Paris wanted to just keep kids active at first but now have bigger goals in mind.

In its inaugural season, Paris High School’s cross country team consisting of five runners has been impressive. Three of the runners – freshman Mairyn Kinnaman and sophomore Alexandria Tullius for the girls and freshman Landen Chapman for the boys – qualified for the Class 1 state meet today at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.

Head coach Doug Buie said Paris started a junior high program last year, but the Coyotes’ running roots can be traced back further. In 2016, Buie helped start a youth running program with the goal of bringing kids outside to have fun. After a while, though, Buie said the potential of and interest from the kids became obvious.

“Our youth program started to have really good success,” Buie said. “It kind of helped work our way into having, so far, a really successful school program. We’ve got a great bunch of kids continuing to come up. That’s the great thing about this. I think they have something like 30 kids in the youth program right now.”

Athletic director Gary Crusha said it was inevitable that cross country would come to the high school, just not right away as Paris needed to wait a year after starting the junior high program. There wouldn’t have been any high school runners last year, but when several talented runners graduated to the high school this year, Crusha said the program was bound to have a great first season and provide the kids another way to “enhance their opportunities as student-athletes.”

Crusha, who is also the head track and field coach, said he was also certain of this because of Buie, who has been Crusha’s assistant coach that focuses mainly on the distance runners. Six years ago, Crusha said he literally found Buie on the street running to ask if he’d be willing to help. He said Buie had a job in law enforcement but had coaching and teaching experience prior to that, so he has been a good fit for years and the perfect person to lead this talented group.

“I knew Doug liked to run,” Crusha said. “When I first got here, I was a one-man track coaching staff. I saw him running out on the roads all the time. One day, I just asked, ‘If I could make it happen, would you be interested in being my high school assistant track coach.’ Ever since then, he’s been working with me at the high school.

“Doug does a great job working with the kids and builds good relationships with them. I’d say the biggest thing with cross country and maybe long distance in track and field is motivating these kids to keep running, to keep pushing themselves and practice until they hopefully see the outcome at the end of the season.”

Kinnaman and Chapman participated in the youth program back in 2017, Buie said, so their interest in cross country has been there for a while.

Tullius’ running background extends further back from this year as well but in a different state, Buie said. Tullius and her family moved to Paris from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and discovered the existence of the Paris program through a stroke of luck to round out the history-making trio.

“All five of them have put in hard work,” Buie said. “(Tullius) had JV experience coming in. (Her and her family) purchased property right next to where my dad purchased property. He kind of pointed them in the right direction toward our cross country team. I owe my dad a little bit there.”

David Elzea and Brayden DeOrnellas ran as a sophomore and senior, respectively, each going in their debut seasons of cross country. Buie said Elzea was “trying to figure stuff out this year” but should “have a lot of success in the next few years.”

DeOrnellas couldn’t finish this season due to an injury, but Buie hopes he can have some success running distance during track and field season as he is coming off a trip to last year’s state meet.

Buie said all five of his runners this year have served important roles as being the first ones and as recruiters, whether by their actions or words, to help grow the program. Having enough kids is important for any program, especially one that is just getting started, and is among several challenges.

“Some of the challenge is just finding kids to come out and run,” Buie said. “Trying to build up excitement doing that, and being a small school, we do a lot of sharing. Between junior high and my high school teams, we share between football and softball. That’s one of the great things about Paris. We do a great job trying to work around practice schedules to make sure everyone is where they need to be.”

Learning what meets to attend is also something that can’t be overlooked along with making sure everyone is accustomed to running in different conditions and terrain. Paris uses the Paris Fairgrounds for practice as well as the streets in town because no course is the same, and as Buie said, “you can’t judge times on different courses.”

This can be understood from the team’s final two meets this season at Fulton’s athletic complex for the district meet and at Gans Creek today. Fulton’s races involved running around the various ballfields in what was more uneven ground while Gans Creek is flatter ground in a more open area.

Buie said his runners have had some of their best times at Gans Creek so it is possible for each of them to have their best races of the year. This ties into three goals Paris has today at the state meet, including being among the top 25 to earn a state medal, which Buie said has an added incentive.

“Goal one would be, I’d love to have all three of them up on the medal stand, but we’d love to have at least one make it,” Buie said. “The second goal is we’d love to have three personal-best runs. Finally, I’ve kind of set the stage for them, I want them to find someone that they’ve run against, who’s beat them this year, to beat. I put a little bit extra on the line because I told them they could shave my head if someone medaled.”

No matter what happens at state, Buie likes where the program is heading in the future. Buie believes Paris should have enough runners – at least five – to compete in team competitions for boys and girls as early as next year with two boys and two girls runners coming up from the eighth-grade ranks and other high school kids showing interest.

“We’d love to be able to compete as a team with the goal of coming home with a district trophy,” Buie said. “I think we have the pieces in place to make a run at that.
“Thanks to the school board for adding this,” Buie said. “I really want to thank all five of my athletes this year. Their hard work is why we are where we are.”

Crusha said he foresees two of his daughters – eighth-grader Gretchen and freshman Sophia – to be part of the team next year. He believes the program is in great shape for the future, but some unsung heroes can’t be forgotten.

“Thanks to the parents who have helped transport some kids to and from because our budget isn’t the biggest for a cross country program,” Crusha said. “If we had three or four kids on a bus, we would have parents help transport some kids at times. They’re all willing to help out in any way possible to make this reality possible for their kids to compete in high school and junior high cross country.”