Aiming to keep the Raiders in front of the pack
MEDFORD CROSS COUNTRY
Every team and every season is different and, as Sherry Meyer sees it, having new coaches is just part of that annual process.
Meyer is Medford’s new head cross country coach, taking over for Kevin Wellman who is now the grades 6-12 principal in Phillips and left the coaching position after nine successful seasons.
Meyer was along for much of that ride, having been Wellman’s assistant since 2015. Joined by new assistant coach Steven Reynolds, the duo aims to keep the Runnin’ Raiders in front of the pack in Great Northern Conference and WIAA Division 2 competition.
“I’m very excited,” Meyer said. “I think I was always prepared if it would happen. Kevin will be missed. He was really a great asset and a great head coach and I worked well with him. I’ve got coach Reynolds here now. It’s a new team. Every season is a new adventure with new team members. Now we have new coaches. We’re excited.”
Several team members have logged sum- mer miles in preparation for the 2022 season, which officially begins with the first practice on Aug. 15. Reynolds said on average 13-15 runners have been showing up at most voluntary workout sessions. Not only have those sessions allowed the runners to build their foundation for competition, it’s also started building chemistry between the coaches and prospective athletes.
Of course, having had Meyer with the program for several years helps that process. Meyer’s daughter Lauren was a key piece of Medford’s 2018 WIAA Division 2 state championship team and is already set to start her fourth year at UW-Stout. Her twin daughters, Brook and Kate, are heading off to college in a month, which will make for a hectic start to the season for her personally, but she said she’s 100% all-in on giving the team the attention it needs as well.
“It is kind of a transition year for me with the twins graduating,” Meyer said. “I have to say I was thinking we need to get the summer program going (after Wellman resigned), so I got that started. One day I was here and the kids were kind of looking at me and they were like, ‘aren’t you taking the head coaching position,’ because I hadn’t applied yet. I looked at all of them standing there and I thought ‘why am I here when I’m asking them to give 100% and they’re looking at me like why aren’t you giving 100%.’ That was the tell-all.”
Reynolds competed for three years in track and field and one year in cross country at Ashland High School. He was a senior on the 2012 team that qualified for the WIAA Division 2 state meet and he ran cross country for two seasons at Gogebic Community College before finishing his studies at UW-Superior.
He’s set to start his second year of teaching and coaching in the Medford school district.
“It’s good to have that experience and to bring that to the program,” Reynolds said. “I was part of a state team and that was fun. Just kind of being on the other side of things and trying to be part of a program again is kind of refreshing. Being a coach and not a runner is different, but it’s good to be back in the swing of things.”
Meyer had coached some JV volleyball at Cornell after graduating from college, and didn’t begin leading runners until she and Sue Conn helped get the Holy Rosary running club off the ground. Several of those runners came up through Medford’s middle school and high school programs and, when participation numbers at MASH started to take off under Wellman, she was hired in 2015.
Since then, Medford’s girls program has made three WIAA Division 2 state appearances, including the 2018 title and won five straight GNC titles. The boys went to state as a team in 2017 and won the GNC title in 2018.
Keeping Medford at that level is a task the coaches won’t take lightly.
“It’s on the top of the goal list,” Meyer said. “My coaching philosophy is always expecting to win. I want the kids to always think that. We talk about never getting up to the start line thinking you’re coming in second. I think it just relates to life too. It’s not necessarily always winning the race, it’s that 100%. When you cross the line you know you gave it your all type of a thinking. Academically we talk about that too. You never start a test thinking you’re going to fail it. Go in going for the A.
“A lot of them are talking about their goals already and really trying to push it in every practice and supporting each other,” she added. “If they’re the first ones in, they’re cheering everybody else on. It’s that real team approach.”
“It’s always a collective effort one through five, one through seven,” Reynolds said. “There’s a lot of young freshman girls that came out. They’ll look up to those seniors that can lead them.”
They’ll have a better idea of what they have once the season officially starts, but the coaches’ initial impression is that the 2022 Raiders will have some depth to work with, especially on the girls side. A state berth would be the team’s fourth in a row, excluding the 2020 Covid year, where they got bumped up to Division 1 late in the process and just missed. The boys will lean on a veteran core as they collectively work to fill the graduation void left by one of the state’s best runners, Joey Sullivan.
“One of my goals is I’d like to get a GNC title back again for the boys,” Meyer said. “I’d really like to build the boys team again. It’s been a few years. The girls will be looking for their sixth title and hopefully we can get them back to state. 2020 was a little bit of a wild card there but that’s all done and in the past. This season is a new season with new goals. It’s looking good.”
Assistant coach Steven Reynolds and head coach Sherry Meyer watch as runners who attended a summer workout stretch to close the session.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Veteran boys members of Medford’s cross country team Nick Steliga, Logan Gubser and Josh Clark lead a group cool down.
