Plainfield North Boys jumps preview is profiled
In most of my blogs so far, I haven't mentioned much about what my expertise lays in, injuries and sports rehabilitation, especially in track and field athletes.
Jack Sebok was out but now out as this story will detail
“Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.” –Lou Holtz
As Head Coach Andy Derks addressed the Plainfield North Cross Country team on the first day of practice, I looked around the circle of our athletes attentively listening...
Wow! I think that pretty much sums up how I still feel 5 days after sectionals. Moments before senior David Latimore II’s first jump at sectionals, I pulled him aside and said “David, I believe in your ability to get to state more than any other athlete I’ve coached, believe in yourself today.” When you looked at the numbers, it seemed like a stretch. His PR going into sectionals was 21’6.
Rise and shine did not sleep well because all I could think about was what is to come the next 48 hours...
The track and field season is rolling along. It is hard to believe that the indoor season is already over. In one of our last indoor meets, we made the trip down south to Charleston and let me tell you, since I've seen the blue track, I've got the fever! All I can think about is that gorgeous blue track and doing whatever it takes to get my athletes down there.
February 28th is a date I have circled about 12 times on my calendar, our first track and field meet of the season.
As the state cross country 3A boys race was about to begin, I stood on the course waiting for our runner junior Jack Sebok to make a run out. I paused and looked around to soak up the environment....
On Saturday at the sectional meet at Chicago Marist something magical happened. However, this had nothing to do with the sectional race. In fact, it was after the race when everyone had left and gone home. By chance, all that was left were two teams, the coaching staffs and some very dedicated parents. The two teams, Plainfield North and Plainfield South, would be thought of as cross country rivals but on this day. Much like South, our entire team continues to train during the cross country “postseason” and it is important to give these kids opportunities to still compete and set PR’s. We ran a time trial at regionals and have done a few time trials at practice as well. We happened to run our time trials at the same time as Plainfield South after the sectional race on Saturday.
Before the regional race at Lockport where we advanced to sectionals for the first time since 2010 began, I had the pleasure of speaking with Neuqua Valley head XC coach Paul Vandersteen.
When I took the position of jumps coach at Plainfield North last year, one of the top items on my agenda were to help create a culture that would be conducive to track and field success...
This past Sunday, one of my high school coaches and now friend, Jeff Hobbs, did something incredible. He attempted to run the Chicago Marathon. The reason it is so incredible is that Jeff was born with spastic cerebral palsy, a condition where the brain fails to send proper signals to the muscles causing restricted movements and making normal everyday tasks difficult let alone running....
This week we had a bye from competition for our top group. I want to dedicate this blog to writing a little bit about how I approach some of the things such as strength work, warm-up and cool down, etc. with our team....
First, I have to start this blog with one of the most interesting and unique stories I’ve ever heard of happening at a cross country meet. In fact, I’d find it very hard to believe that this has ever happened at a cross country meet...
Last week I talked about how excited the team was to compete at the First to the Finish Invitational and wow every scenario I had thought up of in my head was exceeded by our team last week...
Cross country season is off and running and after all the work our team did this summer, it sure feels good to see some great results! With it being my first year of coaching at Plainfield North, I’m still getting a feel for our athletes and what they’re capable of.
Hey everyone, let me first introduce myself, I’m Dr. Brian Damhoff, assistant cross country coach at Plainfield North High School. I’m in my first season of ever coaching high school cross country although I’m not new to the sport by any means. My background is in jumps, I’m the jumps coach at Plainfield North, I was a college jumper at Lewis University and I still compete for fun. I’ve coached high school track and field for five seasons now, one at Plainfield North, three at Parkway West in Ballwin, MO and one at Fulton High School in Fulton, IL. I’ve also volunteer coached at Lewis University with their track and field and cross country programs the past three years.