1) Tell us about yourself - don't be afraid to brag!
My name is Greg Bomhoff and I am the head XC/track & field coach at St. James Academy High School in Lenexa, KS. I have been the head XC coach at SJA since 2022, and had a stint as an assistant XC coach for the same program from 2013-2014. Our girls teams have won 5A state XC championships in ‘22, ‘23, and ‘24 and were third in 2025, with 3 top-ten individual finishes during that time.
Our boys have 3 top-5 finishes at the state meet in the past four years. I have also been a track and field coach at St. James Academy since 2008, becoming a head coach in the sport in 2016.
Since becoming a 5A program in 2013, our girls teams have only finished outside the top 2 at the state meet in 2021 and 2022, accumulating 6 state titles and 5 runners-up in that time. Our boys track & field teams have also taken home 5A state crowns in 2023 and 2026.
I have been teaching at St. James Academy since 2011, having formerly been employed as a research scientist at the University of Kansas Medical Center. I currently teach AP Chemistry and AP Physics at SJA. I am a proud husband, a father of two boys, and an owner of 2 cats because, as I tell my students, “My wife loves cats, and I love my wife. Therefore, we have cats.”
2) What is your high school/college athletic background?
I am a proud XC/track alumni of Bishop Carroll High School, where I was a member of the 5A state team champions in 1993. At the collegiate level, I competed in XC, indoor, and outdoor track & field at Southwestern College, where I trained under NAIA coaching legend and Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Jim Helmer. I was a part of 4 Conference Championship XC teams and 4 Conference Championship Track & Field squads during that time and was named an NAIA outdoor track & field All-American in 1999 and 2001.
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 believe that we, as coaches, as well as the athletes currently competing in the sport will look back on this era as the beginning of a new Golden Age for distance running in Kansas! Because more coaches are willing to participate in the open sharing of ideas, with regard to everything from coaching techniques and training strategies to culture-building traditions, as well as the willingness of more coaches to try new innovative approaches to training, more XC runners have been given the opportunity to achieve success throughout the state than ever before.
As a result, we are seeing more competitive race times from Kansas distance runners not only within the state but with respect to the surrounding states in the Midwest. In addition, it seems that an increased focus on self-care outside of practice (good daily habits, nutrition, sleep, etc.), has allowed many of these high-level athletes to stay healthier in the long term, which has given them further opportunities to find success on the collegiate stage, which is very exciting! I think it’s a great time to be involved in the sport in this state!
I think if there is one change to XC I wouldn’t mind seeing made statewide, it would be to extend the season by a week. This would give a bit more flexibility to coaches when scheduling to maybe add a week off from racing during the competitive season to keep athletes fresh and not over-raced by the time the postseason approaches.
4) What is/are your top XC coaching/athletic memory(ies)?
I will always have moments that I will cherish about watching each of the teams that I have been fortunate enough to help coach perform well at big meets and have races that will be remembered in our program history.
One particular memory that stands out was getting the opportunity to tell our ladies in 2024 that they had won the state meet in XC that season. There were a lot of seniors on the team, and it is so rare that anyone in a sport gets to end their season with a win, but even more rare that someone gets to end their high school career with a win. There was immense happiness and joy, but also some tears that their time in the sport at this level had come to an end.
I will say, however, that so many of my very favorite memories surround simply the time I get to spend with our wonderful athletes and terrific coaching staff every season. I still can’t believe how fortunate I am to be in a profession where I get to laugh every day, learn something new every day, and watch people discover the joy of competing for and being a part of something bigger than themselves. I could not have asked for a better group of athletes and coaches to be surrounded by and to hopefully make many more memories with.
5) What is your favorite meet that your team goes to and why?
I always love the first meet of the season, no matter what it is or where it is, because it's opening day and opening day in our sport is as fun and exciting as it is in any other sport! Athletes get a chance to see all of their hard work from the summer months pay off and coaches often get their first look at freshmen and other newcomers, often competing in their first high school XC meet ever. I also love the final meet of the season (hopefully its the state meet!) because athletes get to see their commitment, discipline, hard work, and sacrifice throughout the season pay off as they all look to run their best races of the year when it matters the most.
6) What’s your go-to workout for your team?
I don’t think we have any one workout that would be any more of a “go-to” than any other during the season. We try to place each workout as intentionally as we can into a point of the training cycle where we feel it would best serve our athletes. I would say that, like most programs, one workout that has evolved over the years into one of the most beneficial aspects of our training program has been the long run.
The long run was not used nearly as much when I was in high school. However, I believe that careful planning with respect to long run mileage progression, and pacing as an athlete progresses through high school has made this workout as important of a factor in the faster race times seen in the past 10 years or so as any other facet of training.
7) What’s the best high school race you ever saw/were a part of?
When thinking about local athletes and great high school races over the years, few girls races could top any time that Emily Venters, Molly Born, and Cailie Logue would race one another. Part of the aura of those matchups is that it maybe only happened once during the fall and twice during the spring, but when it did, those were races that you would clear your schedule for and pay money to go see! On the boys side, there have been numerous one-on-one matchups that have been exciting to watch, but from an overall racing perspective, the Olathe Twilight meets in 2022 and 2023 that produced multiple sub-15 minute races, were pretty special as far as local races go.
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.
During the summer months, we plan a couple of day/night trips to local areas that I believe everyone in our metropolitan area should experience at least once per year, as proud Kansas Citians! We organize an afternoon/evening at Worlds of Fun and later in the summer we spend an evening at a Royals game. What really makes these events so fun is that our athletes enjoy one another for who they are, not what they do, and genuinely like just being around each other.
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?
I am excited to see where high school XC is going to go in the future. As I alluded to earlier, we are living in a time of unprecedented levels of productive collaboration among coaches in the sport from all over the country. Methods of accomplishing training goals seem to be evolving faster than ever, and the most important part of this equation is also the part that deserves to benefit the most from all of this-the athlete!
In short, I think more and more high school athletes will be able to run the times that only a few could reach a generation ago, thanks to great coaching that increases buy-in to programs and continually individualized and thoughtful training set to achieve the best results possible for the XC athlete. Now for my bolder take of the future! I predict we will see a return, to some extent, to more challenging XC courses set into teams’ season schedules. I believe that faster and faster XC courses will give way, at some point, to courses that can be run fast, but only if run correctly, which would lean more to an athlete’s ability to execute a particular strategy on a particular course versus more of a straight “going for it all” approach from start to finish.
10) Who has been influential in your running/coaching career?
I have been really fortunate to have been surrounded by some wonderful individuals, past and present, in my running and coaching career, all of whom have provided positive support and advice throughout my life as a runner and coach. Without a doubt, the most influential of these individuals is my college coach, Jim Helmer.
His work ethic, patience, wisdom, and care when it came to his profession, as well as his family, taught every runner that he coached about everything that a positive mentor should be. So many of his athletes have gone on to pursue varying levels of coaching at some point in their lives and I have to believe that those choices were made, in no small part, because of what his athletes understand about the lasting impact that a great role model can have in the lives of others, as he was for all of his athletes.
I learned the most about the day-to-day management of athletes and program logistics throughout a typical high school sports season from the head track and field coach that I worked under as an assistant when I started at St. James, Rich Weitz, who was a consummate professional in how he handled every situation with expert calm and prudent decision-making.
Kristi Burritt, who I coached with for a number of years, had an uncanny ability to know what any athlete in any situation needed to hear in the moment, and I have never seen athletes respond to coaching more consistently positively than after interactions with her. I am still learning lessons from her influence to this day and will be well into the future.
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1) Tell us about yourself - don't be afraid to brag!