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Annual JA Summit Brings Oregon's Top Distance Coaches Under One Roof

Published by
DyeStat.com   Jan 2nd 2019, 8:04pm
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Tucked In The Woods, Oregon Running Coaches Gather To Learn, Share

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

DUNES CITY, Ore. -- Chris Johnson leans over his kitchen counter, phone in hand, and makes an announcement.

"OK, I'm calling Marnie Mason."

Johnson, the track and field and cross country coach at Siuslaw High in Florence, Ore., dials the number and the call goes to the voicemail greeting of one of Oregon's legendary coaches.

"Marnie, this is Chris Johnson, Siuslaw High School. Would you please call me back? We're here talking about the best teams in state history and want to hear what you have to say about the 1999 Klamath Union team and its battle against Bend."

Johnson is the host and unrepentant pot-stirrer of an informal invite-only coaching clinic that takes place in his living room each year on the weekend between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

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A quorum of the top distance coaches in Oregon -- Johnson's peers, mentors and friends -- come through the front door, kick off their shoes, have something to eat and drink, and settle in to the assembled couches and chairs for a meeting that is part reunion, part instruction, part celebrity roast. His wife, the former Amy Flora, a five-time state champion from Myrtle Point, darts in and out of the coaching discussion while keeping everyone fed.

The World Famous JA Coaches Clinic was something that Johnson started about 10 years ago. On a hike at the Steens Mountain Running Camp, which is an Oregon institution, Johnson tried to strike up conversation with Henley (Klamath Falls) coach Ron Smith.

"Here was this great coach that I had looked up to and I wanted to talk to him and learn his secrets, and he didn't say much at the beginning, but I kept chipping away," Johnson said.

"Finally, he turns to me and says, 'I always wished I had a chance to sit down with Paul Mariman and Darrell Deedon with a bottle of whiskey and cigars to talk about coaching.'''

Mariman and Deedon, rivals in Oregon's old Class AA division, had both died in the 1990s.

Johnson mulled over Smith's words and decided they had merit. Why not bring the best minds in the state together to talk about the art of coaching, argue about the issues of the day, and get to know one another better.

Over the years, in the last few days of December, the coaches found their way to Johnson's house. Perched over Woahink Lake amid Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, and located near some of the world's biggest sand dunes, the home has become the setting for high-level discussion and noisy banter.

Hot seat question. What is the longest run you have your kids do during the year?

In the room are coaches who have had a hand in the last 16 boys state titles in Oregon’s largest classification. Dave Frank of Central Catholic. Tom Rothenberger of Jesuit. Justin Loftus of Crater. Jeff Hess (formerly) and Steve Richards (currently) of South Eugene.

Johnson, who is also the athletic director and an English teacher at his school, has won 13 state team titles at the Class 4A level.

There are a handful of college coaches here, including Willamette University's Matt McGuirk (college coach of Nick Symmonds) and Idaho's Travis Floeck. All of them are woven together by coaching trees or shared heritage that binds together all of the contrasting geography in the state.

After nearly 20 coaches have arrived, just past dark on Friday night, Johnson announces that Hess has the floor for the next 30 minutes.

Hess stepped down from coaching at South Eugene last year, but he is still held in high esteem among his coaching peers. He was part of South Eugene's 1970s dynasty and held the national high school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for 34 years.

Seated on the hearth in front of Johnson’s fireplace, Hess describes what it was like to grow up in an environment where winning was expected, when Eugene's TrackTown ethos was forged. He was sure, as a coach, he would win many state championships.

After beginning his career at little Glendale High (where he coached Olympic decathlete Tom Pappas and his brothers), Hess tried to re-build the culture of South Eugene and embolden students with his tales of a long-gone era. But that legacy, and the feats of coach Harry Johnson, were faded yellow newspaper clippings in a digital age. Still, Hess bled Axemen purple and poured his heart and soul into the effort.

He won four state titles at his alma mater between 2001 and 2014, but along the way had to learn to find value in other metrics of success.

"I always felt like I should have done more and that we could have won more," he says.

The other coaches in Johnson's living room sit spell-bound listening to a man they all admire detail the stresses associated with setting lofty goals and missing the mark more often than not. In some ways, they can all relate.

When he’s done, the formal part of the meeting is adjourned. The discussion in the living room continues until 4 a.m.

The clinic resumes Saturday morning with coffee, yogurt and cereal. And yes, a run. The numerous soft-forested trails in this part of the state are a runner’s dream.

When the clinic is back in session, Nike coach Mike Hickey, who has guided Alexa Efraimson's training since high school, imparts what he learned at the USTFCCCA's recent convention. A projection on Johnson's dining room wall shows images of a bodies' nervous system under the title: "Fascial Lines."

Hickey demonstrates drills and stretches designed to activate muscles in the body that often go ignored.

"A pain in the left shoulder could be caused by a problem with the right ankle," Hickey states.

More hot seat questions.

Do you consider your long run day a workout or recovery?

How much lifting do your athletes do and how many days a week?

What is your magnum opus workout?

Frank, of Central Catholic, has won the Class 6A boys title 10 times since 2005. Two months ago, his team beat Rothenberger's on a sixth-runner tiebreaker.

"There are a lot of good things that happen here," Frank said of the annual coaches' summit. "One is getting together with, theoretically, your rivals. I'm here with Tom Rothenberger of Jesuit, my so-called rival for years, and we're both working to get better together. Being here helps us to understand each other better as well."

Rothenberger, who has been at Jesuit for 35 years and won a record 28 state titles in track and cross country, suffered a cardiac arrest last spring and has pulled back from some of this coaching duties. He won't be the head track coach this coming season, but he will continue to work with the distance runners. (His son, Lucas, a first-year assistant coach at Iowa State, is also at Johnson's house). TOM ROTHENBERGER'S STORY

"My first 5-10 years, I would have struggled with being confident enough to share what I know here," Rothenberger said. "I have learned along the way to be transparent. I had other mentors in coaching who similarly shared with me."

Ultimately, all the coaches in the living room hope to latch onto a piece of information that they might take home and implement, a new wrinkle that gives their training a tiny boost in the endless pursuit of prodding high school kids to run farther and faster.

Barring any revelation, the coaches know that they belong to an exclusive club and can pick up the phone and ask a question of anyone else in the room at any time.

"It's a group of people with a common passion, and we can kind of geek out on stuff that we're excited about," Rothenberger said. "Other places, after the formal presentation (at a clinic), you go have coffee or lunch and talk it over with your friends. Here, you have a size that is just right for free-flowing cross talk and exchange of ideas."

Progressive runs.

Threshold.

What day do you introduce goal pace?

On a scale of 1-10 how well do you know your athletes are ready just by looking at them?

By Saturday afternoon, coaches begin to depart for long drives in the rain to locales across the Coast Range and to points north and south along Highway 101. Pat Zweifel was here from Tillamook. Brent Hutton was here from Bandon.

There are only eight coaches left by evening, after Jake Stout's presentation on recovery from injury, when Johnson's phone finally rings.

"It's Marnie!" he shouts with delight.

Johnson answers the phone and briefly fills in the caller, who turned success at Klamath Union High in the 1990s into a job with the University of Oregon women in the early 2000s. Today, she is a high school golf coach at North Medford.

"I'm putting you on speaker," Johnson advises. "Was your 99 KU team the best ever?"

(It is widely assumed that Summit’s NXN title last month cemented status as the state’s greatest girls team).

Mason goes by the last name Binney now. Even though she is coaching golf (to the chagrin of Johnson), she is steeped in Oregon running lore. She once placed eighth at the Kinney Cross Country Championships (Foot Locker) as a prep runner.

She coached a boys team at Klamath Union that had three Division 1 standouts -- Ian Dobson (2008 Olympian), Jake Gomez and Lauren Jespersen – who all went to Stanford.

She is far too smart to take Johnson's bait and call her team the greatest in state history. After all, she knows Rothenberger and Frank are listening in. And what about those South Eugene teams from the 1970s, with Billy McChesney and McGuirk ... and Hess.

"It was a very easy team to coach," Binney says, humbly. "I gave them a workout and they did it. No questions. They supported one another and worked together as a unit."

Johnson pumps his fist, affirming his belief that her team was the greatest, or maybe the one he’d have been be most proud to coach.

Those listening in, and offering questions, have no ground to object. Nor do they really want to. These coaches are all part of the fabric of Oregon distance running, connected to its history while building its future.

And they all want to get better at what they do, to be better engineers.

"I think the competitive-friendly piece is key," Johnson said. "We all want to win, but if we lose, we lose to someone who is a friend.

"We all think we have the answer anyway."

After holding court for 15 minutes, Binney's time on the call is about up. Every question has been answered. It was good to hear her voice.

"Will you please come to the summit next year?" Johnson pleads.

"Sure."



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