The 2021 Cross Country and Track and Field FACA clinic kicked off this Thursday with a panel from championship coaches: Ocky Clark of Winter Springs, Doug Butler of Satellite, Andy Holmes of Seffner Christian, and Danny Aceres and Chris Ventura of Christopher Columbus. FACA Track and Field chair, Jay Getty moderated the discussion.
Here are some key quotes as the 2020 championship cross country coaches reflected on this past season.
What along the way when you go talk at your banquet, what would you tell them was your favorite part?
Coach Ocky Clark: "Getting them out of school. That made all the difference in protecting them for the duration of the season."
Coach Doug Butler: "Our team bond. The kids become closer as a default from avoiding hanging out. The tighter the group, the more success a group has, and the more success group has the tighter their bond will be."
Coach Andy Holmes: "The commitment level of our kids was my favorite part. We have different kids coming from neighboring counties, they showed us that they were willing to commit to the goal. They posted their runs to starve and I could see they were putting in the work."
Coach Chris Ventura: "My favorite part was seeing the unfolding of the bond our team developed. They focused on each other, they took on leadership roles and learned the responsibility that being on a team can cultivate."
What workout was your key workout this season?
Coach Danny Aceres: "We create an ARP type wall workout. Over in Miami, we don't have hills like that. We have a hill in Tropical Park so we would have our athletes go over that hill in a three minute saddle into a 2 mile tempo."
Coach Andy Holmes: "6x1k equal rest, 2 mile race pace 100% vo2 max. We repeat the same workout three weeks after to see the progression"
Coach Doug Butler: "Preseason I like mile repeats. My kids go 5x a mile for my varsity guys with two minutes rest. Late season workout I love the high point hill in cocoa and its 700 meters hard uphill and its strength building and resistance, we will do this four weeks before state."
Coach Ocky Clark: "After I graduated from FSU I had an olympic dream. I moved to Oregon to train for the Olympics. I like a lot of stuff I did with circuit training then. We start with a mile and then take 2 minutes rest. Then we go into a circuit training with either dumbbells, lungs, etc. then two minutes rest and then a 2k race pace. My philosophy if you train slow you will race slow. After that It may consist of an 800 or 1k. You only get 1 minute rest and the an all out 400m"