Paul Byrne, La Jolla's head track coach, was on the phone from Gettysburg. "I'm in a hotel so it could be noisy," said the math teacher, submitting to an interview about this year's Vikings girls and boys track teams.
Later in the conversation, he revealed that he was in the historic town, where he is one of 12 teachers or teachers' spouses serving as chaperones on the "East Coast Experience" for 145 eighth-graders at Muirlands Middle School.
On Wed., March 28, the six-bus group, including "boys red bus" and "girls blue bus" lists, rolled into the Pennsylvania town, where the Civil War took a turn against the Confederacy despite heavy losses for the Union, after visiting Amish country in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Thursday's schedule was equally as hectic: a bus and walking tour of the battlefield, then on to Washington, D.C. to see several memorials and an opportunity "to take a photo of the White House through the fence". No slack time here. The teacher's motto: Keep 'em busy, and they won't get into trouble.
As I write this Thursday morning, the group is already activated for the day--three hours ahead of Pacific Time--facing visits tonight, after dinner, to the following memorials in D.C.: the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, and the Marine Corps War Memorial.
Whew. That sounds exhausting, just reading it.
Meanwhile, Byrne's track speedsters and jumpers are enjoying the Spring Break week off back here at home. Deyna Roberson Brookins, who coaches runners primarily, is running abbreviated or partial workouts at La Jolla High.
"It's a fun time," said Byrne, reflecting on the explosion of 175 student athletes receiving uniforms this season for the track team. That includes a humongous and talented freshman class.
That 175 number is up from 60 team members only four years ago, when Byrne took the head coaching position after a couple of years of turnover of head coaches that crippled the Vikings' continuity and the diminished the attractiveness of the program.
Now, as Brookins says, "There is a lot of excitement (around the track program). Even football players come out." One of Byrne's innovations is a middle school track meet, this year's taking place on cinco de mayo (May 5) (in Spanish, dates and months are not capitalized--you could win a grammar trivia contest with that).
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