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Woodlands Christian Academy head cross country and track and field coach Tom Earle takes great pride in having built a nationally recognized program with kids largely from his own backyard.
“Woodlands as a community is very active,” Earle said in a video posted to Facebook from the TAPPSCONN 2021 gathering. “I did some research and in our program, for the most part, the kids are homegrown. By the time they reach middle school they enjoy being able to be a part of it and it perpetuates.”
All the winning certainly helps.
Over the last 12 years, the program Earle started from scratch has bagged nine state titles and finished as runner-up on multiple occasions. In addition, the girl's track and field team has won eight straight district titles.
“We have continued to grow our numbers since I began the program in 2009 such that our team this year (65 athletes) is 25% of our entire high school,” Earle recently told Tx.MileSplit.com. "Eighty middle school athletes also compete in track and field. That creates a culture throughout the entire high school that our program will always be competitive."
That’s a lot of growth for a program Earle started as a way to keep his daughter engaged, not to mention with just 12 athletes and not a lot of coaching experience.
“I enjoy being able to stay on the forefront of learning,” Earle said, who also now serves as the coordinator of Mission & Student Life at Woodland.
Earle said a lot of what he knows about the sport comes from his time at the University of Houston running under head coach Tom Tellez and mid-distance coach Howie Ryan.
“Here at Woodlands, the kids are naturally driven and high academic achievers,” he said. “They’re able to start seeing some progress and push for more.”