On his first day with the cross country team, Nathan Meier started with a warmup, not a speech. Before the dew from the grass could even dry, the team was already moving, the pace was up, and the tone was set. It became clear fairly quickly that under his leadership, arriving late and standing around wouldn’t be part of the workout.
Taking inspiration from his college mentorship, expectations from students have been raised, with higher standards such as arriving at practice earlier and implementing exercises such as repeats and fartleks instead of longer tempos. The coaching strategy he has for this season is on improving athletes’ mental training, as his master’s degree was in Sport and Performance Psychology and teaching life lessons in coaching. Cross country’s team goal is to make it to finals at the CIF competition this year, which is hosted annually. He initially coached at the University of Redlands from 2018-2019, before resorting to an office job and finally serving as assistant coach of the volleyball team, alongside his wife, head coach Katie Meier. He was originally teaching the Walnut High track team last year but has since taken over as the official head cross country coach for all levels from former head coach Jerry Knox.
“I can be mean if I need to, but I do it because I care. And I hope that they can say that I’m funny,” Meier said. “I hope they realize that everything I did was because I cared about them, so they look back on this year and can say, ‘Wow, Coach Nathan did care. He did make an impact on us.’”
Senior member Kaylie Kuo has rejoined the team after quitting during her sophomore year. She can visibly see the differences and change in the team since the new change of leadership, with longer warm-ups and more intense practice, such as longer lap schedules tailored for each runner.
“[Coach Nathan] gives a more structured workout. Before, it was just running four miles. This coach plans every workout before. Coach Meier gives a pep talk to everyone, and he gives advice on how we can improve. I think that helps a lot,” Kuo said.
Captain senior Bonny Li has noticed the new emphasis on resilience, showing up even when you don’t have to. As a leader herself, she believes in working together to adapt to new revisions and set clear objectives in sight.
“As a team, we’re really trying to push each other to strive towards that goal. I think providing a positive environment really helps with the transition. Each person is different, and [Coach Nathan’s] way of doing things really helps with that,” said Li.
