#philyoung

Phil Young is the head coach at Siegel High School in Tennessee and his boys program is coming off back to back state titles.

High School Harrier: You've won a pair of state titles in Tennessee on the boy’s side the past two years. What do ascribe as the main reason your squad was able to earn back to back titles?

Phil Young: As soon as we won in 2017, we immediately discussed the John Wooden quote “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.” I spoke with other coaches who had won state titles and they all warned me about the “hangover” that the five returners would face. They are such high character young student/athletes that we never really discussed winning a second championship during the 2018 season. I just reminded them that we didn’t have to be great, just good as a whole and we would have an opportunity when the day arrived. They have bought in and they trust the program, the process, their teammates, and themselves.

HSH: How would you describe the distance running scene of Tennessee?

PY: Tennessee has had some excellent teams and individuals do well on the national scene recently and in the past. Although the running scene is growing and getting better, when compared to neighboring states the depth of teams is not as deep top to bottom.

HSH: What is the state qualifying process for Tennessee for those who do not know?

PY: The public schools are broken down into two divisions large school (126 schools above 785 students) or small schools. The large school division has eight regions and the top three finishing teams qualify for state championship from the region meets.  The top two state team finishers make the podium and the top 15 overall make All-State.

HSH: How important are post-state races for your team?

PY: Our number one focus is to be healthy on Nov 2 and to have the opportunity to run to the best of our ability as a team in the state championship.

HSH: How does your team approach goal setting?

PY: We believe that to get our athletes to buy in, they need to take personal ownership. For example, we have our athletes reflect and set personal goals before and after each race. At the end of each season I sit down with every returning team member and we talk about what went well, and what areas they would like to improve on. They also write a letter to themselves and to running, that I give back to them during our summer conditioning. These letters provide them a reminder of goals (targets) that they felt will be important to their success in the upcoming season. We discuss staying in the moment and always focus on hard work. They understand that the improvements will take place “drip by drip” and will fall into place as a result.

HSH: Compared to the past couple years, where do you see your program this fall?

PY: After we were fortunate enough to win our second championship back to back last November, we didn’t have one senior in our top 10 and we expected to have everyone back. However, our #4 9th grade runner’s family moved due to a job transfer and our #3 and #7 sophomores left the team to focus on baseball. On the positive side, we have four seniors who have won two state titles and are they very focused and doing a great job building the culture for our seven 10th graders who are ready to fill in the gaps. I am cautiously optimistic based on our summer training that we could have the opportunity to be as good if not better than our past two state championship teams and to be in contention for the three-peat if we keep improving.

HSH: Do you have any big regular season meets your team will be participating in this fall?

PY: We are very fortunate, thanks to the support or our principal and parent support group that we will have the opportunity to race against some of the best teams in the country on three different occasions. We will travel to the Mason Invitational, in Mason, Ohio Sept 7 and race against several state champion teams from Ohio and Kentucky. Then we will travel to the Bob Firman Invitational, in Boise, Idaho on Sept 21 to race against some excellent NXN teams out west. Our last key race will be the Great American XC Festival in Cary, North Carolina on November 5 and again we will compete against many NXN teams and potential state champions.

HSH: What is your philosophical approach to coaching that shapes how you run your program?

PY: We discuss that every team member must develop a growth mindset and if so, this will allow all the team members to continue to improve in life and running, regardless of ability. Every team member is just as important and they all provide value to the culture of the team. Our coaching staff works hard to make sure the team is not in friend groups and they get to know everyone on the team.  We make sure we play games and allow them to compete with each other while having fun. We rely on feedback from each team member to make sure the experience on the team, as well as in their daily life is balanced. The team members have taught each other the importance of high standards and to trust the process.

HSH: What is a sample week of training for your program during the cross country season?

PY: We are fortunate to have a 1st period strength and conditioning class for 35 of our team members which allows us to accomplish so much more in addition to our normal afternoon training. On Monday, we run a short shakeout in the morning to prime our legs for our afternoon Long Run. Tuesday, we lift during class. The girls’ team will do a pool workout and the boys will have a moderate run with either hills or short fartleks to prepare for the Wednesday quality day. Wednesday, which is a quality day, we run wickets during our morning run and the afternoon workout will vary from a tempo, threshold, or 8k – 10k pace intervals. On Thursday we lift in the morning and then run easy after school. Friday is similar to Wednesday it just depends if it is a quality day or pre-race run if we are racing on Saturday. When we race, we always include a short 10-minute shakeout before we leave or as soon as we arrive for the race. Sundays are rest days for most runners, with the exception of the many of the varsity boys.

HSH: What type of mileage does your average top 7 runner do during their base phase?

PY: Our mileage depends on the team members running age, what grade they are in and of course their consistency in training throughout the year. We will build our mileage from June until late August and it will vary from a low of 30 to high of 65 miles.

HSH: How important is hill training for your program?

PY: Hills play a very important part in our training. We use short hills at 1600 effort to build strength and prime our body during a moderate run the day before a quality day. We also include longer hills after both tempo or threshold quality workouts. We include hilly courses on all our long runs every week.

HSH: What type of ancillary training does your team do?

PY: Ancillary training plays an important part in allowing our team members to become better athletes and in turn become better runners. We lift as a team twice a week starting the first week of summer conditioning and continuing throughout the season. We do vary the intensity depending on where we are in the season.

Every day before and during training we include, foam rolling, bands, dynamic flexibility, and dynamic drills. We also include, hurdle mobility, jumping rope and wicket drills at least twice a week. After training we incorporate dynamic drills for at least five minutes as part of our cool down. Every team member has an Active Isolated Rope routine that they do for at least 5 – 10 minutes after training.

HSH: What do you think is the most important aspect of your training program? 

PY: Our team members lead by example and they know me so well that they know what to do before I even say a word. We spend a lot of time on preventing injuries, strength training, and building up the body through our ancillary training during our 1st period class. We also focus on helping the team understand that our hard days are hard and our easy days are easy.  We do very little goal pace training, instead all our workouts are based on date pace and we allow the body to adapt and rejuvenate at its own pace. We expose the athletes to training on challenging terrain and we feel this is paramount for racing well on tough terrain with confidence.

HSH: What is one habit of your athletes that you wish you could change?

PY: Sleep better to aid in the body’s rejuvenation and not get so focused on one thing and then they forget to do something else (I wish I was as smart as they are). I would like for them to log their training, on Final Surge on a daily basis. I really look forward to the feedback about the training that they include in their logs. It is important for them to be able to look back and be proud of all they have accomplished from day to day, week to week, and month to month. This is a hard sport, that truly is undervalued by so many.

HSH: If you could improve one area of your training program what would it be?

PY: We discuss nutrition, but I need to do a better job of using resources in our community to come in and share their professional knowledge of the value of good nutrition and overall health. My team members would say they wish I would move runners up into different training groups and force their fitness a little more. However, what good is it to be the best runner in the bleachers.