Podcast with Amador Valley HS coach Jason Oswalt

You can find that podcast at this LINK.

You can also check out my interview with Coach Oswalt which I did during the spring at this LINK.

Catching up with former College Prep and current Pomona-Pitzer runner Ethan Ashby

Today we chat with former College Prep (NCS) runner Ethan Ashby (Photo courtesy of Mark Ashby). During the 2019 cross country season, Ashby was the 4th man on Pomona Pitzer's NCAA Division III National Champion team. It was the school's first national XC title in history. In fact, this was the first trophy that they had ever won at the national championship race. Ashby graduated from College Prep in 2017 and had PRs of 4:31.35 and 9:35.36 on the track and was a 4-time participant at the California state cross country meet. As a senior, Ashby led his College Prep teammates to a BCL East title over the Cooper Teare led St. Joseph Notre Dame team.

1) What sports did you do before high school? Any running experience?

I did a number of sports before HS. I started playing soccer and tennis as a kid, but I was never very good at either. But when my older brother went out for XC in HS, I decided to start running with him. I started running in 7th grade and haven’t looked back.

2) When you started out in HS, who were the leaders on the team that you looked up to and set the culture for the College Prep team?

There were a lot of great leaders on our squad... guys like Tris Dodge and Alex Glavin come to mind because they provided the blueprint of how to be a serious, successful runner. I remember being added to a Facebook group the summer before my Freshman year called “Crew Love” (named after the Drake song), where all the Varsity guys introduced themselves and said that they wanted to make it to State that year. CPS hadn’t made it to State in several years, and the guys were really motivated to change our fortunes that season. When we learned that we qualified at the NCS meet, I remember our captain at the time, Matt Romer, crying tears of joy. It sort of impressed on me and the younger guys the importance of what we just accomplished. I think that year was sort of a culture shift because our team ended up qualifying teams to state for the next 6 years!

3) At what point in your high school career did you make the transition where running was important to you?

Running was pretty important to me from the get-go. I was a serious runner by the time I was in 8th grade, and when I visited CPS, I was impressed with the guys and the coach, Jack Coakley. So the team actually factored into my HS decision a little bit, to be honest.

4) What were some of your HS highlights and proudest achievements in both XC and TF?

The one that comes to mind is the BCL league championship meet my senior year in XC. St. Joe’s had joined our league that year, and we had a back and forth rivalry going with them. I think I made binders for each guy on our Varsity squad, with pictures and times for the guy on St. Joe’s that they needed to shadow and beat. It honestly felt we were planning a hit. Our plan ended up working out and we came out on top! We went bananas after that. My biggest T and F highlight was probably breaking 10:00 in the 3200m in my sophomore year. I dealt with bad iron-deficient anemia during my freshman year and considered leaving the sport. Coming back the next year and breaking 10:00 (I think by like 0.01 second) was really validating of all the hard times I went through the previous year. (Photo courtesy of College Prep)

5) Who were your high school coaches and how did they motivate you and what did you learn from them?

I had a number of different coaches throughout high school. Jack Coakley was XC coach for most of my time at CPS, and he took a really patient and thoughtful approach to training us young athletes. I think that set me up for success at the collegiate level since I finished high school injury-free and ready to make strides in college. I’ll also shout out Kiet Tran and Janice Prudhomme, who were our track coaches for a couple seasons: they were super knowledgeable about training and made me become a more detail-oriented athlete in my training. (Photo courtesy of Mark Ashby)

6) When do you feel like you made the decision to run in college? How did you go about selecting Pomona College? Where there other schools that you seriously looked at before choosing Pomona?

I think the fall of my senior year. I felt like I had more I wanted to accomplish, and I really wanted to see how far I could push myself. Pomona was really the perfect fit for me on a number of levels: they had a studly, fun team, excellent academics, and the SoCal environment just felt like a place where I could be myself and flourish. I wanted a small liberal arts experience, so I ended up mostly applying to places like Pomona, Carleton, and a bunch of the NESCAC schools. But Pomona was #1 in my heart from the outset.

7) How was the transition going from HS to college running? What was the hardest part of running in college as a freshman? Is there something you wish you could have done differently in HS that would have made that transition easier?

It was an adjustment because CPS was a low mileage program, and Pomona-Pitzer is a 7-days-a-week, higher mileage program. But I handled the mileage pretty well and was starting to see a big jump in my performance (especially in the spring, where I ran 15:04 in my first ever collegiate 5k). But I ended up incurring a femoral stress fracture halfway through my freshman track season from a combination of the steeplechase and not listening to my body. That halted my momentum during my freshman year, and it took me around a year to fully get back from that. So it had its ups and downs for sure. (Brian Sibanda photo above)

8) Last fall, your team won the Division III national championship. At what point in the season do you feel that the national championship became a possibility for you and your teammates? What were the reactions of your teammates and yourself when it was announced that your team had won?

We lost the best runner in program history that year to graduation, so it was supposed to be a "rebuilding year" for us. But a lot of guys made a big jump that summer and by the beginning of the season, we knew that a podium finish was a possibility for our squad. But we hoped for a fourth or third-place finish... but outside our forever-optimistic coach Kyle, we never dreamed of winning! At Nationals, I crossed the line, laid down on the ground with our guys, and all of us were like “damn that was a good race for me”! But we had no idea where we had finished. My teammate, Dante, and I left the finishing chute and Coach Kyle grabbed us, and he couldn't speak. In that moment, I remember feeling a wave of shock and incredulity: a “what the heck just happened” kind of feeling. Once we learned that we had won, we screamed ourselves hoarse, tackled each other, and basically celebrated the whole way back to the hotel and Claremont. My parents also flew out to the meet, so it was super special to share that moment with them too. It was honestly one of the highlights of my life! (Photo courtesy of Pomona-Pitzer)

First DIII NCAA XC title = Powerade shower for @SagehenRunning head coach Jordan Carpenter #d3xc pic.twitter.com/gSFPljwtCq

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) November 24, 2019

9) From HS, favorite XC invitational? Favorite XC course? Favorite XC workout? Favorite TF invitational? Favorite TF event? Favorite TF workout? Favorite long run? 

I always loved the Stanford Invitational in HS, because it was cool to be around such great collegiate competition. My favorite course was probably the State Course just because there’s so much lore surrounding it. My favorite XC workout: I always loved our long repeat sessions at Dwight Derby dirt track in Berkeley. Sometimes we'd be treated to a nice Berkeley sunset at the end of our workout. My favorite track meet was NCS Class A my junior year because they played smooth jazz music and they had an Espresso machine. What a classy affair! My fave event in Track was the 3200 hands down. As Jack Coakley would say: "8 laps of pure pleasure". My favorite workout in track was probably some of the workouts we did at a Chabot College- especially longer repeats like 1000s or 1200s. My favorite long run spot in HS was Iron Horse Trail because it’s just so darn flat.

10) From your own experience, what would you tell HS runners who are determined to compete at the Division I level but might have a better experience at Division II or III school?

I have loved my experience in D3: I've had a fantastic academic experience, made some of my best friends through the team, and accomplished some cool things athletically. I was definitely interested in the mystique of running D1 at some point in high school too, but I learned pretty quickly that “D1” is just a label. Obviously, the top-tier of D1 is a whole different ball game, and if you want to be a professional runner, going to one of those elite programs is your ticket. But at Pomona-Pitzer, we’ve gone to a lot of big meets and buried D1 teams, some of which I was once infatuated with running for back in high school. I’d remind high school athletes that D1 has no magic recipe for developing runners... in fact, I think D3 and D2 programs are generally going to take a more active interest in your development than a lot of D1 programs. So I'd encourage athletes to choose a school for the academics and the coach, rather than the label. Pomona's excellent academics and our coach, Jordan Carpenter, really fit the bill for me.

11) During this uncertain time, what has kept you motivated to continue to run? 

Running is a great outlet to get outside and get the stress out. I think it’s been great for my mental health, so it’s almost become an important self-care ritual for me. (Photo courtesy of Mark Ashby)

12) Anything else you would like to add.

Hope everybody is staying safe right now! I'm going to be living and training in Park City, Utah this fall, so DM @loosebois on IG and we can link up for a run!

Thank you very much for your time, Ethan. AJC 

What is your motivation to run now?

With the impending cross country season still, months away, what is your motivation to get out the door and complete your daily runs/workouts? What is something that your coach has done that has motivated you to keep training? 

Catching up with former Bella Vista HS star, Harold Kuphaldt...

Bringing this interview back to the front that I had posted a few years ago.
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Today we chat with former Bella Vista HS runner, Harold Kuphaldt (picture to the left courtesy of this BV Track).  He graduated from high school in 1982 with PRs of 4:05.54c (1600m.) and 8:51.99 (3200m.).  He won the Sac-Joaquin Section cross country individual championship in 1981 when it was one division and pre-state meet.  Bella Vista HS won the SJS team XC championship in 1980 and 1981.   He finished in 2nd place at the Kinney National Meet when all the best runners raced each other to determine a true national champion.  He was also a 2-time SJS champion in the 3200m. in 1981 and 1982.  In 1981 he followed his victory at the section meet with a 5th place at the CA state meet, running 8:54.78.   His senior year, Harold won the state 3200m. crown running his PR of 8:51.99 and outdistancing one of the legends in CA running, Camarillo HS runner, Eric Reynolds.  Harold continued his running career at the University of Oregon and ran for Olympic medalist, Bill Dellinger.  You can see some of his collegiate success below which included a sub 4-minute mile.  Harold has joined the coaching ranks at his old high school and will be inducted in the Sacramento Running Association Hall of Fame in January 25th.

1)  What sports did you play in your youth?  How did you get involved in running?
I did not do any other organized sports, other than running, and I didn't start running until I was 12 years old.  My sister Patty started running on the very first girls' cross country team at Bella Vista high school in the fall of 1976.  I knew I had some talent for running based on my performance in the presidential physical fitness six-minute run test in grade school, so, I decided to give it a try. I started training in January of 1977 with my sister and the girls at Bella Vista high school.

2)  When did you first realize that you were a pretty good runner?
My very first race was the California 10 (10-mile race) in Stockton California.   I believe that race is still run every year.  I was 4' 10" and 75 lbs and had been training for 8 days before the race.  I ended up beating my sister in the race and ran 69 minutes and some seconds.  Afterward, my sister's high school coach Ralph Blount told my mother that she should encourage me to keep running because he thought I had some talent.

3)  What were some of your high school highlights and proudest achievements in both XC and TF? 
Several accomplishments come to mind as my most memorable.  Topping the list would be:
1.  Winning the high school state 3200m title in California in 1982.
2.  Finishing second at the Kinney nationals (Now Footlocker nationals) in 1981.
3. Placing 6th in the Steeplechase in the 1984 NCAA Div I championships and helping my team win the NCAA team title in front of our home crowd.
4.  Running my first (and only) sub four-minute mile at the Twilight meet in Eugene, OR in 1987.  Not necessarily in that order.

4)  Tell us a little about your high school coach and how he helped you develop as a runner.  What did you learn from him that you carry on to this day?
I was blessed to have an excellent high school cross country and track coach by the name of Dan Greenwald.  He coached at least six or seven runners who made the All-Northern California teams for high school cross country.  I learned so much of the fundamentals of training distance runners from him including: periodization of the training cycle and how to peak for the big meets.  He had a knack for recognizing when I was having an off day in training and changing the workout in such a way that I could have some success.  I definitely try to do that in my coaching today.  He was, and is, a good friend even to this very day.  He always tried to make running fun and I definitely try to incorporate that into my training plans today.

5)  How did you end up choosing the University of Oregon?  Tell us a little about your college experience.  Highlights and proudest achievements?
When I was running in junior high school I ran for a club called the Roseville Gazelles. One or two of my teammates followed the University of Oregon program very closely. They would bring articles about Alberto Salazar and Rudy Chapa to meets and tell me how they wanted to run for the University of Oregon.  That planted the seeds for me that ultimately lead to my decision to attend the University of Oregon.  Of course, my visit to the University of Oregon and receiving a personal call from Alberto Salazar sealed the deal for me.

I absolutely loved my experience at the University of Oregon. It is everything that you would imagine it would be to run in a stadium where the fans are incredibly knowledgeable and love just distance runners.  The first time I put on a University of Oregon singlet I literally had chills running down my spine thinking about the legacy at U of O, of which I was now a part.  The friendships that I made on the track and cross-country teams at the University of Oregon I maintain to this day.  This past June I took my son Scotty to a University of Oregon track and field alumni reunion in Eugene while attending the NCAA championships in Eugene.  I was, once again, reminded of how cool it is to be part of the rich legacy that is the University of Oregon.  I was able to meet and introduce to my son Ashton Eaton, Andrew Wheating, Terry Williams, Dave Taylor, Jim Hill, Pat Tyson, and many many more including, of course, my coach Bill Dellinger.

As for the highlights of my running career at U of O, I already mentioned two big ones.  I would also add running in 6 NCAA championship meets (3 in Cross Country and 3 in track) and making All-American twice was pretty cool.  I am very proud to have won the "Emerald Award" as the outstanding senior scholar-athlete at the University of Oregon in 1987.  But honestly, my best memories are of the many hours of training together with my friends and fellow warriors on the track and trails around Eugene and pushing our bodies to the limits just to see what we were capable of doing.  Finally, I would say running in front of the Hayward Field crowd in Eugene is an experience I will never forget!

6)  Who was your coach at Oregon?  What did you learn from him?
My coach at the University of Oregon was Bill Dellinger. He was/is a legend in the track and field world. He is an Olympic Bronze medalist in the 5000m in Tokyo in 1964 and coach of so many legendary distance runners.  I don't think I would make Bill's top 30 list of all the great distance runners he has coached.

I learned a lot from Bill.  First and foremost, there is no substitute for hard work!  He would say "You can't do anything in a race that you haven't prepared yourself for in practice".  We would try to take the components of a race that we wanted to work on ... Such as surging in the middle of a race when you are already feeling tired ... and simulate them in practice ... Only make it even harder than a race.  The famous 30th avenue drill at Oregon is an example of this training.  I definitely try to incorporate this philosophy into my current training plans.  I remind the kids why we are doing the workout, and what the main goal is for the workout.  I often will relate the workout to real race situations.

Bill Dellinger was a big believer in tempo runs and I definitely bought it to that approach.  I think you can gain a great deal of fitness with minimal risk of injury by incorporating regular (almost weekly) tempo runs into your training schedule.

7)  What is your current occupation?  How long have you been doing that?
I am a physical therapist currently working with Interim home care which is a home health agency. I have been a physical therapist since 1988.

8)  How did you get involved in coaching?  What is your current position at Bella Vista HS?  What are some of your biggest thrills in coaching?
My friend and former high school track teammate Dave Unterholzner has been the head track coach at Bella Vista HS for many years.   Ever since I moved back to the Fair Oaks area in 1996 he has been trying to get me to come and help with the distance program.  At the time my boys were very young and I was traveling a lot for my job.  Despite my love for coaching and for distance running, I did not feel I could justify the time away from my family at that time.  Then, as my kids grew up and started to get into sports they gravitated towards soccer and baseball.   I began coaching both baseball and soccer to be involved with their activities. I loved coaching but, to be honest, I do not have the same passion for baseball and soccer as I do for running.  Then, when my oldest son Adam was a freshman at Bella Vista HS he surprised me by making the decision to start running cross country in the fall of 2008.  I decided to help out where I could.  My biggest frustration was seeing how small the distance program was at Bella Vista.  I think we only had about a dozen runners between both the boys and girls program in 2008.  Back in my days at Bella Vista and throughout the years that all my brothers and sisters ran at BV, the distance programs were strong on both girls and boys side.  It seemed to me that the program had taken a huge step backward.  In 2009 I agreed to help Brett Sargent (a teacher at Bella vista who had a son who was a good runner and a new freshman at BV)  take over the Boys cross country program.  I assisted Brett with track and cross country until last spring when Brett stepped down and I took over as the head of the boy's distance program.  This fall was my first season as the head boys cross country coach at Bella Vista.  I also helped to recruit Melanie Cleland to take over the girl's program in 2010.

My biggest thrills so far in coaching has been watching this program grow back into relevance again in the high school running scene.  This year I had 39 boys run cross country and we had about that many girls run this year as well.   That is approaching 80 athletes ... A long way from the 12 or so we had in 2008.  We are now competitive at all levels.  The Bella Vista boys cross country team made it to the State meet in 2010 and 2011 and just missed making it in both 2012 and 2013.  It was also really cool to coach the boys that broke one of my school records at BV HS (I shared with one of my brothers and two other boys) for the 4x1600m.

9)  What do you remember about your high school training?  Weekly mileage?  The distance of long run?  Workouts?
I wasn't very good at keeping training logs throughout my running career. As a coach now, I regret that.  I used to keep logs for short periods of time and then stop.  I have a few of these partial logs covering portions of my high school training.  Based on these partial logs and my recollections of my training I would say I ran between 50-60 miles per week in high school.  Lots of long intervals and hill repeats and very few, if any, tempo runs. My long runs were in the 10-12 mile range.  I would say my high school running career was characterized more by the quality of the work I did than the quantity.

10)  From your HS experience in the late 70s and early 80s to now, what do you say are the biggest differences that you see training wise? 
I will say today's coaches probably spend more time focused on running mechanics than the coaches in the 60's, 70's an early 80's.  Also, we use more dynamic warm-ups and active stretches, rather than static stretches in our warm-up routines.  I also think that there is more consistency between coaches than there used to be.  I believe that the ease at which information is shared between coaches in this information era is a big reason for this increased consistency.  It is much easier to gather "best practices" from the coaching community and this has reduced the number of programs with coaches that are really into bizarre and ineffective coaching methods.

11)  From your own coaching experience, what do you wish you could have done differently with your own training?  What about current runners?  What should they be doing that you did in HS but are not?
I wish I had kept better logs my running career.   I think keeping good records of what you do for your training and what results are produced is important.  It is pretty easy to distort your own memories about what you did and use that information to make poor judgments about future training plans.  I also think I could have benefited more from doing some tempo runs in high school.

I am a relatively new high school coach and certainly don't feel qualified to make to many judgments about what other coaches or athletes are doing.  I feel like I am still developing my own approaches and philosophies to high school coaching.

12)  Anything else you would like to add.
One thing I am passionate about is that you have to find a way to make it fun for the athletes.  This will not only attract more athletes and better athletes but will keep them coming back year after to year.  This is the key to high school coaching in my opinion.

Thank you very much for your time, Harold!  AJC

Here is a link posted by Hank Lawson that has video of the 1981 Kinney race (pre-Footlocker) which was won by current Los Altos HS coach Charles Alexander.  Kuphaldt finished in 2nd place.
http://www.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/1981/kinney.htm

Comprehensive Stanford XC Invitational results

Thanks to Stanford University's David Kiefer by researching Hank Lawson's site as well as other online resources, you can check out a historical look at the Stanford Invitational results through the years for both college and high school. You can find this terrific resource at this LINK. Thanks to Dave for putting this together. If you can fill any of the missing data, please feel free to email Dave at dkiefer@stanford.edu.

Pre-Season NorCal Cross Country team rankings

Nearly impossible this year with mostly no spring Track and Field season. Feel free to comment below on teams I may have missed or teams that you feel should be ranked higher. The SJS divisions have not been posted yet so I had to either make an educated guess or leave as a question mark.

Boys
1) Bellarmine (CCS) Division I
2) Jesuit (SJS) Division I
3) De La Salle (NCS) Division II
4) Campolindo (NCS) Division III
5) Davis (SJS) Division I
6) Dublin (NCS) Division I
7) Bella Vista (SJS) Division?
8) Monte Vista (NCS) Division II
9) Sir Francis Drake (NCS) Division III
10) Scotts Valley (CCS) Division IV

On the Bubble
Amador Valley (NCS) Division II

Granada (NCS) Division II

Girls
1) St. Francis, Mt. View (CCS) Division II
2) St. Francis, Sacramento (SJS) Division?
3) Oak Ridge (SJS) Division I
4) Campolindo (NCS) Division III
5) Del Oro (SJS) Division III
6) Dougherty Valley (NCS) Division I
7) Redwood (NCS) Division II
8) Granada (NCS) Division II
9) College Park (NCS) Division II
10) Menlo School (CCS) Division IV

On the Bubble
Vista del Lago (SJS) Division III
SF University (NCS) Division V
Lick-Wilmerding (NCS) Division V

Individuals will be posted next...

Podcast: Episode 100 with Laura Schmitt (Former Redwood coach)

For those of you that enjoy listening to podcasts, here is one with former Redwood HS coach, Laura Schmitt. You can find it at this link:

https://themorningshakeout.com/podcast-episode-100-with-laura-schmitt/

You can also check out my interview with her from 2011 which you can find at this LINK.

What Will College Track Look Like On The Other Side?

Thank you to Jesuit coach Walt Lange for passing this along. A deep dive into the future of college XC, indoor, and outdoor track.
https://trackandfieldnews.com/what-will-college-track-look-like-on-the-other-side/

Interview with Amador Valley's John Lester

You can find that interview at this link:
https://ca.milesplit.com/videos/446909

For those of you that may have missed it, Lester's coach, Jason Oswalt, did a presentation about his training at the virtual Humboldt Running Camp. You can check that out right here:

Sir Francis Drake High School to change its name

This has been in the works for the past few years and now made official.
Sir Francis Drake High School to change its name
Here is another LINK.

Here are a few interviews with a former Sir Francis Drake coach and runners.

Former coach Rod Berry
http://www.crosscountryexpress.com/2012/06/catching-up-with-former-redwood-hs.html

Former runner John Lawson
http://www.crosscountryexpress.com/2011/11/catching-up-with-sir-francis-drake.html

Former runner and current Oakland Tech coach Richie Boulet
https://ca.milesplit.com/articles/260207/interview-with-oakland-tech-coach-richie-boulet

Current coach Robyn Berry
coming up...

Here is a SITE with some very cool Drake historical photos, records etc.