Striving for the Same Goal

You know, here at UND we are having a pretty good year. Records are falling left and right, including women’s and men’s hammer throw, women’s and men’s weight throw, women’s javelin, women’s 100 and 200, men’s 400, men’s 5k, and relays. We are competing as well as a team as we have in a long time. What makes it even better is how many athletes we have from nearby cities and states. Yet, we are still not the best track team in the state. 

Anybody following local track can see that NDSU is doing really well right now. To be a UND student-athlete and admit this is hard, but the facts pretty much speak for themselves. Their track teams are showing up in the regional rankings ahead of some powerhouse schools simply because they have highly ranked sprinters, jumpers, throwers, and distance runners. They have All-Americans and people winning big events at big meets. They have a pretty accomplished coaching staff too.

Now, I would like to argue why I think these are both important and worth cheering for, no matter what school  you come from (it’s a good thing my coach probably won’t see this, because he’s not a big NDSU fan).

Let’s back up and have a short history lesson. The first mass settlement of North Dakota began in the late 1800s and peaked around the year 1930. Almost every person who came here realized the same thing: life is a lot harder here than most other places. Winters are colder and summers are warmer than out east. Trees and precipitation paled in comparison to the countries they came from. Crop failures from locusts, drought, and other natural events ruined people. Out-migration started about the moment people first came here, and it never really stopped. Even in the early 2000s state officials were trying to figure out how they could possibly keep young people from leaving the state, because studies showed that if they did they wouldn’t come back.

 

Well doesn’t that sound inviting? Ok now to bring it back to present. Stereotypes about North Dakota exist, and while some of them are obviously false, some are obviously true. You know what? It IS pretty windy here. And cold. So North Dakota isn’t really seen as the place to settle down and do much of anything. The general idea is this: if you want to be successful at something other than farming or energy development, you need to go somewhere else- and it’s no different with athletics. Let’s imagine this scenario between a rising young athletic star and a potential coach/agent:

Coach/Agent: So where did you do your training?

Athlete: In North Dakota
Coach/Agent: Really? Wow it’s impressive that you were able to accomplish that much while training there!

Don’t even pretend like that isn’t a realistic conversation excerpt. Because it is. And even if the coach/agent wouldn’t say that out loud, it would be in his/her head.  This idea has bothered me for years. Who says that athletes from North Dakota can’t be good? Who says that athletes can’t be good training in North Dakota? I definitely don’t.

Instead of hammering my point home, consider this quote from the NDSU Track and Field twitter this weekend. An athlete of theirs, Maddie Van Beek, won the steeplechase at the Drake Relays, which is a big deal. The meet is highly competitive, drawing from talent all over the country. She (a Perham, MN native, which is not too far away from Fargo) had this to say:  “I think it really puts us on the map and gives us a name. Sometimes the rest of the nation doesn’t realize that we can compete at that level, and we can. It’s pretty cool to come in here and show that we can do that.”

…PREACH!

Ok, so that quote was a reference to NDSU competing well at big meets, and I don't want to imply that anybody other than NDSU had a part in their success, but NDSU is an attachment of the great State of North Dakota. The whole state can be proud when they have success. Don’t believe me that we’re connected in the eyes of the nation? Well, when we (UND track) travel by air, sometimes people will approach us and ask us questions about who we are and where we’re from. Amazingly, people have difficulty distinguishing NDSU from UND. Fargo and Grand Forks are basically the same thing they claim- I mean, they’re both in North Dakota, are they not?

Ok I’m rambling now, but my point is this: UND and NDSU competing well isn’t just good for UND and NDSU, but also for the state as a whole. We are by no means seen as a track state, and the idea is that to be good at track you must go somewhere better. Having athletes go to big meets with lots of those ‘better’ teams and compete well and win events raises our status. It gives kids in North Dakota a reason to want to stay here. It allows them to believe that they can be great even if they stay here. It gives them athletic role models to look up to in person, not in the paper in reference to a school across the country (I’m not dissing anyone, I promise).

People have always needed to reason to stay in this state, track athletes included. And for decades, the reasons for staying have been few and far between. That can change. The first thing that needs to go is the mentality that being a successful track athlete and training in North Dakota are mutually exclusive. When we are at a meet in California, I have literally heard teammates say "think of how good we good be if we trained here!" I've always had a problem with that. 

Wind? An excuse. It makes you stronger.
Cold? An excuse. Put on another layer.
No altitude? An excuse. Eugene, Oregon is not at altitude and the U of Oregon seems to do fine.
No hills? You’re not looking hard enough. Try western North Dakota.
No facilities? You’re not looking hard enough. NDSU has a new track facility, and UND has one on the way.
Lack of good athletes to train with? Check the results this year. You may be surprised.

So here’s my pitch: let’s keep up the good work, UND. And NDSU- you keep doing incredibly well. It helps this state and the next generation of North Dakota tracksters who want something to convince them that you can still be good- heck great!- if you train in North Dakota. It's a way for track to give back. 

As the saying goes: You can do anything if you put your mind to it!

Have a Great Day!

Also, if you disagree with the whole premise of this post, let me know!