Small school Barr-Reeve accomplishes big goal

By Parker West for DyeStat

Barr-Reeve High School may only have 205 students, but the cross country team has never let enrollment numbers dictate its success in Indiana’s one size fits all cross country championship.

In Indiana, the state tournaments for cross country, track and field, wrestling, tennis, golf and swimming are not separated by class size. So this Saturday in Terre Haute, there is only one race to decide who the state champion boys and girls are. As a result, the teams that most often participate and contend for titles are big schools.

Barr-Reeve has also undergone a recent coaching change. After former head coach, Jay R Perkins, retired, Miles Krieger was hired and quickly told the athletic director and principal that the school had the make-up of a state qualifying boys team.

“Coach Perkins was someone who I held close to my heart and he helped me tremendously by taking me under his wing my eighth grade year,” senior Kalen Ochs said. “However, Miles has done a fantastic job of stepping in and being the coach we needed.”

Last Saturday, the Barr-Reeve Vikings competed at the Brown County Semi-State, where the top six teams qualify for the state meet. Barr-Reeve placed sixth, just two points ahead of seventh place, Silver Creek (a school four times larger), and solidified their spot at the starting line at the state finals.

“In that announcement of our team in sixth the guys felt what it meant to reach and achieve a goal that had been in their minds for 130 days,” Krieger said, “Together they felt the stress and strain of a dream they all shared and together they made it a reality. As a coach it was a feeling I can't compare to anything I have felt to this point.”

Said the top Vikings’ top runner, Justin Goodwin: “I felt so relieved to hear it and also so blessed by God.”

Ochs was similarly moved.

“As we were huddled in our group, all I could hear was Justin saying ‘Please God, please God, please God.’ Hearing that Silver Creek was seventh, leaving us a spot in the top six was overwhelming,” Ochs said, “I instantly dropped to my knees crying because all the blood, sweat, and tears poured into my career as a Viking finally paid off.”

For years, the Barr-Reeve runners had heard stories about the school’s best ever teams, called the Black Wave. But even in those peak years, the Black Wave never advanced all the way to state.

“I wanted to be a part of the team that finally broke that barrier, and to actually be a part of it is a dream come true,” senior Hawk Royer said.

It may be the first time that Barr-Reeve has sent a team to state, but there is a proud history of running success at the school. In 2012, Connor Sorrells not only qualified for state, he won the individual championship. Fellow “Black Wave” teammate Damon Pruett finished 37th that year. Jarit Perkins qualified in 2013 and 2014. And this Saturday, two Barr-Reeve girls, Natalie Graber and Emily Schultheis, are qualified.

“I look up to the three individuals who were before us,” Ochs said, “I believe that they have made Barr-Reeve so well-known because of their individual success.”

For schools with an enrollment of less than 300, it is rare for the cross country team to qualify for the state finals, but Barr-Reeve runners don’t see it that way.

“We don't want to think of ourselves as a small school,” Krieger said. “We have one class in Indiana and the bigger schools inspire us, but to achieve our goals we have to be competitive with any team that goes to the line.”

With schools like Carmel, with an enrollment of 5,010 students, dominating the cross country scene in Indiana, small school runners all over the state look to compete against the best of the best. On Saturday, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, the Barr-Reeve Vikings will toe the line and be doing just that.