Coaches: How long does it take to build up a totally dormant or non-existent team?

I'm not a coach but I had a good one in high school. I went to Tempe High School the first two years Doug Conley coached there. The previous year, the cross country team was one of the worst in state. The first year he coached, they were 10th. The second year, 2nd by 2 points, rated 3rd in the Southwest. The third year 1st, rated second in nation - my recollection. He had us running a hilly route in the morning before school and intervals, fartleks, etc after school. I remember one workout where he had the JV runners (me) running quarter mile intervals on a 90 second interval. Also, he ran with us and was better than anyone on the team. We also bought very lightweight Onitsuka Tigers for the entire team, again my recollection. Granted, this is back in the 70's and in a not very populous state. At the same time, Tempe High was pretty small for the state AAA division in which we competed. And as has been pointed out in another article (http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=36&SubSectionID=1193&ArticleID=42002), this was a golden period for distance running in Arizona. Hope this is helpful.

Great. Thank you very much. I think a coach that runs with the team (some but not all days) makes such a subtle but dramatic difference.

Also, both of my daughters went to a very highly rated academic high school which was brand new (Oxford Academy in Cypress). They had to plead to the board of education to allow the school to participate in interscholastic sports. With a coach that was a college standout at Cal State Fullerton and in a school with no seniors at that time, they won the league championship (in a league of similarly academically oriented schools). Prior to that year, the kids had a running club with the coach as an advisor. The point of this is that a team can be built from literally nothing at a school with a non-athletic orientation. The reason in this case was 1) that they had good coaching and 2) that they were very much self motivated individuals that expected success of themselves.

3 years is a good estimate.

on the first year you have to work with what you get. on the second year kids will do the recruiting work for you (if they like you). when the 3rd year starts hopefully you have something to show up and that will keep the ball rolling.

3 years is about right. I have done it once and I am on my second year of doing it again. Start young with a motivated group and build them up

Thanks again, all.

Can turn cross country around in a year or two as you need five. We went from last in conference to first in two years. T&F takes a little longer. We went from starting a new sport to conference champions in four years. Need about 18 good athletes and a couple of knowledgable assistants who are fun to be around and you have a shot of winning from year 3-4 on in T&F. This is assuming it's apples to apples with demographics of the competition. Good luck, develop GREAT leadership, keep to the basics, and have fun! Build it and they will come!

It depends on what they have been doing previously, but I'd agree with the 3 years. Had a suburban team go from next-to-last in the conference to state large-school cross country champs in 3 years. Also had a track team (small rural school) go from from never being higher than 6th at conference to taking the defending state champs down to the 4x4 in a year, but the kids had never trained in any form. The distance runners had never run farther than 2 miles (and that was in a race), and the sprinters would run their race distance fast once, and then slow once, and go home. And that's the real key; if they haven't been doing anything, it's easy to get improvements when a bare minimum of work was the standard. Much of the culture change will depend on your personality and finding the right kid (or two) that buys into being something more than in the back.

Now, the truly hard part is keeping that going once you get it started...

Boys programs you should give about 7 years.

Girls programs need dramatically less because freshman girls can come in and turn the program around over night. Plus there is not as much depth on the girls' side in HS.