Monday Motivation: Coach Kristopher Sandlin of Madison HS

(Madison Consolidated team members after the team won at the Lou Knoble Invite on their home course. Photo via Coach Sandlin)

Welcome back to the "Monday Motivation" series. It is a new week in the cross country season and after hard fought races it is time to get ready for another week of training. This week's motivational piece comes from Coach Kristopher Sandlin of Madison Consolidated High School. Coach Sandlin has been a coach at Madison for 7 years and is now in his 3rd year as the head boys coach. Coach Sandlin ran at Scottsburg high school and then also ran and graduated from Franklin College.

Madison may have a smaller team but as Coach Sandlin comments, they are passionate and hardworking. Read below a message from Coach Sandlin talking about this past weekend's Lou Knoble Invitational and where he hopes his team goes from here in today's "Monday Motivation."


This past weekend at Madison Consolidated HS we hosted the 3rd Annual Lou Knoble Invitational. Though we only hand out individual awards, our boys team won our invitational for the second year in a row. This is our third year for having a cross country course on our school campus. We have not had a home course since roughly 2004. We have previously had courses at a local golf course, state hospital grounds and nearby Hanover College. Having a school course was huge for training and bringing attention to our sport on campus and in the community.

We had a turning point that started 3 years ago with a group of seniors that we had graduate last year. We saw guys dedicate themselves to training and drop times from 23:00-24:00 to 18:00-19:00. We saw guys' confidence levels change and belief in themselves transform. They helped turn our culture around. We have had many coaches willing to help us out along the way too, including our assistant Coach Mike White who is a servant leader.

Though we aren't where we want to be, we are heading in the right direction. This year will be a big year for us.

A few points of emphasis for us this season include:
- increased training loads (mileage isn't everything but that said, this was an area of improvement we felt like we needed).
- believing in yourself and your training. We found out many of our guys are critical of themselves but never give themselves credit for when they do good things.
- positive self talk- when things get difficult find your 'why' and talk nicely to yourself. 

These are not ground breaking discoveries but aspects we feel like our guys need to improve on. Simple things we felt like would help our program.

If I could give a few pieces of advice to others they would be:
1. Work hard- there is no substitute for hard work.
2. Have fun- running can be difficult so make it fun when/where you can
3. There are good days and bad days. Get through the bad days with the help of one another and enjoy the good days. One race/workout doesn't dictate the whole season.
4. There is absolutely no substitute for being a great person! Fast or slow, at the end of the day your character is what matters most.

Any Coach or athlete wanting/needing advice or someone to listen to them, reach out to me. 
Any way we can grow our sport is a good thing.


If you are a coach that wants to be a part of the series this season, reach out to us at milesplitin@gmail.com for more information.