It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye
By
Mark Jimenez
I don’t want to write this blog.
I’ve been avoiding writing this blog for several months now.
I can’t put it aside any longer. It’s time to say goodbye.
In 2016 I started teaching at Shadow Ridge High School. In one of the meetings before the school year started I overheard somebody saying that a Cross Country Coach might need some help. I chased Coach Flynn down and pretty much begged him to help out with the program. He accepted, and the rest is history.
Flymenez was born.
Four Southern Region Championships and three State Championships later, and Flymenez has decided it’s time to hang it up. We both resigned as Cross Country Coaches.
I’ve been wanting to write this blog since November of 2024, but I also didn’t want to write it. Writing it meant things were final, that it was really over. It’s hard for things to be over. It’s hard to say goodbye.
Coach Flynn and I made a great team. We worked together so well, we balanced each other with our strengths and weaknesses. I couldn’t have asked for a better or more healthy professional relationship. We learned so much together.
Shadow Ridge was always good at Cross Country. I’ll never forget the conversation we had one afternoon when we decided we wanted to take the program from good to great. It involved changing goals and expectations. It involved helping the kids believe that they could be a part of something great.
Every year we’d come up with a plan and work to enact that plan. Every off season we’d evaluate our year and see what we could do to help the kids and the program get better. We adopted the attitude that when there was a win, the kids won. When there was a loss, the coaches lost.
We were ready to start rocking and rolling when Covid robbed us of the 2020 season. Our girls had a great team that year, and while they came back to finish 2nd at State in 2021, the meet that year was in Reno. I’ll always feel bad about not helping that great group of ladies win it all that year.
In 2022 we had a great boys team that managed to sneak in a state championship by 1 point! The team got even better in 2023, and we kept the same training plan. In 2022 we had no injuries, but in 2023 we were devastated by injuries using the exact same training plan. Another trip to Reno, another 2nd place finish. This time for our boys team.
Coach Flynn and I once again evaluated the season and changed what needed to be changed. We adopted a whole new training plan and strategy for 2024. It was hard to convince the kids to make some changes. Change is hard! But over those long and hot summer days we got buy-in, and through the season we kept the kids healthy. The boys and girls each won the 5A state championship.
It was midway through the season that I pulled Coach Flynn aside at one of our many road trips. We raced a regional schedule, racing in Arizona, Nevada, and California. We achieved success in the Sweepstakes race at Woodbridge and Desert Twilight, and one of our athletes even set a course record at one of the oldest meets in California. In any case, at one of those races I had to talk to my friend and tell him that I couldn’t keep doing this. I no longer had the time and energy to run a growing business and put 6 months of effort into coaching a Cross Country team. We talked into the night. I didn’t want to leave him to coach alone, but at the same time it would have been selfish of me to expect him to resign just because I did.
In the end, Coach Flynn decided it was time for him to step down as well.
It’s hard to say goodbye, but I do know that in a way things will get better. I’m not planning on leaving Cross Country. In fact, this will allow me more time to help more programs around the valley. I’ll still be going to meets on Saturdays, and I’ll still be cheering all the kids on! I can’t wait to see it all happen again.
Maybe one day I’ll be in a position to coach again, I’ll never truly slam that door. Until then, it’s not goodbye… it’s so long.
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Every Run is a Good Run