Nike Team Nationals in 2007 saw the Neuqua Valley High School team from Naperville, Illinois squeeze out a narrow victory at Portland Meadows to bring home their first national cross country championship. A successful season from the opening gun, the squad won every meet they entered, including the Illinois State Championship, NTN Midwest Regional and then the national title. This year the squad will be highly ranked again, but will most certainly have a different feel. MileSplit took some time to talk with Neuqua Valley's coach Paul Vandersteen (pictured on right with his '07 frontrunner Chris Derrick) about this year's expectations, what their summer training is like and much more.
A Brief Discussion with NV's Paul Vandersteen
MileSplit (MS): What's the team looking like this year? Who's in your projected top seven currently?
Paul Vandersteen (PV): We have had another great summer of training and are fairly healthy. We continue to have a bunch of guys willing to do the work to be successful. It is hard to say who our top seven will be. My gut tells me we will have up to 10-11 different guys rotating into that group. Pawola, Beattie, Winek, and Morenus are looking very good right now and we have eight-ten other guys who could make up the final three spots. If you don't know our personnel well, some new names will surface this fall. We might even have a super sophomore or two. Last year, our 12th man was running 15:45. This year, it might take 15:25 to make this group.
MS: How is this year's team going to be different than last year's?
PV: Well, obviously we will not have the five seniors that contributed to our top 8 at one time or another last year. We have had some seniors step up recently to fill the leadership void left by them. I like this team. They are very business-like but know how to have fun. The anticipation from the coaching staff and athletes is very high.
MS: What are the expectations heading into this year?
PV: Our expectations are the same as they have always been. We will work hard, have fun, and not worry about the other teams/individuals. Our focus has never been to beat 'such and such team'. In fact, we root for other Illinois teams to perform well because it only inspires us to be better. We could be better than last year but might get beat by other Illinois teams on a given day. I think it would be cool to have two-three Illinois teams ranked nationally and/or qualify for NXN. Last year at this time, the talk was about how great Illinois was going to be when it came to team depth. This year, I hear very little talk. However, I think this year will be better than last year. When the athletes and coaches are quiet you know something special is brewing. For example, Palatine is going to be very good this year. They have some guys who have reached maturity, are finally healthy, and are well-coached. I can name 7 other teams that I think will be very good and I am sure there will be a surprise or two.
MS: A lot of people talk about specific turning points in their program. Do you feel last year was a turning point for Neuqua Valley?
PV: Last year was a huge tipping point for us. I read the book 'Good to Great' about six years ago and always wondered when we might reach a level that I have dreamed about for many years. Last year instilled a level of confidence that I still see in our guys. We stopped taking short cuts and it showed. Our guys have always modeled Chris Derrick and the belief of 'we are going to be hard to beat' is still there. In addition to the athletes, I have been blessed with the addition of four new coaches the last two years. We have three paid coaches and three volunteers. Each coach has a niche within our team and you can see the impact they have on the guys.
MS: What's NV's summer training look like?
PV: Our workouts are published at www.nvxc.net for anyone to view. Click on 'workouts'. We focus on training aerobically and we rarely have a workout where we exhaust ourselves.
MS: Any fun trips this summer?
PV: We always have a team camp in Oregon, Illinois. We stay four days and three nights and have a blast. We had 47 men participate this year. Each year is different in terms of what the guys find to channel their energy. This year, they built a 'sand city' on a beach at a local lake. The lifeguards were taking pictures of the sand city and said they were going to contact the local newspapers next year when we come back. I knew we were good runners, but never knew they had talent in building sand structures (laughs)!
-----