Interview with Joe Newton (from Gary Cohen)

If you coach Cross country and DON’T know who Joe Newton is, then you must read the lengthy interview by Gary Cohen.

The full interview (with some fun facts and figures at the end of the article) can be found here:

http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Newton.aspx

Joe Newton is a legendary high school cross country and track coach at York High School in Elmhurst, Illinois who is arguably the most successful high school cross country coach in U.S. history based on team championships.

Starting with his team’s first Illinois state cross country title in 1962, York has won 27 Illinois state cross country championships and one track state title while four of his runners won IHSA individual cross country titles.

Joe’s cross country teams have also finished second in the Illinois state meet 11 times and in third place four times.

So in the past 49 years the York Dukes earned a total of 42 IHSA trophies while never finishing lower than eighth place.

His Olympic experience includes being an assistant manager in charge of the USA marathon runners for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul (he shares his experience in the interview)

A feature-length documentary was made about his life and successes, called The Long Green Line after his team’s nickname. ( You can find that video on Amazon)