Serendipity (1)

I love that word... happiness found in an unexpected place or by mistake somehow heightens the experience and you feel more ecstatic than in a usual jubilant moment. Serendipity, unfortunately, works the other way as well... dissappointments can be equally magnified when you don't expect them. We as sentient beings seem to steel ourselves for joys or hurt if we know what's coming, but an experience that hits us square between the eyes when we're least expecting it seems to be incredibly overexaggerated.

John and I had this experience this weekend at the final rounds of trials for the girls' quad sculls. We seat-raced a number of the girls for a few spots in the five boats and some of the results were quite unexpected. A few that we thought would perform didn't, and one or two raced better than I have ever seen them do...

The announcements of the results after the racing shocked some, and I can't say that I enjoyed them, but the changes were made for a reason and we will see in the next few weeks if they have made a difference... both John and I are sure that they have.

I mentioned in another post that I hate to announce the results of selections since someone will invariably be disappointed... and the same was true on Saturday. Athletes have to understand that while it's difficult to justify the reasons for dropping someone when he/she is still emotional from the shock of the decision, how diffucult will it be to explain the justification for not promoting a person who has performed well? It will be impossible... and pretty damn stupid since we're trying to get the fastest crews possible.

I just hope that they'll see the bigger picture... that John and I are trying to get the age group to perform as a whole, and that every rower has her part to play... no matter which seat they're sitting in. A major part of our jobs as coaches is to get them to see that and to fight to make the crew that they're a part of as fast as possible. We have to make the fifth, fourth, third and second races and training as big a deal as the first quads training is... we must just keep that light burning bright in their eyes.