Coach Cullen Doody Has Turned An Urban School Into The Country’s No. 3 Team; Bluejays Take On Top Midwest Teams Saturday at Nike XC Town Twilight
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
The way that Cullen Doody sees it, Jesuit High of New Orleans has always had the potential to be great in cross country.
Yes, it is an urban school with vitually no access to unpaved running surfaces, let alone a campus track.
The summers are hot and oppressively humid. There’s no getting around that.
And yet Doody, a former Jesuit runner who went on to compete at Louisiana State, felt there was untapped potential.
Louisiana does not have a legacy of great high school distance running. No team from the state ever advanced to a Nike Team or Cross Nationals. Seldom do distance races on the track in Louisiana warrant much notice.
Doody is trying to change that perception, for not only Jesuit but the state.
“By changing expectations and culture,” as he put it, Jesuit has become a force to be reckoned with.
The Bluejays are ranked third in the country and will face one of their biggest tests on Saturday at the Nike XC Town Twilight, Presented by the Garrett Companies, in Terre Haute, Ind. Jesuit had originally intended to travel to the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, N.C. but changed plans over concerns about delayed or canceled flights due to the arrival of Hurricane Ian. (Friday update: Great American is canceled).
In Indiana, Jesuit faces the prospect of competing against top-flight programs from Carmel IN, Plainsfield South IL, Hinsdale Central IL and Mason OH.
Doody is happy to have a chance to mix it up and take another step forward.
The young coach arrived in the summer of 2020, first as an assistant to specifically coach the top group at the all-boys grades 8-12 school located in the heart of the city.
Doody said that he knew, even from his own days at the school, that there was talent in the hallways, and even on the team.
“We took the same group of guys and changed a lot of things,” Doody said. “One of the things is, they guys are year-round dedicated to running. Previously, they’d do cross country and then not anything else until the next summer. Now we’re full-time running and these guys want to be good.”
Jesuit scored 22 points at the Louisiana state meet last year with six runners placing in the top 10 of the Class 5A final, and all seven in the top 15. None of them were seniors.
Jesuit went to the RunningLane Championships and…
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