The Combine AO | Friday, January 6, 2023| Kiewit Middle School | 5:15 AM | 20 degrees
PAX: Beaver, Cataracts, Ice Box, Wentworth, Kill Switch, Mulligan, Schnitzel, LPC, Hei Hei and YHC (Q-Tip).
QIC: Q-Tip
Promptly at 5:15 AM, I welcomed the PAX, recited the Mission, Core Principals, Disclaimer and Credo.
WARM-O-RAMA:
PAX moseyed to south side of the school for a set of WOR exercises:
Cherry Pickers x 15 IC | Tappy Taps x 10 IC | Imperial Walkers x 15 IC
We paused for a “Zen moment” to quietly focus on peace and healing. More on this during the COT.
PRE-PRE-THANG: 11s for 11
We moseyed to the west side of the school where we grabbed some wall. We did a Wall Sit, while performing 20 Air Raises. We followed up with Balls to the Wall for a 30 second count.
Rinse and Repeat.
PRE-THANG
We moseyed to the east end of the football field and performed 7 Motivators.
THE THANG
We formed 3 or 4 man teams. Perform Exercises together and then mosey 1 lap. Wait until the 6 is in to start the next exercise.
The exercises were as follows:
Werkins x 20
Air Squats x 30
Bobby Hurleys x 20 IC
Flutter Kicks x 20 IC
Carolina Dry Docks
Omaha was called at 5:46 AM. We completed 5 laps each.
6MOM:
Box Cutters x 15 IC | Low Dollies X 15 IC| American Hammers Rancid Style x 10 IC
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
PRAYERS.
We had several requests for prayers, including for Milligan’s son, Xavier.
COT.
Eleven Years ago today, I was at work in my office in downtown Omaha, when I received a text from my daughter, Jenny. It said, cryptically, “Let Mom know I’m OK.” I didn’t think much of that message at first.
Jenny had been inspired in high school by one of her teachers to become a teacher herself. She got a degree in Family and Consumer Science at UN-L, and we were all thrilled when she landed her first job with the Millard School District. She was enthusiastic about her career.
It took me a couple moments to realize there was something more to Jenny’s text that day. I went to a computer and saw there were already news reports of a shooting at her school, Millard South High School. A young man had been suspended that morning, and returned to the school at midday. He shot and killed the Associate Principal and wounded the Principal. He then drove a few blocks away and killed himself.
Jenny spent 3 hours in a supply closet with her class that afternoon until the school was cleared. It turned out the shooter was a student in one of her classes, and she’d had several hard conversations with him that semester. She was going to flunk him for the semester, because he had not turned in any work. Its reasonable to assume that had he continued into the school, Jenny might have been one of his targets.
Jenny was traumatized by this experience, and suffered all the symptoms of PTSD—sleeplessness, crying, depression. Although the school district provided counseling to students and teaches, she struggled to complete the semester. She was always looking for escape routes while in school. She was afraid to talk with students fearing they could also have a gun.
Jenny took a year off teaching, and then tried once more to return to the classroom but experienced the same anxieties. She had to give up her dream of teaching.
There are many victims to the series of senseless shootings our country experiences every week. Not just the actual victims, but the survivors, families and others are impacted. I don’t have a solution or political agenda to solve that issue, but just ask that we are all mindful that the impacts of shootings are greater than we realize and to offer prayers and thoughts for them all. The “Zen moment” we offered during WOR was intended for my daughter, Jenny, who lives across the street from the Combine AO.
We finished with a prayer.
Q-Tip
