“If your efforts are sometimes greeted with indifference, don’t lose heart. The sun puts on a wonderful show at daybreak, yet most of the people in the audience go on sleeping.”
– Ada Teixeira
This last Friday, April 23rd, and Saturday, April 24th, the Regional qualifiers competed in the Region IV 3A Track and Field Meet. April Bodie and Noelia Medina were rained out from the Shot putt competition to be held on Friday. I will let you know how they did first since they would have been the first to compete. We competed on a beautiful Saturday morning. Each throwing competition was divided into two flights of 8 throwers. Each flight received three throws and if they were one of the top 8 distances, they threw for the finals to decide the medals. We had throwers in three of the four events and every thrower qualified for the final three throws. April’s second toss was her personal record (PR) for the year and qualified her for the finals. Her toss of 33’6” ended .5” from placing 6th. She leaves the Regional ring with one more year left as the Lady Pirate with the farthest throw in a Regional Meet and with the highest placing of any Lady Pirate shot putter. Noelia Medina completed her 6 years as a thrower for Lytle finishing 8th with a nice 33’3.5” toss. I have much more to say about Noelia in the lady's discus section. The baton has been handed to April and her sophomore classmates, Sarah Ytuarte and Bree Criswell.
While the ladies threw shot the boys entered the discus ring. Cort Haltom and Alex Medina both qualified for the finals with their first throws. Alex was attempting to be the first boy to set a new PR for himself in every Meet. Since our first Meet in Pearsall, he has improved at each Meet. Unfortunately, he failed to reach his goal of 135’ and ended up in 8th place with a toss of 124’. Cort Haltom entered the competition in the 3rd position and after the first round he was in 6th position. He did improve his throw by on foot with a 134’ throw yet he remained 9 inches out of 5th. Cort finishes the 2021 Campaign and the District and Area Champion and became the first discus thrower that I have coached to score a point for the team at a Regional Meet. Both Cort and Alex return next year and I hope they can reach the next level of throwing and qualify for the State Meet. Alex’s PR was 131’ 3” and Cort finished the year with a 141’ PR. I look forward to their continued success.
Finally, Noelia Medina was the only discus qualifier for Lytle after Alex missed out at the Area Meet. Noelia came into the competition sitting 4th. After her first three throws she had moved into the 2nd position which would have qualified for State. After the first round of the finals, she remained in 2nd position, 1 inch in front of the Lady from Stockdale. The fifth round the Stockdale thrower launched a 117’3” throw moving Noelia into the 3rd position. On the sixth round the lady from Edna passed Noelia with a 108’10” throw. With Noelia as the second to last thrower she had one final chance to medal. Noelia’s final throw as a Lytle Lady Pirate discus thrower was her PR of 109’4” and earned her the bronze medal. Her throw did not qualify her for the wild card thrower as in the other Regional girls threw farther. Noelia finishes as the most decorated Lady Pirate to ever grace the rings. She was the Discus District Champion in 2019, Shot Putt Champion in 2021. 3-time Area qualifier 2018, 2019 and 2021. One time Regional qualifier in shot and two-time Regional qualifier in Discus 2018 and 2021. Third place finisher in 2021 Regional Discus competition. Noelia will be missed but I hope she will continue throwing as she continues her education at Hardin Simmons University. I am so glad I will be able to keep up with her as I have a couple of more years of coaching her brother Alex.
I am so thankful that we completed the 2021 season as the 2020 season was cut short. I have much to be thankful for. First Coach Ruiz and Coach Scotello for trusting me to run the throwing program. The maintenance crew for keeping the fields nicely mowed and maintained. Mrs. Conover for allowing me to borrow her play field for my discus nets. They will be down this week. Armando and the transportation department for always getting us to every Meet and back again without a hitch. The cafeteria ladies for the meals. Peanut butter and jelly always has a better flavor after throwing far. Mrs. Stewart for always having a sub lined up for the Meets I had during the week. Most of all I really appreciate Mr. Bob Wagner for accepting my invitation to support his Grandson Cort in the discus rings. I was a bit selfish in this request because he is a great mentor for me and provides much wisdom in developing relationships with the great athletes of Lytle. This is my final “Lessons” for 2021. Thanks to all those who think the ramblings of an old coach have any value. This last quote came from Papyrus Old Egyptian Historical papers.
“If you can’t get enthusiastic about your work, it’s time to get alarmed-something is wrong. Compete with yourself. Set your teeth and dive into the job of breaking your own record. No one keeps his enthusiasm automatically. Enthusiasm must be nourished with new actions, new aspirations, new efforts, new vision. It is one’s own fault if his enthusiasm is gone; he has failed to feed it. If you want to turn hours into minutes, renew your enthusiasm.”