Interview with Loudoun County H.S. Coaches (Joan & Marc Hunter)

All coaches have built off ideas from other coaches.

Kato wrote:

Drew Hunter's trainer / coach is Tinman. The Hunters are disciples of Tinman's CV training philosophy. Tinman is also the coach of Grace Ping. Let's give credit where it is due: Tinman, aka Tom Schwartz.

Wow, Kato, you're presumably just crediting Tinman for all of LVHS's successes, including the current LVHS boys' team’s achievements, because he coached ONE individual -- you know, Drew -- for the latter part of that young buck’s stellar high school career...which is a thing of the past. Drew graduated in June 2016. LVHS is already in its second post-Drew Hunter boys’ XC season.

Yeah, let’s be like Kato and give NO credit to Marc and Joan Hunter for the success of the entire LVHS program over several years.

On the last two LVHS boys’ XC teams, after Drew graduated, there has been just a little bit of accomplishment that maybe, just maybe, can be linked to their non-Tinman coaches. You know, those two teams, don’t you, Kato? Well, let me remind you: there’s the one that finished THIRD in the entire 2016 NXN SE Regional and just missed out on an at-large bid to the championships, and then there’s the boys' team which is, currently, ranked #1 IN THE USA.

No doubt Tinman's training philosophy has positively influenced Marc and Joan Hunter, but the Hunters are the LVHS coaches, not Tinman.

So then, Kato, let's REALLY give credit where credit is currently due.

I feel like also giving credit to Marc and Joan Hunter, not just to Tinman, for Drew's successes. It is justified.

Hope you can deal with the concept of doling out proper credit, Kato.

You assume wrong. While Tom does get paid to write training for some high school (and college) programs, he does not write our training, nor do we pay him for anything related to our team. Not sure why you would make that assumption and put it on a message board as FACT that we pay him, except that this is LetsRun where everyone knows everything, even if they don't!

Apples & Oranges wrote:

On the other hand, I assume Tinman looks at the LVHS XC schedules & decides what dates to do CV runs or tempo runs or whatever. The Hunters are PAYING HIM.

Apples & Oranges has no class, and no knowledge of freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior classes at LVHS. A know-not-it-all who believes his/her own shit don't stink! Well, it DOES, schmuck. You're class conscious; you have no class, and everyone's conscious of it.

Great piece. Very humble, they know exactly where they stand nationally.

Consistent mileage and not running intervals all summer. You can always tell a team is trained incorrectly when their fastest times are in Sept and Dec. or when indoor times are faster than outdoor times. LC skips indoors which gives them a solid block of training and time for the kids to get “hungry” for March.

Drew's Mom for the win!!!

Joan and Marc are coaching the team at Loudon Valley and they are doing a great job. It doesn’t matter whose workouts or training methods from which they borrow. The main points should be on their program’s excellent progress both this season and in the past, their success in helping young athletes achieve personal and team success, and making high school cross country in America a sport that motivates young people to become involved. They deserve support for their commitment to the team, devotion to their community, and a steady focus on positive character development.

The lessons their athletes learn will carry beyond the sport to an adult life that requires understanding the relationship between working hard for goals and the value of realtiionship building.

Other teams like Great Oaks and Wayzata likewise have devoted coaches that have built strong programs. All three sets of coaches motivate, inspire, and promote the sport, which we could use a lot more of in America. Let’s support all of them!

Take care,

Tom S.

Bleu wrote:

Great piece. Very humble, they know exactly where they stand nationally.

Consistent mileage and not running intervals all summer. You can always tell a team is trained incorrectly when their fastest times are in Sept and Dec. or when indoor times are faster than outdoor times. LC skips indoors which gives them a solid block of training and time for the kids to get “hungry” for March.

Very well put, except that Loudoun County now has indoor track, probably, in large part, because of the Hunters -- Marc, Joan, and Drew.

They have indoor as a direct result of the Hunters efforts. They have rallied the coaches in the area through a Winter training program. they invited kids from all over the county to join and race unattached. From there the coaches got things going based upon not only the quality of kids in the area, but sheer amount. There were over 100 kids coming out in freezing temps just to have "an indoor season."

I didn’t know that but somehow I see them using it as a strength season and not racing the kids to death.

Also, indoors is important for sprinters and field event kids who need to have a season to work on technique, blocks, hurdles as they don’t complete competitively in XC.

There is another preseason interview article about LV on milesplit

http://www.milesplit.com/articles/219816

Interesting interview but there is a grammatical error in the second sentence. Not quality writing.

ThatEpicMania wrote:

Interesting interview but there is a grammatical error in the second sentence. Not quality writing.

I apologize and the error is now fixed. The quality is in information though, and getting good coaching methodology from the top coaches in the country has been great. Joan and Marc have done a phenomenal job developing this program. I am very interested to see them continue to develop this program!

ThatEpicMania wrote:

Interesting interview but there is a grammatical error in the second sentence. Not quality writing.

What specifically did you find interesting in the interview, if you don't mind me asking?

Avogado wrote:

All coaches have built off ideas from other coaches.

Exactly. And there are a bunch of ways to run fast. The day to day interactions are just as important as the numbers on paper.

Drew's mom :

How many other coaches do you have on your staff?

Are they there 6 days a week?

Keep up the good work on the other side of the river.

The Hunters coached Drew up until his Junior Year. Let me remind you that he ran 8:42 in a full two mile and 4:02 in a full mile as a Junior under their guidance. So, as they may be using some of Tom's Principles, they have done an incredible job building up the program on their own.

http://va.milesplit.com/articles/222357-loudoun-valley-puts-seven-under-16-becomes-1st-va-squad-to-do-so

Drew's freshmen year there were two guys under 17 minutes for 5k. Look at the program now. That's good coaching.