Monday, November 5, 2018

Post season review - BOYS

Prior to each season, Nate Rollins of the Whitman-Hanson Express sends questions which I answer previewing the upcoming season.  He does essentially the same thing at the end of the season in order to write a review.  Today, you get to see the questions posed regarding the Boys season and the corresponding answers.  The Girls review will follow in the next day or two . . . Nate's questions followed by highlighted responses follow:

Boys:
1.) 3-5 overall record correct? Yes, correct
2.) Any league all-stars?  Theo Kamperides
3.) Who were the top three runners on the team and can you give me a couple sentences on each of them on what makes them so good? Do you have their average times as well? 
     (1) SophomoreTheo Kamperides - 17:29PR.  Theo is a tireless worker, always wanting to do more.  He doesn't enjoy days off and always wants to extend his weekly long run which we capped off at 15 miles this fall.  He follows the training plan to perfection, and NEVER misses a practice.  Great kid, with a great attitude.
     (2) Junior Brandon Hager - 17:48 PR. Another guy who follows our plan to a T and works extremely hard at practice. Has worked diligently to improve his running efficiency and form and it has paid off.  A quiet leader who leads by example and is very enthusiastic about working to bring back a championship to WH.
      (3) Freshman Evan Jewett - 17:58 PR.  Arrived with virtually no experience but imitates his more experienced teammates in attitude and effort and has become a valued contributor early on.  His ability is exceeded only by his desire to improve . . . and he will.
4.) Who surprised you this season and what makes you say that? I'm always surprised when people you hope will be good leaders become just that and Jr Adam Solari and Sr Shane Schraut have been terrific Captains.  Each has improved dramatically while mentoring our young runners.  They actually do the little things. like cleaning up our course following a meet, rather than delegate it to their teammates.  As a result, nearly everybody pitches in.  
5.) You guys won back-to-back races, beginning with Silver Lake. What changed or was it the schedule lighting up?  If one were to look at our race results he would undoubtedly notice that with each successive week nearly all of our runners improved from his previous race.  That was certainly a factor in our late season surge.  But looking back we did face the strongest teams early on which may speak to those teams' summer preparation.  Our kids are strongly committed to arriving in peak form next year.
6.) Did this team meet your expectations, why or why not?  Prior to the season, taking into account the level of competition, I hoped for a .500 season, so on that score I'm disappointed.  But the truth is we picked up a lot of kids with tremendous potential which will pay dividends in the years to come.  Our top 7 right now includes 3 Juniors, 3 Sophomores and a Freshman, with 5-6 other underclassmen literally nipping at their heels.  I can't help but feel excitement about that.
7.) When was the high point of the season and what makes you say that? After three months of training and competition I don't think any one event stood out.  This was a team that started out as a relatively inexperienced, diverse group and grew into a cohesive team which continued to improve week in, week out.  
8.) What was this team’s strength and how did it work to its favor? This team's strength is in its leadership through its Captains, its cohesiveness, and its youth.  It is a group that when all is said and done will have spent an enormous amount of time together, inside and outside of athletics and as a result will achieve greater success over the next 2-3 years.
9.) What’s the outlook of the program?  We're losing only one Senior (Shane Schraut) from our top 10 and 8 kids out of our second group (i.e. 11-20) are either Sophomores or Freshman, all of whom are talented runners who will return next year with more experience.  I am extremely optimistic for our future.

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