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| | Throughout the track and cross-country seasons, the editors of DyeStat.com will choose a Running Warehouse Coach of the Week to recognize coaches around the country for outstanding recent achievements in guiding prep athletes.
| | | corbin talley | davis ut
11.05.09
By Cheyne Heiny, DyeStat Contributor
Fourteen years is a long time – especially when you have to turn back time 14 years to see a boys team not wearing the big, brown D hoisting the Utah Region 1 Championship plaque. Corbin Talley, the head coach at Davis High School in Kaysville, may not have been there all 14 years, but he has been able to successfully maintain his team’s dominance over their respective region and has created a Dynasty at Davis.
 Corbin Talley became Coach Talley for Davis after running competitively for Weber State College in Ogden, Utah. Under then-Head Coach Roger Buhrley, Talley was fortunate enough to experience the Davis tradition the mentor had built. When Talley got the call to take the reigns, he was able to continue what Coach Buhrley had started while setting a base for his philosophies in the process.
“My first 4 years of coaching was spent as the girls’ coach, and they really taught me the importance of looking out for each other and encouraging each other,” he says. “I have been blessed with some very unselfish teams who are willing to sacrifice a great deal for one another. I have always loved the teamwork involved in cross country over any other season or any other sport.”
Those four years included a runner-up finish at the first NXN Southwest meet in 2007, which earned them a berth at the NXN Finals in Portland. DyeStat contributor Cheyne Heiny was fortunate enough to catch up with Coach Talley, this week’s Running Warehouse Coach of the Week. His emphasis of having a TEAM-first mentality has pushed the Davis Darts into the spotlight as one of the best programs in Utah in the last five years, and a force to be reckoned with throughout the entire Southwest Region for years to come.
1) I want to first congratulate you on leading Davis to another strong season. Your boys and girls teams have been very competitive, not only in the state of Utah, but also within the Southwest Region. What preparations do you and your staff make to keep your teams in constant contention?
Thanks for the congrats. We were pleased overall with many things from this season, and we were also left hungry for the years to come.
The number one thing is that we are committed to working hard and working together all year long. I have a group of both boys and girls coming through right now who want to be their best, and they know that it is going to take commitment 365 days a year. In each of the past 2 years, we have lost a lot of seniors, but the younger ones continue to fill the positions because of solid indoor and outdoor seasons, and because they are willing to put the work in during the summertime.
2) Your girls team is coming off consecutive seasons placing third or better at the NXN Southwest Championships. What were your expectations of your girls at the start of the season? What kind of workouts did you run to maintain those expectations?
We graduated our best class of girls in Davis history last year, but we knew if we worked hard, we could still be in contention for a state title this year – and hopefully be ready to perform well at the Nike Regionals. We finished 2nd at state to a tough American Fork team, but we were still satisfied with our efforts throughout the season. We are hoping to come back with our best performance of the year at the Nike Regionals. Racing at the Nike Nationals in 2007 was definitely a highlight in my coaching career.
 Our training starts with a solid summer base—the girls set goals to reach 400-500 miles in the 12-week summer. As the season progresses, our workouts get more intense. Some of the team favorites include 20 x 400m on the grass or the track, 5 x 1 mile at the Lagoon trails, and our 8-mile trail run along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. They also enjoy an occasional game of “steal the flag.” Between the state championships and the Nike Regionals, we have a 4-week cycle which will hopefully put us back into peak shape. The first 2 weeks, we increase the mileage and get in a lot of strength intervals and tempo runs. The 3rd week gets pretty intense, ending with a pre-Nike race. The final 10 days is all fine tuning.
3) At the start of the season, the Davis boys were also ranked high in both Utah and Southwest rankings. Do you generally use the same workouts for the boys as you use for the girls? If not, in what ways do they differentiate?
The boys and the girls run very similar workouts. We run the two programs very closely together. The boys hit a slightly higher weekly mileage. A lot of our boys are challenged by some of our top girls and vice-versa. We have found that working out together and supporting each other at the races has built a great TEAM atmosphere. We felt like our boys team this year was always on the verge of surprising a lot of people. We never quite put together the race we knew we were capable of. I have a feeling we are going to do that at Nike Southwest. We may not be quite to the qualifying level, but we are on the right path.
4) What inspired you to become a coach? You have had many successful years at Davis. Did you have a specific idea or plan of how you wanted to run a team? Have these philosophies changed at all over the years or have you made certain changes for certain squads?
I realized I wanted to stay closely involved with distance running as a runner at Bingham High School. My love for the sport continued through college at Weber State. I was lucky enough to run for some legendary coaches, and much of what I do today was inspired by them. I was also fortunate enough to get a job at Davis working with Coach Roger Buhrley—who really built the Davis XC program.
One of the main things I have learned is that the athletes can work their tails off and still have a good time doing it. Our team has a lot of fun (sometimes too much fun). I came in with the intent of running a very strict, disciplined program, but I have realized that an important part of training hard is taking the time to enjoy being around each other.
My first 4 years of coaching was spent as the girls’ coach, and they really taught me the importance of looking out for each other and encouraging each other. I have been blessed with some very unselfish teams which were willing to sacrifice a great deal for one another. I have always loved the teamwork involved in cross country over any other season or any other sport. One philosophy hasn’t changed—I love running with the team. Intervals, races, distance runs, “steal the flag,” you name it. I have a side bet with our top boy for the regional race. It will be the first time I’ve run in the open/coaches race, and I am really trying to get myself ready for the challenge (so is he).
 5) Running in a high-altitude environment, such as in Utah, can have its advantages. Do you feel like Davis has been able to use this advantage in a race like Nike Southwest?
Our kids are really excited for the opportunity to run at sea-level in a few weeks. They are confident that they will be able to hold a stronger pace. I like to remind them that if they are willing to risk a little in the middle of a race at sea-level, they will be able to still finish strong, but they have to have the faith it takes to push a little harder than they normally would to take advantage of all the oxygen in the air.
We spend a week training at close to 10,000 feet during the summer. They know how much better it feels to run at a lower altitude. We are hoping to see a lot of PRs on the lower altitude course. I don’t know if it necessarily gives us an advantage, but they sure seem to love how it feels if they run the right race and take advantage of it.
6) Like all high schools, the future is the most important aspect to prepare for. How do you prepare your runners for not only running in the future, but also learning how to handle the next step – whether that next step is college or a full-time job?
Our runners already have a tremendous amount to balance in their lives with running, school, family, church, and some of them even have a social life. I try to teach them not to use their commitment to this team as an excuse to neglect any of the other areas of their lives. I like to think what they have with cross country is going to make them better sons and daughters, better friends, better students, and better citizens.
I expect a lot from them in the classroom, and I keep close tabs on them. We talk a lot about setting goals for running and for other areas of their lives. There is a big focus in our program to build character through hard work, discipline, accountability, and sportsmanship. I’ll tell you what, I have learned a lot of these characteristics from working with the kids I have on my team. Distance runners make some of the best people.
7) Is there anything else at all you would like to add?
Just that I am excited about the future of our program. Our younger runners are really coming into their own. They have seen how hard work pays off. They have learned how rewarding it is to sacrifice together for something great. I think it is a great time to be a Davis Dart.
Photos submitted by Coach Talley (first and third [from 2009 BYU Classic] photos) and by Donna Dye (second photo, from 2007 NXN SW) | |
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