When you’re onto something good, you just know.

June 2022

You know because it takes no convincing. Your heart and internal compass align, and your soul will feel on fire.

I relocated to the radiant city of Portland in early February of this year, ready to roll up my sleeves and build this club. For the past four years I have proudly represented Valor Track Club out of California after meeting west coast head coach and founder Jorge Jabaz at a local race I hopped in. Southern California is saturated with clubs and the competitive scene is alive and well. From my first interactions with Coach Jabaz I was bought in and excited to run for Valor. He was so authentic and passionate about the start of his club which was brand new as of 2018. I mean you could feel the enthusiasm oozing out of him as he explained the vision and mission for VTC, and what it means to run with Valor.

Bold.

Brave.

Ready to battle.

And that is what it means to run with valor. BBR lol.

These traits are in all of us and are simply part of the human condition and will to survive that we have adapted to in order to thrive on this planet. It’s easy however to lose touch with ourselves and our gifts when we get caught up in the rat race of life. I think people are inherently great at self-sabotage, especially these days when we are bred to be critiques which manifests as us ultimately critiquing ourselves and comparing where we are at with our piers.

I’ve seen self-sabotage to its highest degree with athletes I have coached or worked with. Sometimes it shows up as finding and convincing yourself you may have a catastrophic injury right before championships which is more often something simple like a tight IT band that just needs to be worked out properly. By having a reason to doubt our potential gives us a way out if things don’t go as planned.

We are here to shatter those doubts, knock down those barriers and build confidence through personal development and team comradery. I had the privilege of working under Steve Scott the legendary miler at California State University, San Marcos. There are many lessons I learned from Steve but one thing I stole from him and preach to this day that he would always say to the athletes or recruits is “this is track and field, not life or death”. When you can truly adopt that philosophy is when you will start having more fun training and competing. It’s also infectious, so the more people in a group that are tapped into that mindset, the more it spills over to the group and uplifts the team as a whole. And team is what we are all about.

My goal is to build a team unlike any other. To grow a family of all types of people and abilities all striving to be their best self. Something that brings you right back to your favorite team experience or to be that experience you may never have had. We are not a club where everyone is all one of the same. We welcome anyone to VTC that is dedicated and passionate about attacking their goals. As a college recruiter, I don’t like to turn anyone away so long as they are fired up about the sport. I think that’s why I love coaching in DIII so much, because often it is more about roster size than mere talent and nothing is better than witnessing that less developed athlete find their greatness.

I’m not trying to say I have never doubted myself, of course I have! We all do. However, one thing I know to be true is that success leaves clues, and you will know when you’re on track.

Valor TC Portland has been born, the iron is hot and I’m so excited to pay it forward in this new community! Thank you for stopping by as we plan to keep this blog active, from posts by me, and more importantly the members of our club, we will give you the best glimpse as possible at the ride.

Run with Valor!

When you’re onto something good, you just know.

VALOR TRACK CLUB PORTLAND