The South Lakes High cross country program is getting a little taste of its past this season. Kevin Donovan, who was head coach of the Seahawk girls’ cross country team in the falls of 2005 and 2006, has returned to take over both the girls’ and boys’ teams this autumn.
"I love it," said Donovan, of his return to the Reston school. "I grew up in Reston and grew up next to the school."
Donovan, who was hired to take over the program last June, replaces former coach Mo Weaver at the helm of the program. He was an assistant cross country coach at South Lakes from 1997 through 2000 under former head coaches Mark Hunter and Scott Rackzo. And five years later, he returned to the South Lakes program as head coach of the girls’ team for a couple of years.
Last fall, 2007, Donovan was an assistant coach with the Fairfax High cross country program. Then during the winter and spring of last school year, he was Westfield High’s pole vault coach.
Donovan is a former Herndon High cross country runner. His coach while at Herndon was current Herndon director of student activities Mike Mahoney.
South Lakes, which competed earlier this week at the re-scheduled Monroe Parker Invitational at Burke Lake Park, participated at the Judge’s Classic meet in Winchester last Thursday. There, the Seahawk boys finished fourth among 15 schools, just missing out on a team trophy given to the top three teams. It marked the first time since 2000 that a South Lakes boys’ cross country team has finished so high at an invitational meet.
"I thought they did outstanding," said Donovan, of his boys’ runners. "They all ran outstanding as a pack, which is what we’ll have to do to be successful this year."
South Lakes’ top two boys finishers at the Judge’s meet were sophomore Nick Guarnaccia (13th overall) and Will Sickenberger (17th). Two other South Lakes runners who ran well were Steven Zaboji and Fred Kyle, both of whom barely missed top 25 medal finishes.
On the girls’ side, junior Val Moyer (22nd overall) and senior Devin Erickson (27th) had solid runs to help the Seahawks finish 11th overall in the team standings. Three of South Lakes’ top seven finishers were freshmen runners.
"We’re still learning, but we’re excited about those girls," said Donovan.
This was to be quite a busy week for both the South Lakes boys and girls teams. Along with competing in the Monroe Parker on Tuesday, the Seahawks were gearing for this Saturday’s Oatlands Invitational in Leesburg.
"We’ll get a pretty good idea of where we stand," said Donovan, of what his squads will learn about themselves after competing in the two large, popular early season races.
<b>WEAVER</b>, the former head coach of the South Lakes program, stepped down as cross country coach last spring. During the fall ’07 season, Weaver had struggled physically with the shingles virus. He continued to run the South Lakes program throughout that autumn, but gave up his other non-school related duties as a personal trainer and coach.
"It took so much out of me physically," said Weaver, of the illness. "By the end of the season I was totally wiped out."
As a result, Weaver informed the school he would not be able to coach the South Lakes indoor and outdoor track and field teams over the rest of the 2007-08 school year.
But he still held out hope he would be able to continue to coach cross country in the fall of ’08. But his wife encouraged Weaver to relinquish his cross country duties so that he could work to regain his health and dedicate himself to his other endeavors, including speaking engagements, personal coaching pursuits and his Web site — coachmowellness.com.
"I was hoping to come back in the fall," said Weaver, known affectionately as `Coach Mo.’ "My wife encouraged me to step down. I do miss the kids, though, and would like to go out [to some meets] and root them on. I thought I was making headway in making them better people and kids. But I made the decision that if I couldn’t be at my best .…"
Weaver said he has gotten better physically over the months.
"I do feel better, night and day," he said.