Coaching a High School Running Program...Beyond the Training

Find Joe Newton's books, particularly The Long Green Line, which I believe is available on line. Don't focus on his workouts, which have changed greatly since then; DO focus on his team organization and motivation.

Find the film of "The Long Green Line" and pay attention to Joe's relationship with his team members, as a group and as individuals.

The one thing that is easy to overlook, yet is absolutely essential right from the start, is to get the parents "on your side." Develop a parents' support organization for your team, and make sure that all the parents of your athletes (remembering that a kid's parents may live at separate addresses, or the kid may have four parents) know precisely how you intend to run your team and how you determine who makes trips to the big meets.

I hope a bunch of people chime in here with some serious thoughts etc. Young coaches need to be reading and talking and attending clinics and stealing ideas all the time. The really good older coaches are doing it all the time.

Don't underestimate the importance of team and individual motivation and enthusiasm. Joe Newton was just one of the early pioneers here but study almost any of the successful coaches at the jr hi, sr hi and collegiate level and you will find a common bond of passion and caring for the sport and the athlete. XC and track coaching is so unique because of the great amount of time a coach spends with their athletes. A few other sports do as well but most coaches are with the kids from freshman year thru their senior year and 2 or 3 competitive season each year those bonds can grow really tight.

Mileage clubs, campouts, t-shirts, team dinners, web pages, bulletin boards - the simple standards still serve as a great foundation...good luck

Lease is dead on - get the parents on your side right away and keep them there. If you communicate well with them and treat their kids with respect all kinds of errors on your part will be forgiven. You will also be amazed at how much kids actually do to please their parents, so if their parents have your back you're going to get better efforts and more cooperation from the kids. It's like oiling the machine - everything works better.

Do everything you can to get every relay split from the 4x400 and 4x800 and make sure you record every time, distance, and height for every kid at every meet. Utilize a team manager or injured kids you trust to help with this task. Consider taking a couple JV kids you can count on to the invitationals to help with this as well and in return invest some time in them at the meet.

While the technical end of the sport is important, being organized enough to take care of the people is more so. A couple things I took away from a recent conference:

1) recognize the presence of every kid at every practice

2) recognize each kid's contribution on a regular basis - let them know that they matter.

3) remember that everyone wants to have fun even when they're working really hard

4) make sure they feel like they are an important part of something larger than themselves.

This all means that you need to have your #$*(&^ together before you get to practice each day. If you're stressed out it's going to be hard to take care of these very important but non-urgent matters.

... there are so many others things to say, but I'm sure you'll have lots of good ideas by the end of this thread.

Remmber this is high school and not college athletes so the approach to training etc cant be the same. Recruit everyone. I have no cuts. Everyone is welcome if they come to practice 6 days a week and try. Have your rules and standards set high from day one and make sure its the same for everyone. Last year i made two state champions rake the pits at an away meet because they decided to play basketball for an hour instead of run for an hour and didnt think i would find out. Acknowledge everyone at every level that improves etc. Youll have kids who you think would never score be a scorer down the road.