DyeStatCal Boys
Coach of the Week
Arcadia HS
Jim O'Brien

Week of 10/16-20, 2006
California


photo by David Flood
Coach Jim O'Brien of Arcadia HS cheers his troops on in a recent race

Last year the Arcadia Boys team finished out a cinderella year with a third place performance at the State Championships Divison I in Fresno.  The squad raced to a number of fine performances during the season and weighed in with the elite programs from around the state and more than held their own.  The team was led by steady senior Paul Beckwith and junior Andrew Pilavjian, and one wondered how the 2006 team would develop, with any questions along those lines having been solidly answered by Andrew and the group taking their performance this fall quite generally beyond anything so far that the 2005 crew achieved.  Team time and depth comparisons so far this year show a group that has really responded to the challenge of maintaining the program as among the state's best, with good health from here on in seeming to assure competition for a plaque once again in the Fresno State competition in what could be a brutal Division I State Finals run.  The team also has one of the State's elite soph runners in Renaud Poizat, who was 15:23 at Mt. SAC, with a Varsity group that has interchanged a bit and has the ability to be absolutely super if everyone is hitting on the good cylinders at championship time, as the 2005 group did.   It will be an interesting stretch run for the Apaches this fall!!

Coach Jim O'Brien at Arcadia has done it without a feeder program, and at a recent meeting went through the background of his 2006 team, and it is an interesting group of former soccer buffs, PE "lap" recruits, younger brothers of former stars, and those who have indicated an interest in the sport since arriving at the High School, and just put their noses to the grindstone and done the work.  Beach weather, a nearby wealth of running trails, or other aids of nature to a running community are not really close at hand, with O'Brien's development of a huge and successful program a tributed to his "pied piper" abilities in attracting and keeping the loyalty of the team members, who do truly range from CIF elite level athletes to the beginning joggers.  Check the depth of results through the lower levels and the talent string does not like it will end soon for this program in an area of the Southern Section where the excuse often mentioned by athletic programs and teams is, "it ain't like the old days!"  The school has always had a good distance running tradition, stretching back to the days of eventual Olympian Tracy Smith, who was a CIF Champ in Cross-Country and Track back in the mid-60's, but O'Brien has taken the Boys' program by the bootstraps from maybe an average position a few years ago to that of among the best in the state.  

Congrats - good luck
Doug Speck
DyeStatCal.com

1) Describe how the season has gone so far for your team--

So far, our team has performed well in all the big regional/national meets and taken care of business in our league. I am excited about our team depth and strength as we typically maintain a 30 seconds or less team spread with the 6th and 7th man being close behind. We have the luxury of interchanging parts and 12 different athletes have run varsity for us this year. Every meet we have run this year has been a faster team time than last year. I am crossing my fingers and praying that our pattern continues, and that everyone stays hungry and healthy to the end.

2) What have been the personality characteristics of this group that you
think has helped them to be so successful?

There are 4 or 5 seniors (depending on the week) in our top 7 and the maturity and confidence shine through and infect the younger guys. Also, within this group (12 athletes deep), we have a very competitive attitude whereby nobody feels their spot is secure. Performances week to week warrant making changes and that transfers to our difficult workouts as well. The highest compliment I can pay my team is that they have proven to me that they all were willing to sacrifice and pay the price in training to accomplish our team goals. This group of guys are dedicated to each other and support one another - win or lose. The experience of being on a Cross Country team goes way beyond the running and team placings. The lessons are with them a lifetime, as are the memories.

3) What was your personal athletic background?

In high school I competed in Cross Country, Basketball, and Track. I fancied myself a future NBA point guard in the mold of Calvin Murphy (or Steve Nash if you want to modernize my dream). At the time, I ran Cross Country to get in shape for Basketball, and I ran Track because all my XC buddies were out there. In college at San Diego State I was paying my own way, living away from home and supporting myself, and my competitive running outlet was road races, cross country meets, and marathons with the San Diego Track Club. I worked a full-time job as an athletics director for the Boys & Girls Club of San Diego. Later on, when coming to the San Gabriel Valley, I got interested in competing in Ultra-Marathons and even ran a few 100 mile races.

4) Who have you borrowed from in your coaching philosophy?

What a great question! Despite having a Masters Degree in Physical Education, I am certainly no genius. However, I am at least intelligent enough to realize that you don't have to re-invent the wheel. So, I have studied and borrowed from the teachings of Arthur Lydiard, Bill Bowerman, Jack Daniels, and Joe Vigil. I really believe that there are a number of ways to accomplish the same goals. With all the great coaches of the past, there are some obvious similarities within their training plans. Even though they may use different terminologies to describe them. I have tried to utilize what I consider the CORE foundations of each coach and simply put my own spin on it to suit the high school level and more importantly, my specific target group - the Arcadia High distance athletes. In addition, I have tried to attend every one of the AAF free coaching clinics (XC and Track) to listen to my colleagues and share ideas. Irv Ray's "Run with the Best" program is great (coach at UC Riverside) and he has hosted several clinics. In addition, Steve Chavez of Murietta Valley H.S. has hosted several clinics on the Vigil system which are great. This is a fantastic resource for us all. I have never left one of those clinics without learning something new and valuable.

5) The Arcadia area is a bit land-locked, without trails or dirt road areas nearby to run and an awful lot of traffic signals around--how have you and the team adjusted for this?

Instead of looking at what we don't have, I try to take advantage of what we do have and utilize it to the fullest. There is a level horse trail that runs through the center of Arcadia only 1 mile from school, going north to the San Gabriel Mountains and south to El Monte. We often pass the Arroyo H.S. boys and girls when heading south. Half a mile from our campus is Arcadia County Park which is a great place to do repeats on grass and serves as our home XC course and site of our Apache Invitational. Our program has tremendous support from our parents and whenever I need to have the team travel to workouts at other hilly courses (Verdugo Pk., CV Pk., Griffith Pk., Mt. SAC) they step up and drive us. Considering that we have 70 boys on the team, that is a lot of stepping up on a regular basis. On non-race weekends we go run trails in the local mountains, again with our parents helping out. The hill training we do is most often done on the steep grass median running up the center of Santa Anita Avenue on the way up to Chantry Flats. I got no complaints. It's more of the glass half full or half empty syndrome. I am ever the optimist. We have it great compared to those teams in the center of L.A. and look what Belmont and Loyola (and others) have been able to accomplish over the years.

6) What was your situation as far as a summer program with this year's group at Arcadia?

In May we had a meeting for only those boys who were planning on filling the 14 Varsity spots on our team. There were 21 athletes who attended and each and every one of them committed to doing the specific amount of mileage I prescribed (based on both their grade level and type of athlete they were - ie. an 800-400 guy vs. a 3200-1600 guy). I allowed the students to leave if they felt for any reason they could not commit to the level of dedication I was requiring. Nobody left and everyone got busy pursuing our team goals. Most all of them ran their summer goals of 1000, 900, or 800 miles and laid a tremendous endurance foundation on which to build our strength and speed phases. They all kept running logs and returned them to me periodically for me to chart their progress and make comments. Our Team Captains voluntarily meet with the team and train the boys during our 3-week dead period in the beginning of the summer and I started with the team on July 5th with our summer program. Typically, we will have 90-100 boys training in the summer but not all of them choose to join the team. At the end of the summer program we invite between 24 to 32 boys to attend our High Altitude Training Camp for 10 days up in Mammoth (invitations are based on summer training and ability to handle the stress we will be experiencing up there). Invitations are an honor and must be earned which helps to breed commitment.

7) Do you have any benchmark workouts that you do during a cross-country season to see where a group is at?

We have a series of progressive workouts with each part of the puzzle being placed in according to where we expect to be by the end of the season (CIF Prelims, CIF Finals, State, NTN). Each year may be a little different based on the strength of your team but all years we incorporate hill repeats (speed and pace), hill circuits (% of effort), grass repeats (speed and pace), grass circuits (% of effort), lactate threshold runs on streets and on grass, and long runs of 90 minutes plus. Every one of these workouts are monitored and recorded. Often times we have the athletes fill out workout cards and transfer them onto spreadsheets for the athletes to keep and the coaches to study.

8) Arcadia has really become a "little United Nations" of a school with its academic tradition attracting families and students from really all around the world. What have been the challenges and advantages to such a situation?

Within our top ten athletes this year, we have ancestry of many different countries. One Armenian, two Japanese, four Mexican, one Chinese, one Anglo, and one French athlete/s make up our little UN here at Arcadia High. It has never been a problem with the athletes themselves as they are very accepting of anyone who is willing to pull their weight, do the work, and sacrifice for the good of the team. The challenges arise when scheduling conflicts are presented. We have a group of students who attend Chinese and Japanese schools in addition to Arcadia H.S. Plus, many of our athletes are involved in the band and orchestra. If that isn't enough, it seems as if almost every student is taking additional PSAT and SAT classes. Most all of our student athletes continue their educations at 4-year colleges and usually prestigious ones. It has been a long process of educating parents regarding the values of athletics which go hand in hand with my expectations of their children in order to be a part of this program. Being on a team is a privilege, not a right. We, as coaches, have to hold the line and adhere to reasonable standards. The parents have adapted well and the athletes are on board with it, but it is an ongoing process that needs to be reinforced every year as new kids join our XC team.

9) What advice would you have for a beginning cross-country coach who has just started their career?

This one I can answer very succinctly, PATIENCE! Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your teams' running dynasty be built overnight. First thing you have to establish as a coach is your basic philosophy as a leader and your training philosophy. Experience and knowledge gained over the years may alter these somewhat, but essentially, you are who you are and believe what you believe. Then the real key is getting the kids to buy into what you are espousing. It helps if your training methods can be backed up scientifically. That's why coaches like Arthur Lydiard, Dr. Joe Vigil, and Dr. Jack Daniels, who have their degrees in Exercise Pyhsiology, have been so successful in taking other teams' throw-away athletes and making champions of them. Their training methods are scientifically based, and they firmly believe in everything they are doing. Finally, let your athletes see your total personality - the tough side as well as the fun side - so that you can make being in your program an experience they will cherish for a lifetime (long after they have forgotten what place they finished in CIF Finals). I wish you all the best as the season concludes and sincerely appreciate the opportunity to share with each of you. We have a tremendous pool of great high school coaches in California and our sharing of information will only make us better coaches and benefit the athletes, who in turn go on to become the future of American distance running. We are all in this together and I believe we are all in for the kids. GOOD LUCK!

Jim O'Brien

Link to Coach and Athlete of Week Index Page