By Tom Quinn, Contributing Writer
Photo/Tom Quinn
Shrewsbury – The boys’ cross country team at Shrewsbury High School has been consistently good for a long time. As the end of the season approaches, a stellar 2014 foreshadows good things for the school’s runners in the upcoming district and state meets.
Coach Jim Smith has been coaching the team since 1991. He said that this year’s squad, led by junior Jackson Southard and senior Captain Tyler O’Keefe, is as good as any Shrewsbury team he has seen. Southard, who has been ranked as high as third in the state by cross country rankings websites, recently broke the Shrewsbury home course record by running 3.1 miles in 16 minutes, 23 seconds Oct. 10 against Saint John’s High School.
“Jackson’s going to be as good as they’ve been,” Smith said.
Smith also stressed that the team’s depth is important – O’Keefe’s time against Saint John’s was also better than the previous course record, and since cross country scoring takes the five best times from each team, a full roster is important.
“You take what you’ve got and you try to develop them,” Smith said. “Every kid will improve. The only kids that won’t are the kids who don’t want to be there or the kids who got injured. But I’ve never seen a kid not improve who wants to improve.”
Part of Shrewsbury’s secret in building a program where kids want to improve is by creating an environment where running is fun.
“If you look at why the best schools are good, it’s because they’ve got a good program – kids like to run, kids want to run, kids know that they have to run over the summer. There’s a lot of variables,” Smith said. “You have to create an environment where running is fun, but also something they have to work for and take seriously.”
The team has fun by getting together outside practice and by integrating fun aerobic activities like ultimate Frisbee into their workout routine. One thing many runners look forward to is an annual trip to Colorado that Smith coordinates. He’s been running the summer camp for eight years, and he says it is a huge help in making sure his runners are ready to hit the ground running when the season starts.
“Once they’re in shape they’ll start seeing improvement,” Smith said.
Shrewsbury finished their league schedule undefeated this year. That’s not unusual, since they have only lost one league meet in the last four years. The bigger prize is the district title, which the team will compete for Nov. 8 at Gardner Golf Course. Smith has confidence in his squad, but said that in the world of high school cross country, there are too many variables to make a guarantee on their rank in any given race.
“The stars have to align,” he said. “A few years ago we were third at states and my best runner was seventh. If he had been up there we might have been first or second – it’s that close sometimes.”
