Under a first-year head coach, the Aquinas boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams competed in the Georgia High School 1A Division 2 State Championship in Carrollton, Ga. on Nov. 4.
Diego Pryor, junior on the boy’s team, finished in first, winning the cross-country state title as an individual. Eli Walker, a sophomore on the men’s team finished third in the State Championship Meet.
As a team, the Aquinas boys cross-country team finished fourth out of 25 teams at the race.
The girls finished 13th at the State Championship meet and had Collen Stevenson, a senior of the girls’ cross-country team, finish in 12th as an individual.
“It across the board is just a great group of young men and women to work with, and there really was this team and family atmosphere across everyone,” said Aquinas Cross-Country Coach Brian Miller.
Championship on Nov. 4. Sophomore Eli Walker finish third for the boys. Photo from Aquinas High
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Miller is a physician at Augusta University in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior.
Miller ran cross-country throughout his younger years but took a break for a period of time. He says he began running once again for exercise while he was in medical school.
Miller began coaching cross-country when his son was in eighth grade at St. Mary on the Hill Catholic School for the middle school team after the coach at the school had resigned.
“There was a need for someone to volunteer as coach, and there really wasn’t any one else available, so I kind of just stuck my hand up because I know how important physical activity and running can be for not only physical health but mental health,” Miller said.
Miller has coached at Saint Mary on the Hill for last five years and still coaches at the school. He got the opportunity earlier this year for the Aquinas boy’s and girl’s cross-country team.
“There was a need, and it was already the middle of summer when things needed to start with training,” Miller said.
A rising freshman at Aquinas and Miller’s son, who is now a senior, is on the cross-country team, and Miller decided to volunteer once again.
“I raised my hand and kind of dove in head first to this experience,” Miller said.
When beginning as first year head coach for the cross-country teams at Aquinas, Miller was hopeful because he had some familiarity with the teams.
“A number of the kids on the team I had coached them in middle school, so I had some familiarity,” Miller said.
Miller faced a few challenges during his journey as a first-year head coach, which included adapting from training at the middle school level to high school, as well as not having enough runners on the girl’s team.
“At the very start of the school year, we didn’t have enough runners on the girl’s team to fill a full scoring team,” he said. “Early in the school year, I went to Aquinas during lunch and pitched the opportunity and we were fortunate to get some takers and expand to a full girls’ team.”
Miller did his research in his first year as head coach at Aquinas and said he realized this team had a lot of potential.
“I started studying our athletes’ performances and looking at the other teams particular in our region and based on that information it was very clear there was a lot of talent there,” Miller said.
Miller says he did his best to make the team aware of the talent they had and the potential to do very well. He said they began training a couple months before the season three days a week to prepare themselves for opening meet and he feels that was very important to be able to succeed.
“As the season progressed, we took things one meet at a time and we continued to challenge each other and work together,” he said. “Based on the performance in the earliest meet, I set individual goals for each athlete.”
On the boy’s team, Miller said during the season they had six runners improve there 5k times by three to six minutes.
Miller said he realized early in the year that the team had the potential to do big things.
“Within that first month it was clear we ranked among not only the top teams in the region, but in the state,” Miller said.
The men’s team finished first at the Bulldog Invitational in Aiken on Sept. 3, and he said that built a spark on confidence throughout the season.
The men’s team not only went on to win this meet, but the Region Championship as well, having five boys inside the top 10. The girls finished second in the Region Championship with Stevenson placing third.
“I am tremendously proud of these young men and women, they have had fantastic success arguably the most successful season in school history,” Miller said.
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Walker, who Miller said was known as one of the many leaders on the team, praised his coach after the historic season.
“We are more than grateful for him and it was more than a blessing to have him,” Walker said. “We were more than just a team; we were connected and would always support each other and had each other’s back through it all.”
Pryor, who finished first at the state and region meet, said Coach Miller helped motivate the team and improved the runner’s technique.
“He taught us more technique for sprinting at the finish, pacing yourself and going up and down hill,” Pryor said.
Miller says he plans to continue to keep expectations high and is hopeful for the upcoming seasons. He will also accepted a spot to coach the distance runners on the track team this spring.
Overall, Miller said he is proud of the participation he has seen in the sport of cross-country at Aquinas and has a goal of a State Championship within the next three years.
“We had a total of 26 runners between the boy’s team and the girls team. That is just over 10% of the enrollment at Aquinas. I think that is fantastic, that is a huge participation in cross-country,” Miller said.
Chris Rickerson is a staff reporter covering Columbia County government and general assignment topics for The Augusta Press. Reach him at chris@theaugustapress.com.
