My Coach's Moment

Second edition of #mcm coming right up, fresh off the pavement! For this week's post the coach was definitely inspired by our current situation - driving home from Wyoming. Again I must say, thank God for the iPhone's blogger app. Our ETA is 3 am... And as much as I love y'all, I'm not about to be blogging when this ship docks in Brenham. Unless y'all want me to completely lose my personal verbiage sensor. For which I might regret. I digress... 

This week's #mcm :: road trips and livestock judging. 

The two really go hand-in-hand. If you plan on judging at the collegiate level, you better be prepared to sit in a car/van/SUV/cardboard box for hours on end. Simply put, no matter where you live, you don't have access to every type of stock or an endless supply of classes - plus you aren't going to be close to every single contest. You sort of learn how to live out of a vehicle. That means learning how to work up sets and giving them while the vehicle moving (pack your Dramamine and a helmet), finding ways to pass the time, figure out the most comfortable position to catch some z's, avoiding foods that will make you 'that person', timing/controlling how much liquid you intake so you don't become 'that person', and be willing to be someone's pillow, punching bag, game partner and general entertainer.

You think I sound crazy? Pah! For those of you who have judged, you are nodding your head to every word in the above sentences. Just how it is. However, with those preparatory expectations, road trips are also where you make some of your best, life-long friends. The connection you make with your teammates is one that can never be broken. The memories you share with these crazy cats will be some of the best memories of your life. The coach and I find ourselves laughing while we travel over stories from our own teams.

There is another aspect to being on the road, and that's the drive home. Sometimes the drive home from a contest can be the best you will have. Then again, it could also be the most brutal. How you fair at a contest typically sets the mood for the next few hours stuck in a vehicle packed with emotions coming from your coach, teammates and yourself. The longer the trip, the more miserable or grand a drive can be. Either way, you are still enduring these hours with your teammates, thus increasing that bond. Unless you are 'that person' who decided to reenact scenes from Animal House post contest. No one likes the kid holding the barf bag. Just FYI. 

Covering the Nation's highways in a judging van can be the greatest miles of your life. Enjoy them. They will fly by in an instant. 

Final thought - never leave your judging van unlocked in a stock show parking lot, overnight or around Jeff Nemecek. (Love you jeffy!)