1) Personal Profile: Tell us a bit about yourself. Don't be afraid to brag.
I am Tim Testa, current head coach of the Junction City High School Cross Country Program. I have been coaching since 2011 when I graduated from Pittsburg State University. I completed all of my eligibility for the Gorillas while earning All-American status indoors, earning 10+ All-MIAA honors between cross country, indoor, and outdoor, and winning the 2010 MIAA Steeplechase Championship on our home track in Pittsburg.
My fondest honor at Pittsburg State is that the yearly Team Captain Award at the PSU XC Banquet is called the Tim Testa Award. I am the first and only three-time team captain at PSU and took my job very seriously to help rebuild the Gorillas program. The program is incredible now, but when my teammates and I stepped on campus it had been 11 years since the Gorillas were participants at the national meet. Our sophomore to senior years we went to nationals three years in a row. I still cherish my time with my Gorilla teammates and Coach Jewett daily.
I have been the head coach of JCXC since 2021 and have helped the Blue Jays win two boys Centennial League Championships (2023/2024), a boys regional championship (2024), and a boys runner-up team finish at the 2024 state championships, the first trophy since 2005, when I was the front-runner for the 3rd place JCHS Team.
Our girls program earned a regional runner-up finish in 2023, in the same year the girls placed sixth at State. Individually the women's team has been led by standout performances since 2021 from Lorna Rae Pierce (2x All-State, 3rd place in 2023) also the 2024 3200m State Champion on the track. Anna Fontaine earned All-State honors her freshman and sophomore seasons with 8th and 9th place finishes. In 2024 freshman, Linden Pickler won the 6A State Championship in her one year of high school XC in KS. Anna and Linden are both part of Army families, and moved away from us in the same year. They are finishing their careers at other schools...
Our individual boys have been represented by Ethan Fontaine (16th - 2024) and Anthony Testa (20th - 2024 and 5th - 2025). Anthony is my son and is the highest finisher in JCHS history, since I placed 6th at State in 2005.
I spent three years at Southwestern College in Winfield as the head cross country coach and one year as head track coach. During that time I worked with athletes who earned 14 All-American honors, including Kari Blattner (indoor mile, outdoor steeplechase) Bryce Grahn (outdoor steeplechase national runner up) and Jersey Boydstun (marathon 4th place finisher).
Coaching everyone from 60m indoors to marathon outdoors was a challenge, but our athletes had stellar performances across the board. At the small private colleges, you have to be flexible and work with every group. I loved my time at Southwestern, but wanted to get back to my hometown.
I am a teacher at JCHS in the PE department and also serve as the head coach of the girls' basketball team. I have always loved the sport of basketball and to get back to JC from Southwestern, the girls basketball job was open, so I jumped in with both feet and took over the program. I am definitely a coach who is in education to be able to coach. I love the interactions with students but don't look forward to school as much as I do as I look forward to practice and competitions.
My wife, Lexi, and I have three children, Anthony (senior), Alex (sophomore also on our cross country team), and Olivia (four years old). We are pretty boring people and just focus our time on our kids and the Blue Jays! As for hobbies, I have a side hustle of mowing lawns and currently have a consecutive run streak of 443 days as of Aug 19. Started the streak with short 10-20 minute runs and now runs have to be a minimum of four miles to count towards the streak.
2) What is your high school/college athletic background?
I am a 2006 graduate of JCHS and earned multiple All-State honors on the track and the cross country course while being coached by the great JCHS Coach Bob Schmoekel. I never won a state championship, but I placed second in the 800 and 4x4 senior year. Rough memories!
I ran at Pittsburg State for Hall of Fame Coach Russ Jewett. Under his training I was able to earn many All-MIAA honors and an indoor All-American award in the 2010 DMR in Albuquerque. I ran a lot of races, won a few. Not a phenomenal athlete, much more focused on the overall well being of the programs I was a part of.
3) How do you feel about the current state of cross country here in Kansas? What is something you'd change about cross country in Kansas? In the U.S.?
I think our sport is in a great spot both in performances and direction. Our kids are all getting faster, performances are reaching new highs, and the emphasis on success has never been higher. All while cross country still serving as a landing spot for many lower performers who are just looking for a place to belong. The level of coaching in the state of Kansas is incredible. So many smart men and women who are able to work with students to help them in their running.
I really enjoy learning and leaning on some of the coaches I have been able to meet since Tyler Atkins put our school back on the map. Since his runner-up finish in the 1600 in 2022, I have been able to build relationships with some of the top coaches in KS. Being connected with these professionals has really opened my eyes to the level of professionalism that you have to follow to have your athletes perform to the top levels.
I would love to see a more long term view and focus on the athlete from some coaches and programs. I am not judging how people do their job, but there are many top-level boys and girls who do not go on to much bigger and better things once they leave high school. Maybe, that is due to their college coaches lacking the ability to work with new kids, maybe it's the high school coach. Regardless, I hope that all Kansas coaches are thinking about leaving some meat on the bone for their kids to develop past their high school stage. Too many kids get to the next level and ending up struggling or off the roster too soon in their careers. Limiting training, supplements, and new race day technologies can be simple ways to make sure your athletes have tools to add to their toolbox once they are gone from high school.
It's a personal goal and a program goal of ours to make sure that our athletes who choose to run in college finish their career and develop into much better runners after they leave JCHS.
I am also not crazy about post season meets, NXR, Running Lane, etc. I definitely see the benefit for the top level athletes -- they need to race athletes similar to them and be challenged beyond "normal" high school meets. The Spring Hill boys, Olathe West girls and Katelyn Rupe going to Nike Nationals are obvious examples of teams and runners who need to be in those races, but my opinion is that your JV runners and lower-end varsity kids benefit more from making their last high school meet the emphasis of their year, then shutting them down for some time before starting winter work towards track.
Maybe... I am just thinking more about my program that is not on that level yet, but I see too many kids racing too many times in races that "don't matter" towards their actual school season.
4) What is/are your top cross country coaching/athletic memory(ies)?
Our day at the 2024 cross country championships was something I will never forget. The rain, the mud, and the performances will always stay with me. Freshman Linden Pickler won her one and only gold medal of the season at the State Championships! Her ability to trust herself and our coaches as a 14-year-old kid was incredible. Such a patient and self-belief filled race from a relatively inexperienced kid. She is truly one of the great talents that I have been able to work with and will remember that race and tell the story for years to come.
About 90 minutes later, our boys placed second and earned a state trophy for the first time in 20 years! That group of young men spent three years together every day to be ready for their chance and they capitalized on it. I didn't have phone service of course at Rim Rock, and was told by other coaches that our boys got second after having a conversation with our boys about how it didn't look like it was our day.
I was way off... kinda, because we were only 11 points out of 5th as a team. Those boys earned their trophy in a special way. Afterwards, we went to the lower bridge for pictures and took so many and took so long that when we came up the hill, we were the last people at the course. JCHS hasn't had days like that in the past, and our kids wanted to stick around as long as possible to sear in the memories. A special day for me forever.
5) What is your favorite meet that your team goes to and why?
Our home meet is very special to me. It's not a huge meet, not a meet that MileSplit has to feature, but the fact that it's at home is the best to me. Our course has been named after my high school coach, Bob Schmoekel. He developed the course and essentially started our program in the 1970s. We still have our meet at the same location with a few tweaks to the route, but when we are on the course, I can feel coach's spirit.
He passed in 2020 and I still tell stories about him every season. When our boys won the first league championships, I took a special trip to Ellsworth to share the boys trophy with Coach at his gravesite. He is one of the most special people that I have ever been around and will always tell our team about his greatness. Our home meet is a special, fun, emotional time for me and selfishly, it's my favorite meet.
6) What's your go-to workout for your team?
For the past five years our group has loved threshold 800s in lanes 8/9 of our track. We alternate directions and keep the rest really short. Our top group has reached 12 reps with most of our team going between six and eight reps. I always have to pull back the reins on these days. Too eager to go too fast! We also love turf workouts on our baseball field and typical hill rep days during the summer training period. Pretty simple stuff done over three to five months leads to what we consider success.
7) What's the best high school race you ever saw/were a part of?
In the 2022 Shawnee Mission North Relays, three boys ran 9:12 and crossed the finish line together. All three PRs, all three top 25 times in Kansas history at the time. Our school record was broken by Tyler Atkins in that race as he finished 3rd in 9:12.65.
There have been other races that went sub-9 that were obviously impressive, but that night those three guys battled. Each guy led at least a lap to 600m and tried to break the others. Lots of fun and energy in the facility!
8) Describe/explain a fun tradition your team does or maybe even one you've witnessed another team do that promotes a positive team culture.
Doesn't seem like a team tradition, but when we order team gear from an online store we ask families to please purchase a shirt for a team member who cannot provide. We obviously don't advertise who cannot provide for themselves, but our kids and families know that we go to a school in which many families do not have the means to spend money on team shirts/hoodies.
I ask families to provide an extra t-shirt at the beginning of the season and after our team store closes I always have way more than enough shirts for our athletes who need support in that way. It's special to me because I see how much our program cares for each other and takes care of each other. Junction City is a unique place in the world and is unlike most schools in Kansas. Our program buys into the uniqueness and wants to support everyone that we have. I love when we roll up to meets and our team looks professional and uniform. I think it adds some legitimacy to our program other than relying on performances to do the talking for us.
9) 20 years from now, describe high school cross country. What changes do you think will be made different from today? Faster Times? Different Distances? Rule changes? Anything else?
In 20 years I don't see too many actual changes to the sport but I can foresee huge changes in schools and state record boards. The improvements in training, shoe tech, and nutrition are just sky rocketing performances. I think they will continue to rise over time. I do hope that the new regional procedure helps create better situations for the depth in eastern Kansas. Too many times good teams and/or good athletes were left home in the past. We need the best fields possible at state. I hope this helps get the right teams into the big dance.
10) Who has been influential in your running/coaching career?
I have been lucky enough to have been around so many legendary coaches. My high school Coach was Bob Schmoekel, who should be in the KSHSAA Hall of Fame. We nominated him around 2019 and got letters of recommendation from three HOF members who wanted him in the Hall and he was denied. Joe Schrag and Van Rose both wrote letters on his behalf and he was still not entered. Frustrating for sure... I will renominate after the 10-year waiting period is over. I digress. Coach Schmoekel helped raise me and thousands of other Junction City kids into quality runners and better people. Coach Schmoekel was the man who taught me the importance of relationships in running. Meeting the athlete where they are and helping them become a better runner and human. Coach didn't lead us with a great scientific background. He was simply an amazing human who knew about running. He used his ability to build relationships with our programs participants. I learned so much from Coach Schmoekel and continue to use the lessons every day.
When I arrived on the campus of Pittsburg State University for my visit I was met by Coach Russ Jewett. Coach Jewett was a serious man, a man of high standards, and a man with an immense knowledge of track and field and running. He ran the program based on his high standards and I am trying to have my program live to a high level of standards as well. Coach Jewett also taught me a lot about programming and developing training plans. His ability to build fitness in us over a season's worth of time was impressive. We learned year in and year out that Coach was going to have us ready for MIAAs and Nationals. Coach pushed us hard and taught us a lot about ourselves as people and athletes.
1) Personal Profile: Tell us a bit about yourself. Don't be afraid to brag.
I am Tim Testa, current head coach of the Junction City High School Cross Country Program. I have been coaching since 2011 when I graduated from Pittsburg State University. I completed all of my eligibility for the Gorillas while earning All-American status indoors, earning 10+ All-MIAA honors between cross country, indoor, and outdoor, and winning the 2010 MIAA Steeplechase Championship on our home track in Pittsburg.