Pirates CC working physical and mental states

Perryville cross country coach Shadrick Shafer has a simple, but important motto for his team this summer as they prepare for the fall season.
Ready.
“That is our theme for this season,” Shafer said. “The mental side of cross country remains a focus for us. I have already stressed to the kids the importance of being both physically and mentally ready. When they step into the box before a race, I want them to be prepared and part of that is having the confidence of knowing what they have poured into the season before they ever got to that race.”
According to Shafer, it will be plenty. The Pirates have been running three days per week. Then on Friday, the team will go to the Perry Park Center and participate in a pool workout with Julie King.
“Let me tell you they are intense,” Shafer said. “We are out in the deep end of the pool, which they call the diving well and we are going through a bunch of strength exercises. They are easy on the joints and the kids are smiling for about 10 minutes and then it’s not fun anymore. They are huffing and puffing by that point.”
Shafer noted that the summer workouts aren’t about just running and building up miles, but also injury prevention.
“Ón Tuesday and Thursday we do a full body workout that focuses on the major and minor muscle groups,” Shafer said. “Hopefully the work we do now will keep the kids as healthy as possible when we get into those races in October. We want the kids to still be durable and strong. At the same time we are also building up that base mileage.”
To help with that Shafer has brought on assistant coach Tyson Brown. The coach has experience not only on the high school level, but also in college.
“He has helped me rework some of my mileage progressions and look at things a little differently,” Shafer said. “I have been coaching runners for 15 years, so it will be nice to have fresh eyes within the program. From what I have seen so far, he is a genius.”
Shafer said that Brown is a “true student of the sport.”
“He brings his own expertise from his own experiences in both high school and college,” Shafer said. “I thought of myself as someone he who really enjoys the research, but he gives me a run for my money at times. He brings a level-headed approach and is always coming up with new ways to do things.”

One of those is quite inventive.
Brown built an apparatus that he can pull behind his bike that creates a column of mist to keep the runners cool while they workout
“It looks like something that he bought from a store, but he built it himself,” Shafer said.
The Pirates have approximately 25 kids coming out at the height of the summer workouts and Shaffer is impressed with the turnout.
“We have had a bunch of freshmen girls and guys who already have a few years running at the middle school level,” Shafer said. “I also have a few younger brothers of my high school guys. It is great to see.”
Tegan Bishop returns for her senior season. She reached the state meet in both her sophomore and junior seasons and currently holds the girls school record time, which she set at the state meet last season. Shafer is excited to see what she can do in her final season as a Pirate and wouldn’t be surprised if she would set a new school record this year.
“She has looked great,” Shafer said. “she is already in excellent condition. Coach Brown has been helpful to Tegan in adjusting her approach to her mileage this year and really push herself to be even better. He has developed something called steady state, where she might be doing four miles, but three of them are at an exact time. As you run longer the fatigue sets in, and it takes more effort to stay at the same pace.”
Shafer is also looking at Porter and Preston Hoeckele to improve in their sophomore seasons as well as junior Zeke Pyland.
“One day Zeke is going to realize just how fast he can go,” Shafer said. “One day he is fast and the next day he thinks he should be at the back of the pack. One day he will figure it out and he will always be at the front.”
Perryville will host its own home meet in September for the second straight year. Because of that and many other things, Shafer is excited for the season to get started.
“The kids are excited and it becomes contagious,” Shafer said. “We feed off of that.”