3/26/2023 0 Comments Runabout sports blacksburg va![]() ![]() Now, as any good coach will tell you, every coach, at one time in their career, will stumble upon an athlete with awesome potential. So, their current achievements should come as no surprise to those familiar with the history of cross country in Virginia.ĭeMarco took over the program in 2003 with this year's team being his greatest. Their 11 state championships in Girls Cross Country is the best in Virginia history. He also got the job at the local high school and the rest is history.īut it isn't history if someone doesn't make it so, thus this article.īlacksburg High School has been around for a long time and has a splendid record in athletics in virtually every sport. Friends turned him on to the Blacksburg area and in 2003 he opened Runabout Sports. But he had another love, he wanted to own a running store. Upon graduating he went back to his hometown and coached the distance runners at Bartlett. He earned a scholarship to South Dakota State, won All American honors and anchored a team that won the NCAA Div II nationals. During DeMarco's years his teams won seven State titles, three in cross country and four in track and field. And, like so many others, he discovered he loved running, "…it ended up turning into a passion." Fortunately, his high school, Bartlett HS in Anchorage has always been at the forefront of our sport in Alaska. ![]() Like so many others he began running not to be a runner but to get into shape for another sport, in this instance, cross country skiing. "I have been a runner since I was 14," he comments on a bio he recently sent me. Their cross country coach is a young man, James DeMarco. The athletic administration at BLACKSBURG HIGH SCHOOL must be pretty good. Two years later she won the Foot Locker National championship. Through his urging, the girl left soccer and began running cross country. Example, several years ago an AD saw a young girl running through his neighborhood. And it helps to have an intelligent Athletic Director. Thus, to be a successful coach in a 'minor' sport requires dedication, determination and durability. What kind of turnout will they get? Will the athletic administration be supportive of the coach's efforts at recruitment? What about budgets? Every school administration will tell you all teams are treated equally but just as in the book 'Animal Farm', all sports are equal but some are more equal than others. At the high school level the coach has little or no idea as to whom will show up at the first team meeting. Being a coach is not a job, it's more a calling, a quest, a journey doomed to failure but a journey filled with joy and sadness agony and ecstasy mountainous highs and Death Valley lows but one that a coach wouldn't miss. ![]()
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