Interview: SCTCCCA Hall of Fame inductee Mark Bedenbaugh

Pelion coach Mark Bedenbaugh talks about what it means to be named an inductee into the SCTCCCA Hall of Fame. Bedenbaugh shares his view on year round sports and how it changes track and field.

scrunners: When did you start to teach and coach cross country and track?
bedenbaugh: I started teaching/coaching at Pelion in the fall of 1986 after one year as a graduate assistant at my alma mater (Francis Marion University) where I had coached the distance runners under Dr. Tom Whitely. While at FMU I had won six district cross country/track titles and left with the school record for five miles (the distance we ran then for cross country) at 25 minutes for that distance.

I started the cross country program at Pelion in the fall of 1986 as a club and then as a full varsity sport in the fall of 1987. From 1987-1992 as a  Class A school we competed in a combined Class A, AA, AAA championship. A separate Class A/AA division was added in 1993 and we finished third. We were runner-up in 1...