Eduardo Miranda

The Daily Independent

The Cerro Coso men's and women's cross country teams enter their third year of competition this fall season. This year the team will be led by new Head Coach Ryan Slaymaker, who is excited to join the program and continue from what the previous two coaches have accomplished.

This upcoming season, Slaymaker is fielding a men's and women's team that will battle for points at meets, and he spoke on the excitement of having his student-athletes to begin training for the upcoming season.

"I'm very excited. We still have runners coming in and getting started," said the Coyotes coach. "We should have eight this Friday, which in previous years, the most we had compete at races the two years prior to me being here is three. We are definitely trending in the right direction. We are looking at a group of roughly 10 when the year begins, but really excited that everyone who is taking part is doing an awesome job and working really hard. I'm excited to see their progress as the season begins."

The Coyotes begin their season running at the Ventura College meet on Friday, Aug. 30. That will be the start of the Coyotes trying to qualify as a team and individuals to the Regional Meet at Chaffey and a chance at competing at the 3C2A State meet.

Looking at the schedule, Slaymaker spoke on his goals for the non-conference portion of the schedule, the meets he is looking forward to in non-conference, and what he wants to see from his runners during non-conference.

"We have a couple of ones I'm really excited about. I know our team and I always try to incorporate their ideas if I can. One meet they all seem vocal in doing was Mt. SAC, and we do that in mid to late October," Slaymaker said about non-conference meets. "That should be a lot of fun — team trip and a real cool experience getting to do a meet that is that big. We have two meets, Golden West and one at Ventura, that are close to beach areas. Those will be fun team bonding trips as well, where we get to not only compete but get lunch together and spend time as a group with team bonding after a race before we head back home. Those are probably the three I'm looking most forward to.

"As individuals my main thing is development. We need to be improving and getting better. As a team, a little shoutout to our women's basketball team that I have seen doing a great job at this, is building the right culture. Running is hard if you are running three or four miles and it's hot. It's not an easy thing to do for anybody. People being positive, supporting, and encouraging because you are not going to feel like the greatest in the world when you are running as fast as you can for three miles or four miles.

"Just seeing a positive culture and supportive culture and pushing each other to do well. Not putting pressure necessarily but reminding and emphasizing that we can reach these higher levels. This is not something out of the question for us, we just have to push to that level."

For non-conference, Slaymaker said the biggest goal for the team is development. The team has a lot of work to do in development, and he is working to make sure his runners feel supported and not pushed too hard. Slaymaker has seen the team trending in the right direction as they look to progress in each race so they can peak at the right moment, which for him is his runners progressing after each race and hitting their peak for the Mt. SAC Meet, conference meets, and Regional Meet. That leads directly into the team's goals for the conference meets.

"Our biggest ones are going to be a Regional Preview at Chaffey. I think that will give us a good gauging of where we are at, because one of our big goals this year, I don't think we have ever had anybody has qualified individual or as a team to Regionals. That is something we would love to achieve this year," the Coyotes coach said.

Slaymaker continued the main goal going into conference is earning an individual qualifier or a team qualification to the Regional Meet. In the past Cerro Coso had runners at the Regional Meet but only because there was an open space for them. This year he wants to attend the Regional Meet because they earned the right to be there.

For Slaymaker, qualifying for the Regional Meet is not only the goal for the conference portion of the schedule but also a massive step forward for a young program. And that goal dictates what he wants to see from his runners during conference.

"When we get to conference, I really want to see us reach Regional," Slaymaker said. "That is the big thing on my mind and my big focus. Now over the summer we are focusing a lot on development, but in terms for legitimate goals for the season, the biggest is Regional. If we get individual qualifiers or team qualifier this year that will be a massive step for our program."

With the season set to start at Ventura College on Friday, Aug. 30, Slaymaker could not hide his excitement of getting his first season with Cerro Coso cross country under way.

"I'm really excited," he said. "Now is definitely the time for the dirty work that is maybe not as exciting, because it is a lot of training but you are not able to put into practice yet. I'm really excited to get to races, to get see them accomplish things that may surprise them, and then get to Regionals. I'm excited to see this team accomplish something it hasn't done before and hopefully set up a culture for years to come."

Slaymaker is also still looking for any runners interested in joining the program. They can contact him or Athletic Director John McHenry.