User:Coach Rick Mullins

'''

Rick Mullins
'''

Rick Mullins is a dedicated Cross-Country coach of the Pequannock Township High School (New Jersey). He has been coaching now for 39 years.

History

Rick Mullins ran Cross Country and Track in High School, boasting an impressive 4:35 mile, 10:00 2 mile, and under 13:00 2.5 miles in XC. He later married to his dear wife, and had 2 sons who also live to run.

Pequannock High School Cross Country
Team History

For 39 years Rick Mullins has been coaching the Pequannock XC Team and has been doing a great job. Although his team has never really done too well inpaticular, he has had some truly phenomenal runners. His best runner ever is Andy Ball who placed second in the Morris Country Championships in 1985 (his sr season) with a time of 16:14 5k at the challenging Nabisco Complex. His 2nd best runner ever was Lou Albano who graduated from Pequannock in 2000. Lou won the State Section II Group II to race in 2000 with a time of 17:02 5.25k at Warinanco Park. He also placed 3rd in the Group II race one week later with a time of 16:49 5k at the challenging Holmdel course, he placed 29th in the Meet of Champs one week later.

Current Team

The 2006 Pequannock XC team was full of talent, with a mix of mostly Seniors and Sophomores, and one Freshman and Junior. The Team Captain, Sr. Kyle Madison, raced his best time of the year with an 18:03 5k to open the year at the Roxbury Invitational, he was the team's #2 runner all season, he was the #1 runner for the entire 2005 season. Kyle has been running XC for a full 4 years. The team's #1 runner in 2006 was sophomore Rob Albano, leading the way with a PR of 17:38, which was also achieved during the season opener at Roxbury. Rob was the #2 runner the year previously as a freshman, hard work over the summer lead to him leading the way in 2006. The team's #3 varsity runner was sophomore Chris Baryla, he goes by the nickname of Spicy, who ran a PR of 19:19 at Darlington Park during the Taylor Invitational. Chris was new to the team, as he didn't run in 2005. At #4 was the impressive, yet unpredictible, freshman Eric Bush. Eric struggled at times (Garret Mtn especially), but exceled during his good days, boasting an impressive freshman PR of 19:29 during the Taylor Invitational at Darlington Park. At #5 was sophomore Josh Min, a quiet, yet (somewhat) determined runner to make sure he kept his varsity spot this season (which he did for the majority of the season). He had a PR of 20:12, achieved at Greenview Park. At #6 was senior Cory Brask, who switched off with Josh as #5 a good amount of time, especially whenever the team ran at Garret Mtn. The #7 (last varsity spot) was a tradeoff all year between Alex Lohn (Sr) and Cameron Smith (Sr). Cameron, expected to be a top 5 runner, suffered from nagging shin splints and a late ankle injury, which prevented him from every breaking 21 min all season, when he had a PR of 20:32 the year before, Cam has been running XC for a full 4 years. Alex Lohn had an average year for his first time around earning a varsity spot, he had never run

This is the new and improved Varsity team Matt Forshay, R.J. Hampson, Ed Roslasky, Chris Daken (Left us to go to a better school in upstate New York), Ben Hampson

In 2006, the team earned a 5th place spot in the NHC Suburban Conference Championships. Rob Albano made First Team All-Conference by placing 10th with a time of 18:17, Kyle Madison recieved Second Team All-Conference honors by placing 15th with a time of 18:53. The race was run at the grueling Lewis Morris Park, which is the most challenging and slowest XC course in NJ XC.

The Future of the Team

The Future of the Pequannock XC Team is bright, with 4 of the 5 varsity runners returning (Rob Albano, Eric Bush, Chris Baryla, Josh Min), losing only 1 major assett to the team in Kyle Madison. Too fill in the missing void, the team will gain Steve Boyd, a impressive 8th grader, who has already run a 19:12 5k and a 5:15 1600 in 7th grade. He will add an insant fire to this team, and will most likely be the #2 runner in 2007. With a combination of adding him, and the others improving, this team should be very good for the next few years. However, the team will most likely be extremely limited in numbers. They lose 6 sr's which is a huge blow to depth in the team, which could spell disaster if one of the top 5 is becomes injured in 2007. Hopefully the team can find some depth for next season.

Practices

Coach Rick Mullins runs a tight schedule, which looks like the following:

August - Preseason Training

During the Preason, Rick has the team just do distance runs to prepare for the season. The team is expected have been running for atleast 4-5 wks before entering the preseason in preparation. The team meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and will run easy 6 mile distance runs each day.

September-November - Regular Season

During the regular season coach has an assortment of different practices to have the team ready for racing, ranging from distance to tempos to hills.

Hill Workouts - Coach will have the team run a 2-3 mi warmup to the Sunset Hills, then have us run 6-8 hill repeats of what he claims is 600m. Before the hills coach will talk to the team about the proper form to run hills, then tell the team to "Remember, sip, don't chug" the team's water to avoid cramps. He will repeat this between every interval. The team will then run a 1 mile cooldown when the practice is over. This is the hardest practice he gives.

Speed Workouts - Coach will have the team run about a 3 mile warmup to the local XC course, Greenview Park. Then have them do about 6x600m speed repeats, or 6x800m repeats, depending on his mood. He will again repeat to the team to remember to "Sip, don't chug" between each interval. The team will then run a 1 mi cooldown back to the High School.

Distance Days - Coach will set the team out on an easy paced 6 mi run on these days, usually starting with a 1/2 mi warmup and ending with some 100m strideouts and a 1/2 mi cooldown. He has the team do this for recovery from the hard workouts and to build/maintain endurance. He will follow the team on the course he gives, to make sure they follow the correct route and don't slack off. The most popular course is the "PV Park 6."

Tempo Runs - Coach will rarely have the team do a tempo run, but he does have them do them once and awhile. He will have the team do about a 1 mi warmup, then have them run about 3.5 mi at a tempo pace (approx 30 sec slower than 5k race pace). This is followed by a 2-3 mi cooldown.

Wimp Days - Coach will have the team run wimp days the day before a race. This is usually the team's favorite day of the week. Wimp days consist of a very easy paced 3 mi run with some strideouts and a 1/2 mi cooldown afterwards.

Courses

Lewis Morris Park - Most challenging and slowest course in NJ XC, many hills, and the surface is all rocks and tree roots. The course is rough on the legs and you will tend to run about a min slower here than anywhere else. The XC team runs all of it's League Meets here, along with the NHC Suburban Conference Championships.

Garret Mtn - A favorite course too many, Garret is a course that starts mostly downhill and flat, and ends with the entire last 1/2 mile uphill. It will run about 30 sec slower than a normal flat course. Garret is one of the worst courses to start on, as the start goes from a wide open field, to a small trail, very easy to get boxed in. The XC team will run here for a few invitationals and the State Sectionals.

Horseshoe Lake - A completely flat course where the Roxbury Invitational is run. The course is mostly pavement and extremely fast, many runners PR here even though it's run very early in the year.

Darlington Park - A fairly flat course, but with one major obstacle: the runners must run across a beach 3 times full of slippery sand. The course is fairly fast, but not nearly as fast as other flat courses considering the sand. The taylor invitational is held here.

Greenview Park - This is the XC team's home course in Pequannock. It's a small park, Coach Rick Mullins made the course himself, which consists of 4 (very confusing) laps around the park. The course is flat, but tends to be on the slower side due too the fact that the course is run on very soft, thick grass almost the entire time. It will probably about 15-20 sec slower than a mostly paved flat course.

Brookdale Park - A course which is right next too Rick Mullin's house. The XC team will travel to this grass/paved, mostly flat and fast course if they ever face Glendale.

Warinanco - This is a course where the Morris Country Championships are held if it is rained out from the Nabisco Complex. The course is all flat on grass, but is 5.25k instead of 5k, so the times will run similar to Lewis Morris Park.