Great Oak High School's cross-country team has won four consecutive boys' state titles and six straight girls' titles. Their morning workout includes a 10-minute sprint-up, form lunges, and competitive finishes. Coaches develop what they call "explosive aerobic athletes" who excel at hills and fast mile times, not just distance running.
On the boys' side, we've won 4 state titles in a row, going for our 5th this year in 2018. Since 2012 on the girls' side, we've been able to win. We've won 6 in a row, we're going for our 7th and 8th in the last 9 years. Just having a tradition like that is amazing for us.
Having that tradition ever since I was a freshman showed me how dominant and united the Great Oak team was.
It's great to be a part of the legacy.
Looking forward to going out there and hopefully achieving the great things that they did. Our morning stadium routine, we usually do about 10 minutes of just every step as fast as we can go up to the top. We'll do about 7-8 minutes of just form lunges, just focusing on just strength going up, and then kind of gives them an aerobic breather. And then the last 10 minutes or so, we'll do every other step kind of racing to the top, leave a little competition in in and making it fun. Traditionally, we've done a lot of stadiums in the past. The last couple years I've kind of gone away from them, and that was one of the things, one of the feedback pieces that I got from our boys last year was, you know, we went away from some of our strength stuff that we felt helped us in 2015 when we won in Xi'an. So, you know, I've tried to put some of that stuff back in and make sure. So yesterday was kind of a strength workout. Yesterday this morning was kind of a strength workout and just kind of worked out that way, but I think just focusing on trying to make sure that they're as strong physically as they can be and mentally ready to handle what they're gonna have this season is what we're shooting for. All right, lunges! The hope with bleachers is that you're developing a little bit of speed and a little bit of strength, you know, really that explosive muscle fiber concept. So, you know, we try to really build an aerobic athlete, not just build an aerobic distance runner. We're trying to build someone that can not only run well on hills and, you know, up and down the hills, but also when we get to track and run a fast mile time and compete in the 800 and just be an all-around explosive athlete.
I like the stadiums because it gives us a little bit of a break from the long mileage, the 8 miles every single day. It loosens us up and gets us ready for the afternoon workout.
Attaboy, Dallin! Just gotta find you a stair race to do. Very nice. Job worthy.
This morning's stadium runs are always fun. It's a little bit of a— it's a change in the routine from the normal workouts that we do in the morning, which is usually just mileage. So it's really great to go out there with the guys and get in a few runs on the stadium. Nothing too hard, just loosens up the legs.
That's a wrap for what we're doing this morning, and then later on we're gonna have a 7-mile run with some other core stuff. Yeah, the history of Great Oak Cross Country, we started in 2004. We had about 65 kids the first year and just tried to build a philosophy where we're trying to put together a national class program. In 2009, we had a really good team and we missed winning the state title by 3 points, so that was a bit of a heartbreaker, and came back and won in 2010, and that was our first state title in and kind of gave us the feel that we could get to that next level, we could really go out there and compete. Since 2012, we've, on the girls' side, we've been able to win. So we've won 6 in a row, we're going for our 7th and 8th in the last 9 years or something like that. So doing pretty well on the girls' side. On the boys' side, it took them a little bit longer to come along and kind of get everything going the right direction. So in 2014, we knew we had quite a collection of good junior boys and we were able to put together a championship, state championship team that year. Didn't get the bid to NXN that year, so we were pretty upset about that. That group of guys came back as seniors, worked really hard, and our top 6 seniors at Nationals that year went on to win the national titles. All right, we're going to jump straight into our warm-up. Make sure you guys have checked in, ready to go. We usually spend about an hour in our warm-up process.
4 lunges. They're doing drills.
Form drills, and then we'll jump into doing speed ladders, do a little bit of speed stuff, and then eventually we'll do our 30 minutes of core. So that's what we start our, our practices with generally each day. And then some days we do our HIITs. Today we'll actually do a core HIIT at the end of practice. So we'll do our warm-up, then they're going to have an 8-mile run, and then we'll do our core HIIT to finish up. Keep your head up. 1, 2, 3. Just relax and get out and have a fun run. Don't overly kill it. Just enjoy being out there together. Sound good?
Alright, you guys ready?
Alright, let's go! For our recovery runs, it's really just to run as a group and relax and try to enjoy the fact that they get to be on a cross-country team having a great time. It's really nice weather today, so we'll just try to relax and have fun and not overthink it. You know, certain days you got to be on and certain days you want to try to be off and just kind of going through the motions and enjoying the run.
So that'll be kind of what we're Being out there with the guys, it's running out there, doing long miles, it's a lot of fun. It's better than being by yourself.
Joining this team has been great. I was very happy when my dad ended up getting a job down here. I fit right in. It's a great group of guys. Happy to be with one of the best programs, and I'm really enjoying training with them. When I was a freshman, I had the opportunity to race against Solomon Fountain and a few of those guys, and it was an amazing experience. Of course, you know, I've seen the the videos of Isaac Cortes and all those guys. It's great to be a part of the legacy. I'm excited to be a part of it. Looking forward to going out there and hopefully achieving the great things that they did.
It's a lot of pressure, but it's a lot of fun trying to match what they did in the past.
Great Oaks has had, like, a lot of great girls from years past, so it kind of creates a culture that we want to continue. We don't want to lose a state championship for the first time after our streak and everything. The older girls gave that culture to us, and we're trying to continue doing good things. Having that tradition ever since I was a freshman, showed me how dominant and united the Great Oak team was, and that's one thing that motivated me to do better as I got older, up to an upperclassman until now. And I think that idea of the dominant force that Great Oak is has been inspiring to me and everyone else, because becoming a part of that, it's just like really like fulfilling my aspirations. Doing that has just like helped everyone else improve and get the younger kids more motivated.
Have a wonderful day. Nice job. I think when you've got that kind of history behind you, the kids come in and know, you know, if I put in the work, I can, I can become great like this kid did or that kid did. And we've had some talented kids like Destiny Collins and Isaac Cortes and Spencer Dodds and those guys that came through and really showed everybody if you're willing to put the work in, you can be successful.
