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Joining us on coaches corner KWBG and talk matter across country. Kelly growth is joining us as the Tigers. Boy, they're kind of in the wait and see approach that most cross country teams are in. Coach, I swear last time we talked, I felt we had kind of turned a corner and we were starting to get back into that one meter week thing that I know you guys like to do. And I was feeling pretty consistent. And all of a sudden the last 10 days or so, it has just been like Seattle, Washington or something. Kelly, where's my son? Yes, we have had a lot of rain and well, it's nice running conditions. As long as it's not storming, we can run in the rain and actually feels a lot better than the 90 degrees we've been used to. Hard to get a meet and golf courses don't want a couple hundred kids on their course tearing up the grass. And I was at a college meet and saw lots of people flipping and met up to their ankles and it can be kind of treacherous conditions to race. So we're really hopeful. We're going to meet canceled tomorrow, but we got into a make up meet at ACGC and we're really hopeful that can happen because we've had 10 days off at this point from racing and it's time to get back out there and compete. Yeah. Last time you had a chance to run, coach, September 14th, when you were at the Mike Carr Invitational at the Ballard Golf and Country Club. I want to start on the girls side of things. I thought that class B raised when I looked at the teams that were there. I thought that was a pretty solid night. So coach, to not have one of your top runners run that day, yet you finished with 73 points in second. That's a pretty good day, isn't it? It was. Yeah. Even, you know, we had a lot of tough competition and I really like that race because it's class A and B. So the bigger schools are scored separately, but we do all run together. So we get the challenge of having fast people from bigger schools be in the same race with us. We were second to van meter who also had one of their top runners sit out. And that's a team that we feel like we can be competitive with. We were very close to them. And if we put both our top runners back in, that'll be another really close race and someone we'd like to go for at the conference meet. So we like to be challenged. It's great to go to a meet and have an easy win. Sometimes we haven't had that for a long since our first meet. But it's good development to go to these bigger meets and get challenged by people and work on our race strategies too. And then to have all this time off 10 days afterwards, we're not just sitting around waiting for a meet. We're training where we're putting in harder workouts, more workouts, and we've got more time off to get us ready for later in the season. So it's nice to have that big break and the difference between having a big school meet and a small school meet. It's all part of the season and the season is getting to almost a halfway point. So we're just ready to get back out and compete and show what some of this hard work is done. I can't believe you just said that, but it is true. I just absolutely mind blowing. Brand Horse and Peasley, we're both in the top 10 coach. Talk about those two runners. I thought really good times considering who was there and the competition they ran against. Yeah, they are great competitors. They've put in a lot of work over the summer. Kears Peasley sat out the second half of last year injured and has just come back with a real force and desire to have a strong season. They work very hard in practice and we're working on getting the rest of the pack, our fourth, fifth, sixth runners closer to them on a daily basis in practice and then it meets two. We don't usually have runners that run super close together, but that is what most of our team has been able to do this year and it definitely helps them to have some strength in numbers and feel like they can be a little more confident when they can see their teammate and that person who they work hard with every day in a meet. It just gives a sense of camaraderie and it makes it a little easier maybe to pass someone when there are two of you compared to one of them. Boys side of things then coach. They finished 140 points in class B. I thought once again, I mean Pella Christian always has a really good boys squad same with Nottaway Valley. Iowa Falls Alden looked like they were pretty strong that day as well. I like the fact though that you were ahead of like a rolling story, a Woodward Granger. I think Eagle Grove was another one that I saw you guys ahead. Caleb has a top 15 finish for you. I thought that was a positive meet even though maybe the points were a little bit higher. Am I wrong on that Kelly? That was a good meet for the boys, was it not? It definitely was and the boys have gotten themselves noticed. They're currently ranked 16th in class 1A and we don't put a whole lot of stock into the rankings especially because we don't race a lot of other 1A schools so that's not super indicative. We don't have a head to head with a lot of those teams but they're definitely getting noticed and they also ran without a scoring runner. We had one sitting out with an injury so the boys competed so well especially right in with Nottaway Valley. That's a top ranked team and our top three runners were right there with them. They're really showing that they can contend with some bigger schools with some strong 1A schools and I think that we've just needed a couple of meets to get them some confidence that they can truly see what they're capable of. Their times are coming down. They're running really well together and I think might be a surprise team by the end of this season. They're young but they're really gaining some good experience and working hard at practice to hopefully get us to the best spot we can be at the end of the season. Kelly, I know you just said we don't put a ton of stock into the rankings. It's usually for me to talk about and bring up to you or you to tell me well that was kind of interesting and then we just kind of let it go but with that number by these boys' name does that I don't know that pump you up a little bit? Do the kids kind of see that? Do they get a little bit excited? You know it pumps me up. I don't think they quite realize what potential they have yet and that's why I say we just need to compete. We need to get out so they build some confidence because yes we don't make a huge deal about it. It's just someone else's opinion but also it validates a little bit the hard work that we're doing and when coaches say you guys are a great team with potential it is validating to have other people who are watching the whole state recognize that too. We still need to build some confidence. This is new for our boys. It's been a couple years since we've been consistently ranked and they were so young. I mean our oldest kids were in junior high back in the time when our boys were successful at the state level. Even in elementary school some of them were little kids watching their bigger brothers run so they've been around but have not been a part of that so this is a really great opportunity for them to get to be a part of that too. All right so I know it's been 10 days off Kelly. Tell me what give me expectations. What do you want to see tomorrow out of the girls and the boys team and you can't just say compete because we know they're going to go compete but what do you want to see from these two squads tomorrow? Yeah you know we go in I think a top ranked team in the top three or four teams that are going to compete there. It's going to be a really close race. I have more like strategy not just show up and compete but how are we going to compete by trying to stay closer to our teammates by really being aggressive and trying to pass people and being strategic. We are cautious with the course conditions of saying anything like set a personal record time because it could be very muddy. It could be very wet but that's not the only measure of success. You know we measure success in numbers. Did you run fastest? Did you get first? And all those things that you can measure success by but if you're doing the process behind it those numbers will come. The success will come and it's really about how you get there not just getting there. So in our goal setting sessions today we'll be talking a lot about that. What is the process to get us to success rather than just defining the end number the end result? How are we going to get there? A coach once told me coach it was the journey and not the destination. I don't know who that coach was. She was pretty smart though I remember when she told me that. So anyway Kelly have best of luck practice today and you'll meet tomorrow as well. Thanks Ryan. You bet Kelly growth is again joining us Madrid Cross Country here on Coaches Corner.
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