2018 AIA CC State Championship D3 Girls' Finish: 10th Place
The Tuba City Warriors are looking to rebuild their squad into a Sectional contender. They have a solid core of veteran runners Larissa Yazzie, Shaelyn Honahni, and Rochelle Jackson. Larissa Yazzie ran PRs of 20:08 from Twilight back in 2017 and even ran 11:52 for 3200m at Chandler Rotary that same year. They also return Shanelle Zeena (So.) who showed some real potential as a freshman when she ran 20:14 to finish 25th in the Girls' Championship race at Desert Twilight. A new class have joined the Warriors, but it's too early to tell how they will fare through the fall.
Coach Arvis Myron Says…
Who are your top returners?
Girls: Larissa Yazzie (Sr.), Shaelyn Honahni (Jr.), Shanelle Zeena (So.), Rochelle Jackson (Sr.)
Boys: Demetrius Daw (Sr.), Alisseo Honahni (Jr.)
Do you have any impact freshman or incoming transfers?
It looks like I may have two to four young girls that will make a significant impact on the girls' team, provided they have run some mileage this summer. Most of the girls were involved in summer basketball and did some running but not aerobic running to build base mileage. The boys' remains to be seen. I know of two incoming boys that will certainly be in the top 7 for the boys' team as they were successful at the Jr. High level.
All returning boys will be fighting for the top 7 spots, so competitively, they boys will fight their place in the varsity team.
Left: Rochelle Jackson finished 52nd for the Tuba City Warriors at the State Meet, last year. - John Hays
What kind of mileage/volume are you guys doing and what has been the focus of the current phase of your training?
We just finished our first phase of building mileage, and the next two weeks start to transition into the pre-competitive phase where we will amp the workouts a little, but keeping in mind the fitness level of the runners. It's a short season, so kids should have put in ample mileage to handle the next phases within the season or they will end up getting injured by trying to stay up with the top runners and play catch up the rest of the season. Volume will gradually decrease and intensity will increase in the next four weeks.
What do you feel is the most important thing you want young people to learn through running?
There are opportunities beyond high school in terms of running and at the same time, they can work towards a life career goal. Running attributes will help them in school, military, or raising of family as they go through life; concepts like commitment, discipline, etc.
Have you set any goals as a team?
Our goal has always been to qualify for State Meet and improvement from previous year's placing. Also, the goal each individual is to improve by at least 25-45 seconds as the season progresses; with whole team focusing on Regional Meet to get that improvement.