An Interview with Brookwood Coach Ben Dehnke

Coach Ben Dehnke, Head Boys Cross Country Coach, Assistant Boys Track Coach, Brookwood High School

Gatfxc: How did you first get involved in CC/Track?

I started running in high school, at Lutheran HS South in St. Louis, Missouri, under Phil Kershner. He was a marvelous coach and led us to back-to-back cross country state championships my junior and senior years.

Gatfxc: When did you decide you wanted to coach?

God really has opened a lot of doors for me. Right after graduating from the University of Missouri, I helped with high school track as an assistant, and head-coaching opportunities appeared soon after. I became the head coach that following fall (at Rock Bridge in Columbia, MO), and then moved to Atlanta the next year to begin coaching in Gwinnett County, and I’ve been here ever since.

All along, working with young men and women has been my reason for coaching. I love to watch kids work hard to achieve goals they’ve set for themselves; I love that the results of hard work is so tangible in our sport.

Gatfxc: Most people know about the distance running tradition at Brookwood. Was it intimidating following Coach Arnold at Brookwood?

Following someone like Coach Arnold, who has contributed so much to a program, school, community or a sport in general, is intimidating. Fortunately, I had Coach Joe Carter, who has been in the Brookwood cross country program for years, and Coach Brent Leitsch, who had worked as an assistant with Jerry Arnold for several years. These two really are the reason we had such a smooth transition, and we really just tried to follow the previous model that had been so successful.

Coaches Arnold, Carter and Leitsch really had set up an athlete-focused team that values time and efforts at the varsity and sub-varsity levels, by motivating them to set goals and work hard to achieve them. We’ve tried to honor that principle through the years, and our teams are still fairly large, like they were under Joe Carter and Jerry Arnold. While we make minor changes in our program from year to year, the model we use now follows that set forth by the great coaches who established the program. We’ve just tried to carry on that tradition.

Gatfxc: What was the highlight of this year for you? The XC State Title? Nike Cross Nationals? The Track State Title?

The state titles in cross country and track were the highlights, hands-down. Our goal every year is to be in the hunt for a trophy. Fortunately, we were able to put it all together on those days in November and in May this year. I understand how unique it is for a team to win a state championship, so I really appreciate the efforts of our athletes. Both titles were thrilling experiences that I won’t soon forget.

Gatfxc: Did you think you guys would crush the State 4 x 1600 record by 27 seconds, like you did at the Coaches Invite?

No. I hoped that we could run 17:45 or a little faster. The conditions for distance running were ideal that evening and this group of guys loves to compete as a team.

Jackson Wearn ran a courageous first leg (4:22.1) to get us started, and I think the other three really got pumped up by what he did. By the time each leg got the baton, they were chomping at the bit to run for their teammates.

Gatfxc: You had the deepest distance crew perhaps in state history, with two 4:12 or under 1600 runners (and another two at 4:25 or under), a sub 9 minute 3200 and another 3 at 9:37 or under, and a 1:53 800 runner and several more under 2. What was the competition like in practice? Did you have to hold them back?

This group of athletes really works well together. They love to push each other, but they typically do so in a supportive way and they actually have tremendous control and are pretty head-strong in workouts. Their maturity is tremendous in this regard, and it’s one of the primary reasons we’ve been as successful as we have been this past year.

After finishing second in the 1600m, Tyler really wanted to win, but time was irrelevant to the race plan. His goal was to win and score 10 points for our team, whether the race was won in 8:52 or 9:52.

When Erassa gapped him by 20m or so within the final 400m, I just hoped that Tyler wouldn’t give up hope that he could catch him. It was neat to see Tyler come out on top, and that really gave our team some valuable momentum heading into finals on Saturday.