“From the Intern’s Desk” is a blog detailing the preparation for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships hosted by Ohio Northern University on March 14^th -15^th 2008.  Traditionally, an intern is required to write a paper after the championships discussing what he/she has learned from the experience. The ONU Coaching Staff has decided, with the approval of the NCAA, that an on-line blog would provide student-athletes, coaches, and track & field fans the opportunity to see how a championship event is planned and executed.  It is my intent to provide a weekly update on the events leading up to the championship event.  Since, there is not much going on during the summer months the updates will not be as frequently.  I hope you enjoy these blogs.

Jake Gleason
Assistant Coach Ohio Northern University
NCAA Intern Division III Indoor National Championships 2008

The Summer Months

June, July, and August has been a quite phase of meetings with community leaders, internal representatives, and planning with the coaching staff.  This is the first championship event that I have been involved with (along with our other assistant coach Jason Maus) and sometimes the magnitude of the event seems overwhelming.  Fortunately, Brian Cole (head coach) has hosted two previous indoor championships, so we do have his experiences to rely on. The coaching staff held several meetings to discuss the general scheme of the event and we started to piece together what each of our roles will be.  Also, a large percentage of our time (mostly Brian’s) was spent filling in our part of the participation manual.  Along with that our webpage was started and information has started to be added.  But, the rest of the time was spent planning and meeting with many different people to lay the ground work for the national championships.  Most of our time was spent visiting with local community leaders and businesses.  I am amazed at how many people, outside of the university, are involved in running a successful championship event.  Meetings with the local leaders such as the head of the commerce department in Lima, and many businesses (restaurants, hotels, the department of transportation for example) took up the summer months. Now as classes begin for us, I understand how important it is to prioritize my work.  All of the coaches are involved in teaching classes and coaching in the fall.  It is important to us that we spent an appropriate amount of time preparing for the championship without sacrificing our teaching, coaching, recruiting, and family responsibilities.  Until next time….

Jake Gleason

Posted August 20^th, 2007