Coexisting BOYS & GIRLS Cross country teams combine with the departure of girls’ coach Tanya Vaughn
by Matt T. SportsEditor Klein Coming off of a state champion season, the boys cross country team comes into this season with high expectations and a bulls eye on their backs, and a little twist: girls. Coach Jim Barker has been placed in charge of the both the boys and girls teams with the recent departure of girl’s coach Tanya Vaughn in July.
Out in front
Sophomore Matthew Barazza runs the course during the Gering invite. Barazza helped lead his team to victory as he lead all runners and finished first in the race. Photo by Leah Wright
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“Both boys and girls meet at the same time and travel to the same workout sites together.” Barker said. “Workouts are the same although we individualize them based on the runner’s condition level.” Although it would seem to be a difficult challenge, coaching boys and girls, Barker sees the runners as one in the same. “Athletes are athletes no matter the gender. We often vary the number of miles run, or the number of repetitions run, depending on condition of the athlete,” Barker said. Being in charge of two teams it is obvious one coach could not do it alone and Barker is the first to admit that. “I realize you cannot do it alone and I really appreciate having other excellent coaches around to help like Aaron Carrizales and Erin Shaul,” Barker said. “I feel that my role in coaching cross country is to assist Coach Barker and be a support system for the girls while helping them reach their goals,” Shaul said. Having practices and running with the state champions boys team should help push the girl runners to being an even better team. The boys are also welcoming
the girls to their team as they feel the girls deserve the chance to have a successful team despite not having their own coach. “I really like it. You always see all these other teams from different schools and they are all together as one big team where in the past we weren’t even allowed to come in the contact with each other. It has been a really good transition and I’ve liked it. It’s been fun to do workouts with them and be one big Scottsbluff team, not separate programs. I think we all benefit from it,” Justin Pritchard said” Although the girls are with them for everything from practices to team dinners the boys still have their own season and have high expectations once again. “I expect continued and steady improvement, to close the time gap between scoring runners and take their athleticism to an even higher level,” Barker said. The runners have the same expectations as Barker as they look to be the best team in the state. Just as every summer the boys’ team was hard at work with all of their workouts and strength training, and Barker says it was as good as ever. “Again, one of our better summers of preparation. We met Monday through Friday at 6:30 am, ran for ten weeks, and averaged about 40 miles per week. There was a great turnout each day aver-
Strong start Taylor Muncie runs during the Gering invite on Aug. 31 at Monument Shadows golf course. Muncie had a strong performance finishing second helping her team earn the third place finish overall. Photo by Leah Wright
aging about 12 runners per day,” Barker said. As the defending state champions again this year, it seems there would be a little added pressure. Barker and the team, however, don’t see it that way. “We don’t view it as pressure and we don’t dwell on the past. What happened last year was last year,” Barker said. “We look forward to putting the bulls-eye on all the teams we compete against. Our expectation is to do our very best when it counts at the end of the season. The district and state meets are still the two most important meets on our schedule, we still have to go out and earn see x-country on pg. 19