Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
I overheard an interesting conversation as I walked into the Riverton Aquatic Center to help my wife with our two grandchildren in the pool.
A handful of boys from the Riverton swim team were gathered around the counter across from the main desk.
“I cut off my facial hair and it cut my time by over a second,” one boy proudly claimed.
“No, it didn’t, training is starting to kick in,” said another boy.
“Nope, it was shaving my beard that did it,” the first replied.
If you’re a Sasquatch or maybe a Neanderthal, that facial hair could slow you up. If you’re a teenager in the peach fuzz stage of beard growing…Well, no one is going to believe it.
In over a half-century of playing, coaching, and covering sports, I’ve seen and heard some interesting, borderline insane comments.
It’s easy to understand where the kid was coming from. Olympic swimmers shave themselves completely, wear streamlined swim caps and something called a shark suit to limit friction in the water as much as possible. When you’re competing at an Olympic level, thousandths of a second count.
Kids weren’t always so sophisticated.
I’ve watched junior football played by 10-year-olds who wear gloves, shoes, and socks that combined cost more than my first car. Does it make them a better player? Sorry, hovering parents, it does not. That inner city kid playing basketball on an asphalt court under a dim street light wearing a pair of canvas Chuck Taylor All-Stars is most likely better than anyone you’ve ever seen.
In the dark ages, OK, the 1960s and 70s. There wasn’t much in the way of fancy equipment. You wore what the school provided, and that was it. If it was cold, you put on a pair of chore gloves and did your best.
You still occasionally see kids wearing bright yellow “Chore Boy” gloves on the football field.
The past few years have been amazingly mild during football season, but it’s not always that way.
We didn’t have neoprene gloves or waterproof socks. We played with those same Chore Boy gloves, and if the field was covered with wet, heavy snow, we had a secret weapon. We packed three pairs of socks and a couple of bread sacks.
You put a thin pair of socks on first, pulled the bread sacks over your feet, then pulled on a pair of calf-high socks. At halftime, you pulled off the outer socks and put on a dry pair. Stylish? Not in the least, but we adapted and survived the cold conditions.
The state track meet in Casper is notorious for bad weather. Just four years ago, they almost moved the entire Thursday schedule to Friday and Saturday. The pole vault was moved indoors as was the high jump. They did postpone the other field events until later, as well as the hurdle preliminaries.
They decided to hold the 3200-meter run.
The 3200 is the longest single event at the state meet. There are eight races, with the Class 1-A through 4-A girls first and the boys following in the same order.
It was cold, wet, and a slight breeze (by Casper standards) was blowing in from the northwest as the 1-A girls started the race. Conditions worsened as the first race ended.
When the Class 2-A girls lined up, the snow was picking up. Wyoming Indian had four girls qualified in the event that year. A few girls from other schools donned sweats, wool caps and gloves. Not the Lady Chiefs.
They stepped to the line with gloves and headbands over their ears.
As I photographed the race, the girls began to disappear around the third lap. The snow roared in with big, heavy flakes. You couldn’t see the girls until they were just a few feet away. I shot dozens of pictures, just to capture the snow surrounding the runners. I had to repeatedly dry my lens as the flakes hit me as well. They all finished the race. State record times? Nope, not in any of the eight races that day.
We left Shoshoni at 2 pm for a four o’clock kickoff at Ethete. It was a nice fall afternoon when we boarded the bus.
As we dropped down the big hill from Kinnear, I could see a storm rolling in off the mountains. By kickoff, there were five inches of snow on the ground, and it kept falling. The Chiefs had solid white uniforms and all I could see from the sidelines at times was the blue “Chiefs” logo on their helmets, and yes, those same yellow Chore Boy gloves.
I was coaching a group of 13 and 14-year-old boys, an age when they can be easily distracted.
I wore just a light, short-sleeved Shoshoni Wrangler coaching shirt in an attempt to show the boys the conditions weren’t that bad.
By halftime, I had a little drift built up on my right shoulder against my neck.
The mother of one of the boys came over to me at halftime and said, “I know what you’re trying to do coach, but you’re going to get pneumonia.” She handed me a jacket and said, “Please put this on.”
Wisdom quipped strategy that afternoon.
In a final example, similar to the swimmers mentioned above, I walked into our home shower in May 2004 and discovered what looked like a bear had been skinned on the shower floor.
The kids from Big Piney had convinced our son Brian that shaving his legs would cut at least six-tenths of a second in his 110-meter-high hurdle times and over a full second in the 300-meter hurdles.
He believed them and dutifully plugged the shower drain in the process.
Later that day at the Thermopolis track, I noticed his smooth legs. I was going to let him have it after the meet was over, but….
Yep, his previous best was 15.7, he ran 15.08 that day in the high hurdles. In the 300s he ran 40.2, not quite a full second but at least half-a-second faster than his previous best.
He claimed it was from shaving his legs.
I still lean to the workouts Coaches Gomendi and Sinner put him through and peaking at the right time.
But, who knows?