Rob Cloutier enters his seventh cross country season coaching at his alma mater, Shenendehowa High School in New York. The Plainsmen are ranked No. 6 in the Pre-Season National Girls XC Team Rankings, as they return six of their top seven from last year's 18th place finish at NXN. It may be tougher for Shen to reach the New York State Championships than NXN, as just one team from each section moves on and they race the formidable Saratoga Springs in Section II each year. Read on for insight from Cloutier about maintaining a five-week peak through sections, states, feds, NXR and NXN, plus a sneak peak at what their top five may look like this fall.
How many years have you coached? Do you also coach track?
This is my 7th XC (9th track) season as a coach. I came back to Shen upon graduating at Tennessee and volunteered for a year with boys - was actually Steve Murdock's training partner his senior year.
How many state titles have your teams won?
We have not won a state title or sectional title or suburban council league title or federation title. But in track we have had 5 individual and 3 4*8 state titles in my time.
Who are your potential top 7 returners?
Our top 7 (minus Caroline Rusch, graduation) could be (in any order):
Danielle Jordan, Kristina Watrobski, Caroline Hartman, Emily Crounse, Julia Zachgo, Hannah Reale, Charlotte Hartman, and Hillary Halpern, with a deep squad of last year's undefeated freshman right behind. We return a top 5 avg. of 2:16, 4:44, & 10:22 (800m, 1500m, 3k).
Danielle Jordan was the consistent No. 1 runner for last fall's cross country season.
Are there any top freshmen, athletes new to the sport, or transfers coming in who you could see making an immediate impact?
We have a few freshman who ran track as 8th graders that could factor in. I won't be surprised if we have kids impacting varsity that were under the radar over the past year due to our depth in xc and track.
How has summer training been going for your team? What do you focus on during summer months?
Our summer has been great, solid. The goal is to enjoy running and have a lot of fun, and be healthy. They did their summer homework!
Who are your team captains, how do you go about deciding who they are, and how do they lead your team?
We don't have 'official' captains but we lean on our seniors/upperclassmen to lead by example. This has been area of growth for our team and I'm excited to watch how out girls handle that responsibility this year.
What are your top 3 goals for this year's squad?
Coach Jordan & I set 3 goals for this year while we were at NBN's in June:
Ensure the girls have fun. (XC is difficult and can be a grind if you want to be competitive there's a lot of work to be done).
Hand the team over to the girls. We have mostly set the tone and spent the last 3 years leading them by prodding and sometimes dragging them towards what they are capable of. Now we feel they are in a place where physically, mentally, and by experience they are ready to own their season and accept accountability.
When it comes to setting their collective goals (which they decided on in June) they came to us and decided upon what they expect to accomplish.
The 3rd goal is training-specific and has to do with adding a new thread to our tempo progressions.
The Shen girls pose with former Bronxville star, current Nike pro Mary Cain (far right) at NXN.
How do you prioritize peaking throughout the season? With such strong local competition, it seems difficult to have to peak for Sectionals, and again for States the following week. This also doesn't include many of the post-season opportunities.
We are probably in one of the most unique scenarios in the country because we are confronted with a 5+ week gauntlet each year that starts with sectionals (our state qualifier), states, federations, Nike regionals, and nxn's. That accounts for 1/3 of the season! So to peak is a challenge, and if we are faced with how to deal with the state meet week and any subsequent weeks then that means we've accomplished some of our goals! States->feds->regionals are held on tough hilly courses. Peaking is more of a mental and emotional problem and we will navigate that one day at a time.
How does your own success as a Shenendehowa runner affect your training today?
I am a very competitive person and my own career at Shen was a blur - I started running in the spring of my sophomore year. We had an incredible team then - XC state and Fed champs, indoor & outdoor 4x8 state and fed champs, and indoor DMR & 4x8 national champs my senior year. So if anything being a part of a great team hopefully validates that I've bee there and know what it takes and what it feels like in those opportunities. My coach (Matt Jones) was masterful at getting us ready to rock!
As far as training goes really everything we do now is probably very different than back in the late 90's because the entire landscape of high school running really changed this millennium with the proliferation of info on the internet and the national rise to competitiveness at the collegiate and national/Olympic level for American distance runners. But I did start by using Jack Daniels Formula, then spent the last 7,8 years reading and studying and experimenting with just about everything there is theoretically until I found what truly (hopefully!) works for our unique sets of needs here at Shen.
Your teams were very strong on the track, at 400m through 3000m. How do you go about converting track runners into XC runners?
We are blessed with a lot of speed and talent. As a coach I aim for balance between all elements of a successful program - and we take great pride in nurturing a girl's team that enables each individual to improve each season/year and compete as a senior achieving their pr's and best performances and being able to enjoy the sport and hopefully move to the next level & even continue to love the sport for life (which any girls' coach knows is not a constant with respect to maturation of adolescent runners).
The depth we have enjoyed from 400->3k is a reflection of that balanced approach. Getting speed to translate into XC is a matter of convincing the girls to use their strengths to their collective advantage and buying into a team approach.
I'm dreaming big, are you? #135days pic.twitter.com/fVuMS4vCvx
-- Rob Cloutier (@CoachCloutier) June 25, 2015As one of the larger teams in the state, how are you able to keep your underclassmen prepared for the eventuality that they will take over for graduating seniors?
We are a large school and that works to our advantage certainly in terms of pure #'s. But because our entire athletic department is super competitive at a sectional and state level we have to work very hard and be creative in our strategy to continually recruit talent (having 55-60 girls just show up each Fall is very different than having 55-60 show up along with 10-15 of those being seriously committed to distance running - fortunately we have a deeply dedicated core and that has spread to 40+ girls this summer)!
We have had a nice mix of contributors at the varsity level from all classes which helps in creating a pipeline and the reality that anyone can contribute. In 'borrowing' a theme from a well-known coach we try and focus on the 'process' and that helps kids be ready when their opportunity arises.
Whether its XC or Track, our sport is so unique in regards to being able to coach kids all the way through their career - one coach for all 3 levels (freshman, JV, varsity) for all 3 seasons (xc, indoor, outdoor) means you could potentially coach them for 6 years and 18 straight seasons. So you really develop a relationship and monitor how they progress and that is one of the most amazing aspects as a coach.