Georgia Middle School Grand Champions (2019, 2020)
MOST THINGS THAT ARE WORTH DOING TAKE A LONG TIME AND THAT SUSTAINED COMMITMENT. THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO TRUE EXCELLENCE.
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2020 Season Recap
This Means More
In our fourth year, this program has risen to be one of the best programs in the state. We just continue to improve based on the will and desire of our runners despite all of the challenges and the obstacles thrown up by 2020. Due to Covid-19, we had to change almost everything about how we operate as a program. Our schedules, our groupings, our practices, and our races all shifted to reflect our new realities. Especially impactful was the fact that the school was not in operation for the first half of our season. This, in combination with our inability to practice on campus, hammered one of the things that made our team great, our overwhelming participation rates. We were half the size that we were the year before, on par with our very first year in existence. We especially struggled with recruiting new runners, who generally make up about half our team. Despite that, my returning runners were very motivated and set very high goals with some starting their season as far back as February.
When we finally did get started, our odd year continued with us racing only portions of our team at a time. Our summer runners went to the Cherokee County Classic and were very successful. The guys were the top middle school team while the girls were bested by rivals, Dean Rusk, to finish 2nd in the medium sized meet. We then went down to the State course to take on small schools powerhouse, Bleckley County at their medium sized home meet. This was an interesting team race which Bleckley just snipped our team by two points and the victory. Our next race weekend featured our new runners forming a team to take on Lanier in a dual with our girls coming out on top. This was followed by our "A" team racing as the top middle school on both the boys and girls side at the Etowah River Rumble. The next weekend featured our "B" Team finishing middle of the pack at Warpath which was the last race before championship season. In the last weekend in September, our team won both titles in the first ever Fulton County Middle School Championship besting Blessed Trinity in both races along with Jacob Tarkington bringing home the individual win. A few weeks later, we would head down to Cochran, GA to compete in the State Championships. On this day, Taylor Road MS would not be denied as your Jr. Cougars would go on to win 3 out of the 4 races on our way to defending our Team Grand Champion title. 23 out of our 32 runners would finish in the Top 25 in their race, giving them the privilege of going up onto the podium to collect their State Medal. This is an extraordinary measure of individual success, which is a testament to their hard work and dedication to the sport.
The level of success that this program has achieved in four years has been nothing short of outstanding. We will graduate an impressive group of young runners, but still have a core of exceptional runners for years to come. If this next group of runners are just as dedicated and determined to be successful as their predecessors, great achievement will be the natural outcome. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.
Coach Michael Sinco
This Means More
In our fourth year, this program has risen to be one of the best programs in the state. We just continue to improve based on the will and desire of our runners despite all of the challenges and the obstacles thrown up by 2020. Due to Covid-19, we had to change almost everything about how we operate as a program. Our schedules, our groupings, our practices, and our races all shifted to reflect our new realities. Especially impactful was the fact that the school was not in operation for the first half of our season. This, in combination with our inability to practice on campus, hammered one of the things that made our team great, our overwhelming participation rates. We were half the size that we were the year before, on par with our very first year in existence. We especially struggled with recruiting new runners, who generally make up about half our team. Despite that, my returning runners were very motivated and set very high goals with some starting their season as far back as February.
When we finally did get started, our odd year continued with us racing only portions of our team at a time. Our summer runners went to the Cherokee County Classic and were very successful. The guys were the top middle school team while the girls were bested by rivals, Dean Rusk, to finish 2nd in the medium sized meet. We then went down to the State course to take on small schools powerhouse, Bleckley County at their medium sized home meet. This was an interesting team race which Bleckley just snipped our team by two points and the victory. Our next race weekend featured our new runners forming a team to take on Lanier in a dual with our girls coming out on top. This was followed by our "A" team racing as the top middle school on both the boys and girls side at the Etowah River Rumble. The next weekend featured our "B" Team finishing middle of the pack at Warpath which was the last race before championship season. In the last weekend in September, our team won both titles in the first ever Fulton County Middle School Championship besting Blessed Trinity in both races along with Jacob Tarkington bringing home the individual win. A few weeks later, we would head down to Cochran, GA to compete in the State Championships. On this day, Taylor Road MS would not be denied as your Jr. Cougars would go on to win 3 out of the 4 races on our way to defending our Team Grand Champion title. 23 out of our 32 runners would finish in the Top 25 in their race, giving them the privilege of going up onto the podium to collect their State Medal. This is an extraordinary measure of individual success, which is a testament to their hard work and dedication to the sport.
The level of success that this program has achieved in four years has been nothing short of outstanding. We will graduate an impressive group of young runners, but still have a core of exceptional runners for years to come. If this next group of runners are just as dedicated and determined to be successful as their predecessors, great achievement will be the natural outcome. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.
Coach Michael Sinco
