The Beckley cross country programs under the guidance of head coach George Barbera have been highly successful over nearly the last decade.
The boys and girls teams have each won the Class AAA Region 3 title seven out of the last eight years.
According to the veteran coach this should be another strong season for the Flying Eagles.
“We feel like both teams will be very good this year,” Barbera said. “The best part about it is the amount of freshman that we have coming in. This is one of our best years in regards to freshman when it comes to numbers and experienced runners. We have four or five freshman girls and boys. We are really excited about that.”
“We have a strong senior core as well. We have four senior girls and boys,” Barbera went on to say. “There is not a whole lot in between, so we are freshman and senior strong. We have lots of experience and lots of youth and eagerness. We did good this year in track season, so that was a good recruiter for some track kids to come out and try cross-country.”
The boys squad returns four solid veterans, but did lose their top runner from last year, Aiden Kneeland, who moved to Cabell County.
Seniors Brandon Canaday, Robert Shirey, Michael Haddadin and Mason Nettles are all experienced runners who will anchor the boys team. Barbera is very confident his foursome can get the job done.
“Brandon is a former regional champ and except for the year he was injured, he has been all-region as well,” Barbera said. “He is a senior captain and our leader. We are looking for really good things out of him this year.”
Canaday came home first in the regional run as a freshman and was third last year to help lead the Flying Eagles to the regional title.
Shirey and Haddadin have also been solid in regional competition for Beckley.
As a sophomore, Shirey finished ninth in the regional meet and moved up to sixth last year. Haddadin finished one spot behind Shirey last year and also qualified for the state track meet in the two-mile back in May.
Jasiah Miller is the lone sophomore on the team and will be joined by five up and coming freshmen which have fared well at the middle school level.
Freshman Vance Lindley, Brady Whitehead and Kyle Peters took the top-three positions in the 1600-meter at the Raleigh County Track championship.
“We also have new runners Trey Sides and Chayse Dominic. They all did well in cross-country also,” Barbera said. “I have told people for a long time that it is hard to win a state championship without freshman in your top-five, so don’t count us out.”
The girls team will likely hit the course this season with a little extra fire in their eyes.
After winning the regional meet for seven straight years, the Flying Eagles were knocked out of the top spot last year by longtime rival Greenbrier East.
“I certainly hope it fires them up. I would like to say they made up for it in the state meet, but that doesn’t get you that trophy back. Hopefully they can use that as motivation,” Barbera said. “I talk a lot about my son Christopher’s success and my son Andrew’s success. Most of their success came after some type of disappointment or failure and they both experienced it. I look forward to the success that follows something like that.”
The four seniors returning for Beckley will be Kyndall Ince, Lauren Curtis, Cecilia Lindley and Hannah Keiling who all finished top-10 or better in the 2022 regional meet.
“Add to that some freshman from Park Middle School like Leah White and Lilly Bostwick along with a few track girls and we are going to be strong,” Barbera said. “Our distance team did well in the track season, but most of them favor cross country.”
The Raleigh County middle school programs have been a big key to the success of the high school program according to Barbera.
“Mary McClanahan coaches Beckley Stratton. Her team has grown by several kids that are new to the sport,” Barbera said. “Terry Blake did a great job recruiting her kids to run high school cross-country. Both schools kind of follow us and there is a lot of support there.”
The season will open for Beckley on Saturday, Aug. 26 when it hosts the Chick-Fil-A Beckley Invitational at Beckley-Stratton Middle School.
The highly popular meet continues to grow each year according to the veteran coach.
“We are expecting an even bigger meet this year,” Barbera said. “We have messages from teams that didn’t attend last year saying count us in. It is going to be a great meet, hopefully the weather holds up.”
