Credit: R. A. Hermans
Ryan Carney was a track coach in the Red Hook School District before coming to Pine Plains eight years ago, where he now serves as a guidance counselor at Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School. Last fall he was recruited to coach the Bombers’ cross-country team after coach Samantha Lydon went on maternity leave. Carney couldn’t have asked for a better first season: In November, the boys won their first state Class D championship.
While the assignment has yet to be made, Carney expects to be coaching the team again this fall. “I’d really like to see it through with my juniors and seniors,” he said. He is optimistic about the Bombers’ prospects even though four seniors won’t be around in September, when the season begins.
A couple of returning racers have Carney particularly excited: “Max Decker and Danny McPherson are going to be two of the best runners in the state, and not just in Class D.” He also expects Nick Montoya to become a strong contributor on what ultimately will be a seven-boy squad. Decker and Montoya will be seniors in the fall and McPherson a junior.
Carney has been eyeing a pool of potential new cross country-runners among athletes participating in winter track. He hopes to find students willing to do the work to become good at the sport. His mantra is that success in cross-country comes from regularly putting in the miles. “If I can convince three to five kids to run every day over the summer, we will have a solid team,” he said. Carney can encourage his runners to get out every day, but it will be up to the students themselves to organize their practice sessions. The school is not allowed to hold official practices until two weeks before the fall semester begins.
Carney has found that it’s easier to persuade boys to take up cross-country. “There are a couple girls running in winter track who play field hockey in the fall,” he said. “They are really talented athletes who will probably stay with field hockey. It’s hard to recruit girls because they have field hockey and volleyball competing at the same time as cross-country.” Violet Bliss, the Bombers’ top female runner, has qualified for the state championships in each of the past two seasons. She will be a junior this fall.
The school’s size can be a big factor in filling out rosters. Carney went to a high school on Long Island with an enrollment of 2,200. “A lot of kids would get cut from the teams they try out for and they just go and run cross-country,” he said. There are few kids cut from teams in Pine Plains, though Carney noted that boys’ soccer players who don’t make it through tryouts are potentially phenomenal distance runners.
Carney is a dedicated distance runner himself. “I ran 100 miles last week,” he said, adding that he has been averaging about 14 miles a day over the past four years. Carney, who is 37, said he ran a lot in Manhattanville College then took time off to get his teaching career started and to get married. He and his wife, Maureen, who’s also a talented runner, have two young children.
One of the highlights of his own running career took place in December, when he traveled to Sacramento to compete in the California International Marathon. Carney hoped to finish in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. “It was a tough day,” he said. “It was warm and humid. It was amazing though, a great race, so well organized…. I was on pace to run 2:32, but had some cramping near the end that cost me about 90 seconds.” His time of 2:34:30 was 300th in a field of 5,517 male runners.
Carney plans to run at least two marathons in 2024. The first will be at the second annual Hudson Valley Marathon, which will take place on May 5 in Poughkeepsie, starting at the Walkway Over the Hudson. He also intends to enter the Chicago Marathon in October.
At the suggestion of principal Christopher Boyd, Carney is planning a 5K race that will be open for the whole community at the high school in May. (The exact date is not yet determined.) Shorter distances will also be included. The event will be a fundraiser for the Bomber Boosters.
While he still gets a thrill from running, Carney said winning the state title in Vernon, N.Y. last fall is the highlight of his running career: “I told the team that they should appreciate that these were glory days that they will always remember.”