Riverside coach remembers humble beginnings
The chronicle of Bill Kemp’s successes as boys and girls cross country coach at Riverside High School has been well-documented in recent years, but less attention has been paid to his rather humble beginnings in the sport.
Kemp will complete his 27th year at Riverside this Saturday at the State 2A championship meet at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco, where his third-ranked girls team will defend its 2005 title. But it’s a long way from where he started.
“When I got this job,” he said recently, “I’d never run a cross country race in my life, and had never even seen one. But back then, if you wanted a teaching job, and they needed a coach, you gave it a try, and I’ve been learning ever since.
“I’ve picked up stuff along the way, got rid of some of it and have tried to evolve over the years. I find myself now doing lots of things I did in the early ‘80s. I recently found a letter one of my kids had written 13 years ago talking about how they prepared for the state meet, and it struck me how similarly we prepare now.
“In fact, the day before the state meet we’ve watched the same movie, ‘Running Brave,’ since 1983. That year, the whole boys team went to watch it, and we won state, so we’ve been watching it ever since. It’s dated now, but many of our kids have met Billy Mills (the Native American 1964 Olympic champion at 10,000 meters), so it still means something.”
Last weekend at Fairways Golf Course, Riverside placed five girls in the top 21 to qualify for one of the two district berths to the state meet. The Rams were led by two sophomores, Amanda Wilson and Sammi Nelson, who finished fourth and seventh, respectively.
Senior transfer Bethany Johnston was 10th, junior Stephanie Dye was 11th and junior Melissa Sweeney finished 21st. Cheney was the second Great Northern League qualifier.
This fall, Riverside returned its top seven varsity runners from the 2005 state championship team, but injuries and some surprising performances gave this year’s team a different look near the end of the season. Only three of those seven are running on the varsity now.
“It’s an interesting group,” said Kemp. “We really have 10 varsity runners who are constantly competing for the top spots. We’ll have almost everybody back, too. Our best senior is Bethany, who came here from Germany when her dad retired from the military. He ran for me in the early ‘80s, but Bethany had run only a handful of races before this year.”
Over the years, Kemp has found that the same approach works for both boys and girls. He subscribes to the notion that coaches who just focus on running will scare kids off, so the Rams get their running in doing, as he puts it, “lots of fun type things.”
It must be working. In his Riverside career, Kemp has had four state championship teams, two of each gender, and 22 top four finishers. After several years in the military, he didn’t start teaching and coaching until age 35.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that your program has to fit the personality of the coach,” he said. “Every year, we have lots of kids going to summer camps, and they bring back ideas, but I feel that what we’re doing is working, so we’ll stay with it.
What keeps him going?
“Working with young kids. I remember the year I turned 50, we had a party out at the lake with lots of runners there, and we were all in the water. I looked up on the beach and saw all the older folks watching – I was the only adult in the water. I decided then I don’t want to be one of those old folks yet. I may be slowing down, but I’m going to keep working.”