A New Cross Country Season Begins in Missouri, So Does A New Webmaster

On the eve of the start of the Missouri High School Cross Country season, many runners are anxiously waiting for start of their first practice on Monday. They have logged many miles to prepare their mind and body for the long season ahead. Teams begin to evaluate their new squad. Some teams may have many familiar runners returning for another season whereas many teams look totally different with new faces. As for Mo.milesplit.com team, there will be many new faces trying fulfill a tradition of excellence in the coverage of high school Cross Country in the state of Missouri. I feel anxious and somewhat overwhelmed of the beginning season, but yet I am extremely excited. I wanted to introduce myself as the newly appointed webmaster for Mo.milesplit.com. There are many more people behind our coverage of Missouri Cross Country and Track & Field. I want to thank them for their help and patience in advance. Good Luck to all teams and athletes.


I didn’t start out being a runner. I was the point guard on the basketball team. I was the quarterback for my football team. I even made the high school baseball team, but I never played a game. I was 5’1” my freshman year of high school and “I weighed about 100 pounds soaking wet”, as my mom used to say. I loved all the sports that I played and I was scrappy so I got a good amount of playing time. Then one summer day while I was shooting hoops in the gym, a new teacher hollered at me and asked me if I wanted to run Cross Country. I said “Sure! What is Cross Country?” Coach Steve Ray was starting a cross country team and he was going around convincing students that they should give it a try. I didn’t know it at the time but it would become a sport I would love. It would be the sport that would help me to be the first person in my immediate family to earn a college degree.


In 1985, my sophomore year of high school, boys and girls cross country began at Pea Ridge High School in Pea Ridge, Arkansas under the direction of Coach Steve Ray. Coach Ray is currently the Head Cross Country and Track and Field Coach at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. Under his direction, I started to like to run. I looked forward to getting up early in the morning and running 3-4 miles just to do it again after school. I was good at my other sports, but I was getting pretty good at running. I was “hooked” and running became my “love”. I had made the baseball team my sophomore year, but I decided quit the team to focus on my running. Who am I kidding?! Coach Ray encouraged me in only a way that Coach Ray could “encourage” that I needed to focus on my training. It paid off. Five Individual Class 1 Arkansas State Titles and two individual runner-up finishes in Cross Country and Track later, I became the first child out of seven in my family to attend college. Running had changed my life


I attended University of Arkansas at Monticello with my high school coach becoming my college coach. After two years, Coach Ray accepted another coaching position in the AIC conference. Transferring to another school in the conference meant that I would lose a year of running eligibility; therefore I transferred to Missouri Southern State College that is now MSSU in Joplin, Missouri. I had the privilege to run for Missouri Hall of Fame inductee Coach Tom Rutledge and current distance coach Jamie Burnham while attending MSSU. In retrospective…working part time while training and attending classes, definitely limited my success as a college runner. I got married to Sherri, graduated with my teaching degree from MSSU, and found a teaching job in St. Elizabeth, Missouri. As Sherri finished her degree at Mizzou, I was now teaching K-12 Physical Education and coaching…you guessed it…High School Girls Basketball not XC or Track.

Sherri and I relocated to Southwest Missouri in 1996 and I began working for the East Newton School District teaching and coaching…yes you guessed it…coaching junior high football, basketball, and track & field I was fortunate enough to start the Cross Country Program at East Newton in the fall of 1997. I coached the Cross Country and Girls Track & Field teams until the spring of 2005. I was offered a school administration position at East Newton. I was torn about leaving the coaching field. I had four kids and financially it made sense to leave the sport that I loved and turn the program over to current East Newton Cross Country and Track Coach Jake Holt.

My Daughter Emily Sorrell (Class of 2016)


My daughter Kinsey Sorrell (Class of 2018)

So while I may have gotten out of the coaching aspect of cross country and track, I’ve always kept up with local schools and athletes. I was pleasantly surprised and, I must say, “proud as Dad can be”... (To the point of being overbearing), when my daughters started running. As they entered high school I found the website http://mo.milesplit.com/. It quickly became “the most recently visited” site on my computer. Not only could I keep up with the results of my daughters, I could stay informed as a parent and a fan of Cross Country and Track throughout the state of Missouri and the nation. I became a Mo.MileSplit junkie. The website has always been informative and professionally done while providing accurate information of Missouri’s athletes. The focus has always shined on the athletes of the sports of Cross Country and Track. The work of Paul Everett and his family should be applauded. The “Everett dedication” to Missouri Cross Country and Track and Field is intimidating. As the newly appointed webmaster for Mo.MileSplit, I cannot promise you Paul Everett. I can promise you that I am committed to keeping this website as a top rated and “most recently visited” site for Missouri runners/coaches, spectators and “proud parents”.