Harriers: The Making of a Championship Cross Country Team

by Paul Shivers and Joseph Shivers

Book Overview

A fresh perspective enlivens this classic story about a losing team with an energetic new coach. Written by two Ohio teenagers about their high school's cross-country team, this account offers... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932802959
• ISBN13: 9781932802955
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Holy Macro! Books
• Length: 181 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.5" x 7.3"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

great book!!!!

awesome inside look into salems team. it shows their side to a big controversy involving their participation in the state meet, and all the hoops they had to jump through to show how good they truly were. great book for any runner, especially one who ran high school cross country in recent years in ohio.

Fascinating Read about the ins and outs of high school running teams

I just finished reading this book and found it fascinating. Living in Western Australia, High School Cross country team running was not something I had ever been familiar with, and that made this book even more appealing to me. It appears to be aimed at a younger reader but the authors are very mature in their writing and learning about the ins and outs of being part of a running team was really interesting. There are also parts of the book that cover the girls team too. A really great read.

The Shivers cousins have done it again!

The book is truthful, it doesn't cut any corners and shows each team-mate in his true colors. The ups and downs of the team are covered. How these trials are dealt with is what made the team, and this book, excel. Harriers is a must read for any athlete or coach.

High School Cross-Country Breakout: Memiors of State Champions

This is a true account of cross-country seasons at Salem HS written by two gifted students on the team. This is a participant's view of a team that over the course of two years develops from a very competitive region team to a team that wins State. The book is well detailed on cross-country in the sense that the student authors appropriately make the point that no matter how good the top runners are on a team, and they have several excellent runners, winning a championship depends on where your 5th man finishes. The other nice emphasis, as the authors nicely describe, is how each individual develops in training and in actual races. You get a nice feel for cross-country racing as the authors give a personal perspective on what it is like to prepare for race day, how they determine their race plans (preference for pace or going out with the leaders), the effect of the course terrain and the weather and what it is like on those days that you feel great and those when you know you don't have it. The story is fascinating reading not only how the four stars improve and compete among themselves but they authors also write a healthy description of the competition for the 5th, 6th and final varsity spot. And as the authors well describe, the 6th and 7th man do make a difference particularly when the 5th man falters. The book spends most of its time on cross-country with short references to track but the authors note that all three of the top runners run the two mile close to 10 flat with their top runner breaking out with a 9:40 prior to the second CC season. I would have liked to have known more about their post CC workouts as the school seemed to produce some very good talent with depth. The team's top runners were very talented and placed very high in their region and state yet they were beat by some outstanding individuals at the big meets. Thus they were in a very competitive state division. Besides the dedication of the athletes, the coaching is impressive along with how the runners adapted to the workouts. For example, in a quality distance run, the runners occasionally wear heart monitors in order to maintain a specific effort for a specific period of time. In another technical note, their advanced coach uses a GPS to determine where the true mile splits on race courses are to help his team with their pace during races. The school also features an outstanding booster club that is pretty unique for HS distance runners. The book also captures the difficulties of success, such as over training injuries or too much success or praise's effect on a young runner. And, a nicety of the book is capturing the coach's efforts to tailor a workout appropriate for particular athletes as some require more recovery than others. And there is suspense, a great finish marred by technical officiating failures that leave you guessing what will happen and what is fascinating is that it is a true story. A satellite story is the development of the girls' team that

An Instant Classic

This the true story of a high school cross country team in Salem Ohio that grows from "also rans" to champions (with a lot of controversy in between). The story is quite compelling. The fact that it was written by two of the athletes on the team will stun you. It is extremely well written. I would have never guessed it was the product of two high school students. In my estimation it becomes the third volume of the cross country trilogy which started with "Running with the Buffaloes" and continued with "God on the Starting Line". It offers a unique perspective of the high school runner. It is the season seen through there eyes. It rings true with their hopes, dreams, disapointments and triumphs. I'm not sure anyone has written so clearly about the "feeling" of racing. This a very well written little gem of a book.