The key to Kamiakin's cross-country success

The reward of doing something hard like after a good race there's nothing that like replaces the feeling of a PR or just like knowing that you did a good hard workout. My teammates are a big thing that keep me coming back to the sport like every year just knowing that they'll show up for me and they'll work hard also to motivate the younger kids. We show up for them and show them what it means to work hard on the team and yeah we try to instill that in them. the kids that were coming back were like i want a piece of that you know i want to do that the younger kids have been able to step up and get to the same level and i usually try to have the juniors and seniors take responsibility for getting the freshmen and sophomores to the same level at least the same level they were when they were freshmen and sophomores and that has allowed us to make it through a lot of graduations they've just got a really good attitude they want to be successful and they're willing to do what it takes to be successful. We run as a team. Together we practice as a team and we're like a family so running as a team is very important but pushing yourself to be able to help the team and get the points that we need is nice. It helps push and motivate each other to actually want to do good and makes everyone else want to achieve what they want. So it's just like progressively pushing each other. I respect them so much for doing stuff that a lot of kids don't want to do nowadays. It's not an easy sport. I mean who wants to go out there and race three miles I mean or go for a 10 mile run or 12 mile run on a Saturday or whatever. You know nowadays especially with all the outside distraction they decided it was it was worth the effort and practice when nobody's watching you to be able to be watched at least a little bit when you're in the meets. I think the team aspect is the most important part because you can do well on your own and still not do well as a team so it all matters if everyone does their part and I think that's what we've been doing. The biggest thing that separates the great teams from the good teams is being able to push through the pain when it's adding up. We spent a lot of time just just bonding we just the girls get together a lot we we just we have dinners together we have movie nights together we we do dream boards together we just yeah we just do a lot of things but we're there for each other in the hard in the good and the hard doing it for each other is something that I've been proud of it's like when you're getting tired and you realize that your teammate is working just as hard as you and you have something to fight for together you find some unusual strength in that we always just like comfort each other when like something just feels off with someone like we always just have each other's back it's like a very good community with cross country my approach is just gather them in just love them just tell them how great they are just encourage them one of the best things about coaching is you get that new runner who like one mile is so hard like they can't believe they're doing this and within a few weeks they're running four miles and they're like look at you know just the confidence that they get like this is hard and look what I'm doing. When I was a freshman all the seniors were like comforting when like the freshmen would come in and include everybody so it felt like really nice to have like that kind of culture. We're all like a family so like you cheer everyone on and make everyone feel like included while you're running. All the varsity will cheer on the JV. We want to make everyone included like in everything we do. They're trying their hardest that's all I want. I want them to see what they can do if they really go for it and I don't want them to feel sometimes I have to say guys just remember yes we wanted we want to do well we want to be on top or whatever but your best is good enough your best is good enough if you can say that at the end of your race that you tried your best and I'm totally fine with that and that's what keeps me going I just feel like I don't know how much longer I'm going to do it I'm getting close but I'm like being here in the afternoon every day just like today keeps me upbeat about what's going on, so.