Chaparral Women's Team Thoughts

I have often been subtly accused of having a distinct bias towards coaching the men's distance runners. While I do not think that is true, I think I put equal effort into both the men's and women's teams; I think that perception arises due to the success that the men have had over the years in comparison to the women. The men have been very competitive year in and year out, and while the women are not as consitently competitive, when they do put it all together, they are at an elite level.

While I do not think this year's women's team is at that elite level just yet, I cannot help but express how excited I am with the women we have on the team now. All of the women are so mature and so willing to do what it takes to be the best runner they can be. They come prepared, they never quit a workout, they take care of themselves; they are the best women's team we have had here at CHAP in a long time. The four distance seniors, Jill, Whitney, Mackenzie and Hanna are just killing it in training right now. Hanna simply has been running faster and more consistently than I have ever seen her, and a solid year of XC seems to have really allowed Whitney to rack up more, faster and longer intervals. Jill looks so much more comfortable on her feet, her technique is quick and efficient and there is so little wasted movement, and Mackenzie has the huge heart and I think she is the spirit of the team, just quietly banging away interval after interval.

We haven't even gotten to the younger kids, Ciara could be the fastest of them all; she simply does not know how to run slow, she has no fear, but she is always smiling and ready for more training. Ellen is going to surprise a lot of people when she has a seat on that bus on Saturdays.  Along with Molly, Erika, Kelly, Jessie and Jess, we have a lot of women who are simply hard workers and I think are going to be really awesome this year.

The mens team will be fine, especially on the distance side. They have suffered some illness and injury, but I am confident we will come out of it. I'm telling you though, look out for the women, they are going to surprise a lot of people this spring!

The next generation of fast wolverine women