New Coach Hopes To Keep The Momentum Going At Loudoun Valley With Similar Training, Positive Outlook And  Belief

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Kevin Shirk leans on the famous Billy Mills quotation when talking about the upcoming 2021 cross country season.

“God has given me the ability, the rest is up to me. Believe, believe, believe.”

The quotation by the Native American distance running legend comes from a journal entry that Mills penned on his way to winning a surprising gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. 

Shirk, the new head cross country coach at Loudoun Valley VA, is borrowing the words to serve as a team motto as the program prepares for the fall season. 

It’s a new era for the Vikings as Shirk replaces long time co-coaches Joan and Marc Hunter -- the wife-and-husband team that built the Northern Virginia school into a perennial distance running powerhouse over the past half dozen years. The boys cross country team won back-to-back Nike Cross National titles in 2017 and 2018.

“Our motto for the year is just believe, believe, believe,” Shirk said. “I know I’m replacing huge names with the Hunters, but if they can just believe in the process that we have this year, then we are going to be successful.”

While Loudoun Valley prep running isn’t quite the same level as the Olympic stage that Mills sought, the Vikings won a total of 19 state titles across cross country and track and field under the Hunters' direction, including the successes and records of Marc and Joan’s eldest son, Drew, the 2015 Foot Locker national champion and sub-four high school miler.

That run of success brings expectations and will require a new-found faith and belief that success will  continue.

“The Hunters took an OK program and made it to a national class program and that's something I don't know if we can replicate,” Shirk said. “I think even if the Hunters were hired again, you don’t know if they’d even be able to replicate it again. But we’re trying to keep the tradition alive and keep the success they had. I would say the hardest part, the biggest difference, is the expectations. Parents want to see kids win state championships and go to nationals, and that’s probably going to be the hardest thing, keeping that going.”

The student-athletes of Loudoun Valley aren’t looking to replicate the past either. Racing well and improving are on the forefront, but adapting to a new head coach and seeing where that takes them is the priority. 

“No matter what the Hunters did and accomplished, he is the new coach of Loudoun Valley and there’s a new clean slate for him and what he can do,” senior Ava Gordon, a Division I recruit, said. “What we accomplished in the past, is in the past. We’re just focusing on what we can accomplish in the future. He came in very excited and organized, which was really nice to have the organization, as he has our summer training and fall training planned for each month. We know what we’re doing, which is great to have.”

Shirk hails from Pittsburgh, Pa. and describes himself as “not a great” cross country runner in high school. It was the collegiate level -- he walked on at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and competed on the track and field team and a year of cross country -- where he developed a deep passion and love for the sport of running. After graduating in 2002, Shirk, landed his first teaching job in 2003. 

“I don’t know when it occurred to me I should be a coach, but one day just walking out of school, I saw the cross country team stretching and getting ready for their run, and I just went over and asked the coach if I could join in as a volunteer and run. He said, ‘Sure, why don’t you come with us tomorrow,’” Shirk recalled.

From there, Shirk worked his way up the coaching ladder as a volunteer, to assistant to head coach. Prior to Loudoun Valley, he was the head cross country and track coach at Millbrook High, about 30 minutes away, where he directed the Pioneers boys and girls to a combined eight state meet appearances. After 10 years at the helm, including numerous district, region, and state titles, Shirk stepped down to accept a job at Trailside Middle School working as a math teacher. 

“I would have been happy coaching forever at Millbrook, but what I did was I jumped school districts from Frederick to Loudoun Valley, mainly because there’s a significant difference in pay, so as far as teaching went, it made coaching a little bit impossible.”

Shirk was away from the coaching realm a year. Married and with two kids, Shirk said he enjoyed the time, but was missing something in his life.

“That whole year my wife kept describing me as a coach without a team,” he said. “It’s something I’m really passionate about.”

In early 2021 when Joan and Marc made the personal decision to retire from coaching at Loudoun Valley, the coveted job landed on the market. Earlier this summer, Joan was officially named as the new coach of Tinman Elite -- the Boulder-based professional running group that includes Drew. That prompted the Hunters to pack up and move to Colorado. 

Shirk said it took him about a week to apply for the job but decided to put his name in. 

“It’s one of those decisions where if I don't do it, it’s something I might regret, but if I do it, at least I’ll know for sure if  I made the right decision and at least give it a try,” he said. “So I applied for it, and I got it, and then I spent a few weeks wondering if I was the luckiest person or the dumbest person in the world for accepting.”

Shirk, who said he got to know the Hunters through coaching in the same region and classification, doesn’t have any ties to the Vikings, but his coaching style and philosophy has a familiar feel. 

“That’s one of the good things for the team. I don’t think I vary a whole lot from what they were doing previously,” he said. “Like a lot of the high level programs, you focus on steady mileage, building the kids up gradually and building their mileage. And the Hunters used the Tinman philosophy of Critical Velocity (CV) paced reps. I told the kids I don’t tend to call it CV paced reps but we tend to the same things, where we do some tempo-paced work, just threshold-type running. We do a lot of the same stuff. Aside from being a new face, not being Marc and Joan, I said just believe in the process. You’re not going to see any dramatic changes.”

Shirk brings his own lofty goals and a laid back personality to the role and is excited to see where the program goes this fall. The Vikings bring back depth on the boys side, which captured third place at the 4A state meet this past spring in a reconfigured “fall” season. Senior Graham Mussmon, who finished second in the 3,200 (9:21) at the outdoor state track meet, will provide a strong starting point for what should be a competitive team.  

“I think he's (Graham) very strong and a little bit more talented than people realize,” Shirk said. “We did a time trial the other day, and we have a tight pack from 1 through probably 8, so it should be a good group.”

The girls are led by Gordon, who had a strong track season and won the 1,600 meters state title in 4:55.07. She’s followed by senior Scarlet Fetterolf. 

“I think we have a one-two punch on the girls side that is going to be pretty hard to compete with,” he said.

Gordon is looking to establish herself as a contender beyond the state level.

“Just to try and win every race I’m put into,” she said of her goals. “That’s something I’m not used to but also just be super competitive in (trying to) win at a national race.”

The Vikings’ schedule will be highlighted by a trip to Carlise, Pa. on Sept. 25 to compete at the 28th Annual Carlisle Invitational, a meet Shirk is excited about as it's a chance for his team to see some different runners. On Oct. 2, Loudoun Valley will travel to Cary, N.C. for the Great American Cross Country Festival where the Vikings will get an opportunity to preview the Nike Cross Regional course. The team will finish the regular season at the Third Battle Invitational in Winchester on Oct. 16, a meet Shirk originally helped create. 

While Shirk has high expectations for this coming season, all the Vikings can do is believe, believe, believe. 

“So far it’s been pretty easy to buy into,” Gordon said. “He’s very personable, he’s funny, he brings his kids to practice and he’s got a good personality. The kids on the team feel comfortable.”