Venture Track Meet at Ogden High School

Today was our last track meet of the season.  It was bittersweet, not gonna lie. As a former track runner I love the thrill of a track meet. The energy, the drama, all of it. As a Coach, feeling a little burned out, not much, just a little. It has been a busy month.

 Lydia D., Jayden C., Katelynn H., Parker M., Coach Mills, Chris I., Brittany H., Ethan, Ashtyn K., Ally

This team photo is most of our team. We had a couple girls who weren't there today. 

Ally running her 100 meter Dash. Look at that great stride!

Because one of our girls wasn't at the meet Ally stepped up and took her place. She was a little nervous running the relay with some of the older girls but she did GREAT! Check out this hand off! Perfect!

Ethan at the starting line for the 4x100. He was the first leg this go round. He did great!

Another great hand off between Parker and Ethan!

It was a great meet! It was a great season! I felt really bad for one of my girls, Katelynn, she was busting out her 200 meter dash and pulled her groin muscle. So sad that happened to her. Well, til next year!

Freeze Tag at Track?

Everyone was feeling a little burned out at Track practice today. So, what is a Coach to do?

Freeze Tag of course!

It worked great! They ran around and got conditioning and I didn't have to yell at them to move their butts. Win-Win.

Loud Mouth

Today at Track was AWESOME! After screaming every day at practice, and pretty much losing my voice everyday, my mega phone has finally arrived! I really lost my voice coaching last year so this year before the season even started I had this bad boy ordered. It took forever, forever I tell you, for it to arrive. Thankfully, it is here! Love it!

When Nate stopped by practice to get the little kids he snapped a couple quick pictures of me using my Loud Mouth. It gives you a little sense of Coach Mills and what she is all about.

Coaches Car

• My car has hit an all time low. I rarely have a clean car but this definitely takes the cake. This is the way it has looked the whole month of April. This is what my car looks like when I am coaching Track. It is full of the usual stuff:
• whistle
• water bottles
• stop watch
• cones
• batons
• folder/clipboard
• uniforms
• Loud Mouth
• extra running shoes
• shot puts

Venture Track Meet at Ben Lomond High School

This is my second year volunteer coaching for the Venture Academy Track team. It has been super fun and super hectic! The fun part about this year is that both Ethan and Ally are running on the team. Last year Ally wasn't old enough and Ethan had pneumonia, so he missed out on the entire season. Since our season is so short we have four weeks to hit the ground running. We are a very small school, therefore our team is usually very small as well. Can cause some challenges that is for sure.

 Our first meet is always a little crazy, especially for me. Most of the kids have never set foot on a running track before and I have very little time to bring them up to speed on what the rules are and what all of the markings on the track mean. So the minutes before the meet start I am a bit like a chicken with its head cut off!

Ally, Ashtyn and Ethan doing some warm up laps.

Ally came to see me to calm some of her nerves before her 100m dash while I was at the finish line instructing our team photographer, Nate.

My three 6th grade girls, Ally, Gracee and Ashtyn, running the 100 meter dash. They did great! They ran with kids all the way up to 9th grade!

 Ethan running his 100 meter dash

Partial team picture. Ally, Dani, Katelynn, Jayden, Brittaney, Ethan, Gracee, and Chris 

These two were goofing off a bit in between races. I am super glad that they are close friends though.

Last minute instructions from Coach Mills to my boys 4x100 relay team. Parker, Ethan, Chris and Jayden. They ended up coming in 2nd place overall.

Great handoff between Parker and Ethan at the first exchange

Their last race of the meet, the 200 meter dash. They did great and I was especially pleased to see their strong finishes.

Til next week!