* Kris Karsten, who assumed Newbury Park's top coaching job in June.
Photo credit: Tomoki Chien / MileSplit
---
By Tomoki Chien - MileSplit California
Kris Karsten would like to address the elephant in the room. Or, erm, the five elephants that have left the room: Nico, Lex and Leo Young, and Colin and Aaron Sahlman, the now-graduated high school superstars that catapulted the sleepy town of Newbury Park to national running prominence.
"We have to acknowledge that the Youngs and Sahlmans were once-in-a-generation talents," Karsten said. "Only it happened twice in a generation, in two families living in the same place at the same time. I mean, the odds are astronomically low."
Over a seven-year span, those two families transformed a backwater Southern California program roughly an hour northwest of Los Angeles into what's widely considered the best team to ever run American high school cross country. They shattered record after record, won a state championship with a near-perfect score of 16 and secured three national titles by margins that weren't particularly close.
This is the first season since 2016 that the Panthers are competing without those juggernauts. It's also the first year under Karsten, who succeeds Tanya Brosnan's tenure after her husband, the three-time national champion coach Sean Brosnan, was poached by UCLA in 2022.
Sean Brosnan assumed Newbury Park's head coaching role in 2016 -- the same year Nico Young entered high school -- creating a near-perfect storm of good coaching and athletic talent.
Now it's Karsten's turn, and he's well aware of the stakes.
"If we fail, I'm going to be known as the guy who ruined Newbury Park," he said. "I want the kids to succeed, and I don't want to be the guy who let them down. So the pressure's there, but it's also very motivational."
Karsten carries himself with a sort of quiet poise and self confidence: clearly at the helm, but without the need for theatrics or a booming presence. You might not suspect that this is his first time coaching a high school squad (he coached the town's youth running club for the last 12 years) or that he didn't run in college (he played rugby at Truman State University), but none of that has stopped him from earning the respect of his athletes -- a rather remarkable feat for a coach filling shoes as big as Brosnan's.
"He's ambitious," said senior Danielle Brotcke when asked to describe her first impression of Karsten this summer. "At our first meeting it was straight to the point: 'Here's what we need to do to get where we want to go.' And I was excited when he showed the same ambition I saw in Sean and Tanya."
Karsten is indeed ambitious, and not particularly interested in rolling over just because the Youngs and Sahlmans have graduated and dispersed to some of the top programs in the NCAA.
But he's also realistic.
"It's something we talked openly about," Karsten said. "We don't have that same level of generational talent: It doesn't mean we can't win at a high level, but it does mean we're not going to waltz through and get 15 points at the state meet -- that isn't going to happen again, I don't know if ever.
* Senior Arnav Shetty, one of two returning runners on the boys team who competed at last year's state meet.
Photo credit: Tomoki Chien / MileSplit
---
Karsten said his goals will be the same every year, irrespective of the rankings: win a state title and secure a Nike Cross Nationals berth. On paper, reaching those targets may be a battle for the boys this season.
Senior Dev Doshi, who finished seventh at last year's state meet and has, crucially, raced the all-important Woodward Park circuit four times, is a holdover from the Young-Sahlman dynasty and should bring the necessary star power to the lineup come November.
Arnav Shetty, another senior, placed 66th at least year's state meet and brings much-needed experience to back up Doshi as the two look to lead five other runners who are yet to touch a state championship race.
The girls team, which never dominated at the national level quite the same as the boys -- though it did reach NXN in 2019 -- has nonetheless suffered the graduation of runners like Ailish Hawkins and Samantha McDonnell and remains a firm contender for a championship this year, returning five of seven runners from its second-place finish at the CIF Division II state meet last year.
Sophomore Sophia Grant, who placed 15th in that race, leads the team's effort to win its first title since 2019 after back-to-back silvers the last two years. The Clovis Invitational this weekend should be a good litmus test for both teams, which posted a pair of lukewarm performances at the Cool Breeze Invitational and Woodbridge Classic to open the season.
* The boys varsity squad cools down after a workout at a local park.
Photo credit: Tomoki Chien / MileSplit
---
On a sunny afternoon at a local park, Karsten was firm but fair with his athletes. He didn't seem afraid to ask why some runners were missing their marks in the day's workout. Instead, he seemed more intent on solving and adjusting, rather than chastising lagging performances.
For the first time in their nascent running careers, many of Newbury Park's runners are experiencing a major coaching shift; Tanya Brosnan's year-long tenure alongside assistant Steve Hawkins was largely seen as an extension of her husband's while the school searched for a new helmsman.
"For every little thing that Kris changed about the program, he'd explain why he did it," Shetty said. "And that made it just like: 'OK, there's a reason for everything that he's doing.'"
Karsten implemented a more robust strength-training routine; he added more assistant coaches; he tweaked the mileage; and he employed a broader strategy of building through the season and peaking in November.
Karsten said the Brosnans liked to peak at Woodbridge and hold that effort all the way through NXN, a viable game plan when you have four runners who can go under 15 minutes in the 5K.
That, however, is no longer the team that Newbury Park has.
"He knows what he's talking about -- he does the research," said Micah Dickran, a sophomore and rising star on the varsity team. "I've really liked how it's turned out so far."
Dickran said his nagging shin splints vanished thanks to Karsten's new strength program. Brotcke and Shetty both said they appreciate the individualized attention the coaching staff gives the athletes.
Sean Brosnan may have wanted total control leading the best high school team in the country. Under Karsten, though, Newbury Park employs a good number of coaches for its team of roughly 50, six in total. That's double Sean Brosnan's staff.
At practice, Karsten posted coaches at various points along the workout route and frequently turned to them for counsel.
"He's very focused on each person," Brotcke said. "So it's not just like, 'Oh, the varsity team is doing this workout.' He speaks to every person individually and creates a workout."
"If we fail, I'm going to be known as the guy who ruined Newbury Park. I want the kids to succeed, and I don't want to be the guy who let them down. So the pressure's there, but it's also very motivational."
* Senior Nora Lehto, one of five returning state-meet runners on the girls team.
Photo credit: Tomoki Chien / MileSplit
---
At practice, the first hint that the team might be something special wasn't readily apparent until the varsity squad dutifully locked in on the day's workout without so much as a complaint. Until then, it felt like it might be any other high school team.
The boys engaged in a typical meandering conversation about the pros and cons of racing at night versus the morning, which, like many conversations between young men their age, might've lasted far too long for the surprisingly few new revelations to come out of it.
They modestly bragged that strangers have started following them on Strava -- "but you're not even famous!" one runner retorted. They traded jabs, spoke words of encouragement and generally displayed a level of camaraderie that one might expect of a high-powered sports team.
"Morale on the guys: They're good," Karsten said. "They're hitting workouts. They're highly, highly motivated. I don't think their morale will ever go down."
* Senior Danielle Brotcke, a veteran leader on the girls team.
Photo credit: Tomoki Chien / MileSplit
---
Athletic empires come and go, especially in high school cross country and particularly when those programs are public high schools that can't rely on private-school tactics or scholarships.
Still, for all intents and purposes, both of Newbury Park's varsity teams remain serious contenders at the state level and should compete this fall with a caliber of competition that most other programs simply cannot.
"We're always going to work our butts off," Karsten said. "In some years we may make it and achieve our goals. In other years we may fall flat and really have regrets. But that's how sports go."
The keys for this season, Karsten said, will be a lot of good training and a lot of good luck.
Time will tell whether his new-look program can extend the venerable legacy established by his predecessors and the generational talents of yesteryear. It's a tall task.
But he and his athletes are hopeful.
"It's definitely been difficult for me to get used to new training plans, new ways of coaching," Brotcke said. "But I'm learning that there's more than one way to be great."
Related Links:
* Kris Karsten, who assumed Newbury Park's top coaching job in June.