Honoring Coach Daney

Coach Daney (center) with his wife Paulette (to his right) and family at the hall of fame induction

I had the chance to visit the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin this past week. My youngest accompanied me, so I had a traveling buddy. It has always been my style to have a child at my side at conferences and business trips.

We were there to support a local elder, Mike Daney, as he was inducted into the North American Indigenous Sports Hall of Fame for both his achievements as an athlete and as a coach.

Like Henry Rono, who I shared about a few blogs ago, Coach Daney is a legend and someone who we are fortunate to have as a part of our Albuquerque community. Hailing from the Choctaw Nation, he has been a mentor to thousands over the past five decades, coaching 41 All-Americans through Haskell Indian College and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI). His unwavering commitment to provide opportunity for Indigenous athletes to excel at the highest levels is incredible.

As we entered the ballroom where hundreds gathered to celebrate the hall of fame inductees, you could feel the power in the room. Tribes across North America represented, with sports ranging from rodeo to rowing, from boxing to wrestling.

The Twitter hashtag for the room would have been #IndigenousExcellence.

Coach Mike, like the teacher he is, continued his teaching during the weekend.

He gave generously.

He did what many servant leaders find so hard – accepting accolades and praise for his accomplishments. The night before the ceremony, he texted, “Honestly, I didn’t think this was going to be that big of a deal. But, I’ve changed my mind.”

But the most excited I saw him the entire weekend was not in receiving his award, but in rushing about the room to tell people who had been his heroes how much they meant to him. Here he was being inducted into the hall of fame, and his biggest joy was celebrating the greatness of others.

 (R to L) Coach Mike, his coach Jerry Tuckwin, and Brent Reiter, who ran under Daney as who was also inducted into the hall of fame this weekend.

To recap the teachings: give generously, accept praise and celebrate the greatness of those around you.

Mike, we celebrate your induction into the hall of fame. We are honored to learn from your words and example.

Keep running. For health. For life.

And tell everyone you pass on the trails of the Bosque that they have just crossed paths with a hall of famer. 😊

Our daughter Sihasin and Coach Mike. He gifted her the turtle and she gifted him the self-portrait

IT Issues

She texted me.

“I am having IT issues.”

“Oh no!” I thought.

I knew this condition too well. Plus, she was going to lead yoga for our group that afternoon.

“I am so sorry to hear this,” I responded. “Which leg is it affecting? Can you still make it today?”

The Iliotibial (IT) band connects our hip/pelvis (ilium) with our knee (tibia). 

IT Band Syndrome can be quite painful and often gives pain just above the knee on the outside/lateral aspect of the knee. Causes include overuse and inflexibility.

“I think I can still make it today,” she replied. “It’s not that severe.”

Reaching deep into my empathy reservoir, I shared about my recent brush with this condition. I told her that I would be sending good energy for healing her way.

No response.

Had I over-shared? Was she in too much pain to respond?

Then, after what seemed like an eternity, she responded.

I opened her text with anticipation.

“My computer is giving me fits."

She added, "Why would my leg hurt?”

I hope this makes you smile, even just a small polite smile, the type you give out of courtesy when there was an ill-fated attempt at humor in your midst. The above was taken from a conversation last week. As a doctor, I often hear things from a medical lens and thus assumed that "IT issues" was a medical statement, not a computer issue. I hope that you will be free of all types of IT issues today!

Remembering Henry

We lost Henry Rono on February 15^th at the age of 72. 

From the Kalenjin Tribe in Kiptaragon, Kenya, Henry is most famous for a 3-month span of running greatness in 1978 where he broke 4 world records. This from a boy who couldn’t walk until the age of 6 due to a bicycle accident and who didn’t start running until the age of 19. Due to Kenya’s boycotts of the 1976 and 1980 Olympics (over Apartheid) he never got a chance to shine on the biggest stage.

After living much of his life in Albuquerque, he returned home to Kenya a few years ago. He had been struggling in New Mexico for decades, and the hope was that he would find the support he needed in returning home. From being greeted at the airport with a hero’s welcome, it seemed that being back in Kenya was exactly what he needed. In fact, he was starting to get excited to coach young runners again.

You may not know this, but there is a steep, rocky hill in the foothills known by the running community as “Rono Hill”. Henry would bring runners interested in being coached by him to the hill – sort of a running initiation. Some of us met to run Rono Hill in his memory, sharing stories about him. 4 times up the hill, one for each world record.

Mbarak Hussein, a fellow Kenyan professional runner, remembers as a little boy how excited he was to meet Henry as came back to Kenya after climbing to the top of the running world. I asked him about his biggest learning from Mr. Rono and he shared this.

“Whatever he set to accomplish, he would always pursue it to the fullest with no negative thoughts. He was also honest about his life. He would tell us all, ‘I have gone to both worlds, from the very top to the lowest of the low.’”

Another local professional runner, Chokri Dhaouadi, remembers asking Henry to offer some coaching to customers of his running store. With laughter, Chokri recounts Henry giving these newbie runners who just wanted to meet him, workouts more suited for someone training for the Olympics. A frustrated Henry exclaimed to the group, “I am not asking you to fly. I am asking you to run.” Needless to say, that experiment was short-lived.

What I remember about my first meeting Mr. Rono:

He did not use many words. He didn’t need them. His presence was enough.

Henry, we will miss you.

We already are.

May you rest in peace.

A picture of Henry, myself and Isaac Dyer at a running workshop