Dates: August 12-17, 2012
Located at 8877 South Township Road 131 McCutchenville, Ohio 44844 (419) 981-2662
Week 3, the days are still long but it’s been a good week. The only thing that happened was one of my TU camp volunteers almost cut his thumb off while cutting a watermelon to the next day’s breakfast. As “The Nazi” I would say the same thing over and over again. Like “don’t cut yourselves”,” please be careful”, “here how your properly hold a knife and cut fruit.” But no, college students think their grown and have it going on. So the young man ignored my warning signs. After he cut himself he immediately tells me and I grabbed a towel and put it around his thumb tightly to stop the bleeding. But will all the pressure I was putting on his thumb to stop the bleeding that didn’t work. I told him to go to the emergency room and sent him with one of his teammates so that he wouldn’t be alone. I understand that mistakes happen but the moral to this story is listen to the person with the wisdom. It will protect your from so much hurt, harm, or danger. After about 3 hours, they return to camp and he had to get 4 stitched to close up the deep cut.
The week like I said was a good week the hours didn’t change but something inside of me did. I was helping student-athletes with their aches, pains, and injuries. I felt so involved in their process and journey. I love that feeling, that’s one reason why I coach. I had the opportunity to speak to a young female athlete about her Achilles surgery and I let her know that the most important thing she can do besides physically allowing her body to heal, she must do the same with her mental state. Sometimes injury can leave a student-athlete physically and mentally scared. I suggested to her and her coach that she writes a positivity journal just for her. It’s meant to make sure she’s taking care of her mental health as well. In the journal she would start off with writing one positive work about herself each day. I told her that it doesn’t matter what she feel like of that she must find the word positive about her each day. I really hope she does it. I know when I got hurt when I was running in college that really helped me.
Coach Martin and I have a great working relationship where we can banter back and forth and just have a good time even while working at the camp. I love when I’m in my element. I’m organizing, managing, and supervising. That’s what I do! Honestly, Coach Martin has been running the Team Camp of Champs for so long it runs like a well-oiled machine. The only thing that I would suggest to Coach Martin is that he should always make sure that he has an organized person to run his kitchen and dining hall for him. I really believe that with me taking that position over for him freed him up to be the Camp and Program Director. I was able to put out fires that were within my reach and make sure that all of the student-athletes didn’t have to focus on anything else but training, team bonding, relaxing and having fun before school starts.
The location of the camp and diversity of the participants were just one part of this summer camp that I enjoyed. The opportunity to go to camp in a different environment and to experience something completely outside of my normal realm was an opportunity of a lifetime, one that I will never forget. As I begin the school year, I know that my perspective of the world has been enhanced and shaped by these experiences, and I will continue to benefit from the relationships I developed this summer as I keep in touch with those coaches and athletes that I met from all over Ohio. This truly was an amazing experience for me. I learned so much from my time at the Team Camp of Champs, especially the power of a positive and effector mentor. When you have someone around you is doing such incredibly giving things, like Coach Martin does, it inspires you to do the same. I met great people during those three week, campers and volunteers, all of whom I will keep in touch with.
My expectation of the camp was that I would be of service to the sport of cross country, but in reality those coaches and student-athletes helped me grow and develop into a better person and coach. This was, without a doubt, one of the most rewarding yet challenging times of my life, and I am definitely looking forward to doing it all again next year.
Located at 8877 South Township Road 131 McCutchenville, Ohio 44844 (419) 981-2662
Week 3, the days are still long but it’s been a good week. The only thing that happened was one of my TU camp volunteers almost cut his thumb off while cutting a watermelon to the next day’s breakfast. As “The Nazi” I would say the same thing over and over again. Like “don’t cut yourselves”,” please be careful”, “here how your properly hold a knife and cut fruit.” But no, college students think their grown and have it going on. So the young man ignored my warning signs. After he cut himself he immediately tells me and I grabbed a towel and put it around his thumb tightly to stop the bleeding. But will all the pressure I was putting on his thumb to stop the bleeding that didn’t work. I told him to go to the emergency room and sent him with one of his teammates so that he wouldn’t be alone. I understand that mistakes happen but the moral to this story is listen to the person with the wisdom. It will protect your from so much hurt, harm, or danger. After about 3 hours, they return to camp and he had to get 4 stitched to close up the deep cut.
The week like I said was a good week the hours didn’t change but something inside of me did. I was helping student-athletes with their aches, pains, and injuries. I felt so involved in their process and journey. I love that feeling, that’s one reason why I coach. I had the opportunity to speak to a young female athlete about her Achilles surgery and I let her know that the most important thing she can do besides physically allowing her body to heal, she must do the same with her mental state. Sometimes injury can leave a student-athlete physically and mentally scared. I suggested to her and her coach that she writes a positivity journal just for her. It’s meant to make sure she’s taking care of her mental health as well. In the journal she would start off with writing one positive work about herself each day. I told her that it doesn’t matter what she feel like of that she must find the word positive about her each day. I really hope she does it. I know when I got hurt when I was running in college that really helped me.
Coach Martin and I have a great working relationship where we can banter back and forth and just have a good time even while working at the camp. I love when I’m in my element. I’m organizing, managing, and supervising. That’s what I do! Honestly, Coach Martin has been running the Team Camp of Champs for so long it runs like a well-oiled machine. The only thing that I would suggest to Coach Martin is that he should always make sure that he has an organized person to run his kitchen and dining hall for him. I really believe that with me taking that position over for him freed him up to be the Camp and Program Director. I was able to put out fires that were within my reach and make sure that all of the student-athletes didn’t have to focus on anything else but training, team bonding, relaxing and having fun before school starts.
The location of the camp and diversity of the participants were just one part of this summer camp that I enjoyed. The opportunity to go to camp in a different environment and to experience something completely outside of my normal realm was an opportunity of a lifetime, one that I will never forget. As I begin the school year, I know that my perspective of the world has been enhanced and shaped by these experiences, and I will continue to benefit from the relationships I developed this summer as I keep in touch with those coaches and athletes that I met from all over Ohio. This truly was an amazing experience for me. I learned so much from my time at the Team Camp of Champs, especially the power of a positive and effector mentor. When you have someone around you is doing such incredibly giving things, like Coach Martin does, it inspires you to do the same. I met great people during those three week, campers and volunteers, all of whom I will keep in touch with.
My expectation of the camp was that I would be of service to the sport of cross country, but in reality those coaches and student-athletes helped me grow and develop into a better person and coach. This was, without a doubt, one of the most rewarding yet challenging times of my life, and I am definitely looking forward to doing it all again next year.