You return a top 5 with a team average of 17:30 this year. How does the team look after summer practices so far?
I believe the team looks strong after summer practices. Those five runners, and about 5 more behind them, put in a lot of miles over the summer. I expect that they will drop their 5k times a good bit from where they were last year. Our team is very deep. I expect that our #10 runner this year will be much faster than our #10 runner was last year. The real challenge will be whether or not our top 4 is as good as our top 4 was last year, when our top 4 put some low numbers on the score card. Our focus going into the season will be two-fold: 1) identifying who those top runners will be and then 2) seeing if they can put some low numbers on the score card.
Any new additions to the team or surprises we can expect?
Some of our returning runners had better than expected training this summer, so hopefully that translates into better than expected races this season. But in terms of new additions, we have a new eighth grader who I anticipate being a varsity runner for us. His name is Benno Ehrhardt, and I hope he'll put some pressure on the older runners to raise their game. We also have a junior (Gabe Coleman) who is a soccer player but made great strides this summer. Lastly, there is Addison Smith, a swimmer who will be a ninth grader and should also push some of the older runners. There are certainly others, but these three in particular add to the depth that I mentioned earlier.
What is your schedule this season and are you changing anything up?
We will do the Gulf Coast Stampede meet in Pensacola on September 27. We haven't done that meet in a couple of years. We will also go to the TR Miller Invitational on October 4 instead of Jesse Owens. I heard that TR Miller put on a great meet last year, so we are going to try that meet this year. Other than that our schedule is the same as it usually is. The main meets of note before sectionals and state include the Challenge of Champions (September 5-6), Azalea City Classic (September 12), Mobile County Championships (October 16), and the McGill Toolen Relays (October 25).
What goals has your team established for this season?
The guys on the team already set some lofty goals this season, so I am interested to see if their preparation will rise to the level of those goals. Most of the goals involve being competitive and winning meets locally, which will lead to us being competitive at the sectional and state meets. That will be very difficult because there are at least six teams that I can think of in the Mobile area that are very evenly matched with us. Other coaches might not believe that, but when I look at the Mobile-Baldwin county teams I see a lot of strong, evenly matched programs. I hope that the competition we face locally will prepare us for sectionals and state. One thing is for sure - for us to reach some of the goals we've set, we will have to work very hard.