Coach Furlong

By: Shawn Gregg II

Just get to the finish line…  Give it your all… You are almost there… Don’t let them beat you without fighting… God this sucks… FINALLY!! 

I collapse. 

“It’s ok if you run JV next season, Arrowhead has some good athletes.” People would tell me, implying they do not expect me to go anywhere anytime soon in track and field. 

I checked the time; it was better than the last race, but I was still miles behind the other athletes on my team. They were right—from the way I saw it, I was not doing anything special. That was the same view for everyone except one.

At Arrowhead Union High School, there is a coach for the Track and Field team who gives his time and dedication to the athletes and the betterment of the team. This person is Coach Furlong, EJ, Furly, and/or Santa Claus. He goes by many names, but what is less ambiguous than his name is how he treats the athletes that he coaches. 

Coach Furlong spends his days creating, finding, and going through new ways to make everyone better. He goes out of his way to give constructive criticism, to find potential, and to find the best in people.

I spent every waking moment trying to get better quietly in spite of what people had to say about me, and I still saw unsatisfactory results. Which drove me to end up actually talking to one of the coaches. I went to talk to Coach Furlong about getting better and that may have been one of the best decisions in my athletic career. 

We talked for what felt like hours, he took out his computer and brought up data, gave me insight, talked me through things. I felt that not only did he care, but he had a passion to help me. By the end of our conversation, he showed me that all of the work I put in can lead to something that isn’t just another JV meet. 

He noticed I would beat myself up on any minor setback. He taught me that my worth is more than what I put on a resumé, he taught me that progress is not linear, and that I didn’t need to break olympic records every week.

What we talked about grounded me. With everything being so up in the air and having as many questions as I do, let alone the hundred other athletes getting the same help. There is so much more to say about him than just my story, or even in these few of words, it hardly does Coach Furlong any justice. All I can say is thank you for all the support that you have given and continue to give me because who knows where I would be without it.