Field Event Specialist

I've been bloggin' about some pretty serious stuff lately, so I thought I might share a more light-hearted story. Thursday was my first day helping out with the First Flight Middle School track team (Go Seahawks!). The whole experience began humorously as I walked around the middle school trying to figure out where the track team practices. You see, they don't really have a track, just a soccer field. When I finally found the team, my friend Jessica (the head coach) was pretty excited to see me. Jessica comes to the young adult small group at church and teaches at the middle school. She hooked me up with the perfect place to get plugged into the middle school community on the Outer Banks. I used to run track in middle and high school, mainly sprints, relays, and the long jump, so I had agreed to help coach the long jump. When she introduced me to the team, though, she called me the "field event specialist". Suddenly, I've inherited far more responsibilities than I'm trained for. Eek! High jump has always scared me because I'm afraid people will break their necks; and if you've seen the size of my arms, shot put just doesn't fit my body type. Nonetheless, I'm up for the challenge.

So, the amusing part of the practice came when I realized we had no long jump pit. No fear! We live at the beach which means there are sand dunes at the edge of the soccer field. OK, so we had the pit. Then, there's the issue of a scratch board . . . . . Ta-da! A piece of drift wood! We have our make-shift long jump pit. Of course, the middle school kids weren't too convinced. Their response: "Umm . . . aren't there sand spurs in there?" I thought quickly, trying not to give away my lack of planning, and I replied with a big, fake grin, "Eh (shoulder shrug), I don't think it'll be a problem." Of course, at the end of the day when I emptied the sand out of my shoes, I found several sand spurs attached to my shoe laces! Needless to say, we'll be hanging out with the high school team and using their long jump pit as much as possible! I hope I don't have to make a make-shift high jump mat next week ;)!