Ever heard of “Happy Loops”? They ain’t so happy, they are excruciatingly painful. In fact the person that called them happy loops is the one that had us running them. He’d sit there shouting out our time as we realized we were going to have to break into a dead out sprint to make the target time. This is where the “Happy Loops” were extraordinarily unhappy.
Ok, let me back up a bit. Dave Doerrer is my high school cross country coach from Thunderbird High School (Go Chiefs!). He was a teacher at Sunnyslope high school when my mom went to school there. From the years of 1985-89 he was involved in my track and cross country career. Under his guidance I would hear him talk about the work out we were going to do. Inevitably someone would say “do we have to coach?” – his constant reply to this was “No, you don’t have to . . . you get to.”
To “get to” was the way coach lived his life. He loved to be active and he loved to run. He loved to coach and he was talented both as an athlete and as a coach. His work outs were intense. I still remember having run up Shawbutte after having run to Shawbutte and knowing that I still needed to run back from Shawbutte. After getting down from the hill, coach had everyone lined up facing the hill again. I was confused by this and the look in everyone’s eye was that of disbelief. “Okaaaay, we are going to run up Shawbutte Indian style.” Now our mascot was the Chiefs but that had nothing to do with “Indian style”. Indian style is when the last guy running in a single file line has to sprint to the front of the line as the whole line is jogging; once he gets there the new “last guy” takes his turn and so on. Soon enough, it is your turn and you give it everything you have to minimize the amount of time you have to be sprinting to the front. And then before you catch your breath it is your turn to sprint to the front again. This goes on until we get to the top – keep in mind, most people can’t even run the entire 1.2 miles up Shawbutte without slowing to a walk or simply stop. We ran up it once and then we ran up again in Indian style - PAIN. Keep in mind, after doing this we still did have to jog back to school.
So, back to “Happy Loops”. The neighborhood at the foot of Shawbutte and Thunderbird is called Moon Valley, interestingly enough the Moon Valley Golf Country Club was another location of our painful workouts. In this neighborhood we had a loop that seemed to be 2/3 of a mile and coach required us to run 3-4 of these depending on our progression as an athlete and into the season and what speed was expected etc. We’d run up into the hills gradually, then turn onto a street that got suddenly steeper, turned onto another street that was less steep and finally we’d have about 100 yards of downhill before turning onto the last stretch running towards where we started and hearing our current time and realizing how little time we had left to go the remaining distance. Our muscles were screaming, our lungs were numb with pain, our minds were trying to shut our body down, all the while our competitive spirit pushed us forward expecting more performance than what got us to this painful moment in time. When we finished the first one and realized we still had 2 or 3 more to do, our bodies seemed to be in shock. By the time we were done, none of our bodies were happy yet there was coach Doerrer smiling from ear to ear with his contagious smile, praising our efforts for completing our Happy Loop and reminding us that we had more to go (even bigger grin from him now).
Coach was always there to push us as fiercely as our competitive appetite would demand. He knew us as individuals and respected us while still knowing we could do more and be better athletes and competitors.
I remember a few years after being coached by him to do hurdles that coach came to me to get some pointers on the hurdles. I found out that he was competing in the Arizona games. Over time I learned that he continued to win and dominate his age group. Coach was leading by example the whole time and I was too self centered to realize it.
Tomorrow, Oct 18, 2008 I “get to” volunteer to help coach as he continues to host the Thunderbird Invitational which is celebrating its 50th anniversary http://tbirdinvitational.com/ . I will be running in the Alumni and Friends Run. I will get to see other former athletes and friends that come back because they “get to”. After wards I will get to volunteer with the various races for the boys and girls coming from all over the state to compete in one of the funnest races of the X-country season.
I am proud that I “get to” have Coach Dave Doerrer as my friend. He is first and foremost my coach – my coach of how to live my life, how to love the Lord, and how to enjoy all that we have been given. Now I know that life has no “have to’s” but lots of “get to’s” – it’s all a matter of perspective and I choose to follow coach’s example. Thank you coach Dave Doerrer.
Andrew “still haunted by Happy Loops” Brown
Ok, let me back up a bit. Dave Doerrer is my high school cross country coach from Thunderbird High School (Go Chiefs!). He was a teacher at Sunnyslope high school when my mom went to school there. From the years of 1985-89 he was involved in my track and cross country career. Under his guidance I would hear him talk about the work out we were going to do. Inevitably someone would say “do we have to coach?” – his constant reply to this was “No, you don’t have to . . . you get to.”
To “get to” was the way coach lived his life. He loved to be active and he loved to run. He loved to coach and he was talented both as an athlete and as a coach. His work outs were intense. I still remember having run up Shawbutte after having run to Shawbutte and knowing that I still needed to run back from Shawbutte. After getting down from the hill, coach had everyone lined up facing the hill again. I was confused by this and the look in everyone’s eye was that of disbelief. “Okaaaay, we are going to run up Shawbutte Indian style.” Now our mascot was the Chiefs but that had nothing to do with “Indian style”. Indian style is when the last guy running in a single file line has to sprint to the front of the line as the whole line is jogging; once he gets there the new “last guy” takes his turn and so on. Soon enough, it is your turn and you give it everything you have to minimize the amount of time you have to be sprinting to the front. And then before you catch your breath it is your turn to sprint to the front again. This goes on until we get to the top – keep in mind, most people can’t even run the entire 1.2 miles up Shawbutte without slowing to a walk or simply stop. We ran up it once and then we ran up again in Indian style - PAIN. Keep in mind, after doing this we still did have to jog back to school.
So, back to “Happy Loops”. The neighborhood at the foot of Shawbutte and Thunderbird is called Moon Valley, interestingly enough the Moon Valley Golf Country Club was another location of our painful workouts. In this neighborhood we had a loop that seemed to be 2/3 of a mile and coach required us to run 3-4 of these depending on our progression as an athlete and into the season and what speed was expected etc. We’d run up into the hills gradually, then turn onto a street that got suddenly steeper, turned onto another street that was less steep and finally we’d have about 100 yards of downhill before turning onto the last stretch running towards where we started and hearing our current time and realizing how little time we had left to go the remaining distance. Our muscles were screaming, our lungs were numb with pain, our minds were trying to shut our body down, all the while our competitive spirit pushed us forward expecting more performance than what got us to this painful moment in time. When we finished the first one and realized we still had 2 or 3 more to do, our bodies seemed to be in shock. By the time we were done, none of our bodies were happy yet there was coach Doerrer smiling from ear to ear with his contagious smile, praising our efforts for completing our Happy Loop and reminding us that we had more to go (even bigger grin from him now).
Coach was always there to push us as fiercely as our competitive appetite would demand. He knew us as individuals and respected us while still knowing we could do more and be better athletes and competitors.
I remember a few years after being coached by him to do hurdles that coach came to me to get some pointers on the hurdles. I found out that he was competing in the Arizona games. Over time I learned that he continued to win and dominate his age group. Coach was leading by example the whole time and I was too self centered to realize it.
Tomorrow, Oct 18, 2008 I “get to” volunteer to help coach as he continues to host the Thunderbird Invitational which is celebrating its 50th anniversary http://tbirdinvitational.com/ . I will be running in the Alumni and Friends Run. I will get to see other former athletes and friends that come back because they “get to”. After wards I will get to volunteer with the various races for the boys and girls coming from all over the state to compete in one of the funnest races of the X-country season.
I am proud that I “get to” have Coach Dave Doerrer as my friend. He is first and foremost my coach – my coach of how to live my life, how to love the Lord, and how to enjoy all that we have been given. Now I know that life has no “have to’s” but lots of “get to’s” – it’s all a matter of perspective and I choose to follow coach’s example. Thank you coach Dave Doerrer.
Andrew “still haunted by Happy Loops” Brown
