Don't Touch That Dial ...

By etrain11

 

I feel obliged to start this post with a brief thank you to Coach Kelly for taking the time to put on a great meet last night. The race of the night was probably an awesome 800m with Sam Ritz, John Lewis and Domenic Peretta all going toe to toe. Guess what, without Coach Kelly and this meet those three guyswould not be racing each other EVER (Independent League, AAA, AA) and instead we got to see a battle of all-time greats. I hope that this meet can continue to grow as we move forward and I encourage more people to come out. Huge props to Ritz for his quick turnaround after Pre, Kolor and Peretta for traveling all the way across the state and to all others who trained the extra time to compete. 

 

Also, again feeling obligated, I just want to thank those that I ran into at states and the distance festival for some of the kind words they said about the blog. It makes my day. Honestly, when I’mtyping out post ideas on Notes in my phone, it’s hard to imagine that there is anyone out there reading. I’m just having fun. It’sonly when you get recognized waiting in line at the state snack bar or grabbing Fritos and a Gatorade at the rest stop on the drive home that I realize the pages views probably aren’t only coming from Steph Curry’s security team as they try to make sure I’m not a dangerous stalker. 

 

Just remember that the readers are the reason this blog is what it is. I’m cocky enough to believe a small percentage of the reason people click here is to see what I have to say, but I know the majority of it is to see what you guys have to say. So don’t stop getting involved and sharing your thoughts. We need it.

 

Plus, just keep in mind that I get stuff wrong all the time (including spelling and grammar. Oh goodness, the spelling and grammar). Keep correcting me on those names and I’ll try to get it right next time. Unless you go to State College because I get a name wrong from that school once a week. And yes I did go 4/4 in the AAA races this year at states (humble brag), but this is literally the first time in 8 years’ worth of predictions that has ever happened. As a math major, I can tell you eventually, I was just going to get lucky.

 

Lastly, I have to give another shout out to the staff I have had the pleasure of working with in the post LXV era. Huge thanks to everyone who has been helping me out and expanding this site to try and make it into great. And another big thanks to Paul for taking the time to stand in the rain and do more videos (while having to listen to me randomly shout out names during the races with no clear line of reasoning behind). I’m sure we can expect more big things this summer from our writing staff with NCAAs and Worlds still left on the agenda. And hey, if you like this stuff, we could still use some more writers …

 

Ah, it looks like I’ve rambled for four paragraphs again. We could probably use some editors or something too … Or at least just someone to say: Jarrett stop talking and get to the point …

 

So back to the point of this post.

 

Yes, with the conclusion of the PA Distance Festival another large percentage of athletes are hanging up their spikes for the season and entering into the down time that is summer. And yes, that means people are likely going to be seriously limiting their blog reading (viewership went down 75% from states week in the last week if you can believe that). But, I want to encourage you guys to stick around with us this summer, because we have some big plans.

 

The big news, of course, is the defining characteristic of the blog will be back: the XC Top 50 rankings and there will be extra emphasis on them this year to ensure they are a weekly feature of the blog (they will probably get their own tab). I think I got away from that too much last year. Let’s be real, why read a big long post when you can just look at a list.

 

The first edition will be released exactly 50 days after the state meet at 11:50 because I enjoy being symbolic with these sort of things. Tune in.

 

We also will be covering the NCAA Championships with previews and predictions and then the US Championships and the World Championships. It will be the first time in the blog’s history we are committing to this stuff so hopefully it goes well.

 

In addition, the 2015-2016 season will be my 10th season of etrain-ing so I have a few plans and maybe a few surprises that I’m preparing to unleash at random points throughout the summer. I hope you will enjoy them. At the very least, they will keep me busy.

 

But most importantly right now, in the short term I will be writing The Etrain 11, a series of eleven stories about this year of the sport (admittedly the main focus is on outdoor track, hopefully I’ll be doing these after each season next year). In order to add an extra dimension to the stories, I’m hoping to get a bit of feedback from a few individuals the stories will be about. If you are interested in helping out and see your name/team on the list below, email me at jarrettfelix1130@gmail.com and I’ll give you more details. If you don’t want to be involved in these stories, I suggest you email me as well and I won’t write anything. If I don’t hear anything from you, I’ll still be writing the stories to the best of my ability.

 

Here’s the people I’m currently projecting to be involved in some way (it’s mostly seniors because that’s my primary focus for these, but other classes will be involved). These are in no particular order (ok they are in some order, but don’t stress about it):

DT West

CB West

Twin Valley

Sean Weidner

Nathan Henderson

Winchester Thurston

Sebastian Curtin

Kyle Shinn

David Fletcher

Griffin Molino

State College

Pennridge

Jake Brophy

Matt McGoey

Zach Brehm

Casey Comber

Colin Abert

Kevin James

Paul Power

Andrew Marston

Dominic Hockenbury

Pennsbury

Billy McDevitt

Nick Dahl

Sam Ritz

Colin Wills

Grayson Hepp

John Lewis

Domenic Peretta

Elias Graca

Dylan Eddinger

Sam Ritz

Jaxson Hoey

Mike Kolor

Oliver Boucher

Killian Nelson

James Cooper

Andre Kelly

Sean McGinnis

Dan Williams

Ahmir Gordon

Kamil Jihad

 

If you think I missed someone who’s story you want told, feel free to let me know! I’ll give everyone a couple days to respond and then I will start working on putting out the posts. The stories will go up once every 3 days starting on June 9th. Yes there is a significance to this number as well. Bonus points to whoever figures that one out.

 

Distance Festival wrap up is coming, but for now I hope I have at least you convinced you a little bit to stick with us this summer …