Common sense says bison don't fly. But when they come in the shape of the renewed, refocused, and reawakened Carlisle High School cross country program, it sure is going to look like they can.
Kyle Hurston and Davey Dennison both qualified for States
in the 3200 as juniors earlier this year, finishing 10th and 12th, respectively.
For years, under the guidance of retired Harold Travis, the program earned respect season after season as they finished at the top of District 3 in both girls and boys programs... and made the trip to the state meet virtually an annual event. In his final season as coach in 2003, the team finished 9th, one of their best ever. In the interim, the program would slide. In 2005, the year before a new coach was hired, the boys were 20th and the girls were 21st – at Districts.
In the summer of 2006, two of District 3's more attractive programs - at least in the eyes of the coach who would ultimately take over the Carlisle program – had openings. The timing was perfect for Chambersburg HS and Shippensburg University runner/grad Ed Boardman. His full time job was at the Mechanicsburg Naval Depot, and he was living in Shippensburg. Both schools were on his commute home, and both had what he wanted – openings for cross country coach, and the "infrastructure" to support a program. "It had to be big enough to have bodies, and both Cumberland Valley and Carlisle fit that," Boardman said.
Cumberland Valley filled their position from in-house. Carlisle took a chance and hired a non-graduate of the school who was not a teacher.
Boardman had run for the best. At Chambersburg, it had been John Ambrosia and Tim Cook. At Shippensburg, it had been Steve Spence. A 1996 grad of Ship, Boardman stopped running for over six months before he realized he "felt like crap." So he started training with the Ship team, and by 2001, he became a volunteer assistant with Spence, remaining in that position until he took over the Carlisle program in 2006.
"I found a mess," Boardman said as he recalled the first months at the helm in Carlisle. And he wasn't entirely sure he was going to have a lot of fun for the first few years. "Kids would say they were going for a run and then would hide in the bushes."
Those behaviors changed virtually overnight. And he brought in three former Ship athletes who had run for him, Dan Helfrick, Michelle (Golightly) Bollinger, and Christina Walter. He also kept Carlisle grad Jeff Lloyd, who had been helping the program, and ran for Coach Travis when the program was on top.
Tree-hiding became history.
What Boardman did find that he liked was talent. He had a young group of sophomores who did not yet realize how good they could be, but he could see their potential.
With assistant coaches who could run with the different groups, he implemented his own personal training approach, with heavy doses of Ambrosia, Cook and Spence – plus real world implementation with three-time Division II all-American Kelly Stewart – Boardman waited to see results. (Stewart had transferred from Lebanon Valley for her senior year, and Boardman was put in charge of her program under the guidance of Spence. Stewart, a former runner with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, went on to qualify for the 2008 Women's Olympic Trials in the marathon).
Boardman picked up the minutes instead of miles method from Spence, and is a firm believer in quality mileage, with the top guys over 120 minutes at the height of their training. "But I only bring them up gradually, and like to keep the gaps between race and workouts to make everything as effective as possible."
That first year, Carlisle's girls' team would get 14th at Districts, while the boys would take 16th. Boardman knew it would take time, but "I was embarrassed," he admits. "The worst I had ever been on was 10th, and I was definitely disappointed."
But he had seen signs of life. His current top three, seniors Kyle Hurston and Davey Dennison, plus junior John Pope, were obviously talented. Pope and Hurston ran 2-3 for the team at District 3 champs in 2006, and Pope, Hurston and Dennison were 1-2-3 for the team in the 2007 district meet. And four guys broke 4:30 in the 1600 in this past spring.
School and community support helped the program rebound quickly.
Boardman says he did not think that the program would return to a quality level as quickly as it has. One reason is the unexpected level of talent. The other is what Boardman says was a somewhat unexpected level of commitment from both the school and the community. "They have been phenomenal, from former principal Bill Brousse, to the current AD, George Null."
But he cites the Carlisle High School cross country alumni as a real source of strength for the program. "I actually feel bad for other coaches, because the first thing I found here was tons of people helping at dual meets and the invite. They ran on the team, or their kids ran on the team."
Boardman says that "great advantage" in support he has, is due in large part to the program that Coach Travis built.
Getting the talent to believe winning is possible.
(Boardman talks about the jump from 2006 District 3 also-ran to 2007 State qualifier, and why they may be poised for the best year ever for Carlisle, which has never been top two.)
Carlisle only loses one from the top seven. Boardman says Dan Hoy will definitely be missed, not only for his contributions on the course, but for his leadership as a role model. But Boardman believes he has at least four guys fighting for the 5-7 spots, including senior Mark Blashford, junior Will Hoover, and sophomores Aldin Avdic and JJ Lloyd. And Boardman thinks his projected #4, senior Joe Williams, could be on the verge of a breakthrough that will make them really hard to beat.
One of the three guys in the mix for the top spot this year is senior Davey Dennison. A soccer player who says he got tired of not playing and even worse, watching the losing, Dennison joined the team as a sophomore. "I wasn't very good, but Ed said I could be good."
Dennison didn't necessarily believe him, but when he and Hurston and Pope started training over the winter before their junior year, he started noticing the difference. Even though he didn't break 17 as a junior, it was more than a minute drop from the year before. His track improvement was even greater, only breaking 11 once in the 3200 as a 10th grader, and then running 9:36 at States last spring.
But this year, Dennison is already showing bigger improvement, having posted a 15:44 at the Gettysburg 5K road race in July. "When you train with good people, (Hurston, Pope and others), you don't realize how fast you are. Then when you race other people, you're faster than you think."
Boardman, along with both Dennison and Hurston, think that John Pope may be the best natural talent on the team. Dennison thinks it's a special gene. "This summer he went to Spain for two weeks and came back out of shape, and he has caught back up already."
Coach Boardman says junior John Pope may be the
best national talent on the team.
As an 8-year-old, Pope had run with his dad, tagging along to a 5K. Having done a lot of the rec league sports, he decided to join the cross country team just before his freshman year. He trained over the spring and summer at his then-home in Hampton, VA. Moving to Carlisle just before the season, he did a little running and went from having difficulty finishing a 5K, to moving up to the 'squad 2' guys, to making the district team as the #2 guy.
"He's an alien," opines Hurston.
Before his sophomore season, and after a year with Coach Boardman, Pope got more committed to the sport, reading books, watching movies, and "actually training." By the end of the season, he was the #1 guy for the team at both Districts and States.
Things were looking good for track, but the multi-talented Pope was looking for more... so he joined the school's Shakespeare production in the spring. "Ed says Shakespeare stole my track season. And he may have been right," admits Pope. Although Pope qualified for districts and ran some good times, he knows he would have done better without the play.
So Boardman has made him a deal for the 2009 track season. "If I don't do the play, Ed will go on stage and be a tree for the play," Pope shared. "I think we could fill the place, and it might be worth it."
No one on the team has come farther than Hurston (and we're not talking mileage).
Kyle Hurston (Left at the 2007 Gettysbur Invitational) has been; by his own admission; but probably won't be, a screw-up. A reformed partying, no-studying lacrosse player who was told by his father to run. So as a freshman, he ran, and after a 17:41 at the 2005 Gettysburg Invitational, he was praised for his potential.
Now positive feedback is important. But in Kyle's mind, it was all he needed to hear. What a great way to get recognition, he thought. He could be one of the tops in school, get praised for it, and best of all, he only had to really run two days a week. Remember the bush-hiding varsity runners? Kyle was probably their poster child.
Life was good. And then Coach Boardman arrived, and life was not so good.
So before his sophomore year, he considered quitting the sport, did not train during the summer, and turned to the weight room as an athletic outlet in preparation to play football.
But something unusual happened. Assistant coach Dan Helfrick kept calling him to tell him he was missed during the summer runs. "Dan kept saying we miss you out here. Ed won't email you, but he wants you out here."
And something finally clicked. "Coaches like that don't come along very often," is what Hurston was thinking.
So he returned to the cross country team. And if he was looking for recognition, he got it. But just not the kind he expected. One of the first things out of Coach Boardman's mouth was... "So you just gained 40 pounds to run cross country."
Hurston swallowed hard, and started training. But he was still into the recognition mode, and says that his 11th grade year was his "false lightbulb." So he over-trained and ended up with a hip displacement. He only improved to a 17:18 at Carlisle.
But after the injury, and little improvement, instead of sulking and contemplating quitting again, he persevered. "Ed taught me that injury is sometimes what you get when all you want is to be recognized. You have to want to be good."
Then the second lightbulb lit.
What he got were PRs and a trip to states in the 3200. He didn't medal, but the experience just served to motivate him even more to succeed. "We didn't expect that much improvement. The coaches set goals in our heads, and had us dream big. They act like 10-year-olds when they see track meets."
And the enthusiasm is not only obvious, it's infectious.
Hurston was so pumped before track after his winter of training, that he personally recruited 50 athletes to the team. "Every school has athletes. They just don't know that anyone wants them to do anything. I'd tell my football friends they could be throwers or sprinters."
He finds cross a tougher sell, so he would offer girls dates with him. They joined the team anyway. "Plus, I'd tell them they could be good 800 runners if they ran cross." And he and other members of the team hit the middle schools to let them know about the sport.
There is no doubt that Hurston sees the sport and his coaches as directly responsible for changing the direction of his life. He was a D/C student with good standardized scores, underachieving his way through school. "Boardman is like a second father. He turned me around."
When asked if coaching was in his future, his response was an immediate and unwavering yes. "I can't see myself not coaching." But after college, Hurston plans to run for four years to see how good he can be.
But first, there's his senior season of cross country. "College choices will have to wait. We want to be the best we can be. And now I really get it – there is a big difference between being good, and being recognized."
You'll get no argument from Coach Boardman.
You can sense the anticipation and excitement just below the surface of Ed Boardman's self-imposed stoic demeanor. His expectations for his teams is high. His girls return Colleen Smith, along with three more from the top five. Two frosh could also make an impact. Boardman is looking for a top 10 at States from his girls. But it is the boys team he has even higher expectations for. He has his seniors locked and loaded and believing in his system, and, more importantly, in themselves.
Just how high are his, and his guy's expectations?
Boardman says that last year, they peaked for districts. This year, he is aiming for States.
"I would be very disappointed if we were not the best team in school history, which was 3rd at States. We're aiming top three, and if you're up that high, you might as well fight. Why not?"
Sounds a lot like this bison is about to rise again.