What kind of training did your team do leading up to state?
Our workouts get shorter in volume and much faster as we prepare for the end of the season. We are normally trying to simulate parts of our races at that point. We had a bye-week between region and state this year which I really liked from a training perspective. It allowed us to do some more specific work to get us ready for the state meet that we can't do when we have to race three weeks in a row. We try and train our athletes to perform best at their individual last meet of the season. For some kids, that is districts, for others, it's the state meet. We don't try to peak them for the whole postseason, which would be hard to maintain for four weeks. Our kids that we knew could score at the state meet spent the second half of the season, including the first two rounds of the postseason, getting ready for that one meet.
What chances or belief did you have in your team's chance and ability to make the podium?
We thought we had a good chance to be in the top two as a team at the state meet. Hallandale is a very good team and every mock meet you could imagine had us losing to them by 6-20 points. We knew that even if we were perfect, they would need to have a slightly off day for us to beat them. It worked out for us and we won by one point in the final event of the night.
What advice or points of emphasis did you give your team prior to the race or the week leading into the state meet?
We knew it was going to be very difficult for us to win. If we came in second, it could very easily have been by 20 points. If we were going to win, we knew it would be by a very small margin, so we preached mental toughness and fighting for every point. We qualified 12 girls to the meet and 10 of them scored. Almost every girl we brought finished higher than where they were seeded going into the meet, so I think they responded well to the challenge.
What was the game plan for state and how do you feel your team executed it?
Just to compete hard and know that every spot you can improve in every event was going to matter. I thought the girls did a great job remembering this all day. We had 10 different girls score points and it was a complete team effort. A lot of teams win state championships with 3-4 great athletes performing well in a handful of events. We scored in the sprints, middle distance, distance, jumps, throws and relays. We needed every single point in order to win, so if any one of those 10 girls has an off day, then we lose the meet. I thought we executed the game plan very well.
Who do you feel really stepped up individually the most for the team at the state meet?
It's very hard to answer that question since we needed every point to win, so every girl was important. Mackenzie Wilson obviously had a great day, winning the 3200, coming in 2nd in the 1600 and running on the 4X800 that won. She was our top point scorer, bringing in 20.5 of the teams' 66 points. However, there were a lot of other small things that happened that all worked together for us to win. Frances Rice in the pole vault came in 3rd because she had no misses until 11-6. If she had missed a lower bar, but still jumped 11-0, then we lose in the tie break and as a result the team doesn't win outright. Rachel Shapiro in the 3200 got separated from the pack and was sitting in a distant 10th place halfway through the race. She fought through "no mans land" to climb back into 7th. If she doesn't do that, we don't win.
Probably the biggest surprise, to those outside my coaching staff, was 8th grader Caitlyn Collier winning the 800, running 2:13. On paper, her PR a month before the state meet was 2:22. She was someone that we held very close reigns on during the season with a goal of worrying only about the state meet. She had to beat one of the best 800 runners this state has produced in a decade (Madison Harris) to do it and she held her off at the end to win. She also anchored the 4X800 with a very comfortable looking 2:15 earlier in the day and then anchored the 4X400 with a 57.00 split to take us from 6th to 3rd. It says a lot about her competitive nature that we trusted her to anchor both those relays at the state meet.
What were the biggest challenges for this year's team?
None really come to mind. I have learned to follow the lead of our girls distance coach, Tony Ryan, about how much we need to race. As a result of that, we raced less this year than we have in the past. We even scheduled an off week right in the middle of the season, right after our big home invitational (Bulldog Classic) for the first time. I think it helped us to stay healthy at the end of the year.
Were there any low points in the season? How did the team bounce back?
Not really. It's hard to feel like there is a low point during the regular season if you don't care about the regular season. As a coaching staff, we really don't care at all about the regular season except as a way to prepare us for the postseason. We try to do well at Bulldog Classic, which our boys and girls both won this year for the first time ever, but after that, everything is just preparation for Districts and State.
Was there a particular race, workout, or moment that you knew that your team was ready or had the potential to become state champions?
Not really. Halfway through the State meet, I actually thought we had lost the meet. I have a lot of great coaches on my staff and as a result, I personally only work with a small group of middle distance runners. I can say that after watching the workout the Monday after regionals (11 days before the state meet), I knew that the 4X800 had a chance to run ridiculously fast. So much so that we really thought about not running our fastest four girls at the state meet. In the end, we decided to run the top four together (for the first time all year) and they ran 9:15 and won by 16 seconds. Our senior 400 runner, Jasmine Burkett, ran 2:15 on the relay at the state meet. We had been considering pulling her off to keep her fresh for her other events, but in the end, we wanted to make sure we started the meet off with a win.The way the meet played out, I didn't really think that we were going to be state champions until after Danielle Spence threw her last discus in the final event of the night and secured the win for us. It was a really neat experience to have the entire team (really everyone left in the stadium) watching the discus, after the 4X4 was over, to see who would be state champion.
How would you best describe the group of kids that you coach?
Tough. We have a large team that breaks into many training groups, so there isn't one specific quirky attribute to them as a whole, but there is a pervasive toughness about these girls. When it comes down to the proverbial "battle", these kids are all tough as nails and will fight for every spot. Other than canceling the prelims, which I think hurt our chances to score more points, we didn't mind the rain at the State meet at all. We knew our kids would battle through it and maybe be able to beat some other kids who let the rain bother them.
What role do your assistant coaches play with the program?
I have the best coaching staff in the state. We are blessed to have a lot of very knowledgeable coaches who volunteer their time in addition to those few that we can pay. There are half a dozen coaches on my staff that either could be or have been head track coaches. I only personally coach a small group of runners. The vast majority are working with my assistants and they deserve all the credit for what we have been able to build as a program. I write the running workouts for 800m and shorter, but other coaches implement most of those workouts. Tony Ryan designs the training for the distance girls and Mike Rivera handles the distance boys. My field event coaches have complete autonomy in their event training, but as a former collegiate decathlete, I am always willing to step in and help if they ask. I can't say enough how much appreciate all the hard work my coaches put in and how lucky Bolles is to have them.
What would be the best way to describe your coaching style?
I am honest. Sometimes brutally honest with the kids. I don't spare their feelings much if I think honesty will help them. If I tell you, "good race", it's because you had a good race. If I think that you gave less than 100%, you will hear that from me as well.
Who were the leaders on your team and what was the importance to the squad?
It is really hard to name just one person since we have so many great ones. Our seniors are the heart and soul of what we have accomplished over the last four years: 4 District Championships, 4 Region Championships, and now a State Championship. We could not have done it without our Seniors: Lily Arnold, Jasmine Maina, Jasmine Burkett and Alexandria Acree.
Who was the biggest individual surprise or runner that most impressed you with their improvements this year?
Again, it's hard to really pick one since, as the coach, you see the potential years earlier and then the incremental improvements. I think it would be easy to say 8th grader Caitlyn Collier surprised a lot of people running 2:13 and winning the 800. She was on the JV cross country team in the fall and played middle School basketball during the winter. She didn't have much base under her coming into the track season so we coached her a little differently than you might think. It worked out though. Also, it was great to see Jasmine Maina develop from a basketball starter and part-time track athlete jumping in the 16's last year, into a 18ft+ Long Jumper who will be running for Auburn next year.
How would this team rank against some of the past teams that you coached?
Five years ago, I told our girls team that I thought they were the best the school had ever had. I believe that we have gotten better every year since then, so every year, I get to coach my best girls team ever. I hope we can keep that going.
Every state championship team seems to have a special or unique makeup that makes them state champions. What were some of those characteristics of this year's team?
I think this team is a little atypical in that regard. Because our points were so broadly distributed between the events, it's hard to describe the team's overall makeup. I will say that this year, we made a special effort to do more team building and I think that helped us to win as a team in the end.
What are your expectations for next year's team?
Track is cyclical. There are windows of opportunities that open and close for programs each year. We lose some talented girls from this year's team, but I think we have at least one more year of being very competitive at the top. There are probably five schools that look like they have a chance to win next year and I think we are one of them. We need to have a good summer of training and a strong Cross Country season and hopefully, we can make another run at it.
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