Running for the Gold, from a different perspective!
By Tim Miller
Vision yourself sitting in bleachers on a beautiful spring afternoon. Hundreds of high school level athletes merge to one location, vying to compete at their highest level while trying to bring home the gold. Everyone understands the motives of an athlete that is part of the Track and Field program of their high school. You practice to become as fast as you can be to out run your opponent the day of the meet. It seems very comprehendible to even the most ignorant of sports fans. Behind the scenes, however, there is a lot more training and preparing then one might believe. A team relies on the program only a head coach can provide. A coach’s program can make a team successful or allow those athletes to continue floundering. A former athlete himself, Brian Deck has found various impressive ways to bring the best out of his students and build a tremendously successful program out in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Brian Deck has found success as both an athlete and a coach at Abington Senior High School in Pennsylvania. There, he competed for fours years in track and field, and three years in the Cross Country program. His competitive nature found its way into his collegiate career as well, as he was a one year Varsity Letter Winner on Slippery Rock University’s regionally ranked Cross- Country team. Due to a serious injury, Deck was forced to retire from competitive running only a year into his college run. Not being able to run on that track, Deck made the best of the situation that was handed to him, as he continued to be a part of the program. This time, he would coach Track and Field and become the Head Coach of Abington’s Cross Country program.
“I enjoyed the sport so much, and was unable to finish competing and even run anymore,” said Deck. Competing was no longer an option, so he chose to become a coach leaving his competitive nature in the minds of those he worked with on a daily basis. His first and foremost importance in the role of coach was to bring out the best of his athletes and help them in the long run. “I am a student of the sport and began learning a lot and wanted to hand that down to the kids,” states Deck. When considering how to coach his team, he remembers what coaches have told him throughout his athletic career. The most important words of wisdom handed down from his mentors were to listen to his athletes. Find out how they feel on certain issues, and have an open mind to help them be all that they can be. Even though he uses techniques that have been handed down to him from his coaches, Deck considers himself a unique coach. “I put my ego to the side and train for the long distance future of my kids. It is my first priority to train each individual to their strengths and develop their weaknesses. It is a slow moving process.” A slow moving process is a widely stressed piece of advice from the coach to his students. Deck’s number one piece of advice to his team is that running is a patient sport. He believes it is a four year development, both mentally and physically. With all this advice and prophecies handed down, Deck’s number one coaching goal is to develop and teach young athletes running. On this statement, Deck stated “Ultimately, my goal is to get as many athletes as much money to run in college as possible.”
Besides handing down his own words of wisdom, training and preparing for races is highly stressed in Deck’s coaching repertoire. Between track and cross country, this sport is a year long process. Throughout the year, athletes in track and field get eight weeks off from running, and only two weeks off from weight training. Basically, there is no off season. Besides the training, a coach has to get his team mentally prepared which begins at the end of practice the day before a meet. Before cross country meets, Deck meets with his team to go over material information such as what time the races go off, who the team is running against, when to warm up, when the last time the athletes can eat is, what shoes are to be worn, and ultimately what time the bus leaves for the event. Basic information, but everyone needs to be on the same page. Before a track and field event, Deck goes over the same information but also meets with his athletes individually to get them into the perfect frame of mind to be confident and ready to compete. After all of this prep work, coach has his ups and downs while watching on as his team competes. “My team player is the most crucial thing in my program and anyone who does that is a strong team player,” says Deck. This is one of the moments when coach is proud of his team. Also, he is proud when an athlete makes a significant individual improvement. There is also times when he becomes disappointed with his team. “Any runner that let’s his teammates down on purpose or all the time let’s me down,” says a fair coach. Deck puts all this time out to improve individual athletes, but emphasizes team play which the entire team needs to follow.
