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Chapter 3

Coach Soto

After I was done running in college, I continued to train solo and race competitively in Cross Country and Track. After about a year without having a team to train with I thought I’d try my hand at coaching. My former high school was actually looking to hire a Head Coach for the Cross Country and Track program. I sent in my resume to the Athletics Director, thinking I was perfect for the job. But to my disappointment, he turned me down; stating they were looking for someone a little older with more experience in coaching. It hurt for a little bit, but I moved on. I went on with life working and training. Until one day, a former college teammate of mine messaged me saying that his former high school was looking for a Cross Country Coach and asked if I was interested in having an interview. I accepted but didn’t think much of it. It was a small high school that my former college coach once coached at, but had since not made much noise as far as results.

So I went in for an interview, and I felt like it went really well. The Athletic Director liked me, and liked my training philosophy. Maybe 3 weeks go by and I hadn’t heard back from him. “I didn’t get it”, I thought. I was ready to move on when he gave me a call one day and said he tried getting ahold of me but somehow the message wasn’t received. He offered me the position! So here I am, 22 years old and beginning my coaching career. I was terrified and excited at the same time. All I wanted to do was share my passion of  running with others and guide runners to their goals.

I remember the first day I was scheduled to meet up with the team. I was a nervous wreck. What if they don’t like me? What if I can’t be a good coach? What if this…and that? I gathered up the courage to get out of my car and walk up to the group high school students. I introduced myself, told them about my past with running, what my philosophies were and answered any questions they had. At first, if you ever met me, I look younger than I am, so the students thought I was another student-athlete! I would end up getting that a lot during my coaching career.

My first year at the high school was a big learning experience. I basically tried to mimic the coaching that I had previous and tried to adapt it for my current athletes. Slowly I learned how hard it is to train so many individuals with different backgrounds, experience and drives. But I was excited to learn and grow into a successful coach. My first year I had one female athlete make it to the Cross Country State Championship and be the Top Female in our league. Track Season I had more athletes reach the Championship meets. As the seasons and years went on I was able to take Athletes to State and Masters/Divisional Championships every season/year. Our athletes were in the newspaper, named Top Runners of the year, Received multiple awards, Back-to-back Individual League Champions, State Qualifiers and the list goes on. I spent four years coaching the high school, and had felt like it was time to move on. Going into my second year of coaching the high school, my former college coach offered me an opportunity to take over the Men’s Cross Country and Track Distance Team. I would coach both the college and the high school for 2 years before stepping down as Head Coach for the high school to focus my efforts on the college team.

During my stent with the college team, I helped bring the mens Cross Country team to the State Championships, one of our guys win Conference; in Track had guys place in Sate, win Conferences and help many others improve their times. I learned a lot coaching at the college level. I learned what is needed and what it takes to be successful at this level. I felt like I had a lot more learning to do, and with my busy schedule with my full time job I found it difficult to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to the sport and to the team. So after 3 years of coaching the college, I stepped down because the future growth of the team is more important than my desire to coach it.

I am my own worst critic. There is a lot of things I felt like I should have done differently, things I should have done more of and/or less of. But it was a great learning experience. Now I am in a place where I train and coach others in their journey of running and their pursuit to greatness. I love the sport of running and I wish to share that passion with others. I have goals of once again coaching a collegiate team. And next time it will be different, I will give it everything I have, because the sport has given me so much, and I have shed so many tears and sweat for it. It’s time to give back.