Dave Frank is in his 18^th year at Central Catholic after eleven years at Saint Francis in Mountain View, CA.

As the head boys cross country coach (13 years) his teams have won nine State Championships (in Oregon’s largest classification – although CCHS has just 900 students) and have never finished worse than second at the State Meet.  His boys have qualified for NXN three times (2005, 2007, 2013).  He has coached four individual State Champions (Kenny Klotz – 2005, Taylor Morgan – 2006, Kyle Thompson – 2011 & 2013) and 19 First Team All State runners (63 total All State athletes).  Klotz also finished 4^th at Footlocker in 2005.

On the track his boys have run 7:40.68 (4 x 800m – 3^rd at Nike Outdoors in 2006), 10:09.82 (DMR – 2^nd at Arcadia 2014), and 17:22.43 (4 x 1600m – 2^nd at Arcadia 2014).  Klotz was the State Meet champ at 1500m & 3000m in 2006.  Morgan won the 800m in 2007, and Andy Bennison won the 1500m in 2011.

He was the assistant coach from 2000-2004 and had a front row seat to Galen Rupp’s high school years.

Key Workout

Washington Park Fartlek

Years ago – in the 1980s, long before the Oregon Project or the Bowerman Track Club – there were many outstanding post-collegiate runners in Portland.  Most of them raced primarily on the roads, but each year they also ran the XC Nationals (which is now known as USATF Club Nationals).  To prepare for XC Nationals they began a weekly fartlek workout in Forest Park (miles and miles of amazing trails). When I came home in the summers I’d join this group for this *challenging* workout.

When I returned to coach at Central Catholic a group was still doing this workout – although less regularly.  I considered using it with our team, but was initially deterred by the effort it might take to implement it properly.  After conversations with a few people I saw the light, and it’s been a staple of our summer program for over a decade now. [Read more…]