Coaching Middle School Cross Country

I am incredibly lucky to coach middle school cross country.  It is a sport where everyone gets playing time (and the least skilled get the most playing time); where there is a completely objective measure of achievement; where athletes are encouraged to talk to each other during practice; where almost all spectators, parents, and athletes buy into the philosophy that individual growth outweighs the importance of winning; and, perhaps foremost, it is a sport where my coaching ability (or lack of it) is not scrutinized at every meet.  The gun goes off, my runners take off, I trot onto the course and cheer, offer some quick words (often unheard by the runner) of encouragement or tactical advice, and then I trot back to the finish line to do a little debriefing.  The fact that I don’t remember any parent complaining about my coaching ability has little to do with my prowess and a lot to do with the nature of the sport.  

I feel for other coaches whose words and actions are on display for crowds of folks to analyze.  There are probably not too many middle school coaches out there who relish the public side of coaching -- most just enjoy being with the kids, want to pass on their love of the game, and like the idea of being able to accomplish something meaningful with a group of adolescents.  In a game like basketball, there is no such thing as a perfectly coached game.  Coaches make mistakes in every game; the most famous coaches in the world will acknowledge this.  Put that fact up against the American culture of analyzing coaching by pundits and self-proclaimed Internet experts, and we are left with the idea that it is the fan’s God-given right to analyze and publicly criticize.  While this may be acceptable with college and professional sports, it gets a little scary at the middle school level.  Yes, there are middle school coaches out there who probably should not be coaching middle school athletes, and hopefully they are counseled out of the field; however, I watch a lot of middle school sports and I infrequently see coaches who are that far out of step.

So, I will continue with my middle school cross country coaching career.  We will have fun, persevere, and compete against ourselves and others.  In the process, I get to stay out of the limelight and focus on sharing my love of running and listening to the banter of twelve-year-olds as we run through the hills of Biltmore Forest.