Fall 2007 

 

Fall Newsletter

September 2007

 

Hello Coaches, we are well into the season and I hope you and your teams are doing well. There are lot’s of things to share with you this time around. However, before I begin I must apologize for the lateness of this missive. After 15 years of teaching in the elementary, I have moved up to the high school, where the kids are certainly much taller. It’s been very exciting, but also a lot of work as I made the change in August. So now, finally, I’m getting this out to you.

            One of the first changes I know you saw was the rules clinic. I don’t know many people who relish the thought of taking an additional test, but we felt that it was time for several reasons. With the increase in new schools, we have a large number of new coaches coming in. Many of them do not coach track, so they don’t have the opportunity to do a rules clinic in the spring. And honestly, from a professional standpoint, we felt we should have the same accountability as any other sport. In the long run, like eating your broccoli, it will be good for you.

 

East West All Star Race and Scholarships

 

This past summer saw another edition of the East West All Star Race. The support from Brooks and Super Jock N Jill has been tremendous, and the participants ended up with a uniform, T-shirt, and some other goodies as well. The race was outstanding, with Jake Riley and Max O'Donoghue-McDonald finishing one second apart in 15:48 & 15:49 on the tough Lower Woodland Course. All Star Tess Granneman and freshman Annie Moore battled in the girls division, with Annie winning by 4 seconds in 19:11. A complete list of the entrants can be found on-line at www.watfxc.com

As part of the event, we again awarded scholarships to several deserving runners. Thanks to the hard work of many board members, we were able to give out more money than ever before. Jeff Sowards has taken the lead in soliciting funds from sources across the state and we believe our funds will increase again. If you have an event, a business, or group that would like to be involved, please contact Jeff. Currently we have Brooks, Seafair, The Run of the Mill, and the Jeff Munroe foundation as major supporters with several running stores, individuals, and organizations coming on board as well. Now we just need more applicants. To be honest, the pool was very small this year. They were all well qualified, but coaches, we need you to encourage your seniors to apply.

Here were the winners for the class of 2007.

$500 WSCCCA Scholarship: Ann Hinkley, Hazen HS

$500 WSCCCA Scholarship: Peter Miller, Shadle Park HS

$500 WSCCCA Scholarship : Kris Brown, Garfield HS

$500 Brooks Scholarship: Charlie Williams, Gig Harbor HS

$500 Brooks Scholarship: Kate Southcote-Want, Edmonds-Woodway HS

$500   Scott Skiles Memorial Scholarship: Corrine Gogert, Lakewood HS

$1000 Jeff Munroe Scholarship: Tyson Rickman, Cascade HS

$1000 Seafair Scholarship: Lauren Briehoff, Mountain View HS

 

Coach of the Year

            This year you will see a change in the Coach of the Year awards. Rather than award two coaches, we will be honoring coaches in each classification. Each group faces their own challenges, and we felt that it was time to expand the awards. We will also announce our candidates for the National Coach of the year at State. Of course, this leads to a shameless plug to join the association. You need to be a member to be eligible, and your dues help us fund the awards. If you aren’t already a member, what are you waiting for?

           

Hall of Fame

            Another change this year will be our Hall of  Fame. In addition to the plaques presented to our individual honorees, we will also be putting up plaques on our new Cross Country Wall in WIAA headquarters. We will be starting with previous inductees, and hope to have the entire class up within the year. Each new group of plaques will be on display at the state meet prior to going on display at the WIAA. The initial cost is significant, and we are looking at fundraising options (along with increased membership, please see the previous paragraph).

 

State Meet

            There are a few tweaks to the state meet schedule to try to make sure that coaches, parents, and athletes don’t miss out on awards ceremonies. The spectators viewing access proved to be a hit last year, and moving the podium into the driving range was also beneficial. Please do yourself and meet management a big favor and take the time to visit the state meet website, review the schedule, syllabus, and map. This is John’s last year as the Competition Director, although we suspect he’ll still be involved at some level.  I think we can all agree that John has set a high standard for meet organization. John will leave a huge set of footsteps to follow.

 

Length of Season

            This past week, after over 9 months of gathering data, collecting votes, and answering questions, we once again presented our proposal to add one week to the season. Two years ago it was defeated on the third reading, and we were charged to do a better job of communicating with our membership. The week would have been added at the end, beginning in 2008. This time, over 170 schools responded, about 65% of those who run cross country. Of those, 73% were in favor of adding a week. Districts 1,2,3, 5, and 8 led the way with the majority of their schools voting. Voting was sparse in district 4 and 6, but still substantial enough to be valid. Interestingly enough, support was strong in all classifications, with the 2B, 2A, 3A, & 4A classifications strongly in favor. The 1A and 1B classifications were slightly opposed. In the districts it was similar. Districts 1,2,3, 4,5 were strongly in favor. District 8 was slightly in favor, district 9 was even. Districts 5 & 6 were slightly opposed. However, in the end it did not matter. The WIAA Executive Board voted against extending the season. We haven’t seen the discussion from the minutes, but the sentiment seemed to be that the current situation was working, and making a change would be difficult. While the board respectfully disagrees, it is also best to table this issue for now. Certainly it would be worthwhile to continue the dialogue because increased communication and understanding can only help us all. I would like to thank the advisory and executive board members in all of this. Their dedication to our sport (regardless of which side of the aisle they were on) was awesome. Our proposal and the vote counts will be part of the public record, and will be posted on the website as a pdf file within the week. Please feel free to contact an executive board member if you have any questions or thoughts.

 

Final Thoughts

            Take a moment and reflect on the impact you have on the lives of our young men and women. They are better off for your efforts. We all are. I hope that the year is a good one for you. I encourage (perhaps even plead) for more coaches to get involved in the “workings of our sport.” Sometimes it’s hard to look beyond your own team, or league, but so many of you have things to share. Together we can do so much. Please feel free to contact an Executive Board member or advisory board member. If you have a question, please ask your advisory board member, or feel free to contact your executive board. We’re here to serve. That’s why we get the big bucks ($0 + lots of time = volunteer service). This is a great sport. Keep up the good work.

 

Joe Clark

WSCCCA President

Lakes High School

 

 

And don’t forget your membership dues. The website is http://www.washcoach.org/links.php

 

 

 

Executive Board

Joe Clark (Lakes): President Phil English (Eisenhower): Vice-President

Patty Ley (Gig Harbor): Secretary Bruce McDowell (Cedarcrest): Treasurer

Advisory Board

Dist. 1: David LeWarne, Kevin Ryan Dist. 2: John O’Leary, Dave Miller 

Dist. 3: Jerry Miller, Bill Sumner Dist. 4: Amber Cruzan, Richard La Londe

Dist. 5: Robin Bryson, Dan Colby Dist. 6: Susan Valdez

Dist. 7: Mary Downey, Bill Kemp Dist.  8: Chrissy Francek, Bob Isitt Dist. 9: Joanna Lanning

 

 

The “Official” Newsletter of the Washington State Cross Country Coaches Association

Spring 2007

 

New Beginnings & Old Memories

 

It’s spring, a time of new beginnings and fresh starts, along with the promise of great days to come. At least, that’s the way I look at spring. The glass is always half full and I’m looking for the fountain to fill it up the rest of the way. Unfortunately, this spring finds the cross country coaching community a bit short. Hall of Fame coach Bob Guenther of Tyee recently passed away. I was lucky enough to get to know Bob a bit in the past few years, and I consider myself fortunate, as many of you who know him also do. Long after most coaches step down, Bob kept coaching at Tyee “because the kids needed him.” He was a coach to the end. He was one of those coaches who always had his camera, and he knew how to use it. He took kids and made them believe in themselves, and made them fast. But more importantly, Bob was a nice guy. I never heard him say a negative thing about a fellow coach or an athlete. He was always ready to chat. I’m going to miss him as I know many of you will. For those of you want to pay your respects, there will be a celebration of his life at Tyee High School on Saturday, June 2 10:00 a.m. in the Tyee complex large gym. Part of the event will be pictures and movie clips of his long career at Tyee.

 

Length of Season

 

Your coaches association has been working on several things this past season. The most obvious is the proposal to add one week to the end of the season to bring it back to what it was back in the 80’s. You should have gotten our proposal via your athletic director this past week. Please read it over, there have been some changes to the initial proposal submitted two years ago. You can also find the weather data, common questions and answers, and more on line at http://www.watfxc.com/XC/WSCCCA/Main.htm There are a couple of quick points though that we would like to make. First, we are asking every school with a cross country program for their vote, regardless of whether their coaches are WSCCCA members. Second, we are asking that all votes are in by June 15. Even if you had let us know previously, please use the ballot and make it official. Third, if the proposal is enacted, it would not take effect until 2008. Finally, while we strive to see the big picture, we are a cross country association. We all coach multi-sport athletes, but as representatives of the cross country coaches, our priority as your executive board has to be for athletes in our sport first. I’m thankful that so many of you take the time to let us know what’s important so that hopefully, we are representing you in the best possible manner.

But wait…there’s more

 

The length of season proposal isn’t the only thing we’ve been doing though. We are looking at expanding our coach of the year awards. With so many classifications, and so many great coaches, it’s probably time to recognize a few more. We will have more information following our “White Pass Board Meeting.” This coming fall, you will be able to access a guide to help beginning coaches in our sport. We have also established “career recognition” guidelines for coaches. Since our sport doesn’t always relay on dual meets or regular season contests, career recognition will be based on the state meet. Here are the guidelines. Both steps would require a minimum of 12 years as head coach

Coaches will be responsible for tracking their own statistics and submitting them for recognition. Honorees will be recognized at the state meet and also on the web page.

And last but not least, we will be purchasing plaques for all of our Hall of Fame winners and putting them on a dedicated Cross Country Hall of Fame Wall at the WIAA headquarters.

East/West All Star Race & Scholarship Awards

 

We are getting closer to our All Star Race and scholarship presentation this spring. The All Star team has been posted on-line at http://www.watfxc.com/XC/EastWest/EWMain.htm. This year we expanded the team to 60 athletes in order to reflect the additional WIAA classification. Coaches may also submit the names of athletes who may be deserving of All Star status but failed to qualify due to injury, illness, or other reasons beyond their control. All nominations will be reviewed by the WSCCCA Executive Board. All Stars get team uniform and other items from our sponsors Brooks and Super Jock and Jill. We will also honor all of the 2006 state champion coaches as “honorary All Star” coaches. On Friday, June 20th, there will be an evening social and easy run for participants, coaches, and anyone else interested in attending at Super Jock & Jill in Seattle. The race is also open to underclassmen, coaches, and the general public. All entry fees go back to supporting cross country and the scholarship program. We strongly encourage graduating senior cross country athletes to apply for one of the scholarships we offer as well. You do not need to be an “All Star” to apply, but you complete application must be received by June 30.

The All Star program, like so many things, is a labor of love, and requires the support of the cross country community. There are several ways you can do this. Encourage your athletes to attend, come take part yourself. It’s a lot of fun.

You may be asking yourself, how do we get the money for all of these scholarships? That is an excellent question, and we’re glad you volunteered to help. Seriously, we raise money from several sources. Brooks donates $1000 annually, as does Seafair. We have a fund donated by the family of Jeff Munroe, a former runner whose life was cut short, and several other smaller sources. If you have a potential donor, please contact us. Last year the Run of The Mill made a generous donation of $1000 in return for some significant support with the running of their race. They would like to do so again, and so we are making a call for volunteers. It’s pretty important that we try to support them with as many volunteers as possible. Please contact me at jclark@watfxc.com if you can help out.

 

The WSCA, our umbrella organization

 

In a similar vein, our umbrella organization, the Washington State Coaches Association is providing funds to help the individual sports with their all-star events. This is significant for several reasons. It allows us to do more for the all stars, frees up more funds for scholarships, and just makes for a better event. These monies come from your membership dues. Thanks to all of you who are members. Those of you who aren’t members, please consider joining. Not only do you get liability insurance, a free pass to state (and most district) sporting events, but you’re helping kids. You probably wouldn’t be a coach if that wasn’t important to you. You can find out more at http://www.washcoach.org/

 

Don’t forget to write…

Please keep in touch. We want to hear from you. Contact your advisory board member from your district (http://www.watfxc.com/XC/WSCCCA/Main.htm).  If you have a thought, a comment, or something to share, let us know, whether it’s good or bad (good preferred). We want to hear from you. We have a strong organization because we have outstanding coaches. Enjoy your spring, have a great summer, and good luck next season.

 

Joe Clark

President, WSCCCA

 

-You cannot win if you do not play.