Jeff Schmidt-Hutchinson High School Cross Country Coach (8/10/07)

My interest in distance running began when I was about 10 years old. My dad and I used to run a twelve block route in Redwood Falls pretty often and keep track of our times. Because of my dad and my six older siblings, there was never a question that I was going to be a distance runner. All of my brothers and sisters were successful runners. My oldest brother Dale was a Southwest Conference 2 mile champion, brother Chuck was a Southwest Conference mile champion, brother Greg placed 10th in the state cross country meet, brother Bret placed 6th in the state 2 mile, sister Laura ran in the state cross country meet twice and sister Cindy ran in the state cross country meet five times. It was Greg's winning a medal at the state meet (earned for top 10 in those days, not the 5 for many years or the random 8 in recent years) that seemed to help me to set a goal to work hard and hopefully do the same.

Beginning in 7th grade, I worked very hard each season and ran in the summers and winters beginning in eighth grade. With steady improvement, I placed 7th in the state cross country meet in 10th grade then 3rd in the 3200 (9:43) in the spring. My goal became to win state and I achieved that as a senior in cross country after placing 6th as a junior. My state track performances didn't go quite as well as I placed 7th as a junior (9:43) and 4th as a senior (9:27.77) in the 3200. Winning the state cross country meet as a senior (15:57.5) was very exciting and worth all the work, but being a member of a successful team was even more rewarding. In cross country, our team placed 2nd in state in 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981 and 4th in 1982, my senior year. In track, it was very exciting to win a state championship as a team in 1981. I am proud to have worked hard and to have done my best as a HS distance runner with an estimated 11,000 miles completed by the time I graduated.

I continued to run at Mankato State and had an average career with personal bests of 9:19 (2 mile), 14:58 (5K), 25:00 (8K), 31:28 (10K), 52:34 (10 mile) and 2:31:52 (marathon). I was very consistent, but never reached a truly successful level. In recent years, from the spring of 2000 thru 2005, I struggled with many surgeries (non-running related) and injuries. I had a few good weeks here and there, with a total of six races, but mostly I hadn't been in the best of shape. In December of 2005 I decided, bad leg or not, that I would try to train seriously for a spring marathon. I had a serious stretch of training for 4 1/2 months with 1026 miles January-April, 2006. I ran a 1/2 Marathon in St. Cloud in April in 1:22:08 followed by the Green Bay Marathon in May in 2:54:28. Neither as fast as I had hoped, but I am not getting any younger. I passed the 50,000 mile mark in July, 2006. More injuries forced me to cancel racing plans this spring.

The fall of 2007 will be my 18th as a cross country coach, 14th in Hutchinson. It was recently decided to merge the girls and boys programs, so this fall I will now be head of both the boys and girls. Prior to coaching in Hutchinson, I coached one season with my brother Greg at Mankato West then started a team in Wabasso and coached cross country there from 1991-1993. Besides the coaching each fall, I greatly enjoy doing the boys AA state ratings each year, beginning in 2001. I have resumed coaching track and field in the spring after a few years of trying to pursue a real estate career. After coaching the middle school track and field team for three seasons (2003-2005), I became the girls assistant in 2006, coaching both the girls and boys distance squads. I unexpectedly ended up being the head girls coach this spring and enjoyed the challenge. I have been in Hutchinson since August, 1994, teaching 7th grade life science in the Middle School, although another change will find me teaching 7th grade American History beginning in the fall.

Even though much time is spent coaching, and teaching, the most important things in my life are my family and my faith in God. Teresa and I have been married since 1986 and we have three wonderful boys. Teresa is also an accomplished runner having been the 3rd runner on the Redwood Falls-Morton state cross country championship team of 1983 (in her only season) and having competed in the 200 meters at the state meet two years. Her HS bests were 12.6 (100 meters) and 25.9 (200 meters), both Redwood Falls HS school records for many years. I am also proud of her running the Twin Cities Marathon in 1995. Kyle is 17, Eric is 15 and Alex is 11. They are great boys and keep Teresa and I busy. I am very proud to have both Kyle and Eric as members of my cross country team. Kyle competed at the state meet in 2005 as a sophomore and again in 2006 as a junior. This past fall Kyle earned all-state honors with a 24th place finish in Class AA with a time of 16:10.5. Eric was a varsity runner as an eighth grader and again this past fall as a 9th grader as he ran a 5000 meter best of 17:12.0. Teresa just finished her ninth year at King's Kids preschool at Christ the King Lutheran Church.

Thank you very much for visiting my web site. Keep checking for regular additions. I am open to ideas you may have or information/photos/etc... you think could be posted here. Please contact me at (320) 234-7363 or at schmidts@hutchtel.net .