DyeStatCal Boys
Coach of the Week
Royal HS
Ryan Luce

Week of 10/02-06, 2006
California


photo by Rich Gonzalez
Architect of the recent Royal HS success Ryan Luce

Another program of recent years with a Coach that needs no introduction is the most feared squad out on the courses in the Golden State in recent times, the Royal Highlanders Boys' team and Coach Ryan Luce.  With a stunning crew of stars that always comes to race hard, the Royal group has had as much success and publicity as any program in the nation over the last few years, with a recent #1 ranking in the country at the start of the 2006 campaign!  The group bulldozed the All-Time team time record at the Woodbridge Invitational in mid-September, racing an amazing 14:46 team average for its scoring five ini one of the state's all-time great team efforts.  In last weekend's Stanford Invitational the squad was second to Ferris of Spokane, Washington in a showdown of four of the country's top ranked teams.  One has the sense that there is still plenty in the tank for the Ventura County group, with a plan that should take them through November and into December with a truckload of team and individual awards.  Royal has a great tradition, with a CIF Championship under Coach Ernie Schultz in the 1970's, with Luce really reviving the championship level team efforts of the program and below indicating the influence the former championship coach had on him!   

Congrats - good luck
Doug Speck
DyeStatCal.com

1) What has been your personal athletic background while you were growing up and as an adult?

Well, I did graduate and run from Royal. I had a great coach as a High school athlete and much of what I know comes from him. His name is Ernie Schultz. I also had four other coaches during my college career all with different philosophies to coaching. This allowed me to see what worked and what did not. I do have a degree in science as well as an interest in the body and mechanics. I guess all of that has helped me to understand runners.

2) What attracted you to coaching along the way?

You know I loved running but my job has always been in the classroom. Believe it or not, my coach retired and I looked at coaching as a hobby. I would end the day with a run (and get paid for it!) and as you know cross country kids are some of the neatest kids to be around. Today, I still coach for the fun of it. I would have never imagined the team I have today.

3) Who influenced you the most along the way of your own sports career and what you have observed in others that helped mold your?coaching philosophy?

Ernie Schultz was a big influence to my coaching. A great man! I learned from him how to listen to the runners’ bodies. Workouts are great on paper and many of us do similar ones but a workout is nothing if its given on a day the kids are dead. Once you understand what makes a kid tick you can apply workouts. Not to mention he has a way of making you believe anything is possible in terms of your ability.

5) What is the biggest change you have made in your approach to training athletes since you started coaching high-schoolers?

Ahhh! I seem to change something every season. Like any coach, I try to see if I can make the running formula for Royal better. Sometimes it works and other times the change hurts. I would have to say my first year (7 years ago) of coaching we never did many long distance runs. It was all intervals. Now we mix mileage in.

7) What are the special characteristics of the teams in the last couple of years in your eyes that has made them so successful?

First off, I was blessed to have runners with potential who love running as much as I do. You can be the best coach in the world but if you don’t have runners who are passionate, you’re fighting an uphill battle. Royal is successful because of the few runners who believe. That credit goes to them. That attitude was adopted the first year I started going and has been passed down to anyone who is on the team today. That and they hate being beat by me on a workout!

8) What kind of summer training did your team do?

We run mileage over the summer like most teams. Our mileage is low to begin with and gradually increases throughout the summer. We do have a couple of down weeks to bring the legs back and to make sure nobody is over training. That and each runner has a different amount of mileage for the summer. Some of our varsity runners may cover 500 miles over a course of the summer while freshmen may only go 250 miles. We are not a high mileage team. I have heard on the message board of dyestat that we run something like 100 miles a week (in the snow uphill!). I laugh at where people get this info. We do half that! When we went to Mammoth I believe we got up to 65 miles. Our normal mileage is about 50 on average.

9) How did you approach the course at Stanford as far as team tactics and how did that go?

I really didn’t talk much to the runners about it. After the race they were upset that they lost. I think they knew they could do better and they can. We had a 50 second gap in time when it should have been 30. They asked me why we didn’t talk strategy like we do with most major races and I told them that to me the important races are down the road not now. A second is good for us. It keeps us humble and hungry.

10) What advice would you give to a beginning coach in Cross-Country?

Be patient and learn your runners. Give them workouts that are good for the kids you have. Just because a workout works for a person like Michael Cybulski doesn’t mean its good for them. Coaching is more then just running, it’s about resting and eating healthy. It’s about getting the kids to buy in and having parents as a support group. Most of all you and the kids have to have a passion for our sport.

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