DyeStatCal Girls
Coach of the Week
Buchanan HS
Martin Simpson

Week of 10/23-27, 2006
California


Coach Martin Simpson of Buchanan at home in the chem lab!

One of the more successful programs in the state in recent years has been Buchanan HS of Clovis, with that competitive school district turning out athletic teams everywhere in everything at a frightening quality!!!  Led by super Lauren Saylor, a senior who is University of Washington-bound, the Buchanan squad has put together a super fall season, despite some injuries to top returees from last yea summarized below.  The Clovis district, one of the state's best, has fine middle school athletic programs, with Coach Simpson below explaining some background to what has developed into a super feeder program.  As we head into November the team will try to secure the health of all of its stars and put together a fine close nearby at Woodward Park in the Section and State Meets!!  When Buchanan and Coach Martin Simpson come to town you know you have a race on your hands!!!

Congrats - good luck
Doug Speck
DyeStatCal.com

1) Briefly summarize your Invitational season around the state thus far this Fall-
Woodbridge Invitational 3rd Sweepstakes
Stanford Invitational 3rd Seeded Race
Clovis Invitational 4th Sweepstakes
Mt. SAC Invitational 3rd Team Sweepstakes

2) How has the team done compared to what you felt their potential was coming into the fall season?
The Girls team has been fantastic considering we are without 3 of our top six girls from last year’s team: Vanesa Zuzuarregui, Danielle Layous, and Whittney Russell. All three girls have been out with injuries. Danielle is recovering from surgery. She is up to running 2 miles a day. Vanesa and Whittney are up to running 3 miles a day, and they both have raced a little bit. If those three girls were running like they were last year, our team would be super fantastic. What has been so good for our team has been the fact that other girls have stepped up and filled in to make our team very strong. Senior Kristen Kirby and junior Megan Barnard have really stepped it up and run extremely well. The addition of Freshman Chelsea Janzen and Kori Smith has made this team very strong. And of course, we have Lauren Saylor, Cathryn Saylor and Sue Choi who have been very, very solid for the last two years.

3) There has been a super group of young girls coming into the program in the last year or two--how extensive is the district program before high school or are they from age-group or other programs?

Clovis Unified has always had cross country in the elementary and intermediate schools. When I started in the district 26 years ago, it even seemed to be more competitive than it is today. The elementary coaches are not as competitive and seem to be making it more fun for the kids. Don’t get me wrong ,they push the kids, but not like in the past. The early push in elementary school made for a lot of runners who were burned out by the time they hit high school. So when I first started in the district, my best high school runners were not the best in elementary or intermediate, they were athletes who had never run before or just enjoyed running. But lately we have been blessed with lots of talent and some great coaching from the intermediate program by Jason Lienau. Taking his place down at the intermediate school is a former runner, Dustin Beauchamp. He stepped in this year and won both the boys and girls titles plus went down to the Mt. SAC Invitational and won the intermediate sweepstakes races. Great teams always have lots of support. Plus, how can I not mention Brian Weaver who has been with me for the last 16 years. He covered for me for two years while my wife was going through cancer and she is doing fantastic.

4) Notice you do not run the girls varsity each week--what is the philosophy behind dropping them down to grade level occasionally?

I really like for the girls to have some races where the pressure is off. They just go out to get a fantastic workout and win some races. Sometimes the races are shorter and that makes them put the hammer down for some great training. Our frosh/soph girls team at the John Seaman Invitational went 1-7, so I went over to the Madera coach, Rich Parris, and told him now I know how he and Dee Dewitt felt all these years when his boys teams were taking up all of the front spots in races.

5) How has the team's health been as we turn the corner into November of the year?

Our team’s health seems to be doing OK, but we seem to be having lots of injuries since they have paved over all of the dirt running trails around the school.

6) If you could, would you change the schedule where you have your Section Finals one week prior to state, or do you think having the section final two weeks prior to the State Meet is an advantage?

I really like having the Section Finals two weeks prior to the State meet. Our team always seemed to have peaked for the State meet. The week prior to the State Meet we have a Grandmasters race where all divisions compete to see which teams and individuals are the best in the Section (Valley).

7) I know the weather starts to turn as we head into November in Fresno area--do you have to make any adjustments for that in your training?

You bet. When the weather starts to cool down the athletes want to start running lots faster in their workouts and sometimes that is not what I am looking for in the workout. Our workouts are based on their 5000 meter times and we do lots of runs about 45 seconds to 1:15 slower than race pace. When the weather is very hot they have a hard time maintaining their pace and distance so we have to keep on letting them know that heat is a factor that we have to respect and that effort is very important.

8) Have you adjusted how you approach the Woodward Park course with athletes over the 5000m distance through the years, or has the philosophy of how to run it remained pretty much the same? Explain a bit------

All I try and tell my runners is that to really conquer a course you have to run it a few times, plus you have to know your body. First get into your rhythm as soon as possible, which is hard in big races. Second, if you use too much energy in the beginning you won’t have enough for a strong finish at the end. Third, race hills with the same effort as flat land. Fourth, the race starts with 1 mile left, therefore everyone you pass in the last mile is like getting a fill up when you pass them, making you more hungry for the next fill up.

9) Who influenced you in your coaching philosophy along the way?

The athletes have influenced me along the way. I was a football, basketball, baseball player in high school and played football and baseball in college. In fact, I came to Fresno from Santa Barbara just to play baseball at Fresno State. When I found out that I have a fused vertebra in my neck my sophomore year playing football at Santa Barbara City College, I started to run to keep in shape for baseball, thinking that running would be easy - it was not! While at Fresno State, Red Estes was the cross country and assistant track coach, I took a class from Red on the theory and analysis of Track & Field. He is a powerful teacher and person he gave me the motivation and inspiration to pursue coaching. I went back to Santa Barbara for my masters at UCSB in Ergonomics and talked to the administration at my old high school and they wanted me to coach and they needed a cross country coach and that was my first job. That group of kids taught me to love the sport and love the athletes. I really started to respect those runners, doing lots of research and reading. Another person who influenced me was Barasa Thomas, my nephew. He was a fantastic runner at Santa Barbara High School in the late 70’s. I was a young coach at the time and he told me that as a kid in Kenya he would have to run everywhere. Everywhere was 5 miles to school, back home for lunch and back to school, up and down hills. When this young man was finally adopted by my brother and came over to the United States, my brothers told me that he got off the plane and started running in San Francisco where he lives and two weeks later my brothers said he put Barasa in the Bay To Breakers race, unofficially, and that he would have place 5th. I started to question the truth of the story with this statement. The Morro Bay to Cayucos run will be coming up in June how about having him come up and run. Well Barasa within the time moved down to Santa Barbara to live with my parents and so they brought him up to the race. I was very skeptical about this young mans ability until the gun went off and soon lost sight of him. I even told him who had won the race for the last few years and that he should keep his eye on him. He did not look back and won easily. What great coaching advice, keep his eye on him, Barasa never looked at him, teaching me that runner need little advice when they want to win.

10) How many years have you been involved with the Buchanan program and describe what you do there besides Coach?

I started the program in 1991 with Mike Olenchalk who was the head track coach and myself as the head cross country coach. We both assisted each other for 3 years. My teaching duties were all math at the time but when they expanded the school they started offering more classes and they were looking for a chemistry teacher. Mike knew that I had a minor in Chemistry and asked me to teach Chemistry, which I do now and I just love it.

11) What kind of an organized summer program of training do you have and how do you have to adjust for the heat?

Our summer routine is training on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 7am. We want our athletes ready for a week long camp in August at Morro Bay.

12) Do you have any benchmark workouts that you do during the fall season?

Every Monday we do a 1.5 mile hard run, trying to get up to race pace. Wednesday we alternate with Fartleks 3 minutes at workout pace followed by 2 minutes close to race pace and the athletes try and get up to 20 – 35 minutes or we do 1000’s anywhere from 3 to 5, depending on the time of the year, at race pace.

13) What advice would you offer to a beginning coach?

First of all, you really need to love the sport. If you can, run with your kids, or bike – but get out there with them. Runners are a different breed – very self motivated and generally great kids and you will find that you will love and respect them for that. Find a training style that suits you and your runners by going to clinics and reading about successful coaches and their teams and how they got them there. Remember – the most important day is RACE DAY! Don’t have your athletes train so hard or too easy that they can’t compete on race day. Don’t treat your sport as a second class sport or a filler sport for your athletes, you are their to help them become the best athletes/student/person. If you are committed they will be come committed. If you don’t care they won’t care. Add lots of praise with holding them accountable and your team will be successful.

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