Cross country is one of the very few sports in which there is a higher individual focus than that of a team because each individual needs to do well within their own running time in order to succeed with their overall collective team scoring. Cross country coaches have a crucial role in maintaining this balance to develop each runner individually while still staying as one unified team.
Two of Malden High’s youngest athletics coaches, Michael Nicholson and Sean Weldon, have been tasked with leading the Girls’ and Boys’ cross-country teams, respectively.
Weldon is the longer-tenured individual out of the tandem. He began coaching the sport in the fall of 2017, shortly after graduating from Suffolk University. Since graduating in 2014, Weldon has been a seventh-grade math teacher at the Beebe School. Weldon began several of his bonds with some of his new team during their time before high school at Beebe, which propelled his chemistry with players. Throughout Weldon’s high school and collegiate athletic careers, he had “actually played on the golf team” and thus was never able to run cross country because of the conflicting seasons of fall sports. Despite this, he was “eager to get involved with coaching for Malden High.”
Such a crucial part of being an effective coach comes with trusting your experienced players, like seniors and captains, to do some of your job for you. Weldon noted that he has grown in “listening to our team and trusting our team.”
Weldon concluded that sometimes it is hard to recruit for the team because of the “competition with other sports at the high school level,” but he is grateful as this year they have been “fortunate to have a lot of interest” and “have the biggest team in the GBL.”
One of the most rewarding parts of being a coach is seeing the actual progress with all that you do by watching kids improve. Weldon expressed that he loves “seeing the progress day to day, as well as year to year.” Weldon explained that he frequently tells the runners, “You get out what you put in,” and as a result, he loves seeing the excitement on their faces “when that finish time drops and they hit a PR (personal record).”
Weldon has been pleased with this year’s team performance. He noted: “Both teams are currently 3-1, where senior Slade Harding has finished first place overall in every race, and sophomore Keira Celicourt has also been one of the top finishers in her first season on the team.”
Michael Nicholson, who was an impressive athlete at Malden High School, played football, basketball, and baseball. However, after college, he became a “huge fan of running,” He has “enjoyed races, half marathons and other races like Spartan Races” and “trained for many races which allowed me to transition into coaching cross country.” Now, while working at the Beebe School as a physical education teacher, he continues his role as a cross-country coach, with this year being his third at Malden High.
Nicholson had initially started coaching at the middle school level in order to “find new ways to connect with my students outside of the classroom.” But, when “the opportunity presented itself,” he moved up to the high school level. This allowed Nicholson to “watch these athletes grow and allowed me to help better themselves throughout many years.”
Nicholson concluded that, like many other coaches, the biggest struggle of being a coach is helping kids with their time management. “Many of our athletes have a million and one things going on, whether it be clubs, the National Honors Society, or anything else. Coach Weldon and I want our athletes to explore all their interests but, at the same time, keep the commitment they made to the team.” There is a balance to be found in ensuring athletes can live their lives and have other commitments, but also ensure that they remain disciplined and are coming each day ready to practice and compete.
Similar to Weldon, Nicholson has made a point of “building relationships with the athletes,” as he has known many of them since middle school. However, his main goal is to “connect with them on a personal level and find out how to motivate them to become the best athlete and person they can be.”
He believes that the most rewarding part of coaching is not truly as much about what happens on the course but rather having the opportunity to “see these athletes become amazing human beings.” Nicholson further explained how he has been “lucky enough to have extraordinary kids and watch them grow into wonderful young adults.” This reflects a common theme among many high school coaches: they get to see kids grow up and become adults. As a coach, you end up sometimes spending more time with the athlete than they do with their family, so trying your best to become like family is crucial to building team chemistry.
It is clear that Weldon and Nicholson have been highly effective coaches, and their feelings of gratitude toward their athletes are reciprocated. Senior Captain Sean Retotal remarked that the coaching duo is a “nice refresher from school with their upbeat energy every practice.”
Similarly, Senior Captain Gordon Zeng noted that the coaches do an outstanding job of creating an “encouraging” yet “competitive environment where we collectively strive to work harder.” He expressed that both coaches “value us as students and teens” in addition to being athletes. “They put effort to understand each runner beyond their 5k time to see who else they are outside of running,” said Zeng. Finally, junior runner Sean Cochran explained how “understanding” both of the coaches were when it came to other responsibilities.
It is quite evident that both Weldon and Nicholson have put such careful time and effort into becoming the best coaches they can be and building a culture of running at MHS. There is absolutely no doubt that the tandem of coaches has created a wonderful yet competitive environment for all runners on the team. To see some of the team’s personality and goofy antics, go and take a peek at their Instagram @maldenxcountry.
