It’s not that hard. What sets Crater and Newbury Park apart is three things:
1. A positive culture that values challenge, excellence, and the process of reaching the top.
2. Knowledgeable coaches willing to take risks. While not advocating that you break kids, too many coaches play it safe or dumb it down for varied reasons that keep their athletes mediocre.
3. Selling something bigger than winning league or qualifying for state. This gets both the runners and their parents fully engaged. These kids want to be full time runners, not half-azzed participants in multiple sports.
Training is simple: build the aerobic engine and train for the demands of racing. More kids can handle 60+ miles than coaches want to think. Too many coaches are still stuck on methodologies from the last century. Far too many coaches want to keep collecting their stipends or keep parents off of their backs by playing it safe. The common thread between Brosnan, Loftus, Soles, Mostert is that they understand the science and that the sport is changed. They don’t baby their charges. Do kids get hurt? Sometimes. Then again, kids get injured on low miles and only running in season.