Building a High School Program

I turned around a couple of programs - non-running but I feel the principles are the same. First, advertise yourself. Every chance you get be in the hallways, set up a table at lunch, have announcements In the AM/PM announcements whenever your school does them and have social media where you’re highlighting achievements but also team building activities. It needs to look fun. Second, kids really want to feel like they are part of something that is family like. You need to get matching practice clothes, sweats, hats, etc. things that kids can wear on and off the track. Get into the middle schools and advertise there as well. Go and speak to them, get them to follow your social media page, take anyone interested to an xc meet or host your own small event with medals and refreshments etc. Lastly, as I already mentioned do fun things with the team during and out of season running and non-running related and post it your social media. Kids want to know you’re there for them all year, not just using them during season because it’s your job. Make all your social media posts about the kids, not the coaches and get someone who knows how to edit and make interesting short bids worth watching.

I agree. Those are some things we did when I was in high school competing. I'm trying to dig into the rules for going to middle schools, but that was going to be my next move.

Unfortunately, I have a full time job that is not teaching, but luckily our Head Coach does work in the school. We are all working together to make things happen.

With regards to Track & Field, it always feels like the distance and sprints are always coached. However, as it is no mystery, A LOT of points are going untapped in the throws, jumps, and even the pole vault. How would we get those parts started with limited resources? Will it just take finding the right coaches for the right kids?

Are you familiar with Joe Newton of York HS in Illinois? Read everything you can about him, read his book and follow his model.

Good suggestions from above. I coach at a very small school where we have small teams but a high percentage of the student body. We try to keep it fun at all times while we work hard. At least once a week, it’s ultimate frisbee at a breakneck pace; they’re running continually without even knowing it and getting fitter and fitter. We are always doing all kinds of relay races during practice all through the season. We take them to different locations so they don’t get bored at the same practice sites. Most of all, we give our student leaders plenty of say of how they want to run their teams. By taking ownership, they tell us what works and what doesn’t. And oh yea, we never ever raise our voice in a negative manner.
Good luck and have fun.

I would say,
Don't Stop Believin

There a lot of great ways to build a program, some mentioned above. Advertising at the school with flyers and announcements is a great starting point but I believe the number 1 factor is simply "the athletes experience". Meaning, what is the experience like for athletes on your team?

If the athletes really enjoy being a part of the team, your retention rate will be high. If you retain your athletes for 3-4 years, you will get Parents who begin to understand your program and they will feel good about their son/daughter being a part of your team. The end result... the athletes and parents become natural advertisers of your team in the most effective way possible...natural conversations that speak highly of the team and program. A neighborhood starts to have multiple athletes on your team and parents spread the word naturally. It takes time for it to grow no matter what you do, but if you have 5 years worth of athletes having a great experience being a part of your team, it is inevitable.

Culture, Culture, Culture

To change this you have to get a small group of kids to buy in first. Those kids need to recruit, recruit, recruit.

I took a school that had zero success and the past 20 years consistantly had larger teams, won 20 league titles and have dozens of District, regional and state teams.

All the great teams were a group of friends.
All the great teams had leadership
All the great teams in CC all ran track

Here are a few things we do:

1. I wrote letters to kids letting them know that I wanted them on the team.
2. I contact the parents if a kid is asked and they dismiss my efforts.
3. Recruit out of the JH
4. Go to races that have kids runs and start a 5-6th grade club
5. Incentive based program such as starting a runner of the week program.
6. Teams activities like dinners, breakout rooms, summer trips

We do a lot of the things mentioned above. Our school has around 1400 girls and boys. We have a girls team of 30+ and a boys team of 50+.

We make it fun is the bottom line. You don’t have to change the training to do this.

We also hold the kids accountable. Your dedicated athletes will want this from you. The team has to be fun and something people are proud to be a part of.

The challenge we have is a rule that we are not allowed to contact the middle schools. At one point the rule was written in a way that a coach technically could not even talk to their own child about what school to go to. That changed but we still can’t talk to anyone about it. We make some attempts through the kids and parents and it seems to help.

I strongly second reading/viewing Joe Newton on what he did to recruit kids for his 100+ teams.

Someone else also mentioned leadership. Yes! I had some pretty good teams in my first 8-9 years of coaching but the catalyst that led to our being consistently competitive at State was one kid, Tod. He was a little guy and an excellent runner, but what made a huge difference was that he was really popular with his classmates. Class president. Having someone like that makes it cool for other non-nerdy kids to run. Also for years I had trouble getting kids really committed to excellence. I was a marathoner but the kids just thought that was their crazy old coach. Then Tod - one of their own, who they admired - bought in, totally. Result: It became normal/accepted for almost everyone to show up for long runs at 6:30 Saturday morning (to avoid brutal Miami heat/humidity). Once that tradition became normal, every future team just automatically continued it. And we continued to get popular, respected kids.

A final suggestion: In the 1970s a coach at South Dade H.S., which had no history of Cross Country excellence, quickly led them to success. One of his methods was to take over a freshman P.E. class at the start of the year. (The P.E. teacher was happy to get a free period.) Then the XC coach would have the P.E. kids run a mile on the track, with the incentive of ice cream pops from a vending machine for the top kids. He then, of course, did his best to recruit those kids for XC. He also used to drive around the rural areas of South Dade in the dark on Saturday mornings to bring kids to the pre-dawn long runs. He really went the extra mile. If you ask a lot of your kids, you have to lead by example. He did.

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Bob Schul Country wrote:

Culture, Culture, Culture

To change this you have to get a small group of kids to buy in first. Those kids need to recruit, recruit, recruit.

I took a school that had zero success and the past 20 years consistantly had larger teams, won 20 league titles and have dozens of District, regional and state teams.

All the great teams were a group of friends.
All the great teams had leadership
All the great teams in CC all ran track

Here are a few things we do:

1. I wrote letters to kids letting them know that I wanted them on the team.
2. I contact the parents if a kid is asked and they dismiss my efforts.
3. Recruit out of the JH
4. Go to races that have kids runs and start a 5-6th grade club
5. Incentive based program such as starting a runner of the week program.
6. Teams activities like dinners, breakout rooms, summer trips

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Also, pick up a copy of Coaching Cross-Country Successfully, the Newton edition rather than the Tyson one. Tons of good stuff in it. But culture is everything.

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Bob Schul Country wrote:

Culture, Culture, Culture

To change this you have to get a small group of kids to buy in first. Those kids need to recruit, recruit, recruit.

I took a school that had zero success and the past 20 years consistantly had larger teams, won 20 league titles and have dozens of District, regional and state teams.

All the great teams were a group of friends.
All the great teams had leadership
All the great teams in CC all ran track

Here are a few things we do:

1. I wrote letters to kids letting them know that I wanted them on the team.
2. I contact the parents if a kid is asked and they dismiss my efforts.
3. Recruit out of the JH
4. Go to races that have kids runs and start a 5-6th grade club
5. Incentive based program such as starting a runner of the week program.
6. Teams activities like dinners, breakout rooms, summer trips

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