From the Hibbing Bluejackets Head Coach James Plese, 8th year; 3 X time Iron Range Conference Champions; 4 state participators at MSHSL State XC Meet; multiple MSHSL performers at State Track & Field including a 4 x 800 team that finished 4th Place. Assistant Coaches: Dan Scally and Serena Sullivan.
Our school pushes three-sport participation and most of our varsity runners embrace this. I have had kids in their junior year decide to give up that third sport and that has worked out great. Many have gone on to run in college. I had a pretty solid season as a senior in high school and enjoyed being with my friends. I do wish I had done more during my junior year and put in a few more miles. It would have made a huge difference.
Hockey is king in Hibbing and we have lots of other competitive sports programs too. As far as the weather goes (It is generally 15 degrees cooler than the TC area), we run in all of it and it makes us tougher. We do not make excuses for it. Our graduating class is 140 and some of our opponents have over 600. That's why I've helped out trying to get the three-class system going in this state. Compared to other states we have more participation and less classes.
I tell our kids they must set goals. If I have a goal to run a 5K in a certain time, it's not going to happen on its own. Also, every year I remind them if they do not run in the summer they are starting out behind other top runners. It can be hard to catch up. We have tried T-shirts and team bonding things in the winter. But what will really help us is to have one or two kids really embrace the sport. They will recruit their fast friends and we will do better as a team.
Prospectus: The future looks bright! The girls' team won three meets this year---the GNK Titan, International Falls Hial Pike, and Hibbing Rotary. They also finished 5th Place at the Swain Meet and lost the conference meet by only one point. The boys' team has been held back since the injury to their original #1 runner David Platt. The boys' middle school team won three meets this year and Taite Murden won two races. The girls' middle school team won two meets and Jocelyn Strukel won the Duluth East race.
Varsity Girls: Lily Hess, 12; Mattison Johnson, 12; Aune Boben, 8; Reese Aune, 8; Jorie Anderson, 8; Alizah Langner, 7; Jocelyn Strukel, 8.
Varsity Boys: Zach Rusich, 10; Noah Anderson, 12; John Larrabee, 12; Jacob Jensrud, 10; Jeremiah Wentland, 10; Ethan Roy, 10; David Platt, 11.