Best High School Cross Country Coaches Ever

Since high school sports are about so much more than winning it is tough to measure a coach's worth. Maybe someone produces winners on the XC course, but does not instill a love for the sport or the many positive values a teenager can learn from a truly great coach.

Coach Dan Green (The Woodlands High School, TX)!

Jeff Young ( North High School In Denver) XC and Distance Track. It´s not just about winning it´s about helping kids develop into great role models. While doing that we still do great with 6 runners every year . We deal with what we have .

Joe Newton (York)

Danny Green (The Woodlands)

Pat Tyson (Mead)

Those 3 in my mind are the top 3 high school coaches of all-time. Though there are many others, those 3 stand out to me a lot!

They turn boys into young men and teach them lessons that they will use for the rest of their lifes. But, they have this little extra touch to it. All 3 of these teams win with class which is something that sets them apart from many other good teams, and the coach is to thank for that.

Art Kranick

(I know exactly what I'm starting by posting this)

Chuck Koeppen Carmel, IN

trillions of state championships both boys and girls

Who belongs on this list that is no longer coaching?

Coaches from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s?

Jackson Horner (State College, Pennsylvania)

mike corn for sure

Albert Caruana wrote:

Who in your opinion are the best HS Cross Country Coaches ever?

I will start with a three to get this discussion going. Please list the coach as well as the state.

Joe Newton (Illinois)

Pat Tyson (Washington)

Walt Lange (California)

http://www.albertcaruana.blogspot.com

Tom Heath

MaxAMillion wrote:

Joe Newton (York)

They turn boys into young men and teach them lessons that they will use for the rest of their lifes.

Nothing against the York runners individually but I think this statement is a bit off. Don't you remember those 3-4 boys from York who got caught setting houses or school buses on fire?

Great coach, great program, great history, but not necessary turning boys into young men and teaching them life lessons.

matt jones of shenendehowa NY

Greg Weich.

It was actually one kid who was a top runner on the XC team and a couple who were members but not real committed, and that was a single glitch over what, 48 years, of coaching. Pretty obviously, that was a kid with some problems and hardly Newton's responsibility. That starts with the parents. So you're going to dismiss the other 5000+ runners over that period of time?

This is more the reality: I watched Newton remove from the team his top runner when he got caught drinking by his parents. By saying watched, what I mean is, he explained to the team why he had done it; the actual act was done privately. And that was for the rest of the season, despite what it ended up costing the team. Everyone knows the rules.

Anyone who has ever spent time with the man knows exactly what he is all about. He's old school, tough love (though by his own admission, not quite as tough as he used to be 30 years ago). Still requires the team to wear sport coats on meet days, no long hair or earrings (and these are things I don't even agree with, mind you), kids not allowed to miss any practice (save for legitimate illness) and you cannot practice if your GPA falls below 2.0 during any week in the season. The xc team has the highest GPA of any team at York, even with 130 members.

Plus, they win. Newton is back and going for his 26th state title. He has to be close to 80 by now, and looks around 65.

Anyway.

I vote Newton, Tyson, and Lange, along with Paul Jorgenson at Flathead HS up in MT.

Who is the guy at Shawnee Mission Northwest in Kansas? Haven't they won like 12 striaght 6A state championships???

dat aint bad.

Mid West wrote:

Who is the guy at Shawnee Mission Northwest in Kansas? Haven't they won like 12 striaght 6A state championships???

dat aint bad.

Van Rose.

dave houle- has about 60 state championships to his name in boys and girls xc/track and girls basketball and a few other sports he coached back in the day. also has 6 national championships (3 boys xc, 2 girls xc i think, and 1 girls basketball)

Coach Ken Reeves in California has won the most State Championships (6 boys and 5 girls) while he was at the helm at Nordhoff HS. The CA state meet started in 1987 and has been held at Woodward Park in Fresno every year since it's inception.

You can view a list of the schools that have won the most plaques (top 3 finishes) at the CA State meet here (boys followed by girls):

http://eteamz.active.com/csuxc/news/index.cfm?id=3522860&cat=230240

http://eteamz.active.com/csuxc/news/index.cfm?id=3521328&cat=230240

Steve Borbet of Bay Shore HS is pretty damn good too.