Telegraph Staff Writer
Andy Merrill, a former cross country and track and field athlete at Bradford High School, has returned to his alma mater to take control of the cross country program.
Merrill, a 2012 BHS graduate, just knew he’d be back at the school one day. Needless to say, he was thrilled about his first day of practice as cross country coach.
“I was really excited to come back and get it started,” Merrill said. “I’ve always known it since high school — that I wanted to be a coach in some capacity.”
After four years as a student-athlete at Jacksonville University, Merrill coached as a volunteer at both JU and the University of West Florida.
“It was only a matter of time before I came back,” he said, adding, “It just so happened this year there was an opening for P.E. and cross country. I was like, ‘I might as well go back where I started.’”
Merrill had always played baseball as a youth, but he took on a different sport when he got to Bradford Middle School and Coach John Loper.
“Loper just asked me to come out one day,” Merrill said, adding, “The competitiveness of the sport kept me in it. I just fell in love with it. Now, it’s an everyday thing. It’s part of my life now.”
As a freshman at BHS, he placed 50th at the district championships. He improved to 30th and 23rd in his sophomore and junior years before finishing as his district’s runner-up when he was a senior. Merrill was only 11 seconds out of first place.
That senior season also saw Merrill place 99th in a field of 463 at the University of Florida Mountain Dew Invitational. After the district meet, he placed 27th in regional competition.
Merrill participated in track and field at BHS as well. He placed fourth in the 1600m and 10th in the 800m at the district meet as a freshman. As a sophomore, he placed fourth in the 3200m and fifth in the 1600m at the district meet. He was also a part of the district-championship 4x800m relay team that year.
An individual championship followed, with Merrill winning the district title in the 3200m as a junior. He was the runner-up in the 1600m and a member of the third-place 4x800m team as well.
Merrill placed third in the 1600m at the district meet his senior year.
JU offered Merrill a scholarship. He was immersed into a training routine that had him running a lot more than he was used to.
“I easily doubled and sometimes tripled my weekly mileage from high school in college,” Merrill said. “That’s the biggest factor in getting better from high school to there. In the first year, I dropped two minutes in 5K from high school to college.”
As a freshman, Merrill was the second-best runner on the JU team in all but one of its meets. He was second-best for the Dolphins in all of their meets his sophomore season.
Merrill was JU’s top runner at the FSU and Flrunners.com invitationals his junior year. He placed seventh overall in the Flrunners.com Invitational after 17th-place finishes the previous two seasons. Merrill was also his team’s second-best runner in two races and third on his team at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships.
During his senior season, Merrill was first on his team in three races and second in another.
“It was a good experience,” Merrill said. “I got a lot of running knowledge under my belt.”
Besides volunteer coaching, Merrill also did some semi-professional running after college, coached by Enoch Nadler, a 2004 Keystone Heights High School graduate who went on to star for the University of Florida, qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials and create Team Florida Track Club.
Nadler became another coach Merrill could learn some things from to apply to his own coaching.
“I’ve picked different things from every coach I’ve had over the years, from high school all the way up to college and beyond,” Merrill said.
The BHS program has had individuals advance from district to regional competition over the years, but has had only one runner (Sarah Frederick in 2012) qualify for state since 1995.
Since Merrill’s senior season in 2011, BHS has had a total of only four teams (boys and girls) advance from district to regional competition.
“I just want to get back to having a high-performing team week in and week out and make people get excited about running again,” Merrill said.
“Excited” is a key word. Merrill said are in engaged in so many things, but if he can help make them excited about running, perhaps they’ll put in the time it takes to become good.
“Really, the biggest thing in high school, I would say, is consistency over time,” Merrill said, adding, “As long as you can stay consistent, you’re going to see gradual increases over time.”
On the first day of practice this season, Merrill put the runners through a time trial. He said he ran with them to prove “that I mean business.”
In fact, Merrill running with the student-athletes is not out of the ordinary. He thinks back to his days on the BHS team and having a coach in Scott Weispfennig who would run during practices as well.
“I’m trying to mimic that, what he had with us when he was here,” Merrill said. “That’s what gave me the biggest improvements and performances, when he started pushing me. It’s different when you’re out there just having your friends (around you) versus a coach pushing you and running next to you.”
Running’s no problem for someone who’s incorporated the activity as part of his everyday life as Merrill has. You can bet, though, that he’s also fueled by the adrenaline that comes from having the chance to coach at his high school alma mater.
“I’m just excited to be here and start to build my own program,” Merrill said.
