An essential part of my routine is an early-morning run of 40-70 minutes almost every day. Last winter on such a run at about 0630 on McNell, not far from Reeves road, I noticed movement to my lower left and stopped to take a look. There appeared a tiny creature, about the size of a mouse, but with longer fur and a very short tail (a gerbil?). As I stood there trying to figure out what sort of creature this was, the little guy walked right up to me, stood about a foot from my toes, looked straight up, and seemed to be asking me to pick him up. We looked at each other for about 15-20 seconds before he turned and scampered away.

On another such morning a few days ago on Grand Avenue just west of the dip, a coyote crossed the road from left to right only 40 meters in front of me. This has happened often over the years so I thought little of it until, a few seconds later, a second coyote crossed at the same spot, now only 30 meters away and then, evenly spaced, a third just 20. In almost thirty years of running in the Ojai Valley I have seen hundreds of coyotes, but never three at the same time in such a well-ordered procession.

What a privilege and joy to live in a place where such events can occur.

After a sound defeat by a gifted Cate team recently, I sent the following message to my boys [the varsity soccer team]:

I want you to know you behaved magnificently yesterday, and I am forever impressed with your mental toughness, spirit, and ability to hang together as a team under challenging circumstances. You never gave in, and that shows the heart of a champion. It is a distinct honor to coach you.

Looking at both games as a whole it strikes me that Cate was about two goals-a-game better and the difference was simply their ability to finish, which leads me to the crystal clear fact that we were able to create excellent chances on goal in the first half from early crosses, but that for reasons not fully understood, we failed to keep them coming after the break, and generated only one good chance on goal in the 2nd half (Willie’s excellent run and shot).

I believe our best chance to beat Cate (and any really accomplished team), should we meet in the post-season tourney, is to keep early crosses coming for the full 80 minutes. As you know, we have players capable of doing this well. So, in every game we play we will emphasize early crosses even more until it is natural to employ them several times each half. To win in the post-season we must be able to score against the excellent teams.

Now we must dedicate ourselves to continuing to play 80 minutes of superb soccer every game, and then see where the chips fall.

In this note we find the dominant characteristic of Thacher soccer teams over the years: a willingness to play with great passion and energy from the very beginning to the bitter end, regardless of the situation. And then there is always looking forward to the next practice with a plan to improve. The final whistle of our final game will mark my last look forward to the next practice, as I will step down after over thirty seasons of coaching our soccer players from 3rd team to varsity, boys and girls. It has been a great run, full of passion and drama, victory and defeat. I could not possibly have asked for more.

Late on a Saturday morning after the Cross Country State Championship races, Isobel and I were driving back from Fresno and talking over the season. After examining and evaluating our training, looking at the mistakes I made as well as those avoided, Isobel said: “I remember my first day of Cross Country in September. You told me to run to the cow pens with Dr. D, which I did, and I thought I was going to die.” I remarked that she had come a long way in just three months, from that first, short and slow, but agonizing run to the #4 girl on the fourth best team in California. After a minute or two of silence, I asked her why she came back the next day. “I don’t know, she said, “There was just something about it I wanted to do.”

Earlier today in class, after an introduction and brief discussion of analyzing rational functions, I turned the kids loose to spend the last twenty minutes of the period reviewing for a test tomorrow on material up to, but not including rational functions. As I moved around the room answering questions and helping students, I noticed a girl working on a challenging analysis of a rational function, and remarked, “Auden, that won’t be on the test tomorrow. Why are you working on it now”?

She looked up at me and said: “I just wanted to figure it out”.

Enough said.

Returning from Midland, as late afternoon light faded to darkness, some of the boys and I, sitting toward the front of the bus, were talking quietly about our successes at the league championships, where both teams won. As we wound down the mountain from Lake Cachuma, Chevy mentioned that a friend of his had improved dramatically over the summer on training that emphasized speed over distance. As we played with this idea, Andrew suggested harder and faster training during the summer would be productive. Daniel thought that we should build more intensity into our running next fall. Having listened quietly to the conversation, I responded that we could probably do some more speed work during the summer months and start speed training two or three weeks sooner next year. As the talk continued in this vein, somewhere east of Santa Barbara I had the thought that this is exactly the conversation I want to hear at this late stage of a demanding cross country season. These boys want more — more speed, more distance, more running. Their love of the sport is vibrant and fresh and that is exactly what I want.

I decided to run boys who had not made the trip to Mt. SAC in a Condor League meet on a very difficult, demanding course.  Varsity runners and we coaches were on hand to cheer them on and as the race unfolded I was struck by the great effort and tenacity shown by these runners-on-the-way-up our cross country ladder.  Their courage and toughness were inspirational to our top seven girls and boys and added so much to a team culture designed for success.  We all saw that often the most important contributions come from the rank and file — unsung soldiers.

Outside the classroom my primary interests are in the world of athletics, so I will naturally write often about teams and coaching, but before that I want to say a few words about our many horses.

When I arrived over twenty-eight years ago I was drawn to much about the School, but questioned, in my own mind, just about everything connected with the Horse Program — relevance, cost, value, etc.  Then, over a period of years I watched myself gradually, incrementally really, shift my thinking to where I now consider horses the most important part of the School.

Being responsible for a large, live animal, overcoming fear, “something about the outside of a horse that is good for……..”, and such all resonate with me, but I see perhaps the most value in the role horses play in our admissions process.  Kids with a willingness to venture into uncharted waters and risk uncomfortable circumstances are attracted to us, and I find that willingness wonderful.  As a teacher and a coach, I benefit every day from that quality in my students.