Customer Reviews

The Long Green Line

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Over his more than 50 years as coach of the boy's cross country team at York, Joe Newton's teams have won 26 State Championships and 20 National Championships. Although some of his coaching is controversial, since his top runners are putting in up to 130 miles per week, there is no arguing with Coach Newton's results.

After watching the film, here is what I think is his formula for success:

* Recruit a lot of freshman. Coach Newton aggressively recruits 50-100 freshman for the boy's cross country team each year.
* Get to know every runner on your team. Coach Newton gets to know each and every one of his over 220 runners. He give each one a nickname. He shakes their hand at each practice.
* Develop each runner. One of the runners featured in the film has cerebral palsy and can barely run at the beginning of the season. Coach Newton invests as much time with him as some of his top runners. He is soon beating other runners in races.
* Challenge each runner to do their best. Coach Newton provides his team with an inspirational quote each day. It's clear that he sees running as a metaphor for life.
* Develop team depth. In the film, several of York's top seven varsity runners aren't able to compete due to various problems, but the team is so deep their places are taken by the next runners on the squad and the team's performance doesn't suffer.
* Celebrate wins. Coach Newton and the York team celebrate both team and individual wins through out the season.
* Create a winning tradition. By winning so many State Championships, Coach Newton is both able to recruit runners who might have chosen other sports and to motivate the runners on his squad to keep the tradition going.

I highly recommend this film for high school cross country runners, their parents, and coaches.

For more information about Coach Newton's methods, you can read his book, Coaching Cross Country Successfully (Coaching Successfully Series)

The Long Green Line provides a rare glimpse into a winning high school xc team, the diversity of its members and pitfalls along the way. The dedication of Coach Joe Newton is nothing short of inspirational. Having watched this movie, however, on the heels of reading Chris Lear's 'Running with the Buffaloes' and watching many other running movies, I had hoped that equal time was provided between the hat's-off for Joe Newton, his coaching technique and inclusionary principals, with some footage and story line on the top guns and the hard work and dedication needed by these runners, to win their school's 25th State XC Championship, along with more associated training or running footage. Film quality, although lacking on action, was superb with some 'wow' footage saved for near the end of the movie captured from behind start line of the State Championships. Those few seconds was worth several rental fees alone.

I love this movie. The old Coach Newton preaches his old world ways, and REALLY communicates to this younger generation. It's his 50th year coaching, the team is going for their 25th title, and 2 of the top 5 kids get arrested. What's the team going to do? Their going to dig deep. THey have over 200 guys on the Cross Country TEAM?!! That's crazy. My school's football team only had 70 guys on it.

Newton is a great American Hero. He'd make Obama AND Sarah Palin proud.

If you have ever competed as a distance runner or are thinking about increasing your coaching relevence, then you are about to witness an unbelievable documentary.