Happy Holidays!

Well folks, this post should be fairly brief as nothing exciting has happened in my life over the last month. As you already know cross country has finished up for the season and we are already into full indoor track training mode.

There has actually been a bit of drama the last few weeks. Alec Gonzalez, who was the number 1 wrestler in the state, decided to call it a career and just focus on running. There were a lot of people upset and felt that I had a hand in this, but the kid was just sick of training i a sweaty gym and having to lose weight he doesnt have to spare every week. Stud soph Emma Preston, who did not run track last year, decided to give up soccer to focus on her running as well. Being that she is one of the best athletes in the school also left a few coaches salty with yours truly. What can I say, I have done my job! These kids just wanna run!

Anyhow, according to silly IHSA rules, coaches are not allowed to meet with or train athletes when they are not in season so I have been stress free for over a month ; ) Actually the really dedicated group has gotten together and ran after school everyday since cross ended. I will have an exceptionally talented group of girls this year that should be right in the mix to win the state 4x800 relay. And with Hugh Gill and Kevin Eades in the mix we could have a very enjoyable spring track season.

Thats all I got for now. I recently got a membership to the new local fitness center and I have been embarrasing myself in the pool as of late. We will resume training with the high school after the new year so I will give everyone an update when we get back at it. Have a Merry Christmas and safe New Year!

Another Season Bites the Dust

Well, its another end to a great season. Last I updated everyone, we were 3rd at our Regional meet and preparing for the state qualifying Sectional meet. Record rains fell the whole weekleading into it, which turned our course into a muddy pool of slop. This, I believe, was going to be a big handicap for us as younger runners who dont do a lot of mileage tend to struggle when the course is not dry. In fact I have only run on a sloppier course once in my life which was at World Cross back in 2002.

Anyhow my fears proved to be true as Hugh Gill, the only big, strong, high-mileage kid in the group ran like a stud and most everyone else struggled home to a respectable 7th place team finish. Hugh finished 8th over all, which booked him a ticket to the state meet. Keving Eades, who I felt had a real chance of medaling at the state meet could never get it going in the mud and suffered home in 18th, missing the state meet by one place :( Alec Gonzalez competed like a true champion, running the race of his life to finish a respectable 23. He beat some very good runners in doing so as we definately have the toughest sectional in the state of Illinois. My other honorable mention was senior Brant Watson who has been clutch for us all season long. I love to brag on Brant as he came out as a pudgy freshman with a single goal of losing a little weight. But after doing everything I have asked of him for the last 4 years he ended up being a key contributor to this team. A coach could not ask for a better young man to work with and his leadership on this team will be deeply missed.

Preparation for the state meet was pretty easy for Hugh Gill. We did a mile time trial early in the week, hitting 4:39, and that was it for us. The conditions could not have been any different from the sectional course at Detwiller Park. Dry as a bone and unseasonably warm temps of 70 plus proved to be tough for many of the athletes, as they were dropping like flies all day. I felt like Hugh was going to have to have a really good race to crack into top 25 for an all state spot. Our game plan was really simple, get out hard and hang on for dear life! The first part went to plan just great, but unfortunately Hugh could not hang onto the early pace and faded to a dissappointing 83rd. All in all not a bad season, as it was his first time racing at State and it will be another good experience for him to draw upon as he prepares for his final track season.

That is the jist of it from this end. I cannot lie and say I was not dissappointed that we did not qualify as a team. These boys put in a lot of work over the last 6 months and were really focused on achieving their goal. But it proved to be even more difficult than I expected. There is a lot of talent in this state and a lot of good coaches to boot. One thing I think did happen though was make the boys realize that if they ever want to accomplish what they want as a team they are really going to have to gell together on the off season and put some real mileage in. Im talking about turing into real running geeks! Thats what it is going to take, but I think they have the moxy that it takes!

As soon as I can figure this thing out I will be attatching a video of the season that Jacob VanGuntens father so graciously put together for our awards banquet. Enjoy and I will update you all again after we reorganize and begin preparing for our winter training!

Championship Season

The Raider cross country team is now in the heart of our championship series and if we don't put it together as a team Saturday at the Sectional meet we will be the odd man out. We placed 3rd at the conference meet last weekend and 3rd again yesterday at the IHSA Regional meet, both held at fabled Detwiller Park right here in Peoria.

Conference was actually a bit of a dissappointment after all the hype coming in. There were 6 teams that had a legitimate shot at winning but at the end of the day Metamora pulled it out once again. After what I felt like was a light week, the boys all felt sluggish and tired after the first mile and they never really got themselves into it. One high note was freshman Jacob VanGunten winning the frosh race by a nose to keep our streak of 3 in a row alive! It was awsome to see a young man who has never won a race in his life stick his nose in it and compete like he did. Kevin Eades made a push to run with two all state runners but in the end he just couldnt get it going and faded to a dissappointing 5th. He and Hugh Gill did hang on though for All Conference finishes though.

Regionals was just a formality as 5 teams qualify out of the 8 there. We used it as an opportunity to run together as a group for the first mile. Aside from one dissappointment the boys ran pretty well on a cold and windy day. Next weeks sectionals will prove to be a real test as there are 8 teams that have a real legitimate chance to qualify in those top 5 spots. It will take a big effort from every guy but I have faith that this group will go out and set a standard for teams to come. Eades and Gill should both be top 15 and Gonzalez top 25. The real key will be if Alex Cortes can finally race like he works out. If he can crack top 45 and Brant Watson can be top 70 we will be on our way to state.

Conference results: http://www.ivs.org/Results/2009/Mid%20Illini/boyvar_ind.txt

Regional results: http://go.ihsa.org/reports/ccb69794.htm

I will keep you all posted after the race and if you are just dying to know results before I write you can find them on www.ihsa.org and go under the cross country tab. Go to results, 2A, East Peoria Sectionals. Until then, Go Raiders!

Trophy Time!

The Raider cross country team brought home some team hardware from our home meet for the first time since its inception in 1990! We placed 3rd to two of the best teams in the state and more importantly beat all the teams that our main competition in the state qualifying sectionals. It is a big advantage to be hosting the sectional meet and this was the first meet this year where I asked the boys to really lay it all out there. They performed like the champions that I knew they were. I believe we had 16 out of 17 prs. My new posts are gunna change a little from the past. I will just post each kid witht their time, place and a few notes on how they raced. At the bottom will be pictures from the meet that the parents have been nice enough to take for me. We will race again next weekend at a smaller flighted race where I hope to bring home our first team title in over 30 years! Enjoy and Go Raiders

Kevin Eades 15:31 4th; 10 sec pr; showed that he is capable of being top 15 in the state
Hugh Gill 15:55 13th; 15 sec pr; great showing for first race year, expect big things
Alec Gonzalez 16:06 23rd; 10 sec pr; competes better than any athlete ive ever coached
Brant Watson 16:51 44th; 35 sec pr; huge race; welcome to sub 17!
Gage VanOrder 16:58 50th; 15 sec pr; finally getting out quick and competing
Cody Margetis 17:01 52nd; 10 sec pr; raced tough with pinched SI joint
Alec Cortes 17:13 64th; very off day, has gotta get out early and not fear the pain
Drew Thomas 17:26 75th; getting better after a long 9 month layoff
Austin McGraw 18:12 33rd f/s; 55 sec pr; out quick but held on well
Jacob VanGunten 18:18 35th f/s; 70 sec pr; raced smart for a huge pb
John Tillotson 19:34 151st; finally cracked 20 min
Shane Hubbard 19:35 60th f/s; finally cracked 20 min
Zach Sells 20:07 74th f/s; just missed sub 20 but learning that he can race
Mike Ginz 21:14 91th f/s; only second week on the team
Colton Killian 21:40 198th; learing how to work the middle of the race
Christian Hamilton 22:00 202nd; learning how to work the middle of the race
Anthony Taapken 22:34 206th; gotta learn how to push for 3 miles

Week 2

The Raider cross country team is back in action, just completeing the second week of competition. Saturday September 5 was the Canton Invite, a smaller local invite and last weekend was the monster Woodruff Invite at storied Detwiller Park.

Canton was a great start for the Raiders, placing 2 on the medal stand in the Varsity race and one suprise medal in the frosh race with Austin McGraugh. Kevin Eades ran a courageous race to place 6th and Alec Gonzalez ran the race of the meet to place 8th. I was not counting on him running so fast this year and this could prove to be the real advantage that we needed to win the conference and advance to the state finals. Other notable varsity racers were Brant Watson, Gage VanOrder, and Cody Margetis who all ran PRs in the first meet of the year on a hilly course.

The Woodruff Invite is a huge meet with over 100 teams competing in 3 different classes. We are the middle one, AA, and we ran pretty well to finish 12th out of 32. That was with out team leader Hugh Gill who will be back in action next week at the EP Invite. Six out of seven kids ran PRs, Kevin Eades just off his as he was out a little too fast. He did hang on to finish 16 and medal, as did wonderkid Alec Gonzalez running 16:15 to run another huge personal best. Only top 7 are allowed to compete in the team race, but our other 8 runners talked me into letting them run the open and they soon found out why I was against it. The race started with over 850 competitors at 1 in the afternoon! They did have fun though being that they were never able to run fast enough to hurt cause there were too many people in their way ; )

We have the weekend off to prepare for our big home invite that will feature 7 of the top 10 teams in our sectional. Fortunately for us the sectional race is held at home which could be another small advantatge. The boys have been pretty fired up since the preseason rankings came up and didnt even give us a mention. I centaintly believe that we are a top 12 team in the state with Gill running, but we wil have to get out of a very tough sectional to do that.



That is all the exciting news to report from Central Illinios. Yesterday was probably one of the most inspiring coaching moments of my career. We had a real ****buster of a workout, 4 x (4x400) with 1 min recovery on reps and 3 min on sets. The workout was aimed at getting a fast rhythm in the legs so we did it on the track on a fairly hot day. The kids responded like champs (they love 400's for some reason). The teammanship is like nothing I have ever seen at EP. They were cheering each other on and doing chants at the start of each one. It gave me goosebumps to know that it has only taken me 3 years to get a real xc team together at EP!


I will make another update after our home meet next weekend, hopefully with lots more good news! GO RAIDERS

A New Season

Another cross season is upon us, and this one promises to be to be good! This is the most talented, prepared and deepest team East Peoria has had in a long time. The boys have put in more miles over the last 3 months than I certainly ever did in high school. We had a new challenge this summer, starting a 500, 750 and 1000 mile club over a 12 week period. They had till September 1 to get them in and I will have 5 over 500 and 2 over 750!

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Run-A-Thon, our fundraiser that is a continuous one mile loop at the course which the boys run for an hour (with out watches) and raise money for every mile they run. This was the last weekend we will have off before racing starts next week at the Canton Invite. The boys ran awsome! Kevin Eades smashed the record running 9.9 miles, Gill 9.5, Alex Cortes 9 (the biggest suprise of all) and a whole host of others at 8.5. I was really pleased with everybodys effort and on top of it they raised enough money to really look after us for the season.

The real suprise was the number of parents and supporters that showed up to cheer on the team yesterday. It is the first time since I arrived here 3 years ago that I had over half the teams parents out to watch. In my opinion that goes a lot further than any big race or 10 mile hour run. The class of freshman and sophmores in particular have a really supportive group of parents that I hope will stay involved.

Like I said our first race of the season in next weekend. Dyestat Il came out with their rankings and although I think we are a top 15 team in the state we didnt even get a mention. Thats the best thing that could have happened to us as the team is really fired up. Its not just me that wants the team to do well and not just one or two individuals, but the whole team is motivated as a group. Ah, the hard part is finally over, it only took me 3 years!!!

I will post pics from the fundraiser along with picks from next weeks race on my next blog. My running has had no signifigant developements in case anybody cares. Ive been running a little on the roads as the uneven surface of the course really bothers it. Ive been biking quite a bit to help me sleep, so there you go.

Thanks for reading and Go Raiders!

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Summer Swing

We are officially in full summer training mode here in East Peoria and things couldn't be going better! This is the 8th week of our 10 week summer training program and the team is finally feeling the weight of the mileage. Senior Hugh Gill will definately hit the 750 mile mark that I challenged him to and Kevin Eades, Brant Watson, Alex Cortes and Gage VanOrder will hit the 500 mile mark they set out to conquer on June 1. The boys are back to school in two weeks, which is also when we transition from summer long runs, tempo intervals and hill training to more specific race-pace intervals with rest, shorter hills and long runs at an easier pace.

It has been really nice to have a motivated group that gets together on a daily basis, something that was missing after the seniors left last year. I have been meeting them 3-4 times weekly and they get together most every other day on their own. Sundays have probably been the high light of summer training. We have a 10.3 mile loop from my place that is situated on a 1200 meter climb that is no joke. We leave heading down the hill and do the loop that has two other big hills in it. After the first 3 miles we try to keep the pace under 7 mpm for the next 8, which finishes up the big one. One of my other big challenges to the boys was for someone to break my hill record of 3:06 which Gill finally crushed last week, running 2:50! Afterwards I we have pancakes and very spirited gamef of ping pong, pool and Halo2.

On another front, the local track club held their first summer Youth DevelopementTrack Program this week with much success. The majority of the 100 plus kids that attended were from inner city day camps and have never had any experience with track and field. The camp focused on 6 different diciplines for 20 minutes each. That went on Monday to Thursday and finished with a track meet on Friday. I volunteered to run the distance station, and although I wanted to pull my hair out at times, we had a lot of fun. I just want to say that there is a lot of talent out there and there is a lot of energy, they just need to find some direction. I am looking forward to getting a lot more kids out for next year and running them even harder!

Thats all I have for you now. Looking forward to watching the world champs that are coming up. The running is going ok but the foot still aches. Not sure what is going to happen with this thing. Im just trying to keep positive and cross my fingers that it will all work out. Thanks for reading and Go Raiders!