Secrets to Coaching a Successful High School Cross Country Team
What’s the secret to winning 20 National High School Cross Country Championships? As a follow-up to my recent review of the movie, The Long Green Line, about Coach Joe Newton’s York (IL) High School Cross Country Team, I read Coach Newton’s book, Coaching Cross Country Successfully.
Here are some of the secrets from the book on developing a winning cross country team:
- Recruit a lot of freshmen. Coach Newton wants to get at least 50 to run for their Freshman year and at least 25 of those to return for their Sophomore year. Recruit them in person and enlist team member to help.
- Tell prospective recruits that, “You don’t have to be a good runner. We’ll make to good.”
- Start out by giving new recruits easy workouts, so that they don’t quit.
- Train for cross country year-round.
- Have the team run a lot of easy miles over the summer. Coach Newton gives out 1000 mile t-shirts for those runners who complete that distance in the 13 weeks between June 1 and September 1. That’s an average of about 77 miles per week. There are also 300 mile shirts for incoming Freshman. That’s 23 miles per week.
- Group runners by ability. York High School has 6 groups, each with a different nickname and a captain.
- Involve team alumni and parents. York High School holds an Alumni race every Labor Day and provides alumni with the meet schedule, inviting them to attend meets and talk to the team.
- Provide runners with a book of team rules, meet schedules, course maps, training info, past meet results, etc. at the beginning of the year.
- Get some helpers. Coach Newton has 10 student managers who help him with collecting meet results, videotaping, still photography, taking splits, etc.
- Bring cheerleaders and the school band to your meets.
- Keep detailed records of meet results.
- Recognize personal records throughout the season.
- Give out awards regularly during the season.
- Give as many team members as possible the opportunity to earn a letter.
- Do some speedwork every day. Coach Newton’s teams do a ton of speedwork. Workouts like 5 x 1 mile with 3:00 rest, 10 x 800 with 2:00 rest, 25 x 400 with 1:00 rest, and 30 x 200 with as little as 15 sec. rest are found throughout the York High School training calendar.
- Run up to 24 miles a day, split into two workouts.
- Run the last 300 meters of every distance workout hard, to get used to the feeling of running hard when tired at the end of a race.
- Tell runners to kick with 300 meters to go in races.
- Measure off the course in 1/4 mile increments. Have a planned 1/4 splits for every runner. Post timers to shout out and record split times. Compare planned splits against actual times after the meet.
- Start off races a little bit slow and record negative splits.
- Limit the number of races the team enters.
- Taper for two weeks before the State Meet.
- Bring in a guest speaker to talk to the team before the State Meet.
- At the State Championship Meet, have the team dedicate their performance to someone less fortunate. Win one for the Gipper!
- Celebrate big. Limos and tuxes if the team wins the State Meet.
Although some have criticized Coach Newton’s program for burning out high school runners before they get to college, there’s no doubt that his teams have enjoyed tremendous success. Coach Newton defends his approach in the book, saying that the vast majority of high school runners never run in college. In his view, this is their one shot at glory.
Why do you think Joe Newton’s teams have been so successful? What do you think are some of the keys to a building a successful cross country program? Tell me in the comments.
Related posts:
What Can We Learn From “The Long Green Line”?
