Coaches Corner for September 9th: Kelley Grothus, Madrid Cross Country

With us on coaches corner KWBG and a toxic matter across country as Kelly growth this joins us the Tigers unfortunately had to cancel their home event last week so last time they were actually out competitively coach it feels crazy to say this but it was in August now great granted it was late August so not that long ago but I know first off a little disappointed about last week just it was safe for the spectators and definitely safe for the runners yes you know we just went on wet bulb temperature readings and our courses run around a prairie which is incredibly humid incredibly sunny and if we would have delayed the meet until it was cool enough to be safe to run it was going to get dark on the runners during their race in the woods we just didn't feel that was safe so we're looking forward to competing at the Gilbert Invitational this upcoming week and just hope that we gave all of our teams that were going to attend enough time to make a plan that they could either practice or join another meet if they wanted to but last week's weather was it was an interesting challenge for all of us what did the kids kind of say coach I know you guys practice that day but what did the kids kind of say where were they disappointed as well mixed reviews I mean some of them just were we're not looking forward to racing in the heat and knowing the adversity they were gonna have to face wanting to just give their best and feeling like they weren't going to be able to perform at their best and and the number the are inconsequential to us you know we just want their best efforts but we did get their best efforts out of practices we moved our practices to the morning a couple of the days so that we could really hit it hard and then a couple of the days we did stay after school so that they could still experience the heat heat training really does a lot of great things for your body if you do it safely so we made sure that we had water and talked about the purpose of the of the practice and it was just building up our endurance not not worrying about setting any world records so to temper our efforts on those days they have mixed reviews we love having our homemade but they're just ready to compete so we've got a couple more days so we can do that at Gilbert in a couple days well I know that as we talked about Southeast Valley was that first opportunity at the gallery country club and we'll start on the girls side of things coach and goodness gracious I mean anytime you're able to score 38 points that that's a pretty darn good meet and then I saw that Manson was in second with 71 boy Kelly you got to walk out of that I know we're not setting world records but boy we put in some pretty solid times yeah it was really a great team effort we had Madeline growth is in second he had a brand horse in fourth and they really we had it pretty identically to how they did this last year those were similar places to what they had the beginning of this meet it's all small it's mostly small schools and the leaders just get kind of spread out and they don't necessarily have anyone they're running right with and it's it's more based on their own but after that we had some good some groups challenging each other people running together more closely for our third fourth fifth spots and then our six seventh and eighth spots so when they can see their teammates and base their race on where other people are I know that helps them and helps them be more competitive both within our team and against the other teams how about having four in the top ten though coach I mean that's a heck of an effort just right out of the chute and I don't care who you're running against I mean that's still pretty impressive to have that you know that kind of equal amounts in that top ten especially yeah I mean we had four in top ten all five of our scoring runners meddled we were we were thrilled with their performance and we don't get many meets against small schools so to go here it's a good confidence boost to start off the season when they see how they compare to other schools their size well obviously you got two that are gonna be we're gonna hear their names a lot this year with Madeline growth is obviously and Hannah brand horse as well seniors tell me about them what's the leadership like with these two and and what are they like doing this is the last year yeah this is a huge senior class for us we've got five girls Maddie and Hannah have been making names for themselves as varsity runners even in middle school I mean they're always among medalists so they've been making an impact on our team for a long time as well as Addie White was on our state championship team their freshman year so especially the parent of one of them it seems like I've just had these kids around forever um... since they were babies they literally remember when they were you know in strollers being pushed by the parents at road races and um... so it doesn't seem like it should be over because they've all they've just always been here so um... we we've enjoyed having them on the team they still are we're just really trying to make this season one that is memorable and then leave their mark on the team but they absolutely have done that and continue to do that with their work ethic with the way they can impose themselves with the way they lead quite very quietly as a quiet group of leaders but our seniors just take care of everybody else make sure that they know how to do the stretches that they know the courses and and make sure that um... the team will be in good hands and and definitely have some great leaders to look up to right now I know we're early in the season but I remember when we talked preseason it felt like there was a few question marks on the boys side of things and uh... watching what hudson white was able to do and jacob brand horse is a freshman stepping in chris peterson i thought had a nice race for you as well and kelly i i know we're not answering questions early september because that usually means we're in trouble later in the season but boy i tell you what we had some real nice spots on the boys side yeah we thought that the improvement for the boys compared to how they ran at this race last year each of them at each of our varsity runners drop their time significantly uh... they're working really hard there they're younger on the younger crew on the boys side than we've had we have two freshmen uh... in the top five and they're doing great and will continue to improve as they figure out what running a five k is like but at the same time we've definitely had people step into a leadership role the boys are the opposite they had a really big group of seniors last year that graduated and and we're phenomenal leaders for the team so we've seen our juniors eight and tightest eight and firm stone uh... you mentioned chris peterson and then also keala berbric who didn't run at southeast valley but will be back uh... this week setting the tone for the team of working hard encouraging each other really really making sure that everybody is focused at practice we've had incredibly focused practices it's a really really hard sport you're doing grueling physical work and and we have fun too uh... but when it has been time to buckle down into a workout we've been a lot of determination focus from the boys and the girls and that's going to show in me well this is kind of one of those strange weeks kelly because you're just coming off of labor day weekend obviously it's homecoming week a lot of festivities obviously with labor day weekend that's now in our rear view mirror but homecoming week has a ton of festivities as well a ton of distractions is what i'm saying so i bet you're excited just to get these kids on a course and say all right go and here we go yeah we're definitely ready to compete the beginning of the year is always like this we have our home meet we have homecoming week we do a big fundraiser selling our team posters for bragging rights the day before the iowa versus iowa state football game um labor day around madrid the kids all participated in a memorial run for um a teammate who passed away a couple of years ago and that's a great community event so we we have all the fun things that i do look forward to getting into just a groove of running practices going to other people's meets and coming home um and it's great to do all these fun things but um at the same time it's it's good to be able to focus and and work on competing which is is part of one of the very important parts of the sport too so we have that ahead of us and then the season just always tends to fly by coach are you telling me you like a schedule a little bit i i do you know i all the fun things all the busy distractions that are good are still scheduled we just know they're early and we have a different type of energy at the beginning of the season too it's we wouldn't do them all if it wasn't good for the kids it helps us build up a team it helps them get to know each other in a different way they collaborate and put a float together for our parade and i'll participate in that so those are all good things too um and i think the big because we have them and build up our team it makes the second half of the season when we're just competing goes so much more smoothly and it just works out great yeah no doubt kelly's always thank you so much for some time thanks for the results we'll talk to you again here real soon thanks ryan you bet kelly growth is again joining us madrid cross country here on coach's corner