Bel Air Coach Shaffer talks District, season, and pandemic.
It's been a bit of a Cinderella story for Coach Jerry Shaffer and his group of Bel Air Highlanders. With the initial season outlook seeming bleak, Coach Shaffer stayed optimistic and kept his kids working hard and staying focused throughout the pandemic. When they got the new that they'd be able to complete a 2020 Cross Country season, Shaffer spoke about that being a victory in itself.
Bel Air Cross Country has been widely respected in the El Paso running scene for years under Coach Shaffer but they've always fallen meters shy of proving they can run with the rest of the State of Texas. With everything that has occurred this year and what these two teams have been able to do this year is nothing short of spectacular. After a 20+ year drought for the boys and girls teams respectively, both Jerry's girls and boys Varsity teams are headed to Lubbock where they will compete against a stacked 5A division.
Bel Air's Varsity Girls talk district and their season.
Both teams have showed great depth and progression as the season has gone along. It's no surprise as Shaffer has been a proven coach who understand his demographic and how to apply that knowledge into the physiology/workout aspect of his program.
Boys 1:57 1-5 Split, 18:57 average at the start of the season, 2:15 1-5 Split, 18:11 average at the end of the season.
Girls 3:31 1-5 Split, 22:51 average at the start of the season, 2:07 1-5 Split, 21:26 average at the end of the season.
Bel Air's Varsity Boys talk District and season.
We got to talk to Coach Shaffer about the season in the middle of the pandemic and he had some insightful things to share:
TxMileSplit - This is a big year for you. Despite being in the middle of a pandemic, both your Varsity teams will be headed to regionals but the real Cinderella story of your season is the leaps your girls' team has made to put themselves into postseason contention. What's been the difference this year from previous years?
Coach Shaffer - First and foremost, the girls as a whole just wanted this to happen this year. Over the past 2 years at District meets the girls were trying to get the last qualifying spot and did not get the races that they expected. Combining that with the eventual qualifying teams racing fantastically and our girls were left disappointed. We preach learning something from every race and that every race adds a layer to who they are as runners. Abby Murillo, Sara Armendariz and Rosemary Torres used those lessons to elevate their races during their track seasons and really learned to race better this past spring. That paid big dividends this season. Abby, Sara and Rosemary did exactly what they needed to do in establishing themselves as front runners in races this year. Gwen Palomares, our 'soccer' 4/5 girl over the past couple of years, perhaps made the biggest progression gains of anyone on the team culminating in a :53 sec PR at the District meet. The team solidified with the addition of Jaylee Levario during the summer. Jay had only played basketball and ran track. Her two previous years at Bel Air and I chased to her to come out and run xc. She perfectly blended with the girls and finished as our #2 girl at District. We called Jay our secret weapon.
TxMileSplit - How did you manage to keep your team so motivated and focused when their season was in jeopardy from start to finish?
Coach Shaffer - Truly, after being away from school, friends and monitored training from mid-March to mid-June. The kids were flat out ready to change their day in day out patterns. Every family approached the shut down and evolving Covid story the best they could, but our kids craved normalcy. While the summer build up was far from 'normal', with changing and evolving protocols to start, conduct and finish workouts, the kids reestablished old patterns and came out with surprising regularity. From our coaching perspective during the summer phase we preached that there were teams not doing what we were doing as a team and also the converse that we were being out worked by some. The kids took that to heart and just took advantage of each workout they were afforded. When we were told we would start our season we tried to keep the focus on the next meet in front of us as we were never guaranteed another beyond that. Once we got near the midpoint of our season goals were set to get to the Desert Twilight Meet, to run well at the Parra Meet as we knew it would be our potential District course and of course just run the District Meet. Mini goals kept them focused, but in the scheme of things were huge mile markers on our season journey.
TxMileSplit - We saw a spectacular season by your boy and girl leaders, Abigail Murillo and William Moreno. What has impressed you the most about these two athletes?
Coach Shaffer - Abby wants to compete and she always wants to compete hard. It starts with her workouts. She always complains about them but demands much of herself to do them well because she knows they translate to better racing. Abby learned last spring in track not to fear racing seemingly better competition. The second half of her races she is tenacious in her approach to running down runners in front of her. Abby is just a great competitor. Will (MORENO...everyone keeps calling him something else.), is fond of telling me that he decided to run for me because I was the first coach to know his name. Will is a 4-year letterman who was definitely outmatched as a freshman, but he tried to learn as much about varsity racing as he could. He has progressed nicely over his 4 years and has been the clear leader of his team for the past 2 years. His focus since he was a freshman was to get to the regional meet. He changed his off-season mileage 2 summers ago and that was his first step towards his goal. He has placed his trust in my training and really gave a focus and belief to his teammates that they could go to regionals as a team. Will worked hard for his senior successes.
TxMileSplit - Your team demographic is also predominantly Hispanic. What has this kind of success also meant for you and your community?
Coach Shaffer - The Bel Air community is special. We have a saying...'Big Red Pride' When any sport or program at Bel Air HS is successful our entire community succeeds. The immediacy of our team's success this year is still too new. Our kids know that they have done something in our sport at Bel Air that has not been done in a while. They are naturally excited, but have missed out on some of the cool things associated with what they have achieved like receiving their medals and trophies. Hopefully their teachers and community are excited for them.
One thing is certain, there's no shortage of humility in this program and these young athletes seemed poised to take advantage of their success going into Regionals. The Regional Meet will be at the Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock, Texas. Stay tuned for our coverage of the meet as we are guaranteed to see some of those Texas fireworks we are used to seeing year in and year out!