Cobra Strike

While there is a lot to talk about every week, this week had a particularly impressive event occur. Because of this, I want to dedicate this entire weeks Cobra Strike to an unsung hero in our school. We talk about football a lot as it seems to draw a major crowd every Friday night. We have been talking about volleyball quite a bit as that team is a pack of rockstars winning games like thats the only thing they know how to do. We also get a chance every now and again to talk about some of the academic extra curricular events in our school being awesome like the Art program finishing a new project or FFA winning state land judging. All of those are great and I love to talk about them as they are doing this school proud every day. The program that gets less attention in this way is the Cross Country team. This is a sad truth as it is partially unavoidable. It is an event about perseverance and grit. It is also not as cinematographic as other sports. You take a picture of a runner, but you do not capture the affliction this young individual is going through. A single picture does not demonstrate them pushing through pain and heartache to keep going. Sending final results do not show that while a runner may have finished 62nd, they have shaved thirty seconds off their time since last week. These runners are only running against themselves. Pictures and social media posts do not explain this in the least and nearly anything said is a disservice to these young individuals pushing past their own boundaries to keep doing it. To ad insult to injury, results aren't instant gratification like other sports. We often have to wait until the next day for full results.

Cross Country at our school has a great story. It started as an alternative for Basketball players to keep in shape in the fall until Coach Alley started the program and made it into an honest event. With the help of Mr. Keehn and his wildlife classes, they made our cross country course into the best one in this whole state. It didn't happen over night and it wasn't without its own hardships. It took Mr. Keehn giving up weekends and countless hours planning and plotting the trails and building up the wildlife area to make it what it is today. Over the past 40+ years, the cross country program has become the pinnacle program of the entire state.

The program is currently helmed by Mr. Keehn and Mr. Lierz and they continue the tradition of making the cross country team a family event. Each and every single one of their runners feels accepted and part of the team. I can pop in any day of the week right after school to hear coach talking to his team from the heart and making them all feel accepted and part of a team.

Cross country is an animal that is on its own level that makes people better for having done it. I love the grit that these students have that do it. They do this every day but I will say it anyway. Let's go make a difference.

Derek E. Smith

During the Sabetha run, something happened that movies try to emulate but will never capture the true meaning. Here is what happened. During the girls run, a runner fell ill and had to sit down halfway through the run. Our own Jennifer Buck then chose to sit with her and help her out until the girls coaches could be notified and get there to help her out. Because of this Jennifer fundamentally gave up her own race for the sake of being there for someone else.

I have herd of runners finishing their race and then going back for someone. Or runners motivating each other to finish. But I have never witnessed someone completely give up their own race for the sake of being there for someone else. Selfless acts like this are the absolute example of sportsmanship. Scratch that, selfless acts like this are the absolute example of altruism and kindness. She cared about someone else without thoughts for her self. I guarantee she didn't think anything of it when she stopped running. She wasn't planning on her principal writing about it in his weekly new letter. She definitely wasn't thinking about the KSHSAA sportsmanship report that was filed on her behalf by the other teams coach. She was just a good person doing the right thing.

While the runners themselves are, and should be, the focus of most of our pictures, there is more often than not a certain man in the background of most of our CC pictures. Coach Keehn is there for all of his runners all of the time. He runs across the course making a point of being there to motivate his runners wherever he can be. He also infuses them with a feeling of accomplishment no matter what the race. Every single runner feels like they made a major achievement every time because of his infectious positivity.

While his team may not win the state title every year, they will win something so much more important because of the way the team is led.

Monday:

JV Volleyball Quad @ Onaga 5:00 pm

Tuesday:

V/JV Volleyball Tri @ Home 5:00 pm

FFA Dairy Cattle Judging @ Sabetha 9:00 am

Wednesday:

Picture Retakes all day

Thursday:

HS CC NEKL @ Home 4:00 pm

MS FB VS JCN @ Home 6:30 pm

Friday:

NO SCHOOL

Last day of Quarter 1

Varsity FB @ ACCHS 7:00 pm

Saturday:

Varsity VB Tournament @ Sabetha 9:00 am

JV VB Tournament @ Wabaunsee 9:00 am

I get a great many of my ideals from these two. This is my grandpa and grandma on their first date way back some 80 years ago. He taught me that being kind was more important than being right. I literally watched him give someone the shirt off of his back to someone when they were in need. While he is no longer with us, his wisdom continues into my everyday life. She is now 97 and still beats me at cards. The only thing she loves more than playing cards is her children, grand children, great grand children, and one great great grandchild.

Email: derek.smith@jhcobras.net
Website: jhcobras.net
Location: 12692 266th Rd Holton, KS 66436
Phone: (785)248-4386
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jackson.Heights.USD335