Team name: Riverside Warriors
Coach name (years coaching and record): Eric Cummings-20 years (10th at RHS) 5 State Championships (3 boys and 2 girls), 17 Region Championships, 5 County Championships. 210 Invitational wins (Boys/Girls Varsity/JV titles), Dual meet record of 650-110 (combined B/G) [443-67 dual meet record b/g at Riverside]. 6x SCTCCCA Coach of the Year, 5x SCACA CC Coach of the Year.
Assistant coaches: Heather Greene-8 years (3x SCTCCCA Assistant CC Coach of the Year), Todd Lea-1 year, Stephanie Walton-1 year, Daniel Lea-1 year
Number of athletes on boys team and girls team: 174 total this season.
Top returners:
Cate Ambrose (2014 4A State Champion), Ashley Fallow, Carter Marchbanks, Jessie Crowley, Abigail Smith, Emma Spencer, and Mikie Harris (all 7 returning girls from the past 2 State Championship teams)
Ben Cignarale, Neel Taber, Andrew Castano, Will Kennedy, Evans Harrison
New top runners: Anna Yang (JV last year), Lexi Bennett, Dillon Young (JV last year), Andrew Smith
Expectations for the season:
After sweeping the 2014 4A Boys and Girls State Championships, both teams have set a team goal to defend those titles. The girls have set a goal to be the top team in the southeast this season and the boys want to be a top 10 team in the southeast.
Any major changes?
We have added a lot more runners this year and some additional coaches. We have added some new meets to our schedule for competition purposes.
Riverside 4x1600 workout - 2014
Individual records
Boys school record: Kyle Mook-15:54.34
Girls school record: Cate Ambrose-18:07.23
Team records for XC:
Boys: 2014 4A State Champions, Greenville County Champions, Region 2-4A Champions
Girls: 2014 (also 2013) 4A State Champions, Greenville County Champions, Region 2-4A Champions
Uniqueness to yourself and/or team: I do not have organized summer workouts as a coach. This is the time that both I and the runners need apart. I have always stressed to do their summer running and they know day one will consist of repeats! We also try to run the program as a family and try to include everyone (15 min runners and 55 min runners) into all activities. We try to make it fun and competitive.
Riverside sets the standard in girls cross country - 2014
The most uniqueness we have is our uniform policy. We issue Checkerboard jerseys to our varsity team. We then have set number of jerseys for the next groups of runners. This keeps our kids motivated to achieve their uniform goal in the season (Block letters with feathers-White, Blue, Red, and then Old red (girls)/White (boys) with 'Riverside')
Meets focusing on this season: Varsity is only racing Saturday meets this season. We are looking at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, N.C. as well as Low Country Inv. and State. Our JV kids are focusing on Lake Murray and the Greenville County Championships.
Coaching philosophy: Motivate the kids to WANT to be better than where they are. Quality over Quantity 100-percent of the time!
Eric Cummings: A "huge honor" to be named SCTCCCA HOF inductee - 2014
Training advice as season progresses: We do not use stop watches during the season. We stress position over time and to hit the desired percentage of each workout. As the season progresses we stress proper sleep, nutrition, etc... to max performance.
Athlete beliefs: I honestly feel that all runners in the program feel part of the program. I also think they all want to better than where they are right now, or where the where last season. We have grown from nine runners (boys only) in 1996 to 58 runners (when I took over the girls program) in 1998, to 99 in 2013, 121 in 2014, and 174 in 2015. This shows that the athletes enjoy RHS XC and they believe they can do want they want if they put in the work.
Video: Riverside Warriors 5x1,000 workout
Parent relationship advice: Be up front and open to the parents. Communication is key. We post everything through email, Facebook, twitter, Instagram and celly (text alert system). An informed parent normally makes for a happy parent! If they feel we as a coaching staff care about their child, that makes for an even happier parent!
Challenges: The total numbers we currently have in the program. Out team is roughly 10-percent of our student body! We have brought in extra coaches. We are having to schedule extra buses and we are having to come up with ways to pay for all of this. Another major challenge is travel squads. We have kids fighting for varsity spots, we have kids fighting for travel spots to our big meets, we have JV kids fighting for bus seats to our JV meets! We have to be sure we help control the emotions that occur when that last bus ticket is handed out for our Saturday races.