What Can We Learn From “The Long Green Line”?
I recently watched the movie, The Long Green Line, about the York (IL) High School Cross Country Team and its coach, Joe Newton. Over his more than 50 years as coach of the boy’s cross country team at York, Joe Newton’s teams have won 26 State Championships and 20 National Championships.
Although some of his coaching is controversial, since his top runners are putting in up to 130 miles per week, there is no arguing with Coach Newton’s results.
Watching the film, here is what I think is his formula for success:
- Recruit a lot of freshmen. Coach Newton aggressively recruits 50-100 freshmen for the boy’s cross country team each year.
- Get to know every runner on your team. Coach Newton gets to know each and every one of his over 220 runners. He give each one a nickname. He shakes their hand at each practice.
- Develop each runner. One of the runners featured in the film has cerebral palsy and can barely run at the beginning of the season. Coach Newton invests as much time with him as some of his top runners. He is soon beating other runners in races.
- Challenge each runner to do their best. Coach Newton provides his team with an inspirational quote each day. It’s clear that he sees running as a metaphor for life.
- Develop team depth. In the film, several of York’s top seven varsity runners aren’t able to compete due to various problems, but the team is so deep their places are taken by the next runners on the squad and the team’s performance doesn’t suffer.
- Celebrate wins. Coach Newton and the York team celebrate both team and individual wins through out the season.
- Create a winning tradition. By winning so many State Championships, Coach Newton is both able to recruit runners who might have chosen other sports and to motivate the runners on his squad to keep the tradition going.
Here’s the trailer for the film:
What do you think of Coach Newton and the York High School Cross Country team? What are the secrets to a successful high school program? Tell me in the comments.
For more information about Coach Newton’s methods, you can read his book, Coaching Cross Country Successfully.
Related posts:
Secrets to Coaching a Successful High School Cross Country Team
