Cross Country Trio Returns to Coach Red Raider Team

MIKE MOTZ

Sidney Sun-Telegraph

SIDNEY-- It was the day before the official first day of summer and the Sidney Red Raider Cross Country team was already in full swing preparing for the upcoming season. 2021-22 State Coach of the Year Donna Wiedeburg always uses the summer vacation to get her athletes ready to compete at the highest level from the start of the season, and the long-time Cross Country coach always has something new to motivate and inspire her athletes to push themselves further than they ever thought possible. This year, she has brought in a new twist to make her team even stronger.

Three new assistant coaches have joined the Raider Cross Country family, and two will be familiar to the Sidney Community. The third is a recent college graduate currently working within the Sidney Public School system. Three assistant coaches who are not that far removed from their high school cross-country careers will be a great help to this year's team, as their ability to relate to the student-athletes and guide them through high school athletics and into college competition, if that is their goal, will only be a great help to the success of the team.

Collin Brauer, Jachob Wiedeburg, and Noah Burtis are the three new coaches who are getting to know the Red Raider student-athletes and starting to help them with the physical and mental preparation for the cross-country season ahead. Brauer was a standout runner at Sidney High School and continued his athletic career at the Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota. He is presently finishing his studies in Exercise Physiology.

When asked about the differences in competing at the high school versus college level, Brauer said, "College is more competitive. Many times in high school you'll have runners competing just for the social experience or to get in shape. But at the college level, you have the best of the best competing and they are all serious about winning, not just having a good time." Brauer noted that the Black Hills Cross Country program has produced National Champions and All-Americans throughout their history, and he has been able to compete against the best runners in the country.

"You get to see firsthand the preparation and details they focus on, that's why they are top competitors. Competing with and against these types of athletes improves your own performance," said Brauer.

Noah Burtis is not from Sidney and he graduated from Berthaud High School in Colorado in 2018. He was a State Meet qualifier in high school and went on to compete collegiately at Chadron State College. He is currently a social studies teacher at Sidney High School. He competed at the Rocky Mountain

Athletic Conference Championships for Chadron State in 2023.

"One of the differences between high school coaching and college coaching is that runners generally have their technique down by the time they get to the collegiate level. Most of the coaching then focuses on mental preparation and overcoming fatigue. There's also a lot of preparation for learning the course you will run, such as knowing where to push yourself is a big key to success. It's not that these things are not a part of high school coaching, it's just more intense at the college level," Burtis said.

Finally, a very familiar name has come back into the Red Raider fold, Jachob Wiedeburg from the Sidney High School Class of 2015. The son of Head Coach Donna Wiedeburg, Jachob was a standout runner as a Red Raider, and he went on to run Cross country and Track at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. After graduating, Wiedeburg spent four years teaching and coaching in Bennington, Nebraska. He remained an active runner and qualified for the Boston Marathon three times.

"Although I qualified for the race three times, I never got to compete in the Boston Marathon. Just because you qualify doesn't mean you get a slot in the race. I wasn't fortunate enough to get into the race, but it's still a great accomplishment to qualify," Wiedeburg said.

He has moved back to Sidney, purchased a home, and works in the Sidney Public School system. He is thrilled to be back, but it seems a bit surreal. "The other day I was running with Collin Brauer, and it hit me that it was exactly 10 years ago--a decade--that I started my senior season here at Sidney High School," he reminisced.

Jachob is a testament to the adage that hard work pays off. "I was never the best runner when I was a kid, but I worked hard and developed my endurance. I'm a big believer that in athletics and life, you get back what you put into it. That's what I want to teach the student-athletes here, that you always have to push yourself, and that you can accomplish more than you think if you keep working."

Wiedeburg is excited to coach with his mother and is proud of how she has turned the Sidney Cross Country program into a model of success.

"She's just got so much energy, and she loves running and getting the kids prepared. They respond well to her coaching and she's always finding ways of improving their performance and keeping them motivated. I'm excited to learn more about coaching from her," he said.

The Sidney Cross Country team is always at the top of the standings, and now with this new trio of young coaches, look for the team to excel even further.