snubbed?

RHS Track and Field held their annual awards banquet Wednesday night. It followed the typical format. The jumping coach presented awards to best rookie jumper (all awards are given to both male and female), most improved, and most valuable. Then the throwing coach did the same. Next up was the sprinting coach. He did the females first. So far, everything had gone just as expected. These awaards banquets aren't filled with surprises. Everyone knows who the best are so the awards are almost a mere formality.

Or so we thought...

The sprinting coach does have a tough job with the male sprinters because he has three 400m runners who are amazing! They finished 1,2, and 4 at the State Championships. At any given meet any one of the three could come out on top. Still, we all expected Clay to get the MVP since he took 1st at State and just overall had a better year than the other two. So, it was a bit of a shock when the coach announced Michael as the MVP. Hmm... unexpected but maybe okay.

Then the distance coach got up to do his awards. Rookie of the year. Check! Most Improved. Check! MVP ...Erin. What? Who gives the MVP to the 2nd best? Even Erin was looking a little confused. The coach talked about how Erin would be moving soon and how if she'd been ere she'd have continued contributing and maybe broke McKayla's records. I began thinking, so that's it. It's a sentimental award. Okay. Plus, maybe they didn't want to give the award to McKayla 3 years in a row.  Okay.  The boys' distance awards went exactly as expected and the coaches wrapped up.

Or did they?

Next thing we know Coach Hutchings is up there again. He said, "My wife keeps texting me "what about Clay?". He then goes on to explain that the coaches decided this year to award an overall MVP for the entire track and field team. So, Overall Male MVP goes to Clay and Overall Female MVP goes to McKayla.

Surprise! I guess the coaches can throw us a little off-balance and keep us on our toes a bit.

McKayla ended up with a really nice trophy, a hoodie, and a starving student card. Nice!