The Man Who Coaches Champions: How To Have Sustainable Excellence As A High School Athlete With Niwot's Coach Kelly Christensen + Insights On How He Coached An NXN Winning Team & Individual
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.8 • 686 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are joined today by one of the best high school cross country coaches in the country, Kelly Christensen.
Coach Christensen leads Niwot High School in Colorado. They recently won the High School Nike Cross Nationals boy’s race in December. The team put together one of the best finishes in NXN history, totaling just 70 points, and emerged as the first boy’s team to capture the title in Colorado high school history.
Coach Christensen became a school counselor and coach at Niwot in Colorado in 2016, after transitioning from a career in construction management. Coach Christensen earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Western State College. During his time at Niwot, the Cross Country program has achieved five girl’s state championship titles and two boy’s state titles. The boys have crowned four individual state champions and one individual runner-up finish as well.
Prior to coaching at Niwot, Christensen served as the head cross country and track coach at Palmer Ridge High School from 2014 - 2016 (achieving two boys’ track and field titles and a cross country title).
In today’s conversation, Coach Kelly takes me through his coaching philosophies, his backstory into coaching, how he emphasizes the importance of balance, the story of how his boys won their first-ever NXN title, how he coaches disappointment, and so much more.
This conversation was a true blessing and I hope you take the time to listen to it. I wish I had this podcast episode when I was a freshman in high school. Don’t waste the opportunity to learn from one of the best coaches in the sport.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Whenever they realized they didn't make it, there were a few of them that had a cathartic moment. |
| 0:05.0 | It's hard to talk about. |
| 0:07.0 | They realized, like, that opportunity is gone. |
| 0:13.0 | Like, so when you watch people realize and fail and they break down, they cry, and they're hugging each other. That's what was missing. |
| 0:21.5 | You know, like, they realize, oh, this is why we do this. We're not going to let this happen again. |
| 0:30.4 | That was one of the few raw moments from my conversation today with Coach Kelly Christensen. |
| 0:35.4 | This conversation blew me away. Coach Kelly does not get the |
| 0:38.9 | flowers he deserves. And this was one of my favorite conversations I've ever had with a coach |
| 0:43.8 | on the podcast. It was a true privilege to sit down with the coach of the winner of the boys |
| 0:49.2 | NXN team, Nywat High School based out of Boulder, Colorado. He's been coaching there and a school counselor since 2016, and this was after a transition of his background in construction management, oddly enough, which we go into in today's conversation. |
| 1:04.0 | During his time at Nywatt, the cross-country program has achieved five girls state championship titles and two boys' state titles. |
| 1:10.0 | The boys have |
| 1:11.1 | been crowned four individual state champions and one individual runner up as well this year at |
| 1:16.0 | NXN the boys team totaled 70 points to take home the W that was the first NXN title in school |
| 1:21.5 | history for those who are unaware of what NXN is it is the national cross-country meet for |
| 1:27.1 | teams and if you win, you are the |
| 1:29.7 | best of the best. You're the best in the country. And that's exactly what Niawatt did on the boy's side. |
| 1:34.5 | I go in depth with Coach Kelly today on what it took to win. His lessons, a lot of lessons on |
| 1:39.7 | sustainable excellence. That's what stuck out to me the most and impacted me. I think he's got a lot of |
| 1:44.8 | beautiful contrary views to what the norm is and what most people say it takes to be great in the |
| 1:51.1 | sport of running. I personally wish Coach Kelly coach me in high school. He's got such a good heart and |
| 1:56.9 | that shows in today's conversation really bleeds through. And this conversation was a true gift. |
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