What is winning. What does it look like? What does it feel like?

Hopefully the story below will try to answer the questions.

Once upon a time there was a young lady who I had the opportunity to train and her effort defines winning in my eyes. Her name is Noelle Hansen.

I started coaching Noelle her sophomore season of track. Noelle was unique. She had an outstanding personality but was shy around certain individuals, namely anyone who was not in her inner circle, but possessed a flamboyant personality. She was a unique individual but you would have to pay close attention to see this without being in her inner circle.

Noelle finished her sophomore season performing a 72 second 400m. This was my first year with this team. The goal was to turn this program around. I wanted winning efforts out of this team. I desired efforts from the athletes that would merit times that would compete for regional and state titles. After the high school track season finished Noelle made me her best friend. She trained 5 days a week that summer.

We trained at all kind of places to build her strength and speed. One of my favorite places to do this was the 67,000 seat Liberty Bowl Stadium. I love bleacher running. I took her to the track, we visited the weight room often. She loved it. I even had to fend off a few college age male athletes as we would train at the local university. (I don't know if she knows that.) She was very womanly at a young age. She was beautiful before guys her age could recognize a beautiful woman. Therefore she did not get asked out as much as a teenage girl would like too, but the college guys were ready to take her out.

The following high school track season rolls around and now the meets start once more. How did the hard work pay off for Noelle? We started the season with a 5 second personal best at 67 seconds. She is pleased. I am happy for her. I know there is much more in store for her. In any sport there are two season's, the regular season and Championship Season- the end of the year where Regional and State titles are won. There are many who are good in the regular season and there are some who rise to another level when the titles are on the line. Coaching athletes to accel in both seasons is the goal all the while preferring Championship Season.

Championship season comes and Noelle rises to the occasion. The year before she had about a snowball's chance in Hades to make the finals of the 400m. This year she gave her all in the qualifying round and found her effort good enough for a spot in finals of the 400m! She made it and once again bettered her time by 8 seconds over last years performance. She made the finals. She made the finals. She made the finals. For me, this felt as if one of my athletes just won the state title. It did not matter what place she got in the finals. She overcame great obstacles and worked and worked and worked for the right to compete with the best females our region had to offer in the 400m.

The last race of the meet is the 4x400m relay, I placed her on this team. Once again she found another level and improved her personal record by another second to lower this time to 63; 9 seconds better than 12 months ago. We won a silver medal in the relay.

What I admire about Noelle's effort is there was no promise whatsoever this outcome would happen. There was no guarantee she would make a finals at Regions, no guarantee she would be one of the four members to represent our team in the 4 x 400m relay.

I have seen in myself it easy to train hard knowing you have an 80% chance of winning the actual gold medal. It says something about a person when they train for the sheer matter of accomplishment in their own life. More than likely Noelle was not going to receive the actual 'gold medal' given to the athlete who beat everyone else. Not in any way shape or form to take away from the ones who do win the gold medal. The gold medal Noelle and others like her earn is something that will never tarnish or fade away. It is the memory, the satisfaction, the pleasure of knowing you poured every ounce of yourself into an effort. No one can ever strip Noelle of this experience. No one can strip anyone of us who has dared greatly.

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again
and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt

Matthew 6:19-21
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.'