Team Parties Hard on St Patty's Day, Coach Packs Up Team and Leaves Before Meet

Really wrote:

Sorry but if your a track coach and think partying the night before a race can be chalked up as a "mistake" is ridiculous. I would figure out who the leader/leaders were and cut them. The athletes should be honored and appreciative they get to travel and represent their school no matter the level. This is what the problem is with our generation of leaders, bunch of wimps who are producing a wimpy culture. "Made a mistake", "Made a bad decision" or "I'mean sorry" does not cut it. NO FREE PASS. Hope coach takes care of business.

Agree with the poster who said this dude is narrow minded. I bet he's perfect and always tries to shame people like a little weak bully he is. With regards to what happened, I don't have a problem with sending them home. But I'm not gonna be butt hurt about it and try to drag it through the mud when it's really none of my business. Grow up and let it go. Good luck with the next meet and lesson learned.

Not on St Pat's, but I can remember a number of foreign athletes at a D1 powerhouse that would go out and have a half a dozen or more beers the night before a race (some of these guys ran in the finals at track nationals). Didn't seem to affect them too much (they still beat most everybody). College kids do stupid stuff.

FoShizzleMaNizzle wrote:

TritonDrunks wrote:

'Twas us

Triton Community College, representing Chicago south side. If I seen ya's I woulda bought a round.

Triton is in River Grove, not at all near the south side. It is just outside the border of Chicago's Northwest Side. It used to have a strong reputation for its programs in the trades.

Not too many Irish at Triton, lots of Mexican and Polish. It's likely no one on the team was Irish. Maybe that's what put the coach over the edge.

For decades in the 70's through the 90's, Triton was a powerhouse in wrestling and baseball. Kirby Puckett, Lance Johnson and dozens of others from the early 80's moved on to play pro baseball. Puckett, who grew up in the gang-ridden Robert Taylor Homes on the south side, became a legend with the Twins and was a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Track and Field? That's a tougher sell in the community.

Miguel "Mike" Rossi wrote:

Anyone ever run hungover or drunk and done well? Is like to hear about your experience and if you ran fueled by hate.

My sophomore year in high school we ran the Junior Olympics State XC meet the day after and on the same course as the State Championships meet. Our team placed an unexpected 4th at the State meet and we celebrated by going to the field that night to drink beer on a particularly notable hill on the course.

The next morning, hungover, the 6 or 7 of us who ran the JO race all improved upon or ran within 10 seconds of our time from the day before. The weather was virtually the same and the course was our home course so, in addition to 6 or 7 races a year, we trained on the course once a week. So we knew the course pretty well which undoubtedly helped minimize some of the effects of the hangover.

That said, it was an unusual occasion where we'd drink at all, much less to excess, the night before a race. Then again, we didn't often - if ever again - race twice in two days, either.

Really wrote:

Sorry but if your a track coach and think partying the night before a race can be chalked up as a "mistake" is ridiculous. I would figure out who the leader/leaders were and cut them. The athletes should be honored and appreciative they get to travel and represent their school no matter the level. This is what the problem is with our generation of leaders, bunch of wimps who are producing a wimpy culture. "Made a mistake", "Made a bad decision" or "I'mean sorry" does not cut it. NO FREE PASS. Hope coach takes care of business.

Schools should be appreciative that people want to do sports and allow the school to use them as part of their marketing.