Anacortes Summer Practice
View the galley of Anacortes practice HERE
We met with the Anacortes High School team on a beautiful Friday morning in Acacortes, Washington. Anacortes is on Fildago Island and has ferries that will take vacationers to the San Juan Islands to the west.
Coach Brad Templeton and assistant coach Jon Ruckdaschel met with the athletes at the high school track and proceeded to do 1000 meter repeats on a gravel path on the campus. Coach Templeton shared information on the team:
Summer Practices - I distribute a summer running plan for the kids before school lets out for the year. In years past we would routinely meet twice a week during the summer at one of our local trail heads. That transitioned to meeting at school twice a wee so we could access our weight room before heading out for a run. This summer is the first time we have not scheduled any group summer runs. Instead I have let our upper class organize there own group runs; the girls organizing theirs and the boys like wise. We have a pretty dependable group of kids who understand the importance of consistent running over the summer, following in the footsteps of our alumni.
Summer Highlights - We are a small school and with summer we have our team spread all over the place with vacations and other family obligations. As such we don’t have any camps (not yet anyway). I have always thought a mini camps in the central part of our state (Methow Valley) would be a great idea do to the numerous running trails and dry warm climate. Unfortunately, I have never gotten around to planning it out. In the last several years a select group of our guys have gone down to Flagstaff, rented a house and to train at altitude for several weeks. I’m not sure how much longer that tradition will take place..
Season Highlights – The first week or so of practice is always a fun time, getting to know the new folks, finding out what everyone did over the summer, that feeling of hope and unknown about the season at hand. We have an early season overnight trip to an invitational each year for our top 7. In years past we’ve gone to the 3-Course Challenge down at Seaside, OR, Tillamook, Nike Portland and Coeur d’Alene. This year we’re head to the Bob Firman Invite over in Spokane. My personal favorite highlight of the season is our County Championship as it’s ripe with tradition. The big favorite part of the season for the kids is definitely the Nike Twilight Meet just prior to Halloween. Coach Edens and his staff at Marysville Getchell HS do a great job with that meet.
Team Culture – We want each student that comes thru our program to feel like they have had a rewarding experience. That comes in a lot of different forms; having fun, feeling like part of a family, enjoying personal progress as a distance runner while also being part of team (even if you aren’t one of the top 7), learning something about themselves, building confidence. Some of the tools we use to accomplish those things are some fun, creative workouts during the year (team scavenger hunt, Homecoming King/Quenn workout/ selfie run), team dinners, goal setting and post-race recaps (the next day after each race we recap the meet and award gummy bears for letter points earned and recognize several individuals for note worthy efforts). However, I think the single most effective thing that my and my staff do each day is, to the best of our ability, touch base with each and every kid in some way. That might mean on a particular day only a fist bump as they check out of practice or it might mean a longer conversation. Either way the student will have reinforced that they are part of the Anacortes XC Fam.
Comments