Running the Tangents With: Aaron Davidson

1)  Personal Profile: Tell us about yourself. Don’t be afraid to brag.

My name is Aaron Davidson. I am a physical education teacher and the head cross country and track and field coach at Blue Valley West High School. My coaching career started with coaching basketball at Hays High School. During my student teaching I coached one season of track at Blue Valley West before getting hired at Shawnee Mission North High School in 2008. I spent 15 years at SMN before coming back to Blue Valley West in 2023.

My wife Ashlee and I have a daughter (Brooklyn) and our deceased son (Nolan). Brooklyn is 10 years old and in 4th grade. Ashlee also ran cross country and track in college and now she is the director of a youth running club in Kansas City called “The Herd” Running Club. 

Outside of coaching, I enjoy watching my daughter play sports, watching all sports and playing golf and men’s indoor soccer. I still like to run and train to do some of the same workouts I am having our athletes do. 

I’ve coached three individual state champions in cross country, and two individual state runner-ups. 

At Shawnee Mission North, we had one state championship team on the girls side in 2017. I’ve coached four state podium teams. Also at SM North we also had multiple Sunflower League Championship teams. 

Last year at BV West, our girls cross country team won the EKL Championship for the first time in school history, and finished third place at State in Class 6A.

I’ve also had multiple individual state champions and state runner-Up finishes in track, and in 2016, we won a boys’ state championship team title. 

One interesting fact about me… I think I’ve competed in the Kansas Relays more than anyone else in the history of the meet. Between high school, college, and my post-collegiate years I’ve ran in the Kansas Relays 16 times. (I haven’t gone too deep into the Kansas Relays archives to know exactly what the record is, but I think I’m up there.) The Kansas Relays was always one of my favorite events of the year.

2)  What is your high school/college athletic background?

I graduated from Salina South High School in 2003. I played basketball all four years and I always considered basketball to be my favorite sport. I actually envisioned myself becoming a basketball coach more than a cross country/track coach. At Salina South, I was coached by Jay Edwards.  We had a high intensity and low volume training program which was popular during that time. I didn’t know any different and I really enjoyed the variety and I bought into the training, although it’s not how I would train kids today. I was All-State in cross country my junior year. My senior season in cross country was derailed due to sickness and I did not place at State. I finished third in the 3200m at State track my senior year. 

After high school, I attended Fort Hays State University where I ran for Jim Krob and Jason McCullough. I was primarily a 5000m/10,000m runner. In my first three years at FHSU, we competed in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and it was very eye-opening to see that level of competition and compete against some of the top Division II teams in the country and also compete at altitude. In my last two years of college, FHSU transitioned to the MIAA and I earned multiple All-Conference honors with my best finishes coming in the indoor 5000m (fourth place) and outdoor 10,000m (third place).  I always preferred cross country over track but I like the dynamic and variety of the different seasons. 

I also ran competitively after college. All of my lifetime PR’s came after I graduated from college. In 2008, I joined the Kansas City Smoke and I was also a part of the Saucony Hurricane “elite development” program for two years while I was an assistant coach at SM North. I qualified for the USA Half-Marathon Championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

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 there are some things that are going really well and some things that are also somewhat concerning about our sport. The positives are that teams and individuals are getting faster across the local and national scene. I think it’s more evident in track times than in cross country but I think all the training methods and technology have enhanced our sport, and the social media platforms certainly provide exposure to all those things.  

However, it is concerning to see involvement and participation numbers dropping. Cross country coaches are having to try harder than ever to recruit kids and we are having to compete with more and more club sports and KSHSAA sanctioned sports and athletes specializing in individual sports.

Another concerning trend in is that there has been a larger focus on cross country times. Instead of challenging, tough, and demanding courses there has been a growing interest in fast times, flat courses, and rankings and recognition for fast times.  

Also, in the United States, I love what Nike is doing to make NXN a premier meet and crown a true National Champion. I think it puts our sport in the spotlight and also shows fans that cross country is just fine being ran on a tough course and in tough conditions at the Glendoveer Course in Portland, Oregon.

4)  What is/are your top XC coaching/athletic memory(ies)?

My favorite cross country memory has to be winning the 2017 girls state championship after finishing third in 2015 and second in 2016. We had narrow losses in both of the previous years and in 2017 our girls team was poised and focused to finally win one. (In 2015 we lost by one point and finished third on a tie-breaker.) We were so close to winning three state titles in a row but also close to losing three really close team titles and I was just thankful to finally win one. 

5)  What is your favorite meet that your team goes to and why?

My favorite cross country meet is the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis. I competed there in college and I’ve taken my teams to Griak for 10+ years. Minnesota is a “cross country” state and the Griak meet is a chance to get away from all of our local teams and focus on ourselves and bond as a team. The old Griak course was a challenging meet against very good competition and I always feel like we come back from that trip as a closer and tougher team. I have a lot of great memories from those trips, and I am excited to see the new course and hoping it is a meet we will continue to attend.

As for in-state meets… I think the Baldwin City Maple Leaf Classic is one of my favorite meets and courses. Baldwin does not host any big meets, but the course is spectator friendly, it has rolling hills with great footing, their community does a good job supporting their meets, and in my opinion it’s a hidden gem! For our team, it’s a chance to race a small meet after we’ve been to a stretch of ‘mega meets’ and it’s just what we need at that point in our season.

6)  What’s your go-to workout for your team?

A go-to workout for our team is “The Michigan” workout. It’s a classic workout designed by former Michigan coach Ron Warhurst. I did the Michigan workout in high school and I would do it on my own in the summers when I was in college because I liked the challenge. We modify the workout slightly and do a 1600m - 1200m - 800m - 400m with a 1k tempo in between each interval. We do it several times throughout the year and we hype it up with our team. I usually wear a Michigan hat and Michigan hoodie/shirt and socks for the workout. I love how the kids have learned to love it and hate it and I know they feel accomplished afterwards. It’s the only workout we don’t require kids to cool down after because we tell them to ‘empty the tank’ on the 400m rep. (Some kids still cool down anyway.)

7)  What’s the best high school race you ever saw/were a part of?

The best high school race I think I’ve witnessed was the Girl’s 5A State Championship in 2024. Since we are 6A, I didn’t have anyone in the race and I was able to enjoy it as a spectator. Katelyn Rupe was trailing Ryin Miller for 4k and had an amazing comeback over the last kilometer. Katelyn was still trailing at the second covered bridge at Rim Rock Farm, and she gutted out the last 1000m to win her third straight State title. Both of those girls are all-time Kansas greats and it was an epic matchup. It’s races like that that make cross country great…. It’s not just a competition with your opponents but also with the course. 

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.

I think summer team trips/camps are a great way to promote a positive team culture. I did it for five or six years at SM North and then took a break for a while. I hadn’t taken a team on a trip for about five years until this summer, we took our team to Colorado. We had a great time and I think it made us closer as a team and also gave kids a chance to make some lasting memories with their teammates. 

9)  20 years from now, describe high school XC. What changes do you think will be made different from today? Faster Times? Different Distances? Rule changes? Anything else?

20 years from now… it’s hard to say. When I started running 20-25 years ago, I don’t think I could have predicted things like super shoes, Strava, MileSplit and social media, GPS watches, bicarb, all the recovery methods, and a lot of other things. I would expect times would be faster, but I hope it’s because of advancements in training and not because we are just trying to make cross country fast. In fact, if I had my preference, I would love for it to go the other direction and have courses get more difficult and have less of a focus on times. Leave the fast times for track season… cross country is about getting off the track. 

I hope 20 years from now, we still have kids and coaches that have the same enthusiasm for distance running as we’ve always had. I hope the race distance is still 5 kilometers. I hope Kansas teams can travel further than 500 miles for competition. I hope Rim Rock still exists and I hope they figure out internet service for meets. And I hope KU brings back the Kansas Relays. I’d love to see indoor track become a high school sport in Kansas again as well…. All those things might be wishful thinking, but it’s fun to dream sometimes.

10)  Who has been influential in your running/coaching career?

In my own running, I had three teammates in college (Aaron Yoder, Dan Yoder, and Dale Dexter) who showed me what hard work and real training actually looked like. Coming out of high school, I thought I knew what it took to be a good runner but I actually had no clue. They taught me how to handle the daily grind, do the hard things, separate yourself from the rest, and do the little things that make a great distance runner.

My college coach Jason McCullough set an example that he still sets today with just daily commitment to running. He showed me the creative side of running and coaching and training. Finding new routes, appreciating every run, logging your training, finding joy and ownership in your running and being patient with the process and patient with racing. I am not sure if I would still be running today if it weren’t for Coach McCullough. 

On the coaching side… the first coach I was an assistant under at SM North, Ryan Colburn, taught me how to be a high school coach. When I first started coaching, I was focused on all the wrong things… training, finding the fastest kids, and results. He taught me the relational side of coaching is just as important. His communication skills, patience, and ability to relate and connect with kids at every level were all things I had to learn. At the end of every kids’ high school years, we are giving them an experience that they can look back on and hopefully appreciate and he helped me realize that is just as important as the winning and results, if not more.