Behind the Scenes 4: Cross Country and More (final update)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Last spring during a track and field workout, Ben Gall was giving final instructions to his distance athletes.

As he was probably telling them the jillion miles they had to run, Annalisa Hamilton noticed a half-eaten cookie in his hoodie pocket.

She nudged Sierra Manzer to show her the treat and both burst out laughing. As Gall finished his instructions and began walking away, Hamilton said, "Enjoy your cookie coach."

He kind of scowled and walked off.

Always good to be chowing down on sweets while telling the athletes to run in the spring heat.

The cookie mania took off from there.

Every Wednesday workout, Gall has a cookie he takes from The Dex (NNU's cafeteria). He brings it to practice and eats it in front of his team. He apparently also has a stash of cookies in his car in case he forgets to grab one from The Dex or eats it before practice.

In his defense, though, he also runs ultra marathons covering 50 miles at a time for fun. So, I guess he can eat as many cookies as he wants.

Other Observations

• The worst driver of the trip hands down was the shuttle bus driver on the way to the airport. After a hearty meal at In-N-Out, it was definitely not what the doctor ordered.
• Speaking of In-N-Out, I'm not sure there is a better place to write stories than at this California staple.
• Bethany Danner has now moved into the top spot of my favorite cross country runners because she knows who Pearl Jam is. Seriously, what are they teaching kids in school these days?!?!
• Julia LaMar gave roses out to all of her teammates and coaches after the race. A very cool gesture. I accidentally sat on Gall's. Sorry, coach.
• If you have a chance to purchase TSA Precheck or sign up for Clear at an airport near you, I wholeheartedly suggest it. While the team was stuck in a 30-minute line, assistant athletic director Alison Larson and myself cruised right by.
• The train at the airport that Bethany Danner got stuck in has a large sign above the door that reads, "Holding the doors may cause system delays." Oops.
• The amount of family, teammates and fans at the race was really cool. It's a long drive for plenty of folks, but they made it and cheered loudly for the Nighthawks.
• This seems like a good spot to give profuse thanks to Jeff and Jana Shea, who provide NNU Athletics with cross country photos all season long. Plenty of schools are forced to use old photos because so few athletic departments travel with their cross country teams, but we can always rely on the Sheas to help out.
• Ben Gall couldn't find his van after the meet was over, so he pressed the alarm button on the key fob. We quickly realized where the van was at, but he couldn't get it to turn off so it was blaring away as we crossed the large parking lot.

And with that, I'm signing off. As always, it was a blast sharing Behind the Scenes with you. See you at the next national tournament NNU qualifies for.

Behind the Scenes 4: Cross Country and More (Nov. 23, pre-race update)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Northwest Nazarene associate head cross country coach Ben Gall is no stranger to national cross country meets.

In college, he ran in the NCAA Division II meet for Western State as a freshman. His team won the title. He then transferred to Eastern Oregon, where his team qualified for the NAIA national meet all three years he was there finishing in the top five all three years.

So, on Saturday morning as the Nighthawks prepared for their first NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships appearance, Gall did his best to steady their nerves.

He had individual talks with all the girls the night before and has worked hard to get them to have fun in the two weeks since they qualified, while also staying focused on the task at hand.

Gall said one of the biggest things this group has going for them is that they rely on each other for a lot of things and that hasn't changed with all of the attention they have received the last two weeks.

Their biggest fears coming into the meet is the unknown and whether they can be competitive. Gall has repeatedly pointed out to them that they defeated seven nationally-ranked teams at the West Regionals, so it's not like they came out of a not-so-good region.

Time will tell how they finish Saturday, but needless to say just reaching this meet is a huge accomplishment. Only one NNU women's cross country team has ever reached a national meet as the 2000 squad went to the NAIA nationals, finishing 13th.

Other Observations

• If the team runs poorly, you can blame me. While we were driving over to the meet I somehow got into a discussion with Sage Earnest about how her dad runs a pollinating bee company. She said she has worked for him since she was a freshman in high school and you can just call her Bee Girl. Which led us down the wormhole into a discussion about Pearl Jam, their song Bee Girl, the famous video from the 1990s. Soon, the girls were all watching the video and I was distracted from my duties as navigator. We missed our exit and had to go circle and come back. We were only a few minutes late. Please don't tell the very punctual Danny Bowman, who remained behind at the hotel to bring Tyler Shea later.
• Gall and I were stunned to learn that not a single girl in our van had ever heard of Pearl Jam. They were pretty sure they had heard of Nirvana. I guess we are old.
• At breakfast, the waitress asked Heidi Nisly if they were here for a volleyball tournament. It must be because of how tall the team is. Ha.
• Gall said at his breakfast he was eating with a coach from Michigan and a server seemed surprised that someone would come all the way from Michigan to California for a track meet on a golf course. And a flat golf course at that, considering California has a mountain that is 48,000-feet high. Umm.
• Gall and Danner enjoyed a 50-meter race in the hallway of our DoubleTree hotel last night. Danner won.
• Gall had raced Heidi Nisly in a 50-meter race to Olive Garden earlier this season. Gall won that one.
• The highlight of the trip so far is Gall's love of clothes shopping. When we pulled into lunch Friday, the girls went ga-ga over the Nordstrom Rack and something called Loft. Gall deadpanned that Nordstrom Rack is his favorite store to shop at. Apparently, he hasn't bought himself any clothes since he got married and going clothes shopping makes him very tired.

Behind the Scenes 4: Cross Country and More (Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m. update)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The entire team gathered into the coaches hotel room for dinner, fellowship, a devotional, discussions about the race and a bedtime story.

Yes, a bedtime story.

Head coach Danny Bowman has read a bedtime story on every road trip this season and continued the tradition Friday, reading something called The Nose Book.

The moral of the story appears to be that if you didn't have a nose you couldn't smell or wear glasses.

Also during the meeting, Heidi Nisly gave the final devotional of the season, talking about John 15.

She encouraged her teammates to run valiantly and with confidence.

The coaches then went over what Saturday will look like from a travel perspective, food, the race and generally what to expect.

Both coach Bowman and Gall have been at the national meet before and they are trying to prepare their young team for the craziness of the day that awaits.

The room is full of quiet optimism and confidence.

Other Observations

• We ate lunch at Jersey Mike's, possibly in homage to assistant track and field coach Oscar Duncan, a New Jersey native. Guessing Danny Bowman is missing his partner in crime.
• While at Jersey Mike's plenty of people couldn't decide what to order. Ben Gall couldn't decide what to get despite being in line for about 20 minutes. Apparently, ordering food gives Gall anxiety. He's a chill guy pretty much everywhere else in life, but not when it comes to ordering at restaurants.
• In related news, Gall ordered the meatball and decided to get the Gigantic size – roughly 16 inches or so. Gall asked the worker if anyone ever eats an entire gigantic sub and the worker said no. Gall asked if he ate his entire sandwich would they take his picture and put it up on the wall. Well, 30 minutes later, Gall had wolfed down his meatball sub. He went inside and didn't get a photo. It's one of the great disappointments of the trip.
• The team attended the banquet Friday night at the California State Railroad Museum. We enjoyed hors d'oeuvre and the museum in general. Bethany Danner was a finalist for the Elite 90 Award, which rewards the top academic male and female athlete who qualified for the national meet. Danner has a 4.0 GPA.
• To get into the banquet you had to have a ticket and we had enough – until we got there. When we somehow lost one in our van. When we got to the front of the line, Gall tried to talk his way in but the lady denied him. Your intrepid Sports Information Director overheard someone ask for their ticket back as a souvenir. So, he claimed he wanted one for keepsakes and instead met Gall around the corner, gave him the ticket and Gall snuck in. I have now justified my presence on this trip.
• The rest of the cross country athletes who did not qualify for nationals drove down in two separate cars to cheer on the teams tomorrow. The highlight of the trip was when a wheel flew off a truck in front of them, bounced over the median and hit an ambulance.
• Per sources, Julia LaMar's nickname is Taco. Like Taco DelMar.
• Bowman started choking on a piece of onion and no one moved to help him. Awkward.
• The women's team was discussing all of the weird callouses, in-grown toenails, blisters, etc. they have received from running. Sierra Manzer seemed especially proud of her very thick pinkie toenail.
• Bowman pronounces buffet, buff-et like Jimmy Buffet. The team wasn't sure what to make of that.
• Apparently, Bethany Danner is the type of person who is very nice and allows others to go in front of her in lines and into doors, etc. The team said they hoped she doesn't act like that tomorrow. And then they joked about how she was going to elbow people during the race and at the airport she would throw people out of the way.
• There are rules about not wearing sleeves or pants under their uniforms. Freshman Gabe Martin wore sleeves at regionals and he loudly announced that sleeves are where it's at. He then said that since he didn't qualify, perhaps they aren't so great after all. Gall mentioned there was a reason Martin drove to the meet and didn't fly.
• Kalen Johnson, Sage Earnest and Tyler Shea have somehow escaped observations so far. I'll try to rectify this tomorrow.

Behind the Scenes 4: Cross Country and More (Nov. 22, 12:30 p.m. update)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – This season the teams came up with a game for their road trips.

The Van Challenge.

Head coach Danny Bowman does detailed itineraries, including seat assignments for the vans they travel in.

Those athletes are together the entire trip and then are mixed back up on subsequent trips.

The scoring works like a normal cross country meet, with Bethany Danner totaling up the scores after each weekend.

Coach Ben Gall's van took a large lead halfway through the season until he noticed some fishy van assignments taking place. All of the top kids were suddenly together in Danny's van on a few trips.

We'll try to track down the scoreboard before tomorrow's race. Because honestly, what is more important this weekend: the national meet or the Van Challenge?

Other Observations

• The Sacramento airport has a train you ride from the Alaska Air terminal to the main terminal. While we were all crowding on, Bethany Danner got stuck in the door. Thankfully it opened back up rather than taking off down the track with her stuck in it.
• While walking through the car rental lot, some of the team was singing Christmas music. Despite that being in clear violation of International law, which states that Christmas music isn't allowed until after Thanksgiving.
• Annalisa Hamilton rarely visits NNUSports.com, which is the website this intrepid reporter is in charge of. Annalisa is now moving down my list of favorite cross country runners.
• When asked to describe the difference between Bowman and Gall's driving styles the consensus was: Bowman is a fast, cautious driver and Gall is a slow, reckless driver.
• Gall immediately lived up to his reputation when he nearly drove over the giant spikes in the rental car lot, despite the sign that says "Do not enter. Severe damage will occur to your vehicle."
• When we arrived at the course for practice, Bowman had locked his team in his van while he went to take care of some official coach stuff. That van was convinced if they opened the doors the car alarm would go off. After one unnamed athlete climbed out the window, they were finally convinced that they could simply unlock the door from the inside.
• Most of the team slept on the flight, but Heidi Nisly spent her time grading quizzes. She is a teacher's assistant for the English department.

Behind the Scenes IV: Cross Country and More (Nov. 22, 8:30 a.m. update)

BOISE AIRPORT – When Northwest Nazarene senior Bethany Danner was trying to decide if she was going to come to the Nampa school as a high school senior one thing helped her make her decision.

Ice cream.

Danner swears that then college freshman Sierra Manzer, who she had competed against throughout high school, told her the team ate ice cream every day.

"They told me they ate ice cream every night after practice," Danner said. "I came to be disappointed that they didn't eat ice cream once that year and they didn't eat ice cream at all my freshman year."

Danner, Manzer and Annalisa Hamilton, Heidi Nisly, Sage Earnest, Kalen Johnson and Julia LaMar all qualified for the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships scheduled for Saturday morning in Sacramento, Calif. The group will be joined by Tyler Shea, who earned an at-large berth for the men's race.

While it will be nearly 70 degrees in Sacramento, I doubt they will be eating much ice cream tomorrow.

Other Observations

• Heidi Nisly and Sage Earnest shot free throws as part of an in-game promo at a recent men's basketball game. They went 0-for-7 to start before Nisly made one at the buzzer. Thinking they should stick to cross country.
• At that basketball game, the team was being honored at halftime. While they gathered, head coach Danny Bowman asked what exactly they were supposed to do. Coach Ben Gall said, "We used to do this every year at Cal Baptist." Solid humble brag.
• It's hard to tell if Heidi Nisly is more worried about tomorrow's race or whether she passed a test in the class she has with Ben Gall.
• On a recent road trip, an unnamed coach was driving one of the school's newer vans that is a high-clearance vehicle. As they circled the ramp up the parking garage and tried to pull onto the second floor, the van became wedged on the low ceiling. The van behind them was forced to back down the circle ramp, while the wedged van was unstuck and then they continued up to the third floor which has higher ceilings. We drove an old school 12-passenger van for this trip. No high-clearance required.
• My brother, Mick, and I used to joke that the reason I didn't play college sports was because of my severe anger/competitiveness problems growing up. If you played intramurals with me in college, you are probably aware of that (punted a basketball over the upper bleachers before being kicked out of a game once). My new reason is the horrific travel hours. When we gathered at the gym to depart this morning at 6:30 a.m. the baseball team was coming out of the gym after working out. No one needs to work out that early!
• In other news, the real reason I didn't compete in college sports is because I'm slow and can't jump. I'll stick to writing about them.
• Rumor had it that the team wasn't very excited about me coming on this trip because of this here blog. Behind the Scenes is mortally offended.
• Danny Bowman ran into a 1998 NNU grad and his wife at the airport who had just read a story about Tyler Shea. He was excited to meet all the cross country runners and wished them luck. The Nazarene network is everywhere.