What a championship weekend!

Winning never grows old, as girls track Coach Troy Hauxwell said after his girls collected their third Class C state championship trophy at Omaha’s Burke Stadium Saturday.
    After last year’s track season was lost to COVID-19, it had to be a little bittersweet for last year’s senior girls, knowing they most likely would have claimed a state championship trophy last year.
    This year’s girls didn’t forget them though. During their victory lap, they included last year’s seniors who were at the state meet. What a gesture! Hauxwell said his heart still feels for those girls.
    I guess I’m just a softy, but when I saw that, I got tears in my eyes. Then again, I’d have to admit that wasn’t the only time as I witnessed the joy and excitement the girls shared with family and friends following championship performances.
    While the girls eventually cruised to victory, it wasn’t without some concern when they didn’t get some points they anticipated getting. But the girls remained resilient, Hauxwell said.
    That reflected back on their motto for the season—“Pound the Stone.” He related it to the stone cutters who built Mount Rushmore. It didn’t happen overnight.
    “It’s a process. But if you keep chipping away, if you keep swinging the hammer, eventually it starts to create that image that you want. That’s exactly what they did today,” he said.
    And when senior Kamrie Dillan crossed the finish line as the 200 meter champion, it sewed up the championship. But the girls weren’t quite finished—they still had something to prove.
    As Dillan took the blocks for the 4x400 relay, the last event of the meet, the announcer noted Chase County had won this race each of the last three state meets. No pressure there.
    Then, on the second exchange between Jordan Jablonski and Ali McNair, the two got tangled up with other runners. Jablonski went down after the handoff and McNair did some fancy stepping to avoid falling down, too.
    But perhaps the highlight of the meet came when sophomore Bryn McNair took the baton from her cousin for the anchor leg. She had already won the 400 meter gold, just got nipped at the line for the 800 meter gold and added a third place finish in the high jump to open the day.
    Bryn found herself in third place, 12-15 yards behind the leader. I thought to myself the deficit could be too much this time. Not so!
    By the first corner, she had already moved into second place and starting running down the leader. As she came into the final stretch, the announcer exclaimed McNair was leading. There was no way she was going to get nipped at the line this time.
    After she crossed the finish line, she was surrounded by her teammates as they capped off their third state championship over the last four meets.
    Hauxwell put his magic into motion again. Out of college, he never dreamed he’d be coaching girls in track. But the real magic he brings centers on the lessons of life learned through competition.
    It’s about relationships, he tells the kids. It’s not their performances that count the most—it’s the way they live their lives “each and every day as a person, the way they treat other people, the way they treat each other.”
    He wants his team to understand there’s a much bigger picture than winning. It’s all hollow without the relationships. What it’s truly about is building  those relationships and teaching life lessons.
    And as a coach, “If you’re not teaching life lessons through sports then sometimes it’s kind of pointless and we’re missing the point, not doing our job.”