Coaches Corner for November 10th: Ryan Kobliska, Ogden Cross Country

with us on coaches corner KWB G get a chance to put a wrap on the Ogden cross country season ryan kablisska joining us the bulldog boys had a chance to run at state to kind of wrap up the season and ryan it's really something that i know we talk about it back in august but this has been something that these kids have been thinking about since november of last year is returning to state getting to state having a chance to run there the first time and uh we'll start with the boys this time and i really thought where you wanted them at the end of the season ryan boy you were darn near there for sure um you know it's always a good season when you get to finish at the state meet and i think especially from where the guys started this year we had a little bit of talent coming back but just um maybe outside of our top couple of guys there was not a whole lot of experience with this team so um just to get to the state to finish where we did um wraps up a really good season um i think again just from from where the guy started this year um how much they had to improve and how much they had to grow as a team to um to make state qualifying a possibility was was very positive this year well and i looked back at uh the meat and just the season as well and and there were some kids that we knew had opportunities to to really go low and really make things uh interesting at state just to put it that way and miles tromblay was one of them that i thought boy if he could pop a time you know under 17 at some point it would be huge beck anderson i thought somebody else and then luke fischer i thought as well was really putting in some great times at the end of the year and coach i'm looking through the list here and brody hitsman i could even throw him out there as well you had a bunch of kids that all of a sudden just were like you know what last time of the season let's see what we got yeah and i think over the course of the last few weeks of the season we got to see from all of those guys just steady growth that made that state qualifying possible um because where we were early in the season maybe even mid season that seemed kind of like a distant possibility but the work they put in and the growth that that we saw from them is is what allowed that team to get to stay in so yeah once we got to state got to see guys continue to perform very well very happy with how beck wrapped up his high school racing career as a senior and of course uh miles tromblay finished 18th place overall just a few seconds away from making first team all stayed but he was very comfortably on second team all stayed for this year so he'll be coming back and i think we'll have very high expectations for his senior year next year obviously we we do this every year and we lose somebody from a senior class whether it be one or two or three or five you guys ryan that's one thing that i can always compliment you on it's always a senior class where when they graduate we go oh how are we gonna how are we gonna go ahead and bring kids in that are going to be somewhere close to where this certain senior was for next year but i look at the lists of returners that are coming back and ryan the cupboard is definitely full again for next year i've definitely and i think that applies to both the boys and the girls but yeah i'll echo what you say that's kind of in our minds right now how do you replace those four seniors thomas bergstrom back anderson and then for the girls sophie saligman and alana wilson they were so important for us this year and just it was at the start of the year an inexperienced group with kind of a lot of diverse personalities and um they were very important in helping us to build that into a team that got along well that wanted to support each other and wanted to work hard for each other so so that we could work together towards some big goals and so i think we owe a lot to them for all the progress we saw this year but um the flip side is there is a lot of kids coming back and i think a lot of kids that were excited about how much progress they made this year and i think sets us up very well to potentially be even much stronger for both the boys and girls next year well and i get a chance now to talk about the girls program because you did mention a couple of seniors that will lose with sophie and alina as well and then i look at that group as well coach and i see you know i see a kelsey spencer who had a fantastic season rylan kasey in there i mean i feel like i could kind of go on and on because again the girls cupboard it's not bare for next season i mean right that's a group that has to be super hungry and i gotta imagine they're gonna be working real hard in this off season for sure we're very excited with um where they ended up at the end of the season um just with the amount of girls that we saw from them they ended up fourth place at our state qualifying meet um which over the course of the last 10 plus years we have not had a lot of girls teams placed that high so um to be fourth place at state qualifying with only one senior in that group um and then in addition to the girls we have coming back next year we'll be looking forward to having police fissure come back after having to miss a share with an injury we have some middle schoolers joining our high school program next year who we'll be very excited about so i think the the the potential for the girl team is very high next year and that's something we're we're very much looking forward to well and what else i think is going to be too is going to be very key is competition and competition inside yeah the girls and the boys groups ryan i mean yeah it's great to have enough to have a varsity team score and we love that but we also like other girls and guys that are pushing each other too because ryan that usually brings up the best in our athletes for sure um you know and it's it's very helpful when you have a large enough team that there's some competition to make those varsity spots or to make those those scoring spots and absolutely we want to have a team that um cohesive and that can work together but it is a little extra incentive when when we need to put in that extra effort to turn some of those top spots and i think looking ahead to next year for you know for the girls that's something we've been real excited about is seeing those numbers a little higher this year and expecting to to hold on to that this year because that's or hold on to that next year because um you know in the past that hasn't always been the case and so we don't want to take that for granted but um yeah we do expect to see a little bit out of that intra team competition to continue to help drive this forward next year ryan we had a first in your sport this year and that was eighth graders being allowed to run varsity this year and boy when i was looking at the final state list and just whatever class i wanted to look at there were tons of eighth graders that made a ton of progress i guess kind of a two-fold question for you one what do you think about the eighth graders having the opportunity this year and two do you think it'll continue um generally i think it was a positive thing especially for some smaller schools who might need a little help filling out a varsity lineup um and i think in cross-country where it's a non-contact sport um that definitely makes a lot of sense i don't it's um especially if you're willing to manage it sensibly i think that can be can be a positive thing for both the athlete and for the team for us this year having kale anderson compete as an eighth grader was was something that was very important for our team to be able to compete at the level that we did um we relied on him as our fifth runner throughout the season and he was he was a big a big key reason for us to to be able to qualify for state this year um i in the future i do expect it to be something that we see and i think for the sport of cross-country it again i think it it makes sense being a non-contact sport and um yeah i think we'll see see teams probably be more willing to to pursue that in the future well and and you were telling me off air ryan about something that you guys do that's pretty neat where you get a chance to recognize kids that have run at state and how many years they've had a chance to run at state the crazy part could be ryan is before we know it you may have that first ever kid that has run five times at the state meet definitely possibility um we've had um yeah just a small handful of kids in our in our programs history that have competed all four years at state whether as individual qualifiers or as parts of teams but um yeah having eighth graders compete on the ice will be does open that open that avenue to potentially compete five times at state yeah very very neat ryan thank you so much for a great season uh it'll always appreciate all the results in the coaches corners time as well and um i always tell you how fast it goes and it feels like it just does that every single year and i know whether wasn't our best friend of this cross-country season hopefully much better in 2027 but just thanks for everything you do for august cross-country we really appreciate it okay thank you ryan you bet ryan kabliss again joining us august cross-country here in coaches corner