Coach Jamie LaBrosse, Stephanie Morgan, Jenny Morgan, Lindsay Smith, Liz Mengyan and Lisa Sickman
The first thing Jamie LaBrosse had to do when he began coaching Clarkston's girls was convince them the girls who were beating them "just worked harder." At the time, Rockford ruled the high-school distance-running world, and the Clarkston girls, in the basement of their league, looked at the Rams if they were creatures from another planet. That was in fall 2000. Now, five years later, the Clarkston program boasts two cross country state titles, a national championship and a raft of records. To that, they can add their selection as Michigan Runner magazine's 2004-05 High School Runners of the Year.

Now kids from other teams stare at Clarkston's girls like they are creatures from another planet. According to Beth Hoekstra, who just graduated, the difference is only emotional. "We almost seem closer than other teams. We always trust each other. We always support each other."

LaBrosse, a former Central Michigan University runner who came to the U.S. from Canada on a track scholarship, explains how he came to be a coach. "Once I came to a point where I was looking at careers, the thought of teaching special education came naturally. I have a brother who is mentally impaired."

After that, he started thinking about coaching, but notes, "I automatically assumed I'd be coaching boys."

Opportunity doesn't always knock on the door you're watching. When LaBrosse got a job teaching at Clarkston High School, he met girls cross country coach Debbie Zonca, who had guided two state-title teams at Troy Athens. "She took me under her wing," he says. After two years as her assistant, LaBrosse became head coach when Zonca stepped aside to concentrate on family.

LaBrosse says the set-up is perfect for coaching. "A lot of my job is at school. I don't have a lot of take-home work, so I'm free to coach once my day is done." And Clarkston, he says, is perfect: "great kids, great school, great facilities."

The tough part, he admits, was learning how to coach girls. "I remember my first indoor season. I would go to meets (with the Clarkston indoor club, Runnin' Gear). I spent a lot of time watching (then-Rockford coach) Brad Prins and (Sterling Heights Stevenson coach) Kevin Hanson. I watched them interact with their athletes. I knew the running part of it, but I didn't know how to work with girls."

For many girls, the teenage years are a troubled time, and LaBrosse says his program is not immune to the issues that crop up for coaches everywhere. Patience has helped him on many occasions, but overall, he says, "I've learned more from the girls than they have learned from me."

Hoekstra says of LaBrosse, "Sure, he can discipline and yell, but he also dances and sings. He almost seems like a friend. We can talk to him about anything."

Anne Oltman, another recent Clarkston graduate, adds, "LaBrosse is very good about noticing if you had a good race, even if you're not the winner. He always makes a big deal of it."

The coach insists there's no secret method to his training. "We change what we do every year," he says. Most of his girls average 20-25 miles a week. Some get up to 35, and a couple who have never been injured, including Gillian Nordquist, have hit 40.

Labrosse supplements their training with pool workouts two or more times a week. Still, he notes, "we go to a summer camp (Thumbs Up) with a lot of other teams, and of all the teams we usually run the least mileage."

What made this last school year different? One part was team members' steady improvement. Another part was a transfer from Barnesville, Ohio, junior Jenny Morgan. LaBrosse remembers the day, a few weeks before cross country season, when he got a phone call from Bill Morgan.

"Bill said his daughter was transferring to Clarkston. I was half-doing something else at the time. I asked what her times were. I thought he said 5:56, and I started saying she would probably fit into the program. Then I realized I hadn't heard him right. 'Excuse me, what did you say she ran?'"

Morgan had actually run 4:53.87 as a sophomore to win her second- straight Ohio state Division II title in the 1600. She added a 10:49.44 in the 3200 to win that too.

She came by her gifts honestly. Her father had been a half-miler at Rochester Adams, Birmingham Groves and Eastern Kentucky. Her mother, the former Sue Schaefer, had run 9:28.8 for 3000 meters while in high school in New York (the equivalent of a 10:10 for 3200 meters). As a college freshman, she ran an American 5K junior record 16:05.9 to earn All-American honors at Eastern Kentucky.

Morgan's three sisters also run. Ruthie has clocked a 2:11 in the 800 for Cornell. Molly runs for Liberty University, and Stephanie, already a 5:00 miler, is beginning her freshman year at Clarkston.

For any coach, a transfer like Morgan would seem a gift from heaven. For the Morgan family, the move made sense. Jenny's father was driving the six-hour round trip from Barnesville to Oakland County every three weeks to be with his parents, who had health problems. Moving back to the area, where they had lived for Jenny's first five years, seemed obvious.

"Jenny blended into the team from day one," LaBrosse says. "She worked hard and the girls accepted her. I was concerned about Liz (Mengyan): She was top runner for three years, and now a new girl comes in to take over.

"Liz handled it better than anyone," he continues. "Jenny livened it up. Liz's approach changed. She relaxed and ran. Jenny brought that out in her."

Says Oltman, "At the beginning, we thought, 'Omigosh! A 4:53 girl! She's going to take my spot!' What made it easy was Jenny herself. She's very sweet, easy to talk to. Her first workout with us was a fartlek run, and afterwards Jenny said, 'I've never run with people who worked so hard.'

"I thought, 'Wow! You respect our team.'"

Mengyan got an extra boost from Morgan. "I was basically the number- one my whole career," she says. "Coach LaBrosse had to run with me at times because I didn't always have a training partner at my pace.

"When Jenny came in I got a great training partner, and I really improved my senior year."

Morgan knew it would all work out after team camp. "I wasn't sure how we'd interact," she recalls. "At camp Liz and I got together and beat a girl from another team in an interval. We worked together well. It was, 'OK, let's just do it.' Liz has pulled me through so many workouts."

A distance program as good as Clarkston's relies on contributions from too many people to be named, from parents and teachers to the many runners who don't get their names in headlines. When forced to name just a few other runners who played major roles, LaBrosse goes down the list in random order:

"Lisa Sickman was my alternate in cross country for a couple years. She ran 5:18 as a sophomore. Everyone else has had their time in the sun, but Lisa has been patient. She never complained. At state she ran on our winning 4x800. It's her time.

"Liz Mengyan has had her ups and downs. Last year was her best. She's going to do great things in college for Illinois.

"Lyndsay Smith ran on both our 4x800 and 4xmile at nationals. I call her the 'silent assassin,' our ace-in-the-hole. She lays back and plays possum. When it's crunch time she pulls it out.

"Beth Hoekstra, Gillian Nordquist and Anne Oltman ... we say you're only as good as your fifth runner. They have won a lot of races for us. Jenny and Liz get all the attention, but these three deserve a lot of credit."

"Gillian had the math down," Hoekstra says. "She could figure out all our splits perfectly. Anne was the one who made sure everyone else was happy.

"Liz was our role model, always striving for something. And Lyndsay, with her spiked hair and everything, she's very tough. She gets the job done; she'll do whatever's needed.

"Jenna Leach and Elle Kuhta: they're the giddy ones. They play the freshman role."

All these girls realize they could be the big star if they went to another school. "At times, it would be nice to be the best," Oltman says. "But the reason I run well is that I see them ahead of me and say, 'If they're that good, why can't I push myself to be better?'"

As the 2004 cross country season started, Clarkston couldn't have been in better shape. A preseason poll ranked them tops in the Midwest, the girls ran undefeated and rose as high as No. 3 in nation. Then, with the Wolves strongly favored to defend their Division 1 state title at Michigan International Speedway, near-disaster struck.

In the crowded jumble at the start, somehow most of the Clarkston team fell at the 200-meter mark. "It was pretty bad," recounts Hoekstra. "Jenny was the most shaken up. Coach LaBrosse didn't know what happened at first."

"It was an awful experience," says Morgan, expected by many to beat all comers. "I looked up and saw all my girls but one on the ground in front of me. I'll never get that picture out of my mind."

"It happened quickly," says Oltman. "After that it was, 'Get up and run!'"

"We got up," says Hoekstra, "and told each other, 'we can still win this.'" Amazingly, despite their bruises, gashes and shattered pre-race plan, the Wolves came back to win over Rockford and all the others. More than a few coaches did the math and realized Clarkston would have won even without star-import Morgan, who finished 24th.

"It left a bittersweet feeling," says Morgan. "We were walking out of MIS afterwards and one of the girls was carrying the big trophy. We were all very quiet. Someone walking by said that for champions, we didn't look very happy."

Morgan's reaction seems more understandable when her Ohio experiences are taken into account. As a frosh she raced step-for-step with rival Sunni Olding, who outleaned her for the win. Her sophomore year, after blasting an 18:21 at regionals, she came down with an upper- respiratory infection. Running against doctor's orders, she led at two miles, then collapsed. "I don't remember this," she says. "My parents say I collapsed three times and kept getting up." She never finished.

Even for champions, life is not always easy. Postseason controversy came when the Clarkston team was invited to compete in the Nike Team Nationals in Oregon, an opportunity to show the rest of the nation how good they were.

But the Michigan High School Athletic Association ruled the team couldn't go. This despite the fact there is no appreciable difference between Nike Team Nationals and the many other offseason events Michigan high schoolers are allowed to compete in, such as Junior Olympic cross country or the Nike Indoor Track Classic.

"The girls deserved to go," says LaBrosse. "The MHSAA sees things differently. Some coaches thought we should go on our own and challenge (the ruling)." The resulting threat to the girls' eligibility, however, might not have been worth it.

Morgan sat out six weeks after cross country season because of a stress fracture to her left tibia. Meanwhile, as the program gained new fans in the community, it also acquired the burden of high expectations.

"It's funny," says LaBrosse. "The year I took over, coming back from last place in the league, I got no complaints. Not one phone call. Now we get them.

"The better you get, the more complaints you hear. That's part of coaching. People are expecting a greater return. Our athletic director, Dan Fife, supports us. He's been great."

After a long winter of training, the girls started 2005 hungry. At the state indoor championships, Runnin' Gear captured the 4x800 (9:26.48) and the distance medley (12:25.10). Morgan placed second in the 1600 (5:03.52).

Then the girls took their first trip to New York, to the National Scholastic Invitational. On the fast Armory track, both Stephanie and Jenny Morgan teamed with Smith and Mengyan to capture the national title in the 4x1- mile relay (20:25.81).

Outdoors, Clarkston dominated the distances at their regional. They won the 4x800 in 9:35.9. Then Morgan lost a sizzling 1600 to 800-meter star Geena Gall of Grand Blanc, 4:45.5 to 4:51.7. (Mengyan added a 5:01.0, Sickman a 5:14.4). Smith qualified in the 800 (2:25.3), and Morgan (10:33.7 PR) led Nordquist (11:30.2) and Oltman (11:34.6) in the 3200 qualifying.

At state, Clarkston finished fourth overall largely thanks to its distance efforts. Smith, Mengyan, Sickman and Morgan started by winning the 4x800 in the fastest non-Rockford time ever run by a Michigan foursome, 9:05.49. Then Morgan upended Gall in the 1600 with a 4:48.07 victory. Says LaBrosse, "I don't think anyone saw that coming. I'm not sure I would have bet on her." An added plus was Mengyan grabbing third in a big PR 4:52.94. Morgan came back to win the 3200 in 10:45.56.

The girls saved their best for the Nike Outdoor Championships in Raleigh, N.C. First, Morgan placed fourth in the 2-mile after gamely taking the lead at 5.5 laps. "To be honest," says Morgan, "it wasn't the greatest race. I didn't know what to expect. It was so tight.

"The first mile we were all still together. I got spiked seven times on my shins. I wanted to make a move when no one expected it, so I took a chance and tried to hold on."

Her 10:24.03 broke the all-time state record of 10:25.59 set by Portage Northern's Sharon VanTuyl in 1997. Morgan also broke the family- record 10:28.5 run by her mom in high school.

The next morning, the crew set out to break the 20-minute barrier in the 4x1-mile relay. Smith led off in 5:09.2, followed by Mengyan (4:57.5), Stephanie Morgan (5:00.7) and Jenny Morgan (4:53.3). That gave them a scintillating 20:01.7, a mark at first heralded as a new U.S. high-school record.

Later in the day the four nearly won the distance medley, clocking 11:42.48, but lost in the last steps to a California team. Their time was faster than the existing state record, 11:45.05 by Rockford (2001).

However, the presence of the eighth-grader Stephanie Morgan, who at that time did not attend the same school as the others, means that neither time will stand as a record, according to Track & Field News prep women's editor Mike Kennedy. Statisticians generally keep all-star relay teams (individuals from different schools) out of the record books, because they cannot be compared to the usual relay team with all four runners from the same school. (In a similar vein, world records in the relays must be composed of runners from the same nation ... multi- national all-star teams don't count.)

LaBrosse has no regrets. "The time is out there. It's still a meet record. We've got something to shoot for next year. Our big goal was to break 20:00 -record or not. Our goal now is to go back and break it."

For LaBrosse, who faced difficult challenges as a youth, the opportunity to guide young people along the same road that saved him is invaluable. Of his past, he says, "It's made me passionate about running. It was my outlet when I was young, and still is.

"I take offense when I hear kids 'dis' cross country. I'll pull them aside and talk to them. I'm emotional about this sport. This is the first thing that got me away from it all. Being with these kids and their families is therapeutic for me," he says.

Says Oltman, "He puts his whole heart into running and this team."

Every summer, LaBrosse works at Clarkston SCAMP, a summer day camp for the mentally challenged, now in its 30th year. Many of his runners also help there. "Some of them are awesome at it," he says. "They learn lifelong lessons there."

Oltman says her experience running at Clarkston will serve her for years to come. "We set high goals. We may fail along the way, but in the end we reach them."

Morgan adds, "Coach LaBrosse challenges us in so many ways. I went above and beyond what I thought I could do."

For now, LaBrosse and his girls are preparing for another campaign. Several key runners - including Mengyan, Hoekstra, Nordquist and Oltman - have graduated. Still, he has one of the best returning lineups ever: both Morgans, Smith, Sickman, Kuhta, Leach, on and on.

"As much as I hate to see those leaders leave," LaBrosse says, "I'm excited about this fall. We will have new dynamics, new leaders. I'm going to have to coach more than in past years."

Time, knowledge, energy and passion: those are the ingredients for coaching a distance running super-program. LaBrosse has also brought the element of enjoyment to the program. Most of his graduates plan to keep running in college - not just because they're good, but because they're not ready to stop.

Oltman echoes the others when she says, "I can't imagine giving it up."

Jeff Hollobaugh, former managing editor of Track and Field News, remains engaged in the sport he loves. He teaches, coaches, writes running columns for ESPN.com, and maintained a Michigan high school track and cross country Web site for seven years. He can be reached by e-mail at michtrack@aol.com. MR