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<strong>A closer look at the people behind the magic...</strong></p>
Keith Hampton and son Ryan caught together at a recent state cross country meet. Contributed photo.
One thing I've learned over the last few years is that it's extremely difficult to have an uninteresting conversation with Keith Hampton, track and cross country coach at Telluride. Every time I talk with Keith, I learn something new. His passion and energy for the sports seem almost boundless. So, it was natural that he would be on my list of interview subjects. It took a little longer for this interview to come through, however, as his property management business in Telluride keeps him very busy during the winter. I think you'll find, however, that the wait was worth it.
I'm told that you were part of an historically significant team in the annals of Illinois high school cross country. Can you give us some of the story about that team and your role on it?
I attended Deerfield High School north of Chicago and ran XC for four years from 1974 to 1977. Our team was state champions in 1976 and 1977. At the time, I knew we were a good team, but I don’t think I really appreciated how special it really was. Our top five averaged 4:10 for the mile and 9:07 for the 2-mile. Back before Foot Locker and Nike Cross Nationals, the national champion in high school cross country was crowned by Marc Bloom’s The Harrier magazine. In 1976, he started the first ever US national team rankings. In that year Deerfield was ranked #1 in the nation. In 1977, we were once again selected as national champion and our team that year is often regarded as one of the best high school XC teams of all time. I most often ran third man for the team, behind twins Mark and Todd McCallister. In our senior year, Mark got spiked at the Sectional meet and was not able to run state. I can only imagine now, as a coach, how nerve wracking it must have been for our coach Len Kisellus [now an Illinois Hall of Fame Coach] to go into the state championship with a 4:09/9:10 guy on the sidelines. Despite missing our second man, we still won state over a very good York team by a score of 71-134 with 5 guys in the top 30. We still stay in close touch as a team and often have the opportunity to get together at our annual alumni run in August.
Where did college take you, and did you continue your running career in college?
I went to Dartmouth College and ran XC/Track all four years. Following my high school experience, college started off very differently. We had a good program, but we went through three coaches in my first two years. Guys started to lose interest and we were not very competitive. Then Vin Lananna arrived as the new head coach for XC in the fall of 1980. He showed what a good coach can do for a program as we went from 7th in the Heps in 1979 to qualifying for nationals my last two years. I remember in that first fall season, we were terrible–-no confidence and no sense of how to race. The third week of the season, Lananna took us all out to dinner. He set up an easel and listed our top seven in order. Next to that list, he wrote down the top seven of the team we would be running against the next day. He told us that if we were not with our corresponding person on the other team at the two-mile mark (we ran 10K) he would yank us off the course. Not sure if he really would have done it, but we believed him. Lananna ended up coaching a number of All-Americans and Trials qualifiers before moving on to Stanford and Oregon. I really enjoyed competing in college, I think too many kids give up competitive running after high school.
And how did you end up in Telluride?
After college I went back to Chicago to get my MBA and worked for Kraft in marketing. My wife and I shared a love for the outdoors and skiing which naturally led us to think about a move to Colorado. Back in 1988, Telluride was just getting started as a ski town. We came out on a ski trip and fell in love with the scenery and small town character of Telluride. We packed up and moved in the spring of 1988 thinking we might spend five years. It was 25 years last spring!
My memory doesn't always serve me perfectly, but I have no recollection of Telluride having a cross country team before you were there. I'm guessing you started the program. What circumstances led to that and how difficult was it to get the program going?
In 2006, my son wanted to run track--I may have planted a bit of a seed. However, the track coach had left the program after one year and there was no plan to hire anyone new. Telluride had scored exactly zero points at the 2005 conference meet and there was not a lot of interest in picking up the pieces. Considering the school doesn’t actually have a track, it was not a very high priority. However, I called the AD to see if I could help and he asked if I would be interested in coaching the team. My initial reaction was, “No, not a chance,” but then after some thought I decided to give it a try. My wife Alicia agreed to help and we had four kids on the boys/girls teams combined in 2006. We qualified three of them for 2A state which was pretty exciting. Neither Telluride or Norwood had ever had a cross country team. A number of us had talked about the possibility, but what really got it going was the fact that we had some good runners coming up including Ty Williams and Josephine Bush.
So in 2008 we decided to start a team. I remember at our first meet in Delta, none of the kids had any idea what they were doing. We had to start with the basics, our main goal for that meet was to not walk. We didn’t achieve that goal. In 2009 we had the first-place finisher at the state meet and the last place finisher, I’m not sure that has ever been done before. Cross Country in Colorado is so different than Illinois where most of our courses were on school grounds. We certainly never ran a course like Aspen!
It's easy to think Telluride would be a great place to develop a team, but I'm sure you face your own set of obstacles there. What are some of the challenges inherent in developing a consistently competitive cross country team in Telluride?
In fact, Telluride has been an incredibly difficult place to develop a team, much harder than I ever would have imagined. There are so many alternatives for the kids and many of them are much more attractive than killing yourself over a 5K race. Soccer, skiing, volleyball, and cheer are all more popular than running.
With only 180 kids in the school, the pool of possible team members is always limited. We have worked hard over the past few years to develop a strong middle school program. Getting kids excited about running before they are in high school makes it much easier to get them on the team once they are there.
I think the key for us in building the quality of the team has been a couple of things: 1) We welcome every kid who wants to be on the team. If a kid has the commitment, they can succeed; 2) We strive for excellence. Improving and getting better is fun, kids really appreciate seeing that the work they put in has led to results; and 3) We take pride in what we do. Our kids feel special because they know that no sport is harder.
Do you have a favorite memory from your years of coaching track and cross country in Telluride?
There have been many great moments, but I think my favorite was watching my daughter Rachel win the state XC championship after breaking her foot the spring before. I knew what it took for her to get there and it was an incredibly proud moment.
Nobody ever looks at you and thinks, "Well, there's a coach who's lost interest!" What keeps the fire burning for you?
I have to say that I really love the sport. I think it does wonderful things for the kids who participate, it changes them for life. Of course there are highs and lows, but that keeps things interesting. I also find that learning about different training methods, adjusting each year to new kids, and trying to improve what we do is great. The only real issue is that it seems harder each year to keep up on the XC training runs.
What's your favorite run in the Telluride area?
Telluride is a fantastic place to run. There are tons of old mining trails and 4x4 roads that offer great back country training. There are two routes that are my favorites – one is a loop through Illium Valley and another leads from Bear Creek up over the ski area. One of our favorite traditions as a team in the summer is the run/hike over the 7 summits loop. It is an all-day adventure that stays mostly above 13,000 feet and finishes back in town for pizza. If anyone is ever planning to be in the area, let me know and we will go explore.