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On MVTF’s conference call on Friday, May 8, the team was joined by Coach Rob Bartlett from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.  Coach Bartlett is the head track & field and cross-country coach for this small college, located in the hills not far from where the Monta Vista teams have competed in the past, both in the Fall at the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational and at the Azusa Meet of Champions in March for eight years in a row.

Coach Bartlett has been a friend of the Monta Vista program for some time.  Coach Flatow and Coach Bartlett met at USA Track and Field training courses, first at Level 2 certification courses in Las Vegas, and then at the USATF Level 3/IAAF Elite course held at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista.  Later, Occidental College athletes came to the Monta Vista track for their shake out before competing at the Stanford Track & Field Invitational.  Coach Bartlett also once helped one of Monta Vista’s nervous athletes prepare for an interview with a college coach at the athlete’s dream school–this was truly above and beyond any expectation.  Can you imagine how nice a person Coach Bartlett is, to help an athlete prepare for an interview at a competing school?  (By the way, the Monta Vista athlete crushed her interview and ended up attending her dream school!)

Coach Bartlett joined the Monta Vista team via Zoom on Friday.  Coach told us about the challenges that his team was facing during the quarantine and what the Oxy team was doing to stick together and support each other.  I hope that it was useful to understand that college teams are feeling the same things that our team is feeling; we are all in this situation together.  Coach Bartlett also talked about competing in track and cross country at the collegiate level, and answered questions about from the Monta Vista team about what college training was like, how collegiate athletes balanced academic and athletic responsibilities, what recruiting was like, and many other questions.

I hope that everyone enjoyed meeting Coach Bartlett.  Coach is the kind of person I hope that you find when you head off to college; I want people like Coach Bartlett in your lives.  I feel better knowing there are people like that in your life and looking after you when you head off into the world.

Coach Bartlett was a great visitor to our Zoom meetings, following Des Linden, Angela Duckworth, and Josh Cox on previous Fridays.  There are no promises about who might drop in next week, but why not log in to the our meetings every Friday at 2:30pm and find out?

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