Monday, August 17, 2015

Cross Country Season Is Here! A Repeat Of An Old Post From 2012 Demonstrating How Old I Am

It never seems that long ago to me.  Cross Country for high school athletes sure has changed from what I remember.

Old School (1970s): Practice right after school.
New School (2012): Practice at 5:30PM, just 1 1/2 hours after they get home from school.

Old School: Practice lasts 1 1/2 hours, team meeting included. Ends on time.
New School: Practice lasts 2 1/2 hours, followed by a team meeting. Never on time.

Old School: Practice at high school, trip home by school bus.
New School:  Practice at numerous variable sites, transportation necessary both to and from.

Old School: Dual Meets twice weekly.
New School: Quad or Quintuple Meets once weekly.

Old School: Tattoos only on a spectating ex-Marine Uncle from out of town.
New School: Neck tattoos on Freshman runners.

Old School: No sunglasses.
New School: Sunglasses on an overcast day as essential running equipment.

Old School: Nike Waffles.
New School: "Barefoot" Shoes.

Old School:  Winner at about 16:00 for boys 18:00 for girls.
New School: Winner at about 16:00 for boys 18:00 for girls.

Old School:  No idea what friends are up to during practice.
New School: Tweets and Facebook updates during practice to know that friends are "chillin".

Old School: Coach is basketball coach and high school math teacher.
New School: Coach is 6-time All-American and stay-at-home-dad.

Old School: 0 assistant coaches.
New School: 6 assistant coaches.

Old School: 1 Newspaper article a year, with many facts wrong.
New School:  Blog with daily updates on minutiae of every runner's life.

Old School: Quarter mile or half mile repeats a staple.
New School: Don't know what a quarter is.

Old School: One runner with a VW van on its last legs takes a few people home.
New School: Each runner over 16 drives their own BMW, Lexus or Mercedes home.

Old School:  Cotton
New School: Lycra

Old School: Stretch
New School: Core

Old School: Fartlek
New School: Lactate-Threshold or Tempo

Now with Bonus Calvin and Hobbes Cartoon:  If  it were written today!

Calvin and Hobbes: New School:



3 comments:

  1. Old School: 10-year old school-owned-and-loaned spikes which were painted each year to freshen them up.
    New School: A personal aresenal.

    But...
    New School: Screen-printed singlet logo.
    Old School: Embroidered ones. Woo-Hoo! The old-timers win one!

    KKOB80

    ReplyDelete
  2. Old School: Coach would pile whole team (boys only back then) into Plymouth Fury (Big boat car) and drive 10 miles out of town and drop off team, following team all way back to school. No one would bat an eye.

    New School: Coach mentions a 5 mile run and whole team rolls eyes, AD forbids team from going off campus (school board lawyer says liability), and coach drives a Mini Cooper anyway. No one has any endurance.

    (Old School coach was Jim Holdren, a Harry Groves product!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Old School: Kids did things without critique of "how it used to be"

    New School: Adults blog about how kids aren't tough anymore.

    ReplyDelete

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