My coaching philosophy is to look at the total needs of each young athlete and to find out how running with benefit that individual the most and to build their training from there.  I like to look at the big picture of how cross country can benefit them…I believe long-term goals are important, whether they want to run competitively in college on day, aim to just improve self-esteem, or to find an outlet where they can relieve stress so they can function better in academic and social situations.  I like to look at not only their running times, but how each run is affecting them, keeping running logs, talking about health, and learning to really work as a team.  I also love to run with the kids myself so they can see I love it too and I’m willing to work too, to ask them for their opinions/suggestions and use them when I can so they feel it is THEIR team, and to make it FUN : )  Running to me is an awesome medium for many young people for one simple fact:  if you put the time in, no matter what your natural ability, if you put the time in to run the distances, you WILL get better.  It is nice to know there is something that is like that in the world- sometimes kids find too many things that they work on and work on, but don’t get the results they hope for.  Not everyone can come in first place, but everyone can improve… it just takes effort and discipline!  Running is a competition only against yourself in my book.