Matt Lincoln is the cross country and track distance coach at chandler high school and has completely turned around the program. First Matt lets talk about your running. Can you tell is about your career as a mid-distance runner at Penn State.
What did he learn at Penn state that he has taken into his coaching career.
After he graduated, what was his running career like.
He took over the Chandler High Program in 2014, a year after they did not make state and lead the girls team to 10th at state. What were some of the big challenges taking over a program that had not been dominant in a while?
How did he get buying from the athletes?
For a large school the team was not that big, what did you do as far as recruiting and growing the numbers.
In 2015, your second year, there was not a lot of talk about Chandler pre season. We train together so I saw what was happening, and a few coaches were starting to recognize your success. But in your second year you ended up winning the team title. Jeff Messer had coached 6 state championships in a row. How did you get your athletes to believe they could knock off Desert Vista or Xavier and win?
What was the training like leading into the Championship season?
If you could go back and share a few words of advice with that rookie coach in 2014, what would you tell him?
All the talk has been about the girls team, what about the boys, how are they looking?
This summer at Portland Track Festival, one of your athletes Morgan Foster broke the state record with a 2:07 in the 800. The amazing thing about that is Morgan is a Freshman. How do you deal with an athlete like that who obviously has a bright future?
Team culture, anything outside of workouts/meets you guys are doing socially?