Scouting Report: Riverton Boys

Top 7 Boys Returnees (Full Team Score Rankings)

Q&A With Coach Englestead (Riverton)

1. How many years have you been coaching high school cross country (and at your current school)?

• A This will be my 8^th year at Riverton High School

2. What do you attribute as the main reasons for the success of your program?

• Kids that will buy into hard work, consistency and deliberate practice.
• Kids that want to strive for excellence in all aspects of their lives
• Mindset - Creating a mindset that is excited for challenges.  

3. What would be the best way to describe your style and philosophy of coaching and working with high school runners?

• We are foundationally a Lydiard based program. Which means to me building a strong foundation of general fitness qualities (speed, strength, stamina, coordination etc) with the primary focus being on general aerobic fitness. After that, foundation has been laid it paves the way for harder more specific work. 
• We believe if there is a weakness in general fitness and skill, that that weakness will be the limiting factor to long-term development and growth. 

4. What are your core beliefs in your training plan and workouts for your cross-country squads?

• A - Develop a strong aerobic system. 5k aerobic contribution is over 90%. This means the primary work we do is focusing on developing that system (running mileage, tempo  runs and long runs.) 
• A - Our primary means of overload is extension of work. This means starting with short work at at given pace and extending that work. EG ( 12-16X 400, 5-8 X 800, .... 3-4 X 1600)  We do this with every type running(tempos, intervals, speeds, mileage etc.)  We will also manipulate/overload other factors(speed, type, recovery) 
• Stress + Recovery = Improvement 

5. How many runners do you return from your top 7 from a year ago?

• Our top nine where interchangeable last year. We return five from that top nine.  

6. Who is your projected top 7 heading into the cross country season?

• Top 4 are pretty solid - Ty Davis, Joey Nokes, Tanner Rogers, Chandler Morgan,
• Blake Lewis should be able to jump back up with those four but hasn't ran much since his weird injury at state XC. He is our big wild card this year. 
• 6-7 could be a whole bunch a kids. We will have to see who is willing to put the work in during the summer. Jacob Andrew, TJ Warnick, Spencer Willis, Cole Whitlock, Easton Christensen, Isaac Garrard, Preston Jensen, Jonah Simons and Jackson Maxfield all could be part of that varsity top 7. 

7. Who are your team captains or leaders and what stands out about them as examples for the rest of their teammates? 

• That is a hard question I have a lot of great leaders who are willing to put their own personal needs secondary to the needs of their teammates. 

8. Who have you been most impressed or surprised with their improvement and/or fitness from their summer training? 

• Spencer Willis over the last year has probably had the biggest jump in fitness.  

9. Any impactful freshmen or transfers to join the team this season?

• TJ Warnick -  His older sibling ran for our team and currently runs at Weber State.  TJ is has very similar attributes as his brother (hard working, loves competing, consistent, driven). 

10. What are the top invitational meets that your team will be attending this season?

• The kids might head down to Woodbridge this year.  If they don't do Woodbridge then BYU and Salt Lake County. 

11. What will be the biggest obstacle or challenge facing your team this season? 

• The non-top 5 athletes belief that if they work hard they can contribute to our team

12. What will be the biggest reason why your team is successful this season? 

• A connection and commitment to each other. I firmly believe it is almost impossible to have a consistently great team without a great team comradery. My best teams are best friends and would do anything for each other.

13. What is a favorite annual or common pre-season workout or run for your team?

• I love long progressive runs. We will start out at a moderate pace and start to crank down the pace each mile. 
• We also do a farlek where you run at a fast distance day pace and surge every hill. 

14. What is a favorite annual or common mid-season workout for your team?

• Combination workout during our direct support phase - The athletes will run a 10-minute tempo at 10k pace around 15 - 20 seconds slower than their 5k pr then come back on the track and do some fast stuff starting out at 3k pace and progressively get faster. 
• We also love the Michigan style workouts during this time of the season. 

15. What is a favorite annual or common championship season or end-of-season workout for your team?

•  To work on our kick at the end of the race we will do 1000m repeats where the last 200m the athletes will sprint up a hill. The goal is to teach muscle recruitment while fatigued. 

16. What are your top 3 goals for this year's squad?

• We try to focus our goals primarily on the process not the outcome. We believe that if we do this the outcome will happen. 
• Put in the work needed to be a champion. (hit mileage and be consistent, take risk, learn from setbacks, have a positive attitude, have a growth mindset) 
• Do all the small things (Sleep, eat well, regeneration runs, protein before bed etc.) 
• Do the work needed to compete for a region title, State title  and finish top 10 a NXR and  set ourselves up for a potentially chance to compete at NXN. 
• We believe if we are good enough to compete with teams like American Fork, Herriman, Davis, Corner Canyon, Skyridge and Springville we can compete with anyone in the South West Region.