Run With The Herd & Start Dancin'
If you are a college basketball fan, perhaps you've heard of the latest entry into the "Big Dance": The North Dakota State Bison!
Being from North Dakota and having returned to live here just last year, I have been following NDSU's switch in college athletics from NCAA D-II to D-I very closely. Perhaps more closely with its Men's BB team, since my old college coach once coached them during the initial years of their D-I transition. Coach Tim Miles had a huge impact on my life as a shy, humble student trainer for his MBB teams at Mayville State, and later at Southwest Minnesota State, when he jokingly asked me to transfer there when he took the job. I took him up on the joke and went with him, one of the best moves I made in my life when I look back at it. That move led me down the path of discovering more about sports performance & fitness training, and ultimately, to my career as a CSCS & Personal Trainer. Miles later led his SMSU squad to the Elite 8 Div. II tournament, and later landed the head coaching job at NDSU.
Coach Miles knows the blueprint to success, and knows how to pass that down to his athletes.
Coach Miles was NDSU's head coach during the first couple years as NDSU was transitioning to D-I competition. His teams made a huge impact right away, when they unexpectedly beat high-ranked Wisconsin, and the next year, they beat a #8 ranked Marquette. After the huge Wisconsin win, Coach Miles was on ESPN2's Cold Pizza show at the time. I taped the show, knowing he was going to be on there, and when i saw the tape at home, I was really, really happy for him & his team. I knew he'd be going somewhere with this team in the future.
Well, Coach Miles went to Colorado State 2 seasons ago, but a large chunk of his revolutionary NDSU team is still present on the current team, as he was building them up for 'that moment'...the moment of creating your own destiny...a moment of fighting for the opportunity to get a secured bid into the NCAA Final Four tournament, one of the most highly watched & anticipated events in American sports.
I was watching the game on a channel last night, the same one where NDSU first made their first impact on the MBB D-I scene: ESPN2. How fitting....how fitting that their game they were playing was for the Summit League championship and for the automatic bid to the tourney!
NDSU didn't win the game easy...they were behind for a large period of time for a large majority of the game...but they kept fighting.....
and fighting.....
and fighting.....
and finally, they went up by 2, and won the game! Summit League champs! Auto-bid to the Big Dance!
You could say that ultimate pandemonium hit the entire state like a blizzard when NDSU won...
In fact: we just got SMACKED with a blizzard up here, by the way, on Monday & Tuesday....shutting down a lot of the state with no travel advised and just about every school in the central & eastern part of the state cancelling out.
So, Tuesday night's game had quite the captive audience to watch this historic athletic event up here in good old 'NoDak'. We were still being snowed in, so what else to do than watch the Bison win!
What can you, as a runner & athlete, learn from this?
Even when you make a transition into something new, there is going to be struggles, disappointments, setbacks and brief success to bulid yourself along the way.
Not many people thought that an NDSU transition to Division-I would be viable, that they wouldn't be competitive. Many within the state of ND were saying this. Negativity was all over this change in the papers up here.
Now, these young men just shut those nay-sayers up over the course of 5 years' time: becoming one of only 2 teams that have qualified for the D-I Final Four tourney during their first year of being eligible!
So, if people are telling you that you can't get in shape, you can't try this, you can't do that...shut 'em up.
Stay dedicated, stay focused, work out with a hard-nosed attitude of "Yes, I can!"
Because if you are focused well enough and honed-in on your goals, that 7 minute mile, 6 minute mile, or even a 5 minute mile is just a barrier waiting to be shattered.
Take a lesson from the Bison, and Run with the Herd to your very own "Big Dance":
Now is the perfect time to get your Team signed up for "The Big 1" on 4.18.09!
Register at http://asapworkouts.com/1mnvr.html
Run Strong, Run Fast...
Run So As To Win!
Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com
http://asapworkouts.com
Being from North Dakota and having returned to live here just last year, I have been following NDSU's switch in college athletics from NCAA D-II to D-I very closely. Perhaps more closely with its Men's BB team, since my old college coach once coached them during the initial years of their D-I transition. Coach Tim Miles had a huge impact on my life as a shy, humble student trainer for his MBB teams at Mayville State, and later at Southwest Minnesota State, when he jokingly asked me to transfer there when he took the job. I took him up on the joke and went with him, one of the best moves I made in my life when I look back at it. That move led me down the path of discovering more about sports performance & fitness training, and ultimately, to my career as a CSCS & Personal Trainer. Miles later led his SMSU squad to the Elite 8 Div. II tournament, and later landed the head coaching job at NDSU.
Coach Miles knows the blueprint to success, and knows how to pass that down to his athletes.
Coach Miles was NDSU's head coach during the first couple years as NDSU was transitioning to D-I competition. His teams made a huge impact right away, when they unexpectedly beat high-ranked Wisconsin, and the next year, they beat a #8 ranked Marquette. After the huge Wisconsin win, Coach Miles was on ESPN2's Cold Pizza show at the time. I taped the show, knowing he was going to be on there, and when i saw the tape at home, I was really, really happy for him & his team. I knew he'd be going somewhere with this team in the future.
Well, Coach Miles went to Colorado State 2 seasons ago, but a large chunk of his revolutionary NDSU team is still present on the current team, as he was building them up for 'that moment'...the moment of creating your own destiny...a moment of fighting for the opportunity to get a secured bid into the NCAA Final Four tournament, one of the most highly watched & anticipated events in American sports.
I was watching the game on a channel last night, the same one where NDSU first made their first impact on the MBB D-I scene: ESPN2. How fitting....how fitting that their game they were playing was for the Summit League championship and for the automatic bid to the tourney!
NDSU didn't win the game easy...they were behind for a large period of time for a large majority of the game...but they kept fighting.....
and fighting.....
and fighting.....
and finally, they went up by 2, and won the game! Summit League champs! Auto-bid to the Big Dance!
You could say that ultimate pandemonium hit the entire state like a blizzard when NDSU won...
In fact: we just got SMACKED with a blizzard up here, by the way, on Monday & Tuesday....shutting down a lot of the state with no travel advised and just about every school in the central & eastern part of the state cancelling out.
So, Tuesday night's game had quite the captive audience to watch this historic athletic event up here in good old 'NoDak'. We were still being snowed in, so what else to do than watch the Bison win!
What can you, as a runner & athlete, learn from this?
Even when you make a transition into something new, there is going to be struggles, disappointments, setbacks and brief success to bulid yourself along the way.
Not many people thought that an NDSU transition to Division-I would be viable, that they wouldn't be competitive. Many within the state of ND were saying this. Negativity was all over this change in the papers up here.
Now, these young men just shut those nay-sayers up over the course of 5 years' time: becoming one of only 2 teams that have qualified for the D-I Final Four tourney during their first year of being eligible!
So, if people are telling you that you can't get in shape, you can't try this, you can't do that...shut 'em up.
Stay dedicated, stay focused, work out with a hard-nosed attitude of "Yes, I can!"
Because if you are focused well enough and honed-in on your goals, that 7 minute mile, 6 minute mile, or even a 5 minute mile is just a barrier waiting to be shattered.
Take a lesson from the Bison, and Run with the Herd to your very own "Big Dance":
Now is the perfect time to get your Team signed up for "The Big 1" on 4.18.09!
Register at http://asapworkouts.com/1mnvr.html
Run Strong, Run Fast...
Run So As To Win!
Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com
http://asapworkouts.com
Comments