of the best performances in Dakota Ridge history this week. Kids who chose to come to the competition where ever it was this week...and give what they had no matter what circumstances they dealt with to get to that moment of performance. Here is the thing about Track and Field.... The honest most brutal aspect of life as a Dakota Ridge student athlete in Track and Field....We don't have a track. We barely have the facilities to operate successfully a Track and Field team. We have a Weight Room.  We have some throwing rings. Thanks to Coach Clark we have a decent jumping pit. We have a high jump pit but often no great place to put it. We have a lake and a park and hallways. We use what we have to the best of our ability. We are a team made up of different skillsets performing different competitions a...

Yesterday April 29th was all sorts of interesting amidst its boring snowy self.  Many of you may seen the story about the car crashing into RNK Running in Parker. The owner of that store is a very good friend of mine going back years. Trent Briney and I ran against each other and as yet we became friends over the years. Trent worked at the Boulder Running Company with me in the later years of my time there.  Often seeing each other during our post collegiate quest to make the Olympic Trials our friendship was forged in the grind and dreaming that is the sport of distance running. Trent made it a couple times to the Trials as he was far better then I. Easily the race of his career was finishing 4th in the 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon in Birmingham Alabama. The nearest of misses in a quest that for most, never comes that close. On Saturday, Trent experienced a different kind of near miss. Trent's polar opposite near misses, in both cases, 2004 and 2017...is a reminder to me...

This weekend... Ugh. Colorado Track and Field is really something.  Certainly its fine taking the day off today. Going to the Gym and or Pool this afternoon would be great as well. If you take the day off be sure to get a workout in on Sunday afternoon. The week ahead..... We are down to out final meets of the year, with a large focus on the league meet next week. What we do this week is maximize the chances for our potential individual state qualifying kids along with get some of you in your final meet of the year. Jeffco Elite Meet May 3-4 @ Jeffco Stadium A lot of individual stuff will take place here and we won't be doing a lot other then one or two races over the two days for some of you. We will use the meet to prepare a couple of relays for league should we have the ability to do so. Viking Invite May 5th @ DPS Stadium This will be a meet where we will give some final events to some of you who may not be in the League meet, and as yet have been wor...

Dakota Ridge Invite Recap.... It was a fantastic day. I am so very proud of all our parents, kids and Jeffco stadium crew. We pulled things off and had a fabulous day and we received quite a few compliments on how well the meet went. THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK!!! We saw some great performances on Saturday from our student-athletes.... Kyle Cannon Having a very nice season thus far, Kyle set a personal best in the Discus at 94-3 and is currently ranked 44th overall for Freshman in the State and #11 Freshman in 5A. A tremendous athlete and building block for a great future of our program, Kyle will look to get over the 100 mark over the closing meets of the season. Jack Pool With a throw of 123-1, Jack Pool moved into the Top 10 ALL-Time Dakota Ridge list. Jack will look to improve that personal best throw over the last few weeks and attempt to become the first thrower to score points for Dakota Ridge at the league meet in the discus in quite a few years. Ethan Sk...