-Coach Stresses Grades, Family Atmosphere

Santa Teresa High School’s cross-country coach, Mike Dudley, takes a unique approach to running his team. " My programs are academics-driven before athletics," said Dudley. And with tough training and studying, his teams are able to win on and off the field of play.

In three years, his cross-country teams have gone from 3 scholar athletes to 22 out of 30 on last year’s team. The girls’ team was 7^th among all 140 high schools in the Central Coast Section (CCS) as a scholar team with a GPA of 3.762. The secret to their success is that Dudley stresses good grades above all else.

"I want the athletes to be able to concentrate on the development of the sport and not have to sweat bullets about grades," he explained. "If you’re on the bubble, I want to take you to parents, teachers and counselors to get your grades squared away. You have to be a solid student. If you’re not, I’ll be the first one to help you, but if you’re not there you won’t be able to participate."

"These kids understand that athletics are a privilege, not a right. They know that grades are their ticket out, not athletics, yet they are also having the most success of any team at the school athletically," Dudley said. Last year, the boys and girls were the only two teams from all STHS sports to make it to CCS FINALS.

The athletes train hard for two months during the summer at the coaches annual "Boot Camp", and the hard work shows. At this year’s Earlybird Invite, held in North Monterey County, 50 high schools from all over California competed. It’s one of the largest invitational’s in the state. "We had 26 personal records set at the meet, a team championship, and an individual champion [by Erika Nowack, a varsity freshman]," Dudley recalled.

The junior varsity girls won their championship, and two of the varsity girls finished in the top 30 out of 180 girls. Junior Kevin Boockholdt finished 20^th our of 150, and freshman Ariel Gubatina finished 21^st out of 183 in his race. Gubatina has been running since 7^th grade, but in elementary school he played a lot of tag.

"I think that was good conditioning," Gubatina said. "I’ve been working hard on my grades because I don’t want to get kicked off the team. Even though we’re good, coach is not afraid to get us off the team if we don’t keep our grades up."

The family atmosphere Dudley nurtures is evident as well. "We’ve known each other a long time, and we’ve learned to be family. He tells us to keep it fun, that it should be fun. He tells us that people should interact and support each other," Gubatina said.

Junior Nicole Haggerty is the varsity team leader, and one of the four team captains. According to Dudley, "She sets a great example. She was part of the CCS FINALS team from last year." At the Earlybird, Haggerty finished 42^nd out of 166 runners in her race. She also ran a personal record that was 2 minutes and 53 seconds faster than last year at the Earlybird.

"We lost a lot of old people and got new good ones. Lat year I didn’t think I could do better, but this year I thought I could step up," she said.

She too, gets the coaches message about grades. "The school requirement is a 2.0GPA or greater, with no more than two "F’s". Coach Dudley goes by those requirements, be he says he wants a 3.0. If we’re below 2.0, we’re off the team. He believes that grades are important. Grades are the first priority and athletics are second. He such a great guy, you want to keep up your grades."

Regarding the family atmosphere, Haggerty agrees. "Even though [there are] mixed sexes, we’re all here for each other. We can tell each other anything. It contributes to our success because we have so many people support us. Coach is like my second dad, here for us for anything, even if it’s not about cross-country."