Running Camp Director Becomes Cross Country Coach

– Posted on May 10, 2022Posted in: Culture, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Local, New and Noteworthy, Sports

By Nona Stewart

Sports Editor

As Crowder begins new sports programs, new coaching positions begin to open up. Jake Holt saw this as “something that I wanted to pursue as I am now well into the second half of my teaching career.”   

Jake Holt grew up in Washburn, Missouri and graduated high school from Southwest R-5 where he ran cross country since 7th grade. Southwest R-5 is known as one of the best small schools in the state of Missouri.  

Holt tells us how he started running. “My older brother ran for one of the earliest teams that was a top 4 team in the state, and once I entered 7th grade, I began to run for the jr. high team. I finished 2nd in my first cross country race, and the rest is history.”  

Jake Holt started assistant coaching under Kern Sorrell in 2002 at East Newton High School where he also taught English. In 2005, he got the chance to step up to be head coach and took it. Since then, he has had teams win 17 Conference titles, 17 district championships and 6 Missouri State trophies.  

After coaching at East Newton, Holt founded his SWMO running camp in 2008, a summer camp where runners, coaches, and even college runners can come and get special training from Holt and other coaches. He gained a lot of experience through starting the camp and training 400-450 runners every summer.  

Holt believes that a running team is like a family and states “When you get your team to buy into the family atmosphere that cross country provides, you are going to get the most out of them athletically.”  

One day while Holt was eating in the Crowder cafeteria, he looked around and recognized many students from races when they were in high school. Many of the students he saw were good runners and he thought that if Crowder had the opportunity to have a cross country team, they would have an excellent program. 

 So, when he heard that Crowder was trying to start a cross country program at a cross country meet last fall, he wanted to jump on that opportunity.  

As it becomes closer to the fall and you want to run cross country, contact Jake Holt at Jakeholt@crowder.edu or call the athletic department at 417-455-5426.