Coaches Spotlight- Alan Parish
1- Congrats on having a great regular season. When did you first become interested in Track and Field?
I first became interested in track & field midway through my college running career; it took awhile. I grew up as a year-round swimmer and was recruited to swim in college. But I experienced severe burn-out as a senior and quit the sport. Thankfully I had been running as well and was able to switch sports.
2- Did you compete in HS or College as an athlete? or another Sport?
I ran three years of high school cross country and loved it but didn't go out for track until I was a senior. It was fun and something to do after I quit swimming. I ran a 4:38 mile and was 5th in my Region (top 3 went to State in TN that year). I walked on Samford University's cross country and track & field team as a sophomore in college. I still greatly preferred cross country because I thought running through fields and through forests was more fun than running in circles around a track. Plus at the time I was better at long distances.
As a junior in college I finally switched my focus from the 5K to the 1500 meters and I had a break-through. Turns out I had a lot of speed and had way more fun racing the short distances. I broke the Samford school records in the 1500 and 3000 meters, and just last month Adam Jones of Columbus High broke the 1500 record (which had stood for 14 years). He is a sophomore at Samford now and it is neat to remember watching him at the Georgia Olympics just a couple years ago.
3- Describe your journey from novice Coach to your Head Coaching position now
I began my coaching career in 2003 coaching basketball at the American International School in Lusaka, Zambia. Despite heavy involvement in team athletics from age 7 to age 23, it had never crossed my mind to coach. After coaching some beginner level basketball players in Zambia, I discovered I had a huge passion for coaching kids and that it was far more fulfilling than my personal career in swimming or running. Winning a middle school girls basketball game as a coach (for example by a score of 11-4) was so exciting and rivaled any individual championship I had ever won.
I was also able to coach swimming at that school in Zambia for two years as an assistant. Then in 2005 I started working at Darlington as head varsity swim coach and middle school cross country coach. At that point in my career I coached my teams as I had been coached. I took the positive things I had learned from my coaches in middle school, high school, and college and applied them to what I was doing. I didn't have my own style at that point, I just loved working with kids.
I was the head middle school cross country coach at Darlington for three years and that experience was invaluable. In a way those kids were my guinea pigs; they listened to every word I said and did everything I asked, for good or bad! Really the most important part of coaching middle school for three years though was building relationships. I got to know kids really well, they grew to trust me, and there was a core group I was able to coach for 6 or 7 consecutive years.
My growth as a coach can mainly be attributed to connecting with other coaches. I talk to them, ask questions, get advice, attend clinics, and read, read, read! I am a radically different coach than I was when I started 11 years ago. I feel my best attribute is to motivate kids to perform at levels they never thought possible.
4- What are some of the challenges in building a successful program?
As a coach at a small school (Class A for all six years of my head coaching), the biggest challenge is numbers. I discovered early on that the schools that are the most successful have the largest teams. So I focused on recruiting, recruiting, recruiting (from our pool of students on-campus Despite the tradition Darlington had in cross country and track & field before me (countless State Championships in the 90's) when I became head coach in 2008 our teams were very small. We never had more than 7 girls healthy at a time that first cross country season. We had about 18 boys, so not too bad.
But our teams have grown tremendously in six years, because we have tried really hard to do so. This past cross country season we had almost 30 girls, and over 30 boys. That is over 12% of our student body, and is a huge part of our success. The sport is viewed by the Darlington student body as something that is fun, and that is open to anyone. Our boys have been State runner-up back-to-back years, and our girls have been in the top-4 for four consecutive years. Obviously the number one factor is the hard work those kids have put in, but the next contributing factor is the depth we have been able to develop.
In track & field, numbers are still a problem for us. And the biggest obstacle lies in specialization by kids, and the pressure of their parents to specialize in a single sport. Track & field at the Class A level requires athletes to do multiple sports, but most don't. We need football and basketball players to come out and jump, throw, and run, but few are willing because they are focusing on their primary sport year-round. Not only is that unhealthy for them, it limits what we can do, especially in the field events. This is the first time in three years we have been able to get a girl to attempt high jump!
5- What are your program's Goals every season? County/Region title, State Championship?
Our goals are definitely State-focused. We of course want to win County and Region Championships, but it is not talked about much by the kids. We go to camp at Appalachian State every summer, and there is a goal-setting session there that helps set the stage for our season. Six years ago we started focusing that session on getting "on the podium" at State. Yes, the ultimate goal is to win a State Championship, but the kids define their team success on whether or not we are on the podium.
6- Assess your team's Region meet and the challenges faced at Sectionals to advance.
Our teams did incredibly well at our Region meet last week (actually an Area meet in Class A Private), exceeding my expectations. Both our boys and girls had won 5 straight Region Championships, but our Region has changed a lot during that time. It was very small and not very competitive historically, but over the last two years Mount Pisgah, Walker, Whitefield Academy, and other schools in our Region have been doing a great job and getting a lot better (and our Region has doubled its number of schools).
Honestly for most of this season I considered us underdogs and that was the approach my teams took. I told the kids it was doubtful that we would win our Region meets, and that we would only do so if they all had spectacular performances in all their events. And that is what happened! Both the boys and girls championships were very close and we were fortunate to come out on top. We got a lot of kids to Sectionals, and most have a great shot to advance on to State. Sectionals are quite different in Class A, as we compete against EVERYONE and not just half the State. So there will be no surprises at State. Our goals are the same as I mentioned before: to get on the podiums in Albany and Jefferson.
7- What advancements should the GHSA make to bring our Sport on par with the 'other' 47 states ?
The biggest thing the GHSA needs to do to improve the quality of our sport is recombine public and private in Class A. This was a huge mistake, and bad for the athletes. I am a strong believer in the less classifications, the better; not everyone needs to win a State Championship. In cross country otherwise there is nothing I would really change; I feel Georgia is doing an incredible job in this sport. The invitationals we have in Georgia on a weekly basis are radically better than ones I have taken my teams to in other states (TN, AL, FL, and VA).
In track & field, a lot is to be desired. We are being left in the dust by many modern movements in the sport. To start, we need more events (4 x 800 to start, then also 4 x 200 and others). Then we need to be able to increase participation. If an athlete is able to do three field events, then another athlete should be able to do three running events. Also, the format and schedule of our State meets is pretty terrible. As a coach who is also a teacher and a parent, it is silly that I have to be out of town for six days in a two week period and spend 4-5 nights in a hotel. .
Bonus- What has been among your favorite accomplishments for the school you now coach at?
I have three favorite accomplishments at Darlington. The first is pretty obvious, when my girls' cross country team won the State Championship in 2010. Our top 5 spread was 37 seconds and we had no girls in the top 10; I have never had a team like that before and probably never will again. And most of the girls on that team I had coached since 6th and 7th grades so those relationships are special. The second was when Cam Collins and Alex Cox went 1-2 in the 800 meters at State in 2012. That was so unexpected and it meant so much to our team to score 18 points in one event.
And then the last thing is that it has been neat to see the Darlington CC Festival grow to become one of the premier invitationals in the State every September. Myself, my staff, and our parents have worked very hard on this event and our course for years, and to see better and more teams come every year is very encouraging. The race Morgan Ilse of Marist and Tayler Tuttle of Providence had at the Festival last September was amazing.