Greer Middle College coach David Smith talks about the planned trip to Disney and how to adjust after the trip was cancelled.
For the past four years one of the highlights of our season is our trip to run in the Disney Cross Country Classic at the ESPN Sports Complex and of course going to Disney World. Like everybody else, I was keeping a close eye on the weather and tracking Hurricane Matthew. I knew we may have a serious problem when Coach (Eric) Cummings texted me at 7:50 to let me know that Riverside had been shut down on their trip, they were supposed to leave at 8 a.m. I still felt that we had a chance of going because the forecast in Orlando for Saturday still looked good. Then Matthew decide to change course, taking aim right at Florida.
Eve Hofmann, who is our event planner and communications director started making phone calls to the hotel, restaurants, Universal and the bus company. Ryan Summey, one of our school board members contacted Disney about their plans and the waiting and worrying began. We were told that Disney would make a decision about the meet at 3 p.m., it actually came at 4:30. We spent the rest of the day on the phone and on the FLRUNNERS discussion page trying to get an idea of what was going on.
The more we heard about school closings, evacuations and hurricane warnings in Orlando, the more we realized there was going to be some serious issues in Florida. We decided to cancel the trip at about 1:30. One of the best comments I heard was from a coach in New Jersey who said they were canceling as well because he couldn't "in good conscious load 17 girls up in a plane and fly into a hurricane."
The hardest part for me was telling the kids we weren't going to Disney World. I had told them to check with me during the day and I'd keep them informed of any changes. I had said that we were going unless they closed Florida, well they did. I hoped to use this as a teaching moment and when we met after school for practice I shared with them that this was only an inconvenience to us, not a life altering event. They were all wearing super hero t-shirts in honor of Jacob Hall. I told them that for his family and all the kids at Townville Elementary, they had a life altering event. I shared with them that there will be folks who will lose their homes, their jobs and even their lives because of this hurricane, all we lost was an opportunity to run a meet and go to Universal.
I feel their disappointment, we've been planning this trip since last spring, Eve Hofmann has spent hours and hours putting this together, it's a job getting 67 kids and parents all together and ready for a trip like this, she is definitely a Blazer hero.
Some of our seniors, and their parents, have never missed a trip to Disney, they don't know what it's like to not have this trip. This has always been a great team bonding experience for us, even the year we spent the night at a truck stop in Savannah when our bus broke down and we didn't get to Disney until 5 a.m. in the morning the day of the race. Ahh yes, great memories! Next year John Olson, you better plan on going with us and help document the Blazer Experience at Disney World, cause we are going back!
After all the emotion and tears that come with such a big disappointment we actually had a great practice yesterday and we'll load back up today, practice hard and start getting ready for Nov. 5 in Columbia. Our goals for the year haven't changed, we want to be the best that we can be when we hit Sandhills for the state championship. You learn a lot about yourself and your kids with how well you handle adversity, well this is it, how are we going to respond to this? I pray that we respond like Champions! Please pray for everybody on the coast!