Best High School Cross Country Coaches Ever

I would be interested to see his accomplishments.

Hey jaguar, i went to John Carroll elementary and moved away before high school, but would have gone to McGuinness or more likely Mt. Saint Mary's. I knew Coach Morton as a kid because a foreign exchange student our family hosted ran for him. Definitely seemed to create a great team environment and was very successful. Any idea who their top runners were in 93 or 94? Just would be interested if I recognized any names.

Hey, I have full cross country results from those years back at my parent's house in Oklahoma, but check out the following link (Individual Champions and Team Champions in Oklahoma):

http://www.ohstrack.com/pastchampions.asp

Jessica Hoke and Ashley Boothe were the studs around that time. There was also Monica Mitchell and Genie McDonnell a few years before. Ashley was a senior when I was a freshman ('96-'97), and I knew Jessica's dad (John Hoke, who put out a weekly CC/track newsletter with rankings and results). Their boy's teams were not quite as good, but they had a few individual CC Champions from that time(Taylor Styron and Kevin Connolly). Kevin ran at OSU but never panned out (I think he dealt with injuries). Their women's CC team won 11 straight titles in Class 4A!

I thought the world of Coach Morton! I went on a few trips to national meets with their top runners and Coach Morton, so I got to know them fairly well. He gave me lots of advice and ideas on workouts, and I consequently won a few track titles that same year (I ran for a different school and class). They would have like 100+ kids coming out for cross country (only like 600 in their school)! Everyone embraced Coach Morton and the whole program-- great motivator and person. He's been the principal at McGuinness for several years now.

As is obvious from this thread, Tyson's successes have not been flukes. As much as I would want anyone to give props to Tyson, though, I know Tyson would fire back with props to Lange, Newton, etc, he loves those guys who breed a tradition of success.

Just one anecdote in Tyson's favor. I attended my 10-year high schoon reunion tonight, and since we had a team of 100+ when I was a senior, plenty of folk at the reunion had XC ties. Let me just say that by a long shot, those with XC ties were not just more successful by standard measures but also happier with how their lives had turned out, no matter what the direction.

I think a key value imparted by these coaches is that you are in charge of your own destiny, and those who embrace that fact have more fulfilling lives overall and are less likely to think that they were screwed by "the system."

Perhaps just my opinion, and of course there are outliers, but I stand by it.

I don't know if this has been mentioned or not but Tyson has a HUGE accomplishment not may know about. A few years ago, they cut his high school - and his talent pool - in half with the creation of Mt. Spokane High. His teams hardly missed a beat. Mt Spokane was solid in cross immediately as well, so it's not like they didn't get any of his good runners.

Yeah I agree with dfassss, thats what type of school deserves credit, not those teams who think they don´t have enough kids out and have 100 kids on the team .

A good year for us is have 8 guys out. we always have really tough 1-4 runner but our 5th man is always somebody that belongs in JV , but we have to bring him up .

Newton has had great success but as a high school coach I believe it is my philosophy to develop athletes/young adults in a manner that will provide them with a healthy, long-lasting relationship to fitness. Newton has said that he really isn't interested in that (obvious from his training schedule) for his kids, so I'm not as keen on him. If you want to talk about simply running fast times and winning meets, then, yes, Newton has to be at the top. Therefore, I would imagine that most of the greatest coaches-from my perspective, at least-will never be known on a national level. I think they are everywhere, though.

Timo Sheard of Cedar Park High (Texas)

Bob Busch (Garden City, NY)

I think here in Louisiana there are some notables, and yes, Coach Corn is one of them, on the HS level.

Corn (Rummel-NO)

Anderson (Ruston)

Panepinto (Brother Martin-NO)

Boudreaux (Catholic-BR)

Episcopal (BR) coaches have done a good job, too.

As far as I can tell, all of these coaches have done a good job in creating some awfully good teams, depth-wise, and more importantly -- they really seem to have created "runners" as opposed to those who participated in the sport because they were good. I have only been around for a little while, but that's the way it seems to me.

It's of little surprise, or should be, that these are all large-school situations. I just don't see many of the small schools being able to compete with the job that these guys are doing, primarily because they don't turn out too many "runners" -- in that you might have the point guard of your basketball team as your no. 2 at a 1A or 2A school here -- making the 2A efforts of the episcopal coaches all the more impressive.

As far as I've been able to tell, Corn fits squarely into the list of important names in LA history (and his better teams were GOOD by regional standards) for HS programs.

Don't judge the guy by his association with a sinking Tulane XC program -- he has done a lot for the sport and has done a good job getting kids better and teaching them to like it.

Sorry...back to the topic.

I think that Mike Holloway (Buchholz HS FL) is the greatest HS coach ever, in terms of combining XC and track. I am sure there are better XC coaches out there, but he was a great leader at the HS level. I wish he was still doing it, sometimes, when I look at the pressure that NCAA and postgrad coaches must face (read: drugs) -- he was nothing but a positive, and not geekily so, influence on everyone he coached.

Somerset Nate wrote:

For about a dozen years starting in the early 70s, there was no one better than Ed Mather at little Bernards High in NJ. Most people have no idea how tiny the HS is. XC and track was the only sport that won anything in those days, and they often competed with XC powers 5 times their size. Mark Wetmore's direct mentor and a viscious competitor himself.

THANK YOU! if Ed Mather's name is not included then the list is totally bunk. These twits on this message board should look at Penn Relays past champions. Bernards was not only beating the best in NJ but the best in the country... and the school was tiny!

Some of the morons listed as the best coaches couldn't be Ed Mather's waterboy back in the day. He would make them cry!

Brother Bielan, Power Memorial, 1970's New York....His team won the Easterns XC which was the best meet of its time; he had three runners in the mile under 4:10 in the span of about 7 yrs.... Colon (4:06) Centrowitz (4:02) and Weaver (4:09?)......also won Penn DMR.....Short reign but nobody better.

This is terribly misinterpreted. What Newton means is that he is well aware that with 130 kids running each season, he knows that many will not continue past high school, so his primary goal is to make their time with the team meaningful- which he does; his annual Labor Day alumni run usually nets at least 100 alum, and he introduces each and every one of them, and tells of their HS and post-HS accomplishments, running and in life. But many of his runners do continue; heck, both of my older kids are high school xc/track coaches, and still run, with one getting ready for his 4th marathon soon, at age 26.

The training is not for everyone, either, but those that stick with it do well. Jim Akita was never a top 7 runner during his time at York but went on to do well at the D3 level and is now the head coach at Elmhurst College. For example. I think you do not understand Newton's goals with his runners.

No one has mentioned Joe Kelly of Peninsula High School and, earlier, of Palos Verdes High School. Dave Scudamore, Kirsten O'Hara, Pat Watson and many others I'm sure others can add to the list. One year, he had four girls under 11 in the two mile.

Likewise, no one has mentioned Bill Sumner at Corona Del Mar High School. Consistently puts out great x-c and distance folks in track.

Coach Jazz Dexter's Women CC

He hasn't won a boys title in over 10 years.

I haven't read through all of these, but my vote goes to Mike Esposito of Winston-Salem, NC.

Although I believe he is coaching at High Point University now....

I was an ass when I ran for him, and I only wish I could tell him how much he taught me.

Jealous?

Actually you are wrong! Girls won in 2001, now is that over 10 years ago?....and where did you go to school? New Prairie? Well that explains it. Oh by the way, boys won in 1996....is that over 10 years?....I think not, but then again I went to a real high school!