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CRIMSON SHIELD THE ONLINE MAGAZINE OF BROTHER MARTIN HIGH SCHOOL |
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| October 2010 | ||
Meet the Cross Country Coach
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Ryan Gallagher ('00) played baseball and basketball through his sophomore year. Despite the pleas of Coach Dennis Panepinto ('81), Ryan wasn't interested in Cross Country. Finally, Dennis wrote him a letter the summer going into Ryan's junior year inviting him to come out because he would do well with his runner's build and long stride. Not wanting to turn down the coach again, Ryan relented.
He's glad he did because he fell in love with the sport immediately. However, he knew so little about it that he didn't even train for his first race at a JV meet in Mobile. In shape from playing baseball and basketball all summer, he came in first to the astonishment of his teammates. Ryan was so raw he was talking to his teammates when the starting gun went off. He sprinted dead out from the beginning because he didn't know any other way to run. Having no idea where the finish line was, he just followed the others. By the end of the year, he had moved up to the eighth position on the varsity, which brought him a trip to state in Natchitoches as the alternate. (In Cross Country, a team consists of seven runners with the first five finishes counting for the score.) The '98 team won the school's first state title in five years. |
Going into his senior year, Ryan trained all summer to make the Top Five, running at dawn along the Lake from the Causeway. Then he went to baseball the rest of the morning, worked at a Country Club in the afternoon, and played basketball in the evening, which is when the rest of the runners trained. The team defended its state title because it had 15 quality runners competing for the seven starting spots. Ryan settled into the #4 position.
After graduation, Ryan ran Cross Country four years for Tulane, walking on as a freshman. The team, led by two Kenyans, won the C-USA championship his sophomore year. Cross Country has changed since Ryan's high school years. Teams and individuals no longer have to qualify for state through district and regional meets. Any school that pays the $70 fee can send a team to Natchitoches. As a result, few district meets remain. |
Coach Gallagher is pleased with the hard work his 2010 Crusaders put in all summer. It will take time to determine the best runners, a situation that reminds him of the '99 team. With many seniors gone from last year, 10-14 have a shot at the top seven positions. Junior Nick Franco has run varsity since 9th grade, but everyone else has waited his turn, making for some hungry contenders.
In the spring, Ryan coaches the distance runners on the track team. For the most part, he works with the same students who do cross country. When asked the difference between coaching cross country and coaching track, he replies that a cross country race covers three miles whereas the longest track event, the 3200m, is closer to two miles. So he focuses in the fall on training the team to run as a pack with endurance the main goal. Track demands more speed. While a cross country athlete typically runs 40 miles/week, a 3200m man will go 30 miles/week but much faster. Good luck to the Crusaders in their chase for the 2010 Louisiana 5A Cross Country Championship! |