With this series of articles DyeStatFL is endeavoring to go in-depth with different XC programs around the state to find out what makes them tick. We start at the top and work our way through the inner workings of each team through the eyes of the Coach. Stick with us throughout the season to learn more about the teams that make up Florida XC!

St. Joseph Academy XC 2016 with Coach Justin Taylor

  DyeStatFL – Thanks for taking time to talk with us about your program. First could you give me a highlight list of your running background, i.e., High School, College, post grad? How you got into it, successes, struggles and then how you got into coaching?

  Coach Justin Taylor – Like many, I went out for track as a high school freshman to improve my speed for soccer. I was initially placed in the sprints group and focused mostly on the 400m. One day during my sophomore year, my coach saw me attempting to drop our distance squad during a workout and opted to enter me into the 800 and 1600 going forward. I qualified for state that year in the 1600 but in classic inexperienced fashion went out in 60 seconds for the first lap before blowing up and finishing 4^th. I didn’t seem to learn my lesson when I went out for XC as a junior, as I once again went out too hard, leading the 1A state meet with a 4:59 first mile, then blew up again finishing a distant 31^st.

Fortunately, I managed to figure out how to train properly and pace myself and ultimately went on to win 6 FHSAA state championships in High School (5 in Track, 1 in XC). This included winning the distance triple at the 2005 FHSAA State Championships. From there, I went to run for Coach Pigg at the University of Florida. While at UF, I was on the DMR, which won SEC championships. Individually, I was runner-up in the mile at SECs, 3^rd place at SEC outdoors, and won the DMR. I was also fortunate to be a member of UF’s track & field team who went on to win the 2010 SEC and NCAA championships.

PRs: 800m: 1:51.46, 1500m: 3:43.72, Mile: 4:03.31i, 5k: 14:02.10, 8k XC: 23:57

While I was at the University of Florida I met my wife, Ashlyn Bickwermert (now Taylor). She was a 2007 graduate of Naples High school and standout runner with high school personal bests of 2:19 for 800m, 5:13 for 1600m, 11:24 for 3200m, and 18:38 for 5000m XC. She also committed on scholarship to the UF XC and track & field team. We coach both the girls’ and boys’ teams together and our different coaching approaches and theories seem to complement one another well.

My call to coaching came during my college years when I was back in town and my high school mentors Todd Neville and Kevin Sweeny brought up the idea of starting a non-profit running camp in St. Augustine. Todd did the groundwork and we started the camp, which has now run for 10 years and is carried on by our local running club Ancient City Road Runners. During the summer camps, I realized how much I enjoy working with aspiring athletes and knew that it’s something I wanted to pursue after college. I have a relatively flexible job so when Ashlyn and I moved to St. Augustine, the logical choice was to reach out to my alma mater – St. Joseph Academy to see if coaching cross country and track & field there was possible. Thankfully, they accepted and we are now in our third year with the program.

  DyeStatFL – Talk about the team’s goals for the upcoming XC season and the challenges you face.

  Coach Justin Taylor – I will start with the latter part of the question first. The main challenge we face is the size of our school. We are a small 9-12 high school with right around 300 students and have no middle school attached, like many of the schools in our classification. It can be a challenge to get the numbers needed for cross country. We aren’t traditionally a storied XC program and with sport specialization becoming more common, many students opt to focus on their club sport year round. With Ashlyn and I having jobs outside of the school and there being so few students available, it can be a challenge to draw interest to XC. Our school also does not have a track. This isn’t as big a deal as important for XC as it is track, but it would still undoubtedly help pull in some additional numbers from within the school.

The year before Ashlyn and I arrived at SJA, they did not score a boys or girls team at the district meet due to lack of numbers. We tried our best to drum up interest within the school, as we knew lack of numbers would be our biggest hindrance. We did this from our athletes within the school and our social media platforms: Twitter (@sjaxc) and Instagram (SJA_Track_XC). In our first year at SJA, the goal was simply a numbers game: to score both a boys and girls team at districts. We managed to just pull it off as we had 5 girls and 5 boys. As a bonus, we had a girl qualify for regionals for the first time in 9 years.

In our second year, we increased our total number of people on the team to 17. We still didn’t quite have the depth we needed from a team perspective so we set the goal of having an athlete qualify individually for the state meet. Our guys team embraced the challenge and put in the work, developed a strong work ethic and got stronger. We ended up having both a boy and girl qualify for the state meet as well as the boys’ team qualify for regionals for the first time in 8 years.

Currently, we are in our third year at SJA, we’ve had a surge in numbers as well as more athletes fully buying into the program. This has come mostly through word of mouth as the program has gained some credibility within the school. We now have 30 athletes, including 21 boys. Our goal for this season is to take it yet another step forward: qualify both teams for the state meet in Tallahassee. In an ideal world, I’d like to see our boys finish Top-5 and the girls Top-10. The team have embraced the team challenge and have put in the hard work cross country teams must endure in the hot and humid Florida summers. The last time a boy’s team qualified was 1999 and it’s been 41 years since they finished in the Top-10. The girls are not in any of the state results going back that far and have no Top-10 finishes ever. They may have qualified for the state meet, but this would be the first recorded SJA team I can find to qualify for the meet. Regardless, qualifying both teams to the state meet would be a big step forward for our program.

  DyeStatFL – Could you expand on the team make-up this year? Who are your leaders and not just the fastest but also the glue, the seniors, the freshmen and the whole vibe of the team?

  Coach Justin Taylor –

Girls:

We have a small girls team with just 9 athletes. Mariah Patuel is a senior leader for us who embodies the word “team.” She was the athlete I mentioned previously who was the regional qualifier our first year coaching. Even though she’s no longer the number 1 runner on the girl’s side, she is a key factor in the building of the girls program and is fully focused on working to get the girls team to state. She also was key in the first two years of encouraging new athletes to come out and be part of the budding program. Her dedication and enthusiasm is one any coach would appreciate on his team. Emily Jackson is a sophomore who qualified individually for the state meet as a freshman and is determined to improve upon her finish there, as well as get her team there alongside her. Junior Morgan Sharp is an athlete who was initially running 33 minutes for 5k and is now down to 22:59. Her grit and determination is a motivating factor for the entire team and always gives 100%, not for herself but because she wants the team to excel. Isabella Goodwin is our number 2 runner and a freshman who is new to running. I definitely foresee a large improvement from her as the season progresses. Ultimately, how well the girls do will be determined by our number 5, which is still very much up in the air at this time amongst the remainder of our girls.

Boys:

We have a large guys team this year with 21 athletes. For the first time since Ashlyn and I have been there, we’ve been able to field a full varsity and JV. As you might imagine, this changed the team dynamics quite a bit, as athletes are no longer guaranteed a Top-7 or Top-10 spot, but have to work for it. This challenge just makes everyone on the team a better runner. Junior Sean Snyder had a great summer and is working out well ahead of where he was last year when he qualified individually for the state meet in both XC and the 2 mile in track. He is as determined as ever to not be standing on the starting line in November by himself, but with another 6 teammates alongside him. We have two new newcomers in sophomores Luke LeMaire and David Gonzales. These guys came out for track, bought into the program, put the work in over the summer, and want to push the team to new boundaries. Senior Robbie Borbely and Ryan O’Steen are willing to grind out tough miles, workouts, and races with the goal of a state meet bid on their mind. Overall, our boys team is full of guys who are willing to come to practice with a positive attitude, work hard, and try to accomplish the team goals.

I also need to point out how supportive our team parents and family members have been. Being such a small school, we are lucky to have parents who not only attend events, but are willing to drive our athletes to different parts of the city to train, bring water, Gatorade and bananas to meets and practice and even volunteer to make the dinners at camp or hosts breakfast for the team throughout the season! I am especially proud many parents and family members join us for our summer training runs and even were a part of our elite “Summer Mileage Challenge.”

  DyeStatFL – What is your schedule and how does that feed your team goals? What are the keystone meets and why?

  Coach Justin Taylor – We kicked off our season at Spikes & Spurs before moving onto Bartram Bale-n-Trail. This was a good way to brush off the rust from our summer base miles. Looking ahead, we will be having a fun overnight trip for the entire team- and hopefully a few PRs- to the Alligator Lake 5k on September 17. Of course, we shouldn’t be overly focused on time in cross country but it’s almost impossible to tell that to a hard working group of athletes who have grinded out the miles this summer with hopes of taking chunks out of their personal bests. We are really putting a lot of focus on the Pre-State meet. This will be the first time we have traveled there as a team and since only 3 of our athletes have raced or seen the state course, it’ll be important for our athletes to get that experience and have a visual for the state meet should we qualify in November.

  DyeStatFL – Talk about the summer: camp, mileage, workouts, etc. and how that will build the team for the state series.

  Coach Justin Taylor – We topped out our mileage for the boys at 55-60 and the girls at 35-40, although that was obviously for our more experienced and older athletes. We didn’t do a lot of workouts over the summer but focused on putting in the base miles, along with stride outs and hill sprints to maintain leg turnover. The few workouts we did during the same were fartleks or cruise intervals.

We hosted our own camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Georgia where we rented our cabins at the top of the mountain. The mountaintop proved to be quite a challenge when our minivan couldn’t make the full drive up to the cabin due to the steep incline! The cabins were equipped with big screen TVs, air hockey tables, foosball, and pool tables so the athletes could relax, spend time together, and enjoy their downtime fully. We were right by hiking trails and were also able to go floating down the river, white water rafting, etc. Overall, it was a good training experience but more importantly a great team bonding experience.

The base the athletes amassed over the summer and at camp is what will allow them to transition into their strength phase of the building process. You train so you can train so you can train. The races will then take care of themselves.  We are now currently in our strength phase as we move into longer type repeats with shorter recoveries, tempo runs, and higher volume workouts. As we move towards the state series we will decrease the volume of our workouts, increase the recovery, and cut the athletes loose on a few reps.

  DyeStatFL – What’s your favorite running quote that you use?

  Coach Justin Taylor – “Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity” – Michael Johnson.

You are going to be nervous on the starting line. Part of it is knowing that in order to race to your fullest, it will have to hurt. I’d much rather athletes be on the starting line, feeling the nerves and pressure of the upcoming moment and waiting to take on the challenge than be apathetic. Embrace the pressure.