some college runners do train like this, especially in winter.
I have had in depth conversations with a recently sub 14 5k-er on what he's doing right now. He run 10-12 times a week, 10 are just distance runs. 2 out of those 10 are performed at 5:45 pace (so a slow tempo/steady state)
The two "workouts" are either 10mile tempo/long hill repeats alternating weekly and the other is mile repeats/repeat 1k's alternating weekly. He does this from august-march.
Now yes there is "interval training" in his routine but I think this closely resembles this h.s program and I feel people who train like that in high school will adapt very easily to this training system.
On a side note, this training is very consistent and make you feel "bored" at time so it really makes you hungry to race which I think is a HUGE part of coaching.