Transitions

Finals week of the spring semester -- this week -- is an odd time.

It's a time of transition as our long three-season journey nears its conclusion. For the majority of the team, the 2010-2011 finish line has been reached. Fortunately, we still have some season left for our championship qualifiers. More on them later in the week.

We are done with the daily routine of practice, and this sudden halt is jarring. It's a nerve-jangling time for finals, final papers, planning ahead for next year or planning for a series of goodbyes.

And so it was on Sunday night, as the exhausted teams got off the buses in the fading twilight, that there was not much to say to the boys. No long run the next day. Good luck with finals.

A couple of the senior men came up to me. My natural instinct was to say, "Yeah, easy 11 tomorrow. Take is slow if you are feeling beat up. No Culinary trails because they might be too muddy. Next workout on Tuesday."

But alas ... there was nothing to say.

I couldn't tell if it was the stifling diesel exhaust spewing from the JTR bus, or maybe it was just the sudden realization that it's the end of the line for most of my seniors, but my eyes were welling up as they walked away from the last bus trip of their college careers.

Hang in there, I'm working on the MAAC results ...