SPIRE Academy Launches Cross Country Program With Dedicated Coach

GENEVA, Ohio, Feb. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SPIRE Academy, an elite sports academy located in Geneva, Ohio, is excited to announce an addition to its existing track-and-field program—cross country. The new sport will be headed up by new SPIRE hire Michael Larkin, a veteran track athlete and running coach.

"We've wanted to do a cross country program for a long time," said Tim Mack, Director of Track & Field at SPIRE Academy. "But until recently, the planets had never quite aligned. Now, we have enough land to stake out a running course completely on SPIRE property and we were lucky enough to secure Michael as head coach. Cross country is already big in Ohio. With a large student athlete base to pull from, and with Michael in charge, we expect to have little problem growing a competitive cross country program fairly quickly."

SPIRE's campus is preternaturally well suited to the laying out of a cross country running course. The school sits on a lot of old farmland. Farms need lots of roads for tractors to get around. These roads have turned out to be perfect cross country trails. There's also a sizable crop of SPIRE student athletes who can readily make the transition over to cross country from their current events, middle-distance runners being the prime example.

As for the new coach, Larkin was a cross country runner in high school and hurdler in college. He was a volunteer track coach at William & Mary, where he attended graduate school, and his first paid coaching position was at Penn State Behrend in Erie. Larkin then became Head Coach at Notre Dame College in Cleveland. He also worked as a volunteer assistant coach at Stevens Institute in Hoboken. "Michael's been a game-changer," said Mack. "With his background and experience, he can fill any need, but right now he's filling the cross country need. Having a coach dedicated to a single event sends a message to the competitive community that SPIRE intends to be a contender. Also, Michael's enthusiasm for the sport and for coaching are infectious. SPIRE's student athletes, and the larger community, are going to love him."

SPIRE's immediate goal for its new cross country program is to have competition-ready men's and women's teams, i.e., six runners per squad, with a relatively quick increase to two men's and women's teams. From there the sky may be the limit for cross country running at SPIRE. "I think SPIRE Cross Country is going to explode when people start to realize we have a dedicated coach, a world-class course and all the resources you need to build well-rounded student athletes right here, entirely on-campus," said Mack. "And with cross country you can have a single coach managing multiple runners at the same time, so it's far easier to scale up such a program. That's good, because I think we're going to be scaling up sooner than later."

Media Contact
Monica Kolbay
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About SPIRE Academy

SPIRE Academy is a comprehensive academic, athletic, personal skills and college-and-career development boarding school located in a world-class event and wellness complex located in Ohio's Harpersfield Township. Constructed on 750 acres under 850,000 square feet of roof, SPIRE Academy (spireacademy.com) has five divisions: (1) SPIRE Academy & Camps, an accredited college-preparatory international boarding school and multi-sport/specialty training and development academy for grades 9-12 and post-grads; (2) SPIRE Leagues, Clubs & Professional Teams, including SPIRE Academy affiliated leagues and club programs; (3) SPIRE Events, a facility and associated team that host local, national and international tournaments and events with the NCAA, the Big East, Big Ten, Atlantic 10 conferences, the Olympics and world championship qualifiers; (4) SPIRE Institute, the research and development arm of SPIRE Academy, studying performance improvement across multiple disciplines through corporate affiliations and university relationships; and finally (5) SPIRE Fit, a membership-based fitness, swim, personal training and health center open to the community. Sports currently featured at SPIRE Academy include men's and women's basketball, esports, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, track and field, volleyball and wrestling.

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SOURCE SPIRE Academy