Cathedral CC wraps up season
Published 12:01am Friday, November 11, 2011NATCHEZ — The Cathedral Cross Country team has run a long way over the past few months, and this past weekend the team ran its way to two top-five finishes at the MHSAA 1A State Championships at Choctaw Trails on the campus of Mississippi College in Jackson.
The Green Wave girls finished third in the state while the boys placed fifth, and coach Tommy Smith said not only was he pleased with their performances, but he was also pleased with their attitudes.
“I couldn’t possibly ask for a better group of kids,” Smith said. “They are all good kids that really found their own way. I just pointed out what opportunities were there.”
Smith, who was in his first season coaching Cathedral cross country, said he was impressed with the way the team improved from last year, especially considering the stiff competition they were up against facing some of the powerhouse teams in the state.
The Cathedral girls finished in third place behind Myrtle and West Union high schools. Last season the Green Wave girls finished ninth at the state competition.
Eleven of the top 14 runners in the competition were from West Union and Myrtle and 64 points separated Cathedral from second-place West Union. But, Cathedral finished comfortably in third place, placing 31 points ahead of West Lincoln.
Smith said he was happy with the separation his team had with the other teams in the state, and he hopes to continue to build on that success and compete with the established teams in the future.
The boys also made improvements this season, jumping from sixth in last year’s event to fifth this season.
Smith said one of the biggest and most challenging lessons he taught the team this year was that cross-country is not an individual sport.
“Every one of these kids did their job,” he said. “That’s what I tried to impress upon the kids. It doesn’t matter if you are the final runner on the team, your job is still to pass as many people as you can because every point counts.”
Smith said one of his responsibilities as a coach is to try to get the athletes to take ownership and pride in the Cathedral cross-country team.
“I want to emphasize that my team is their team,” he said. “I’m there for them. It’s their team, and my position is to try to instill a since of pride and competitiveness that will one day give us the opportunity to take home some 1A state championships. We are a mighty little school that competes with schools a lot bigger than we are in many different sports.”
Although Smith focused on the team aspects of the sport this season, two runners did put together individual performances worthy of All-State recognition.
Senior Blake Martin finished in sixth place overall in the boys competition to earn All-State honors, while junior Pepper Taylor earned the honor for the girls’ team by finishing sixth overall in her race.
Smith also used the example of one of his female runners to demonstrate the improvements the team has made since a year ago.
Junior Kimble Devening was one of the top performers for the Green Wave girls’ team all season, but she had a tough day at the state meet and finished as Cathedral’s fourth best runner on the day. Although her 26th-place finish was one of her worst performances of the year, it was still 10 spots better than she did in last year’s state meet, Smith said.
Smith also said he expects more improvement in the next few years. Cathedral fielded a young team this season, especially on the girls’ side, which had no seniors.
“Our seventh- through ninth-graders will be at an advanced level of understanding of the ins and outs of the sport,” he said. “We still have a young team.”
Smith said it takes extreme determination to succeed at cross-country.
“It is not a glamour sport,” he said. “It comes from an inner drive, and the payback is on race days.”
Smith said he also plans to introduce an improved off-season program to have the team more prepared for a run at the powerhouse teams next fall.
“My hope is that they would take what we’ve accomplished and have the drive to step it up,” he said. “We have some very good young runners. The goal for us is to eventually become one of those teams like Myrtle or West Union.”
