Friday, August 01, 2014
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
You can now view all the entrants plus their performance mark from the section qualifier for this weekend's CA State Track and Field ... -
One more bump. Please list below athletes that you feel belong on the lists below. One more trivia question. Who is the runner ... -
Below is the schedule for the 2013 Cross Country season. If you see any errors, additions or can confirm any dates, please email me at alb...
-
Central Coast Section Results: http://www.rtspt.com/events/cif/2017Meets/ccsxc17/ Sac-Joaquin Section Section Finals: http://timerhub....
-
Just added: Info for Ghebray Invitational on September 22nd. With one extra Saturday in September next year, I started to hunt down the d...
-
Bold meets are confirmed for 2014 season. Non bolded dates are from 2013 season. August 2014 8/22 Ryan Bousquet Memorial Run at Yorba Reg...
-
I will start with one: “Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win.” — Tom Fleming What...
-
If you are an athlete and you have a question about race strategy, training or anything else that is pertinent to Track & Field and/o...
-
I will continue to update this list throughout the year. Please feel free to add others in the comment section below. I know I do not hav... -
I am very sad to report that Bob Shor passed away this morning after battling illness for the past few year...
6 comments:
They left out:
11. Have the most talent (that individual champion would be good with our without you).
12. Have the biggest pool of thus talent (bigger schools, bigger teams, bigger depth)
13. School culture. (You school has it or it doesn't)
14. Demographic. (More affluent school districts and affluent areas in America are generally better at xc).
Generally speaking I agree with your added points of what makes a coach successful. It is possible to create a great program though, even if at a smaller poorer school. McFarland high school is the primary example of this. I competed against these guys in high school, and later many of them were my teammates when we ran together in junior college. Coach White made this program what it was and what it still is to this day; against all odds a great program that continually puts out great teams.
I forgot to put this, but here is an article talking about the program in case you're unfamiliar with them.
http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/01/news/mn-59446
I'm curious about the schools in the "far North" like Arcata, McKinleyville, Ukiah etc that field some pretty good teams; I wonder if the combination of challenging terrain, LOTS of outdoor access, and something about the culture makes XC attractive to enough kids to make for some good teams- plus, do they attract good coaches for some particular reason?
From my experience it's definitely about creating a school culture up here more than the terrain or anything like that. Arcata has been good for a long time and everyone who runs for that program loves James Washington, so year in and year out they always attract lots of kids from the school to come out. They do run the hills a bunch and James always seems to have them ready when it matters.
At McKinleyville it's definitely much less popular amongst the school's general population add compared to Arcata, but with our recent successes it has become more and more attractive of an option. For us it's been a long process. It has been a matter of getting some numbers and establishing a culture of family, consistency, competitiveness, and hard work yet still managing to have fun. Luckily for us the team has bought in and we look to be headed in the right direction.
I can't really speak to any other teams but from coaching at McKinleyville and knowing the Arcata program fairly well these have been observations.
Post a Comment