On Your Marks

The past two Saturday mornings I have had the opportunity to be around some great people here in Jonesboro.  The Saturday before last our team volunteered for the Kids Triathlon at Craighead Park, and this past Saturday I participated in the Rock-A-Bye Baby 5K on our campus.  I am continually amazed at all the great people here in our community that either volunteer their time, donate their business' money (by sponsoring) or participate in the activities.  I am lucky to live in a community that values fitness.  I am very appreciative of so many people in our community that are role-models for me.

Whenever I attend one of these events I am continually reminded of one of the greatest accomplishments of my life while at the same time being one of the biggest regrets of my life.  Spend time around runners and the stories are bound to come up (as they should) of the marathon they are training for, the half marathon they ran, the triathlon they would like to prepare for, etc. And each time I hear these stories I am taken back to May 23rd, 1999 the day that I marked a goal off my "bucket list" . . . but also a day I will always wish I could have a "do over".

It was on May 23rd, 1999 that I completed that Rock-N-Roll marathon in San Diego, CA.  Of course I understand the significance of completing a marathon and it is something I will forever cherish.  But at the same time I wish I could go back and do it all over again.  Running a marathon, was one of my goals in life (on my "bucket list" if you will).  So after discussing this with Rhonda late in 1998 I decided that the San Diego marathon was the one.  The date fit into my work schedule and part of the deal with Rhonda was that she wanted it to be somewhere fun so that she could go with me (a goal on her "bucket list" was to see the World Famous San Diego Zoo . . . kill two birds with one stone).  I know you're wanting to skip to the "do it over" part so here it goes . . . I had no business running a marathon . . . I had no idea how to prepare and I was too stubborn to seek out help.  For someone who's life and career revolves around training and preparation it still amazes me that I couldn't "practice what I preach". 

For months leading up to the race I trained for the marathon but I trained at "my" pace.  My eating habits were terrible and I did not take care of my body the way I should have.  A few weeks prior to the race I recall Jeff Mittie (my boss and our Head Coach at the time) joking with me that he "was really pulling for me to complete the marathon, but he was concerned that if I did it I would taint the sport forever".  In other words if I could complete it that it would ruin the accomplishment for everyone in the future.  Well I did and it did.  Over 25,000 other runners joined me that morning in San Diego . . . it took nearly 10 minutes for me to even reach the starting line.  There are still only a few things that I remember about the race.  At the 2 mile marker there was a drink station and as we came through it a lady took a sip from her cup of water and threw it toward the ground and it could not have hit any more perfectly as the cup landed right at the top of my shoe and all the water went straight down into my shoe . . . only 24 miles to go and my sock is soaking wet.  One of the other things that still sticks out in my mind is that I could not wait for hills . . . to go UP hills.  By halfway through the race the pounding on my knees while going down hill was excruciating while at least there was relief on my knees and shins while climbing up hill.  The last thing I remember is that with less than a mile to go (and the finish line literally in sight) a shock of pain went through my left knee so bad that I almost fell to the ground.  And the reason I remember it is that there was a police officer right next to me when it happened and I remembered his voice like it was yesterday saying "this is not worth injuring yourself over, stop before you hurt yourself".  Are you kidding me?  I have ran over 25 miles and you want to tell me it's okay to stop now so that I don't hurt myself . . . with less than a mile to go?

I won't go into the "ugly" details of the after effects, but I will tell you that Hootie & The Blowfish was putting on a free concert for all participants afterwards . . . and to this day I have still not seen Hootie & The Blowfish in concert.  After 5 hours, 11 minutes and 9 seconds I did it, I completed a marathon.  Crossing that finish line should have been one of the greatest experiences of my life, instead I hardly remember it because I was so out of it.  I didn't get to enjoy the finish and worse yet, I didn't get to enjoy the process that lead up to the finish.  For most people it is just a cliche' when someone says "satisfaction doesn't come in accomplishing a goal, it's the process leading up to it".  But for me it is not a cliche', it is so true.  My guess is I'll never get (or take) the opportunity to run a marathon again but I do get opportunities to accomplish other goals daily and I remind myself constantly to not forget the lesson I learned from my marathon . . . to cherish the process.  Sitting on a bookshelf in my office is a picture and plaque of me running the Rock-N-Roll Marathon.  For those that see it in my office they probably look at it and think that is quite an accomplishment but for me . . . I see it daily and it reminds me to never make the same mistake again.

Rise And Shine Campers

Anyone familiar with the 80's pop/rock band The Outfield?  Does their hit album "Play Deep", which included Billboard hits "Your Love", "All The Love" and "Every Time You Go" mean anything to you?  For those of you that know me you would assume that this group (and this style of music) does nothing for me (since this is not the genre' of music that I prefer).  And in most cases you would be right, but in this case every time I hear The Outfield it brings back one of the best memories from my teenage years . . . Basketball Camp at Culver Stockton College in Canton, MO.  The first basketball camp I attended was at Culver Stockton College and not only was this my first basketball camp it was one of the first times being away from home on my own.  Each morning at camp, over 300 boys would line up at 8:00am, in "roll call" lines, and the "star basketball" players for Culver Stockton College would lead us in our stretching routine . . . while The Outfield "rocked" through the speakers . . . "Josie's on a vacation far away, come around and talk it over . . . so many things that I wanna say, you know I like my girls a little bit older".  And even today when I hear this group on the radio (okay, when I go to the 80's station on XM) it brings back memories of my first basketball camp.  Next week we will be hosting the girls basketball camps here at Arkansas State and as we prepare for it numerous camp memories come to mind. 

I remember being scared to death at my first camp (at Culver Stockton) and it didn't help matters that during the first session of playing 3 on 3 I had the ball and turned down a wide open 12 foot jump shot instead passing the ball to a guarded post player under the goal.  Before the post could even shoot the ball the infamous Coach Strausburg (infamous, because all the returning campers had warned the "rookies" about how mean he was) was in my face screaming at the top of his lungs "BOYER . . . IF YOU DON'T SHOOT THE BALL I'M GOIN' BE ON YOU LIKE A COON ON A ROAST'N EAR!!!"  I didn't stop shaking the remainder of camp and . . . I didn't pass up a wide open jump shot . . . and to this day I'm scared of raccoons. 

I've known I wanted to coach basketball since I was a child so when I got to college it just seemed natural to use summer basketball camps as a means of employment.  I dedicated the summer after my sophomore year of college to work as many camps as possible.  The first camp to give me a chance was at Kansas State University and the legendary Head Coach Lon Kruger (current men's basketball coach at University of Oklahoma).  19 years old, coaching at my first camp and I was put in charge of the kindergarten boys.  My first thought was this is going to be a piece of cake but right before our first session Lon Kruger tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to his son . . . who just happen to be in kindergarten and already had the basketball IQ of a college athlete.  Apparently I didn't let Coach Kruger down because this camp lead to many others including working the Moe Iba basketball camps at TCU.  This is where I really started to get the hang of working / directing camps as I followed the leadership of TCU assistant men's basketball camp Kevin Fricke.  Fricke was the master at directing camps in that he would direct 4 or 5 camps a summer with 200 - 300 boys each and by the end of the first day of each camp he seemed to know the first name of every camper.  He was in total control of each camp as he'd stick out a hand to camper after camper saying "put it their partner".  And the campers never seemed to catch on that the last night of each camp, year after year the camp was "5 pizzas away from setting the all-time TCU camp pizza orders record (and yes I'm guessing there was a kickback from the pizza orders). 

My big camp break came two summers later when I was given the opportunity to help direct camps at Missouri Western (where I was working as a student-assistant coach on the men's basketball team).  We hosted several camps at MO West and helping direct the camps was a great experience.  Our men's head coach, Tom Smith (who is now in the Missouri State Hall of Fame) was very direct in the way he wanted things run.  Late in the day he'd walk by one of the benches and notice a chair moved out of position and he would say "a good camp Coach Boyer is a camp with straight chairs . . . that's the sign of a good camp" or he'd ask at the end of the day if all 70 basketballs had been accounted for (over an area of 6 courts) and he'd say "a good camp Coach Boyer is a camp that doesn't lose any basketballs . . . that's the sign of a good camp".  Late that summer we hosted an all-star camp where we invited the best 8th grade boys from an eight state region (this was the top camp of the summer).  The night before camp I came up with this great idea, something that had never been done before, at this camp.  I stayed up the entire night creating a huge map, with stars that identified the hometowns of each of the nearly 200 campers in attendance.  The map covered the entire back wall of the room in which we would be registering in the next morning.  I was so proud of what I'd accomplished and couldn't wait for Coach Smith to come in the next morning for registration.  Sure enough, minutes before registration Coach walked into the room, looked up at the map and a small smile came across his face.  He didn't say a word and honestly I didn't need him to say a word, the smile meant I'd done something special.  The smile was enough to know that "a good wall map at registration was the sign of a good camp Coach Boyer . . . that's the sign of a good camp".

Monday will be my 23rd year of working (in some capacity) summer basketball camps.  Some of the best memories of my coaching career and of my teenage years revolve around summer camps.  I can only hope that several years down the road the girls who attend our basketball camp next week will look back with great memories of their basketball camp experience here at Arkansas State. 

Oh, and in case you're wondering . . . Monday morning, first thing before I get to the Convocation Center for camp . . . I'll be jamming to The Outfield on my Ipod . . . "I just wanna use your love tonight, oh I don't wanna lose your love tonight" . . .

Summer Program Begins

While most think the basketball season starts in October, here at Arkansas State it started yesterday.  Wednesday was the first day of Summer I classes here at Arkansas State and the women's basketball team is on campus for this term.  Of our 15 athletes 14 of them will be here during the month of June taking a class(s) and working out in the weight room with our strength coach, Ross Miller.  Brittney Gill, an incoming freshman from Pine Bluff, AR will not be joining us until the Fall semester begins. 

Academically each of our returning athletes will be taking one class (3 or 4 hours) during the month of June.  The newcomers are all required by the NCAA to take 6 hours during the summer term (if they are going to be on full scholarship, which all of ours are).  We coaches are not allowed to work with our team members during the summer months.  They are however allowed to work with a strength coach on a voluntary basis.  This is where summer school is advantageous for basketball.  Our summer workout program consists of an eight week program and they have the opportunity to work, as a team, with our strength coach for four of those eights weeks.  Our returners can use this time wisely by increasing their strength during this month while the newcomers can work on getting the proper technique down in the weight room so that they can take the program home with them during July.  For a coach it is quite a tease to have your team on campus and not be able to coach them but it is still a great opportunity for each athlete to better themselves in the classroom and physically.

When our season ended back in March we started looking forward to the next three phases that lead up to the next season (post-season, summer program and preseason).  Post-season was a success and now we are starting our summer program.  With the enthusiasm that I have seen out of our team since they arrived on campus I am looking forward to a great summer program.

Coach Boyer