FEATURE For Campolindo, the Real Season Starts in November

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When one walks into the gymnasium on the Campolindo High School campus, they are immediately struck by the sheer number of sports-related banners hanging on the walls. Countless league championship pennants, North Coast Section (NCS) pennants, and CIF-State championship banners cover almost every open space.

When counting up the banners though, it becomes clear which program has had the most success at Campo: The cross country team, particularly on the girls side.

Over the course of the past 20 seasons, the Lady Cougars have captured six CIF-State Division III championships, and are the favorites once again this season as they return the bulk of their winning team from a year ago.

Campo's boys have had their share of success too: A State title in 2019 plus three runner-up finishes in 2008, 2018, and 2021.

Put it all together and you have one of the most accomplished programs in the entire state of California, regardless of division, one that strikes fear in the heart of any other D-III competition, particularly locally in the NCS.

All it takes is a few minutes at a regular practice to understand what makes the Cougars so competitive season after season. As the team begins its rigorous warmup, head coach Chuck Woolridge's booming voice can be heard across the giant grass athletic field shouting out instructions for the various exercises and drills. Depending on the day, this warmup can take anywhere from 10-25 min before the team even begins the primary running workout of the day. Today's workout is a modified long run of 50 min followed by a series of 500m repeats on the track. All the particulars are found on the team website, which includes a training calendar detailing every single workout the team does all season. It's an intricate and exhaustive document that also includes every warmup, cooldown, and weight routine as well.

"It's better to have a plan written down, you can always change it later," says assistant coach Andy Lindquist. "We tend to stick pretty closely to the posted training calendar but we make changes as necessary."

The preparation and attention to detail is a lot to handle for a group of teenagers, but it is also a source of confidence for the athletes as they work through the rigors of a demanding sport like cross country.

It is late fall here in sleepy little Moraga, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area, which means it is now the time of year when the Cougars really come to life.

Under the Radar

"Our coaches keep our visibility low and do a really good job of underplaying our talent. They choose to avoid the big spectacle events and race tough courses that are often gut-check type races but avoid headline type times" says Cal-bound senior Alexander Lodewick, who has been leading the charge as one of the top overall runners in Northern California as the season heads toward its climax.

"The primary focus of each season is establishing a unified team culture based on consistency and hard work, it doesn't matter if you're No. 1 or No. 70 on our team, our expectations are the same," says Lindquist.

And it's true: Looking down the depth chart, Campolindo is competitive in every division in their league. There are no secret workouts or anything like that, just a commitment to long-term training and goal-setting. You can see it in the way that athletes from the top to the bottom conduct themselves at a practice session.

A large group of competitive and hardworking athletes goes a long way toward making a great team, but the Campolindo girls in particular this year have one of the deepest squads in the entire state of California.

With consistent success comes constant pressure to perform and measure up to previous teams. For many athletes on the team, such as senior leader Caroline McCool, the pressure can be alleviated by the support network of having such a close-knit team:

"My teammates -- especially the girls -- have been such a huge source of support while handling the pressure," she says. "It's nice to have such a deep squad as well so that we can all train together which also alleviates pressure. It's also a lot easier to handle the high expectations when we're all so self-motivated to get faster. We all take comfort in knowing that the hard work we put in is going to pay off, so if we just trust our training then some of the pressure goes away."

The bar is set even higher this year considering who the Cougars have returning from last year, and they've played the part of favorite all season long, with most squads carrying an undefeated record heading into the league championship meet. It's an opportunity for younger athletes to have something to shoot for and share in the program's success for the first time.

It's not a surprise to the girls team though since they've all been training since the summer.

"Having dedicated and motivated athletes plays a huge role in our team's postseason success," sophomore Sloan Pullen says. "The majority of the athletes who go to the postseason have been training for this since June."

After last year's narrow victory over Del Oro, the Cougars are hyper-focused on not only repeating as CIF-State champions but doing so emphatically and challenging the team time school record of 91:32 from their 2010 State Meet-winning team, which is also the D-III State Championships record.

With the rapid improvement of junior Kate Kabenina along with steady performances from veterans Makena Weberski and McCool, Campo has plenty of firepower to back up the front-running prowess of Ellie Buckley and Shea Volkmer. However, it has been the newcomers to the team in freshman Anya Houston and junior Rachel Moen who have really taken the team over the top in terms of depth.

"Rachel joined for the first time this year and risen to varsity level running in a very short time," says Volkmer. "She shows up every day, works hard, and genuinely wants to be here. It's great to see."

For the boys, Lodewick is looking to follow in the footsteps of Aidan Goltra (2012, 2013) in winning an individual State title, and his team is looking to avenge a recent loss to State No. 1 Oakdale (SJ).

With such high expectations and goals it can get overwhelming, which requires a focus on making each day of practice count.

"I think the key thing is that the program is focused on training," says Lodewick. "You cannot obsess about expectations when you are out there training three hours a day."

While Oakdale did beat Campolindo handily at RoughRider, the Cougars boys had an impressive performance at the mid-season mania 3200 time trial with five boys breaking the 10-minute barrier, indicating the fitness is there for a deep postseason run.

"There is no real secret to Campo's postseason success year after year," he says. "But if there is anything that contributes to it, I would say that it is consistency, confidence, and motivation. We do not have any 'secret workout' or some secret strategy that enables us to perform during the postseason, but we all hold each other accountable for being consistent and ensuring that we properly recover for our future workouts and races."