In a pre‑race interview the day before the REAC meet, Coach Doug Soles talks about Great Oak’s preparation, course conditions, and team mindset. He notes the humid but breezy weather and that the boys quickly embraced the challenging cross‑country course while the girls feel more nervous. The team chose REAC because the athletes wanted to blaze a new trail and test themselves against strong opponents like Wisetta. Soles contrasts the upcoming REAC race with the recent sprint‑style Woodbridge meet, explaining that the strategy will shift from all‑out speed to a more conservative, paced effort. He emphasizes that in‑season races are preparation for larger goals such as Woodward Park and the national NXN championships, helping athletes build mental toughness. The coach outlines distinct expectations for the boys—experienced, confident, aiming for a win—and the girls—newer, developing slowly but steadily toward national‑class performance. Success is framed both as winning and as gaining insight into weaknesses; a win for the boys and a learning experience for the girls would both be valuable. Finally, Soles reflects on the program’s growth from its early years, when he mapped out a multi‑year plan, to its current status as a nationally ranked team on both sides, confirming that the original goal of building a national‑class program has been realized and will be pursued further.
Chapters
Alright, here with Coach Soles, day before Griac. Team just ran the course, how's everybody looking?
You know what, it looks really nice. I mean, the weather's a little bit humid, but it's nice, nice breeze, and they kind of moved the time schedule up on us, so I think it's going to be really good races tomorrow. Took the kids a little bit of time to figure out exactly where they were running on the course, so once they figured that out and kind of ran the accurate course, I think the boys really liked it. The girls, I think, are a little bit nervous. They don't think they've faced a course like this before, but the boys said said it the best. They said, "That's a real cross-country course right there." So I think it's going to be a good fit for us.
Coming from Temecula, California, it's kind of a far way to travel. Why— what made you guys pick REAC?
At the end of every year, the kids sit down and decide where they wanted to go, and I think they just kind of looked at where we've gone before, and this has always been a meet that comes up, but we've never selected it. And I think this group of kids kind of wants to blaze their own trail and go somewhere that nobody else has ever gone. This is such a great meet, such a great opportunity to take on great teams like Wisetta, so I think that's why they wanted to come here.
And coming off of Woodbridge, right? Team had good performances there. Uh, what did you guys learn from that experience and what are you taking from that into the speed?
Well, it's such a different race than this, right? Woodbridge is like a sprint. So, you know, coming out of that, some of the kids were like, I just felt like I was in full speed mode the whole way. This one I think is going to be a little bit more conservative and, and build into a stronger race. So it's gonna be a different race strategy for our kids this, this time out. We knew we needed to get out and kind of blaze from the front, uh, at, at Woodbridge, but this is going to be so different. So, um, I think, you know, for us, I don't think the back-to-back thing will bother our kids were pretty well trained and used to that kind of concept. So I don't think we'll have a problem with that, but we will, uh, we'll definitely be, you know, trying to get our bearings in Minnesota. And we got in late last night and just trying to, trying to get used to all those things, but they've been mellow today trying to rest and recover. And, um, they like the course. So that's probably the biggest part.
I hadn't even thought about how, I mean, those courses couldn't be more different from each other, but I mean, this, this course in particular, you know, you gotta be tough and I'm sure they'll learn a lot from it.
Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be an eye-opener for our kids, you know, and that's good because All these in-season races are really just prep for getting ready for Woodward Park and getting ready for going up to NXN and trying to compete with the best of the best. And the more calloused your mind is to that, the easier it is to go up there and give a good performance. You know, you don't want to be shell-shocked at NXN. You want to get to NXN and kind of know how it's going to feel when you're getting blitzed like that. And I think this race will be very similar to that for our girls especially. So they're going to, they're going to go through some lumps, I think, and then Once they put it all together here towards the end of the season, I think they'll come together nicely.
What are you most excited about for each team this year, the women and the men?
You know, our boys team is very experienced, very talented, and I don't think they've even come close to showing what they can do yet. They're a very confident group of boys. They're very close, they work together, and they have very high goals. You know, the goals aren't coming from me. I'm not telling them they've got to go out and win nationals. This is something that they want to do. They pay close attention to all the other teams out there. They know what they've got to— kind of the level they've got to get to. So I think the boys will highlight our year, which is an exciting thing for our, our, our program. Um, and our girls are just going to come along slowly, you know, a little bit at a time, slowly but surely. They're going to try to figure out how to be the team that they've been seeing the last 3 or 4 years from our other girls. And, you know, there's only, only one of these girls has ever traveled with us before, so this is a brand new group of girls, and they're definitely a little bit more wide-eyed, trying to figure out, you know, what do we do here, how do we handle this. And you can see the pressures, uh, on their faces where you're not seeing it on the kids that that have been here before and done this kind of a travel trip. So, um, and that's good. It's good. I think they're in different places right now, but I know by the end of the season, they're both teams are going to come together and run really well.
Who would you be most happy with at the end of the day tomorrow after both races are done?
You know, I mean, our program is one that's designed to try to win, so we're going to go after victories on both sides and, and do the best that we can. You know, if you don't win, I, I think the small victory on the girls' side would be them coming out and saying, we've got work to do, we've got to get better. You know, this, this shows us where our weaknesses are at. On the boys' side, I think anything short of a win will probably be pretty frustrating for those kids. They fully anticipate winning the meet tomorrow, so if they don't, I'm sure they'll be very frustrated. But, you know, on these types of meets, you either go home with the trophy or you go home with the experience of what you need to do to get the trophies later in the season. So I think we'll win either way and try to take what we get from it and, you know, build off it for the future races.
And we were kind of talking a little bit off camera about, you know, when you first got to Great Oak years ago and what your goals were then and what you were trying to build. Is it kind of crazy to look back on that and see what you have built over the years? I mean, it's—
you know, it was pretty— it was funny. From the very first year, I used to sit and run the numbers because we had freshmen and sophomores year one, and I mapped it out. I said, well, this is what we've got, this is what we should have year two, this is what we should have year three. And when I got to year 4 and 5, I was like, we'll be one of the best teams in the country if that's true. And sure enough, by the time we hit 2008, 2009, we were starting to get ranked in the top 10 in the nation on the girls' side. So it definitely, we've come so far from that where we would go to meets and every meet we'd go to, they'd go, where are you guys from? You know, now we go places and people have a pretty good idea of who we are and what's going on. And I think that just the different mindset in our kids where now when they travel, they kind of know, hey, people are gonna know who we are, we're gonna have a target on our back, We're going to have to step up. Um, so it's definitely a different mindset from the early season that we, early seasons that we had at Great Oak, but, um, to see us get to a point where we're always good. I mean, the goal was to be a national class program on both sides, year in and year out. So that's what we've been working hard to do. And so far we've been able to accomplish that and hopefully we'll continue to do that for the foreseeable future.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Coach, for your time and good luck tomorrow.
