October 28, 2004
Normal, Ill. -
Illinois State cross country coach Chris Bailey has seen his fair share of Missouri Valley Conference Championships both as a runner and as a coach.
Bailey was part of three runner-up Redbird teams during his time as an athlete and was the coach when the men's squad took home the title during his first season at the helm in 2002. Both the men and women will look to duplicate that success when they travel to Carbondale for Saturday's MVC Championships with the women running the 5K at 10:30 a.m. and the men running the 8K at 11:30 a.m. This will be Bailey's third conference meet as coach of the cross country program after competing in four as an athlete.
"As a coach you try to talk about experiences you've been through and try to get the team prepared," Bailey said. "But, I don't like to talk too much about my time as an athlete because I don't want to talk about past success, but rather how good the team is now. We've had some great teams and the key to any great team is to have a great attitude. The biggest thing I want our team to know is that you have to have a winner's attitude to be successful."
Junior Jeremy Doherty was a third place finisher during last year's Valley meet, but health issues have kept the St. Louis, Mo., at less than 100 percent for most of this season. Still, Bailey has remained impressed with Doherty's work ethic and drive to be the best even when faced with adversity.
"I think Jeremy Doherty at 75 percent is better than much of the conference," Bailey said. "He's still going to go in with the expectations that he can place as high as he can. He didn't have the year that he wanted because of health problems, but that's not going to take away from what he wants to accomplish."
On the women's side, Laura Kennedy and Betsy McDonald have carried the Redbirds through much of the season, beginning in September when Kennedy won the 4K in the Redbird Challenge.
Kennedy is coming off of an all-conference performance in 2003, as is Diana Ainsley, who, like Doherty, has struggled with health issues for much of the season.
"Diana is going to come around. I have a lot of confidence in her," Bailey said. "The main thing we talked about was for her to just be herself and just do the things that are going to get you prepared for the conference championships. I expect her to come through for us. She's our senior and a captain."
The preparation time is nearly up for Bailey and company, and the Redbirds are ready to compete in the biggest meet of the season.
"This is conference championship time and whether we had a good year or a bad year, there's not much more at this point that's going to make us any better," Bailey said. "If we go in rested and ready to run with a positive attitude, we'll do just fine."
