Developing a High School Cross Country Program

Developing a High School Cross Country Program: A Guide for Coaches and Runners has been a work in progress over a lifetime of coaching. During Coach Power's years working at North East High School with Pennsylvania Hall of Fame Coach, Ted Miller, both coaches dreamed of writing a book to share with other coaches and runners explaining the distance program they created. After 25 years at North East, Coach Power struck out on his own moving to Pawling, New York where he brought his knowledge of distance running to a school that had not had a running program in over 20 years. While at Pawling Coach Power led his teams to numerous championships including a State Title. He also developed two individual State Champions. The system created by Power and Miller proved to be successful. "Over the years," Coach Power says, "I have been blessed to work with incredible athletes, confide with gifted assistant coaches, and discussed my thoughts with other successful head coaches. All of these interactions helped Coach Power develop a positive high school cross country coaching philosophy. This book is geared to those who push the limits and to those who ask their athletes to push the limits. It is primarily a book about how to build a running program in a small school setting but certainly even coaches from large schools may be able to glean some important suggestions which can apply to large school settings as well. The book will address the "X's" and "O's" of conditioning, but the central message concerns building a program from the ground up. The last section of the book traces a championship season with the intent of giving readers an inside look at how one team achieved their ultimate dream, a State Championship Title.