Chapter 76

At our next Taekwondo class, we warmed up and stretched as usual, then we ran through our stance, thrust, jab and kick routines we had learned early on in our training. Then, I learned today was to be the beginning of my true martial arts training. Garrick tapped my shoulder and when I turned, he told me, “Rick, today you and I are going to begin full contact training. We will start out slow, but I want you to use all you have learned to strike, thrust and kick with full force. Be aware, I will counter your attack and I will attack you, while expecting the same in return. As I said, we will start out slow and as we proceed, we will pick up the action. You know the rules and you know the routines. Today, you will use your body and mind with the comfort and knowledge of your practice routines. You and I will attack and counter much the same way as you and your team do on the football field. When you see an opening, take it. When I see an opening, I will take it and from that, you will learn to read my offense and my defense. You are good, but today, we are going start the training process that will make you one of the best Texas has ever seen! Keep in mind, though we are training and we are friends today we are opponents in a competition.”

With that we faced each other, bowed and assumed our step-forward-stance to begin. Though we were wearing full sparring gear and pads with padded gloves, I knew that any moment, Garrick could take me out. This made me pull from all the moves, blocks, kicks, jabs and training routines I had learned. As I punched and counter-punched, he attacked and hammered me. I saw real quick, he was not going to pamper me and that thought made me even more aware of why I was here.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Brandy and Marilinn had squared off when Garrick and I did. After thirty minutes straight of fighting for my life, he called for a break and was I glad. When I turned, there was Marilinn and Brandy, still going at it as they stood toe to toe, hammering each other.

DAMN, is My Girl ever good!

I looked around and the whole class was watching as the two of them went at each other. I knew Brandy was in the same boat here, that I had been in with Garrick. Marilinn could have taken her out at any time, but she was training a fighter, she was not here to knock-out a student.

Before we left, Garrick told me that soon, I would train with Gage. Gage looked at me and we bumped fists. I knew my martial arts training was about to take a much bigger step, maybe even a leap off the cliff.

Later at the house, there was Cobb, Enya, Ben and Em with us. Aroya and Anitra would be cleaning houses until late, Toro and Kalita were having dinner with his parents so they could discuss his and Kalita’s plans to graduate from high school a year early.

Cobb and Enya had only been taking classes less than three weeks, but after classes during that time, we had worked with them when they came home with us.

Enya was the first to talk about Brandy and Marilinn sparring with full contact when we moved the table and chairs back.

“Brandy, I want you to train with me just like you did with Marilinn in class today. I’ll never forget seeing you like that, as long as I live I want to be as good as you are. I don’t give a shit if you beat me into the floor, teach me how to do what you do as good as you do.”

Brandy wanted to be sure, “Enya, are you sure? You and Jerry have come a long way over the past month, and you’ve both picked it up really quick, but we first need to start out with no-contact sparring. Just to let you get used to it at that level. That’s the way we were trained. Besides, you’re a good four inches taller than me and you’ll leave a lot of body exposed at first until you get used to sparring.”

“Then train with me the way you and the others were trained.”

Cobb spoke up as Brandy and Enya donned their sparring gear. “Dalton, I want some of the same! Don’t kill me, but show me how you do what you did back there at the studio. I know Garrick is a Grand Master, but you, my friend, gave him hell at times. There was once or twice that you staggered him. I have got to learn how you do that and make it look so easy!”

“Get your gear on. We’ll practice no-contact sparring for a week or two first. I’m not going to be responsible for you getting hurt.”

“Ben?” I heard Em say his name in an odd way and looked at her as she told him, “I want some of the same. I’m like Jerry, don’t kill me or maim me, but train with me like Rick and Brandy do with each other. I’ll only get better if you push me, and help me learn. I want to be the second best female in our class and I want to compete as an amateur as soon as Garrick and Marilinn tell me I am ready.”

Ben looked at me for an answer and I told him, “Brandy and I started out, no-contact sparring, then we began sparring with limited contact. Pretty soon, I had to be careful, because she was picking up on my moves and countering with blows of her own. Now, we spar full contact, but we don’t kick and we don’t take head blows. I don’t hit her breasts but I hammer her abs, hips and ribs as she comes at me with everything she’s learned...

“Em and Enya have abs just as firm and just as defined as Brandy, give her a taste of some limited contact and let her swing away as you block and counter.”

He nodded, then asked, “Will you swap up and train with me? I want to be able to spar full contact with Gage or Garrick. I heard Garrick tell you that soon, you get Gage. I don’t want to be left behind, Rick! I want to be second best male student of Taekwondo in our class!”

With this new, competitive attitude of My Girl and my friends, we were dedicating ourselves to stop at nothing short of a Black Belt! Already, I wanted to have Kalita and Toro involved in full-contact sparring with the rest of our close group of friends taking martial arts classes. With those two, we’ll have to keep them in check. They are just as competitive as Brandy, and Brandy is like a young Pit Bull...

When it came time for Ben and me to square off, it was hard for me to look into the face of my best friend in the world, and tear into him the way I had with Garrick. But very quickly, I learned he was just as serious about training for Taekwondo, as he is about playing football. In a matter of minutes, Ben and I were just as competitive with each other as we were with others in the class. This is what we needed now we can compete head to head without worry of hurt feelings or bruised friendships.

Up until now, we had been learning how to use the starting blocks, how to handle the baton on our exchanges, and trying out for different events in track and field.

The first Monday in February we began training for real. We learned that each school would have seven meets this season before district trials. I also learned that each member of a team could only compete in three running events per meet, but could enter five total events. I already knew I wanted to run the 100 Meter Dash and the 200 Meter Dash. Coach Dunavant was supposed to pick a relay team today and I was hoping to run in one of the relays as my third event. We had yet to actually run a timed relay, but the coaches had each of us practicing exchanging the baton handing-off and receiving, as if we were in a relay. There is only a twenty meter stretch marked on the track in each lane where the baton can change hands. A relay team will be penalized or even disqualified if the exchange isn’t made inside that stretch.

I never knew there was so much to learn about running track. There’s a lot more to it than just picking the fastest runners, lining them up, and letting them race.

Coach Dunavant and his assistants had been in a huddle with note pads and pens before they walked over to where we standing.

“OK, Men, here’s what we’ve decided about the relay teams. First I want Soto, Gonzales, Bradshaw, and Dalton to stand over here to my right ... You four will be our 4X100 Meter Relay Team. We picked you four because we intend to win that relay each and every conference meet we attend this year, concluding with wins at District and State.

“You four men go with Coach Lacefield. We’ve timed each of you in the hundred meter dash and now we’re going to time you in the 4X100 Meter Relay. You had better give it your best, because you’ll only run this relay twice a day in practice before our first meet.”

As we walked away, I heard Coach Dunavant call out Bolden, Cobb, Davis, James. Then I heard him say, 4X200 Meter Relay Team.

We had practiced the relays, but according to the coaches we had never been timed. They told us the same thing about the 100 Meter Dashes, too Then, they timed us.

“Garcia, you’ll run the first leg.

“Soto, you’ll run the second leg.

“Bradshaw, you’ll run the third leg.

“Dalton, you’ll run anchor.

“Beginning with the District Meet, only the two best teams from each conference, will qualify for State in each track event. Masonville has been good in the past Now, we’re going to be the best in State over the next three to four years.

“We’ve never won the 4X100 relay in District Relays and we’ve never had a 4X100 relay team entered in a State Meet. We picked you four for this team because we want to take first place in each of the seven conference meets we enter this year, and we want to bring home first place trophies in District and State this year.”

“Dalton, this will be your third event in each of the meets we’ll enter this year. We’re expecting big things from you. You have the speed and determination to win every race you enter. Your team members and your coaches are anticipating long-standing records to fall when you run!

“You men get it right, and all of you will come home with First Place Medals during the season, with District and State topping off a great track season. Now get over here and loosen up. We want this to be your best effort yet.”

The starting lines for the relays are staggered in each of the eight lanes, to compensate for the extra distance each lane is longer, than the lane to the inside. Therefore, each runner and each team, runs the same distance, regardless of the lane they are assigned. Today, we were lined up in lane four. In the shorter relays, up to and including the 4X200 Meter Relay the, starting blocks are used to start the race, then the next three members of the team are spaced at 100 meter intervals around the track in their assigned lane. Once the race starts, the relay contestants have to stay in their assigned lanes the entire distance, or be disqualified. The second, third and fourth runners in a relay, must be standing, or jogging in place, until their teammate with the baton enters the exchange zone. Then he starts running, as his teammate comes up behind him with the baton held out for the exchange. They have twenty meters to make the exchange. Once the next runner has the baton, his race is on until he runs his hundred meters and exchanges the baton again or in my case, finishes the race.

When the starter pistol was fired, Jimi was off and running as if he were actually running a timed race in a track meet. If each of us could run a ten second hundred meter, we will come in at - or about forty seconds. We knew we could do it, because the second, third, and anchor runner - start their leg with a running start inside the exchange zone as they take the baton.

We were told that the state high school record was 39.76 seconds set back in 1998. We wanted that record!

Jimi was flying when he came up behind Martine. I looked back over my shoulder at them from my position on the other side of the track as they made their exchange without losing a step. Martine and Jimi can both fly around the track, and today, Martine was really kicking as he ran around to hand-off to Mickey. My heart was beating like a machine-gun firing, though this was just a practice race. When Mickey took the baton, he was coming up behind me fast, as I started running. He entered the exchange zone, yelling for me to “go, go, go“ then slapped the baton in my open right hand as I reached back toward him without looking. I was already hitting my stride. I had the baton firmly in my grip, and by the time my arm came forward, I was running toward the finish line like I was trailing in the race. I had no idea what time we had recorded in our first trial run, but I knew it was a fast one. When I crossed the finish line, the others were coming across the infield and Coach Lacefield was running to meet us. Then I saw Coach Dunavant coming our way, pumping his fist in the air.

We looked up at the scoreboard to see our time flashing 39.65 seconds. We had unofficially broken the State High School Record by .11 hundredths of a second! To us, this was huge! To the coaches, though they praised us, they told us they expected no less than a record time.

Our first conference meet was Friday, February, 27 at Fair Oaks. We played the Fair Oaks Red Raiders in football last year and we have them on our upcoming Div. 2 schedule again this year, as our fourth game of the season, which happens to be our first away game.

There are ten schools in our 6-A Conference and all of them will be represented in each of the seven conference track meets we’ll have this year. Our sixth meet of the season will be held on our new track and field complex. The coaches and all the members of the team were glad we’d get to perform before our hometown crowd for one meet this year.

Our seventh meet will be the Brazos River High School Outdoor Track and Field Invitational in Waco on Friday and Saturday, April 10th and 11th ... one week before District Finals. This meet will feature the top high school teams from all across Texas who are invited to attend. On Friday, the qualifying heats would be run and the qualifying field events would also be conducted, at the same time. We have two guys entered in the field events, from our Maverick’s football team who are going to be hard to beat. Harlan in the Javelin Throw and Riggler in the Shot Put.

Coach Dunavant told us that by the time we met in Waco, everyone would know about us, and would be at their best ... and so would we!

Fair Oaks is only a three hour drive, but we gathered at our new sports complex at 7:30 Friday morning for the trip over there. The meet starts at 2:00 with some of the field events first, and the coaches wanted us to eat a light lunch at 10:30 and then have plenty of time to relax before we started our warmups.

We knew we had a good track and field team, we just didn’t know how good the other teams were which we’d be competing against. Up until now, we had only been racing against the clock on our sprints and relays. There hasn’t been any runners on the tracks at the same time we were. We were excited as a team, and I was looking forward to running in the hundred and two hundred meter dash with runners competing against me.

Though there was plenty of sunshine, the weather was cool, with the wind only slightly curling the banners on the poles. We wore our warmups as we stretched and loosened before the start of the events. My 100 Meter Dash was the third event from the top and I was anxious to see how I matched up to the other sprint runners in our conference.

Our 4X100 Meter Relay was scheduled as the sixth event and I’d have plenty of time to catch my breath, relax, loosen up, and warm up again before the relay. My third and final event of the day would be the 200 Meter Dash, which was scheduled as the tenth event for the day. Again, I would have plenty of time to get a drink, relax, then warm up for my last race.