The Oglethorpe County cross country teams are heading into the season with new head coach Brandon Adams.
Adams, a sixth grade social studies teacher at Oglethorpe County Middle School, has coached soccer but never cross country. He stepped into the role after former coach Jessica Ward decided to not return this season.
His son (John Adams) is a sophomore on the boys team, so he was already involved with the program.
“We already knew him before, (so) it’s nice having him around helping,” senior Cory Tillman said.
Adams has the help of longtime assistant coach Darrius Tompkins, who is more “oriented toward getting us in shape and training,” Tillman said. Tillman noted that Adams is more involved with the logistics of the program, like planning the race schedule.
During the summer, the teams run at the Oglethorpe County Courthouse. Tillman said he’s averaging approximately 8 miles per practice.
Although summer practices are optional, Adams and Tillman said there has been a good turnout with about 5-10 runners attending each practice out of an estimated 15.
“This year has probably been one of the best attended summers since my son started,” Adams said.
On the girls side, senior Elin Turner is lone returner, but Adams expects more runners when the practices become mandatory and by the first meet on Aug. 19.
The boys team gained a large number of freshmen this season, but they are still going to be relying heavily on the more experienced runners like Tillman and Adams, who were 27th and 28th at state last season.
Tillman said that although he hopes to make it to the top 10 individually at state, his main priority is “(leading the) team to a solid standing at state.”
The boys were 11th out of 24 teams and the girls were 14th at the Class A Division I state meet last season.
As a senior, Tillman recognizes that he will be one of the leaders. He said he tries to get the other runners in the right mindset to be the best they can be because “most of running is mental.”
“They can run so much harder than they realize they can,” Tillman said. “They can work so much harder than they realize they can.”
Adams also tells the older runners that they should be taking charge of the team because, at the end of the day, they are the ones running the races. He said the more experienced runners should lead by example.
“(They) need to push them and get them to run harder and faster,” Adams said. “This team is going to be what (they) make it.”
Adams said a lot of the runners train outside of team practice, as well, which he encourages. They run various 5Ks around the area, like the Maxeys Model 5k in May, which Tillman won.
With the amount of training the runners are putting in, Adams is hopeful they will have a great season. The only question for Adams, though, is if the team is going to make it into the top 10 this season.
“It’s going to take some kind of natural disaster, in my opinion, for that team not to make it to state,” he said. “I think this team has a shot at bringing home hardware from state. I have a feeling that if they work the way I think they’re going to work, it might be a big piece of hardware.”