Tristen Self named new CCHS cross country coach

NEWPORT — When Tristen Self was a high school sophomore, he joined the Cocke County cross country program.

He immediately enjoyed the camaraderie with his teammates, the individual aspect as an athlete, and he appreciated the mental approach required to succeed.

“And once you have this mindset, it’s a very driven and determined thing,” Self said. “Once you start running, you figure out how to push yourself in many ways, and it carries over to everyday life and helps you develop as a person.”

Now, Self will be able to share that mentality in a new way, having been announced as Cocke County’s newest cross country coach last Friday.

Self replaces Dale Boring, who stepped down after one season at the helm.

“I’m excited to announce that Tristen Self has agreed to take on our cross country program at Cocke County High School, replacing Dale Boring,” said CCHS Athletic Director Dr. Robert Vick in a statement to The Newport Plain Talk. “Whether it was during a hiring process as principal at Parrottsville or finding coaches as AD at Cocke County, my mindset has always been the same: find people who care about kids through love & discipline.

“Also, I want people who understand how to push our student athletes to the next level in their abilities on and off the court. Tristen will do all those and represent Cocke County High School well.”

Self’s hiring brings him full-circle from his CCHS career.

After graduating from Cocke County, he attended The University of Tennessee, where he continued to participate in the sport via club running.

He has also participated in half- and full marathons and is scheduled to run in the Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon, the Novant Health Marathon in Charlotte, and the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Marathon in Columbus, Ohio.

As a CCHS alum, he had been looking to get involved with the program prior to Boring’s decision to step down.

“I had been trying to reach out and get ahold of people, trying to figure out how I could help or assist some of the runners,” he said. “I wanted to be part of it as an alumni, and I wanted to get involved.”

And when Boring told Self he was stepping aside as head coach, Self became the natural choice to replace him.

“I told him that whatever was going on, I’d help in any sort of way,” Self said. “And when he mentioned he had a lot of stuff and would be interested in stepping aside and letting me run everything, I was extremely surprised and excited.”

Make no mistake about Self’s hiring, though.

Just because he is replacing Boring as head coach does not mean Boring will not still be involved in the program.

Self said that Boring will be at practice “two to three times a week” and that he will be at “most or all of the meets.”

“We will still be working very closely together,” Self reiterated. “He is still going to be involved, very much so, through the course of it. We’ll be working together, following through with the structure he has already set out.

“He already has a good regimen laid out for the whole team and some interesting prospects of kids that are good runners coming back. So I’m kind of just jumping in to where he has everything, and will try to keep everything going as smoothly as possible.”

Self dug into the regimen Boring has laid out, detailing the foundation that Cocke County runners can expect this fall.

“The structure of week-to-week, and there are different groups within the team,” Self said. “Pacing and things like that, people who have different abilities, and coaching it to where we can get everyone to improve on their times.

“He has a good foundation for how we should go about having our long runs and our short runs, and I’m very similar with my training. I think our views line up perfectly with how we will build everything together and develop the program further than it is right now.”

So, going into this fall, what excites Self the most about this new chapter in his running career?

“I really am excited to just work with the runners in general,” he said. “I grew up in this area, and ever since I started running cross country, I fell in love with it. I love getting people involved in it and building that community base, and I want to get it as hyped as we possibly can and get as many different runners as possible.”

“I just want to see where we can continue to build it from Coach Boring already doing an excellent job the past year,” he added. “And I want to continue moving it forward, just like he has.”