Highly competitive
Sean Coyle is ready to run, and he’s ready to surprise.
A senior at Central Valley, Coyle is the No. 1 runner on the Bears cross country team and a state-meet veteran.
This year, he leads a team that has spent the season knocking on the door of the national high school rankings and is mentioned in the same breath with No. 1-ranked Ferris and Mead. The Bears finished their regular season at a school-best 9-2, Central Valley’s highest finish in the Greater Spokane League.
Beforer the start of turnouts, Central Valley was a close pick to finish third in the GSL. Then the Bears added Tylor Thatcher, the No. 1 runner from East Valley, to be a strong No. 2 runner behind Coyle.
That addition vaulted the team into the regional and national spotlight, turning the GSL into the most respected, and feared, cross country league in the country.
“It’s been great to get that kind of attention, but I don’t think it’s put any additional pressure on us,” Coyle said. “We were picked to finish third in the league before Tylor got here and we’re still picked to finish third.
“But there is a difference. Coming into this season, we were looking to do as well as we could as a team this year and making a run at a state championship and a berth in the Nike Team Nationals next year. Now we’re thinking, heck, let’s just go for it all this year. To do that, though, we’re going to have to knock off either Ferris or Mead next week at state.”
An October poll of the Top 25 cross country teams in the nation by Harrier Magazine ranked Ferris No. 1, Mead No. 11 and Central Valley No. 21. Nike Team Nationals’ Northwest Rankings, released this week, list Ferris, Mead and Central Valley, 1-2-3.
A second-place finish behind Ferris at the prestigious Jim Danner Invitational meet in Gresham, Ore., earlier this month did much to boost the Bears’ visibility.
“That was a great meet for us,” Coyle said. “Having an experience like that will help us this week and next week at the state meet.”
Coyle was pleased with the way the Bears ran in its head-to-head league meet with Ferris and mildly disappointed by their performance against Mead.
“I’m looking forward to running against them again,” he said. “I know we can be more competitive.”
With defending state champion Ferris and Mead renewing their annual battle for the state title, Coyle figures there might be an opening for Central Valley to sneak in for a top-two finish and an invitation to run in the Nike Team Nationals next month in Portland.
“We have to hope that they’re both so focused on beating each other that they lose track of us a little bit,” he said.
Today, the Bears run in the Eastern Class 4A regionals in Yakima, where it would be a tremendous upset if the GSL does not sweep the top three berths into next week’s state championship meet in Pasco.
“Eisenhower is probably the top contender coming out of that league (Columbia Basin 4A),” Coyle said. “We can’t be so focused on trying to beat Ferris and Mead that we lose track of them.”
Coyle has built toward this season from the start of his high school career.
“When I was a freshman, we had a great group of seniors,” he said. “When I was a sophomore, we had an incredible freshman class and we had another one last year and this year’s group is good, too.
“We’re leaving the program in really good hands next year.”
Running behind Coyle and Thatcher are senior Nathan Damiano, juniors Jayson Taylor, Jason Stoker and Andrew Cesal and freshman Bryan Aguilar.
Coyle, who ran 16 minutes, 31 seconds at state a year ago, and Thatcher, who placed third in the Class 3A meet at 16:13, are the Bears state-meet veterans. Both plan to counsel their teammates on the ebb and flow of a state championship race.
“State meets are different races,” Coyle said. “There’s a whole different energy. It’s easy to get caught up and go out too fast and lose it once you hit the hill.
“You have to pay attention to your game plan and keep an eye on the people you have to mark.”