The First Day

Yesterday was the first day of coach for Tom and I at the LP Stadium.  We had seen the team before but never the coach.  His name is Mr. No (SP?) and at first when Sumlat described what we were there to do he looked reticent at first.  Mr. No is Lao but has been trained in Cuba, speaks fluent Spanish, and although Sumlat says he doesn't speak English he understands most of what he hears.  Mondays as it turns out is the one day each week that he team runs a time trial.  This is something that I am not particularly a fan of doing each week but right now I just assisting.  A time trial is where you run with your team the race that you will be competing in to give a sense of what type of shape you are in.  I feel they should only be done a few days a season because that day is essentially a short workout and without real competition they are not a true show of what an athlete can do. There were 13 athletes who showed up 2 girls and 11 boys competing in 4 races.  The first race had four men running the 1500 meters.  Tom, Sumlat, Mr No and I all timed them and they ran faster than last week which is a good sign.  Mr. No seemed to lightened up to us during the race.  The race finished and we showed them their splits and I pulled one of them aside and started to try to give him advice.  He seemed to listen and appreciate what I said and throughout the rest of the day that is what I did giving athletes advice with Mr No looking on and helping translate. The races finished and it seemed that we had gained some respect from not only the athletes but Mr. No also.  The team isnt great but the ones who show up try hard which right now is all that matters.  The high school championship is in April and will be the first test for the athletes.  Today Tom and I will meet with Mr. No and discuss his workout schedule till the games which is a good sign we will be working together and not against each other which can sometimes happen with differing coaching styles.
Below are some photos of the LP Stadium:

 A look at the stands and the new hotel in the background.

 There current weight set, yes those are tires and stumps.

 Tom getting psyched up for the practice which lies ahead.

 A photo across the field at the main entrance/home stretch near ground.

 Finish line and south side of the stadium.

This is me looking my best in my CLI t-shirt ready to coach.

Funny aside: Tom and I would meet new people and introduce ourselves. Translated to "Hello my name is David, Hello my name is Tom".  It seemed like every time Tom would say that people would snicker a little bit and we had no idea why this was.  It turns out depending on how you pronounce Tom it means gay.  So what Tom was saying was "Hello my name is Gay".  This made sense and now Tom has changed his name to Thomas.