Event #3 - #HurdleCrew
The faces changed from year to year. That is the nature of high school athletics.
But the results were surprisingly consistent. That is the way any high school coach would draw it up in an ideal world.
All-State finishers.
State qualifiers.
Sectional qualifiers.
District champions.
Conference champions.
School records.
Meet records.
Points on points on points on points. (In fact, one night, at one of the biggest high school track meets in Kansas City, five Liberty High School hurdlers - three boys and two girls - racked up 49 points by themselves. It was staggering. I took a picture to commemorate it.)
They just started winning on this particular night and then didn’t stop. Please disregard the fact that I look like I could be one of the high school hurdlers.
I was fortunate enough to be the coach of what we affectionately deemed the #HurdleCrew from 2010-2015. Boys and girls. 100m/110m and 300m hurdles. We were small but mighty. I should say, they were small but mighty. Never more than 10-12 total athletes, boys and girls combined. They were very talented. In fact, seven went on to play collegiate athletics. One was featured on ESPN for a pick six while playing college football at Tulsa. One was the WAC champion in the 400m hurdles as a senior. Two are now professional athletes.
I had two very simple jobs: deliver them to the start line healthy and keep them on their feet from there to the finish (not always easy in hurdle races). That was it. Do those two things and they would take care of the rest. When they did, the results were usually good…really, really good.
One quick diversion for a story that needs to be told:
We were at Lee’s Summit High School.
All girls meet.
One of my hurdlers at the time was also a tremendous soccer player.
Still is, actually.
Girls’ soccer and track are in the same season, so she would run as a side-gig, simply because she liked it. She was warming up for the 100m hurdles and took a tumble (fail at job #2, Tim). She popped up, but something was clearly wrong. She couldn’t move her arm. It swelled. There were tears. The trainer took a look at it. We were minutes before the race was to start. The trainer said, “I think she needs to go to the hospital, her elbow might be broken” (fail at job #1, Tim).
She wanted to run. Her parents wanted her to run. The trainer shook his head and put some tape on her elbow to immobilize it. Mind you, arms are important for running in general. They are essential to maintaining balance while hurdling. By the time the taping was done, she could not straighten her arm enough to use the starting blocks.
Standing start it was. In tears.
She won. Meet record.
Went straight to the hospital.
Her elbow was, in fact, broken.
I saw her the next day in a cast.
Moving on.
They did more than just run fast. In fact, the speediness and success were incredibly fortunate side items to all the other really wonderful stuff that was happening.
They grew as young people.
They learned to work hard.
Overcame obstacles.
Encouraged one another.
Had fun.
Built friendships they otherwise would not have had.
Saw the results of sustained effort over time,
Loved each other in the process.
That is where the good stuff is. The stuff that actually matters.
Coaching the #HurdleCrew was my first “leadership” experience as an adult.
I had no clue what I was doing.
I was barely older than they were, fresh out of college, just having wrapped up my own hurdle career at the University of Missouri.
First day of track practice in 2014. Not totally rare when “spring sports” start in late-February in Missouri.
I remember my first day coaching. The head coach of Liberty High School’s boys track team, Dan Davies, who was also my head coach when I was a Liberty High School athlete, turned me loose with a group of hurdlers.
Thrown into the deep end.
Sink or swim.
Figure it out as you go.
I suppose there really is not much of a better way to learn if people are willing to bear with you while you make all the predictable mistakes. Which I did.
I started that first day with the words of Dr. Rick Maguire running through my head. He was the head coach of my track team at MU. He used to say: “You can use kids to help you win in your sport, or you can use sport to help your kids in life.” That seemed as good a motto as any, so I went with it.
It felt really Jesus-y, honestly.
Jesus never used people. He always left them better than He found them - feeling seen, loved, more well fed, healthier, more joyful, less thirsty.
All that stuff.
Physically better. Emotionally better. Spiritually better
I was naive enough to believe I could do similarly via track and field.
That first leadership experience laid the groundwork for every leadership opportunity I have had ever since. I have read a bunch of great leadership books since then, picked up some very helpful principles, learned valuable lessons. None of those have supplanted where it all started, though.
““You can use people to help you win at _________, or you can use _________ to help people in life.” ”
Simple? Maybe.
But it guides what I do every day when I head to work.
A six year span of young people at Liberty High School were kind enough, patient enough, gracious enough, and forgiving enough to let me fumble my way through learning how to make that work.
The results have been priceless to me.
The 2012 squad during the last week of the regular season.
I’ve officiated weddings for former #HurdleCrew members. Baptized a couple. Have been co-workers with a couple. Have watched as they navigated college, career, and family. We have talked on the phone or over lunch about difficulties in life, calling, or direction. On one of the most heartbreaking days of my life, I performed the funeral for one of our #HurdleCrew members.
I am fortunate enough to interact with most of the #HurdleCrew on a regular basis.
We do not typically talk about hurdle stuff.
But that was never the point.
It was merely the vehicle.
I do not know what platform you have in your life. I do not know what your influence looks like or how many people it extends to, but I think the principle is the same.
You can either use people to advance ________, or you can use ________ to advance people.
Leadership is infinitely more about the people you influence along the way than it is about the goals you set out to achieve.
It is easy to become blind to the first due to the tunnel vision of the second.
Which is it for you?
I know I need to remind myself almost daily.
And when I do, the #HurdleCrew is what comes to mind.
For fun, here are some photos through the years.
My wife and I used to have a #HurdleCrew dinner every year.
Current and former hurdlers were invited. It always ended the same way: a group photo smashed on the couch.
