Coach
Jesse Skiles gave us some nice information about his
views on WV running and how he appraoches his WV
Wesleyan programs. In addition to his
success as a coach, Coach Skiles is also an
accomplished writer and has produced several books detailing the history of
cross country and track in
RunWV: Can you give us an overview of your program and training
philosophy?
Skiles: As a program, we try to emphasize the team aspect of things.
I feel that it is important that each area, throwers, hurdlers, jumpers,
sprinters, distance runners....everybody meet together at the same time every
day to at least stretch and hear the team announcements. We go our separate
directions from there, but at least have a little bit of time as a full
''unit" every day.
In
terms of training philosophy, we break every event area down into phases,
working backward from our championship meets. It just depends on the event as
to what workouts are emphasized in what month.
In
cross country, our workouts are quite similar to the ones you have seen posted
by Sean and Trent. I think
Likewise,
we do 800's, 1000's and a variety of hill workouts that have differing grades
of difficulty.
This
was our week on the men's side last week...the women had the same format, but
was adjusted slightly.
M am - 30 pm - 60
T am - 30 pm – 10 - mile steady state
W 70
TH am - 30 pm
- 45 w/strides
F light jog
SAT am - race pm
- 30
SUN
100
Our
lifting circuit is normally Sun and Wed on race weeks...Sun - Tues - Thur on non-race weeks.
Our
ab work and calisthenic
work includes two hard days and two "maintenance" days per week. I
have never had a Friday or weekend practice as a team. This way, you can go
home and run if you want if we have an open week.
We
operate on a 10-month cycle with the distance and mid-distance kids, with the
base, strength, and speed phases built around our competition seasons.
Hands
down, I think the most important month of training for college and high school
runners is December. Kids tend to get away from the sport and have some ''down
time'' right after cross country ...which is good. But after 14-17 days of
active rest, you need to crank it back up. Athletes that get their mileage
going again with solid Decembers really give themselves an advantage for
posting breakthrough times on the track. Too many young runners slack off too
much in December, and that is a costly mistake as many find themselves playing
catch up in February.
As
an overview, the team aspect is the biggest thing to me. We work hard and spend
a lot of time deciding on the workouts for each phase, but the part about being
a member of the team is the most important thing. I think it is neat to have
male distance runners for example, be close friends
with say, female throwers or female hurdlers and vice-versa.
We
play games that include team building principles, enjoy a preseason cross
country camp for a week at
RunWV: What are the particular features of your location that are
advantageous to distance runners?
Skiles:Buckhannon is our
greatest asset in my opinion. I love the town and it is a great place to train.
And I have to give kudos to the folks at Alderson-Broaddus,
I
remember the first fall that I ran on the team in Glenville, I truly thought I
had died and gone to heaven. Some of those early morning runs through the mist
of
Some
of the backwoods trails and back roads here in
RunWV: How has your coaching and training philosophy changed over
the years?
Skiles:The biggest thing
to me, is that I now have respect for the value of cross-training. It took me
some years to warm up to it. We had some girls with some injury backgrounds, that we finally decided to totally make slaves
to a rigorous cross training regime. It
pretty much shocked me that the C-T program produced three league MVP's in
cross country. Goolden, Walker, and Terhune all won the whole thing without ever running more
than 25 miles in a single week.
But
they were doing the equivalent of over 80 miles in terms of minutes worked in
aerobic training. That opened my eyes in a lot ways, so I am much more open to
what kids do in the pool and with their mountain bikes or road bikes these
days.
I
have also learned to use my resources better over the years. Mikey Guinn has been a great friend of mine for years...as
a fishing partner and just someone to talk running with. In the years that he
has served as my assistant, we have worked out very well together. We have a
great hurdle coach in Andrea Perry and a jump coach in Geri Woessner,
both national class heptathletes during their college
days. It is great to "talk
shop" with these great coaches on a daily basis, and I feel blessed to
have them on this staff.
RunWV: Running in WV seems to be improving in the past couple of
years. What do you think WV runners need to do to continue moving forward?
Skiles: This is a topic I have discussed at length with friends like
Sean Cleary, Mikey Cox, and Howard Nippert. I hate to over-simplify the matter, but more young
WV runners simply need to be more consistent with bigger mileage. Honestly, I
think kids just don't log the miles like they used to...but it is coming back
around.
I
can certainly tell you this...they are putting in the miles under coaches like
Paul Martin, Chris Parsons, Craig Kellar, Shellie Burda or Terry Spangler. Distance running is coming back
around in this state, and I feel the times at last year's state meet are
evidence of that.
Sean
(Cleary) and I have often noted that it is sometimes hard to sell a young
runner on the amount of miles that we are asking of them today. Whereas in the late 80's it was not a big
deal for a running group of college-age runners or older to knock off 90-100
mile weeks.
It
is a simple matter of creating a "distance running" mindset back in
the younger runners. Most young runners that are getting the appropriate miles
for their age tend to find success...those that don't,
generally do not.
RunWV: How do you like to structure your race/meet schedules?
Skiles: We like to run four or five cross country meets before
conference. Then in the winter hit four or five indoor meets in January and
February...the longer distance kids will only do a couple of these races, while
the middies race each trip.
In
the Spring, the college outdoor season is less than
two months, so we really have to pick our spots with the steeplers,
and 5k and 10k kids. I like to focus on small school meets and have qualifying
standards for kids to shoot for, and allow them to hit meets like NC State,
Duke, Tennessee, or Virginia Tech or Kent State indoors.
It
is also important to honor our fellow conference schools, and go to their
meets. Hosting meets is very important to the sustenance of our programs, and
we try to help each other out in that manner by not going elsewhere when we
don't have open weeks.
RunWV: What do you look for when you are recruiting an athlete?
Skiles: The academics
is the first priority...every year, we lose four or five kids who could help us
because they don't get accepted into Wesleyan. We try to focus on
"non-counters"...these are student-athletes who meet academic
minimums through the NCAA in which only their institutional aid other than
academic money is counted towards track equivalencies.
A few of these minimums include a 3.50 or better GPA or being in the top 20% of the graduating class. There are also some SAT and ACT minimums as well. If a kid meets one of these criteria, that greatly helps their aid situations at private schools.
As far as the student-athletes themselves go, we rely a lot on our contacts and their recommendations. If a kid has made a mistake along the way, that doesn't necessarily rule him or her out...sometimes a kid just needs some guidance and some care.
The
types of things I look for are more on the attitude side. If a kid talks back
to the coach or is smarting off to his parents, that it is an immediate red
flag, and we don't bother with them anymore....no matter how strong their times
or marks are.
If
I see a kid not standing at attention or talking during the National Anthem,
then I don't want him or her on our team. I put those types of things down in
my notebooks and cross them off. Every year there are kids who want to come
here that I intentionally back off of because I have seen him back talk his
high school coach of whatever sport or simply shown a bad attitude.
But
beyond the times and attitudes, the key element is the "race face."
Some kids simply have a lot of heart, and race with a high degree of bulldog
ferociousness. That can oftentimes go deeper than their high school marks when
evaluating what a kid can become as a collegiate athlete.
That is definitely a very important part of what we look for. Believe me, you can tell when a kid hates to lose, and deeply cares about the success of his team. That will only bring good things to a college program.
We still manage to stumble upon a bad attitude or two these days, but we have certainly gotten better at weeding out the non-team or non-program attitudes over the years.
So to answer your question...a kid with good race or field event marks, strong academics, and a good team and sportsmanship attitude. That would draw the interest of a college coach.
RunWV: Beatles, Elvis, or Springsteen?
Skiles: That is an awesome question. For the sheer impact on our
culture and overall quality of the songs, I am going to go with the Beatles
over Elvis in a close call. Music is a
very important part of our lives and binds several of my closest friends in the
running community. Both Mikeys
(Cox and Guinn), Howard Nippert, and myself have seen
David Allan Coe in concert over 60 times between the four of us. We have
traveled long distances to see DAC. Hank Williams III and various bluegrass
bands in the
(Note to Coach Skiles: Have you listened yet to “
RunWV: What does the future of the WVIAC look like, and WV running
in general.
Skiles: Our league is coming along better than most people are
giving us credit for. We were hammered pretty good
about how bad we were after last year's league track meet, but it was actually
a pretty good year in some areas. If you look at what Kayla Johnson and Erin
Donovan did for
But
the biggest thing is, I feel we have some coaches who
are really working hard to see it move forward. Mikey
and Bruce Cox, Jim Seaton at A-B, Trent Huntsinger...and
Will Shaw is a legend over at D&E...all the way back to his great Elkins
High teams of the 70's and early 80's. Good folks who love this sport...people
need to realize that.
As
far as the state goes, I feel great about the future for two reasons.
One) Sean Cleary.
He
is absolutely the greatest thing to happen to distance running in this state. Period. A visionary...a proven winner...a man who has chosen
to stay here when many would have bolted for more money elsewhere...he may be a
Canadian...but he is a true Mountaineer in my opinion.
Two)
RunWV.com
I
don't think you can put a price tag on what this site has done for track and
cross country in this state. I have seen similar sites in other states, and
they don't come close to comparing to the comprehensive services we have with
this site. We really need to keep pushing support its way, and count our
blessings to have such a valuable resource here in our wonderful state.
Personally,
I have had great difficulty getting over the horrible events of April 16,
2003...the day WVU dropped the men's programs. I have a book coming out next
month on this topic called "Mountaineer Dreams." But I feel that
through the collective efforts of many people at many levels in the running
community, the running in this state is recovering quite well.... Let's keep
working together to make cross country and track vibrant sports in the