Brit Daugharthy has learned quickly the difference between stepping up as a head coach in cross country vs. her three-year stint as an assistant.
“There’s a lot more organization, which I like,” she said. “As an assistant you just get to smile and nod your head a lot, and have a good time.”
Truth be told, Daugharthy is being more than a bit modest.
While she has officially ascended to the head coach position at Iola High School, taking over for the legendary Marv Smith, Daugharthy’s duties have exceeded those of a typical assistant well before this season.
Smith, whose retirement in part was prompted because of lingering back issues, had handed many of the administrative duties to Daugharthy over the past two years.
He frequently tasked Daugharthy with duties such as attending coaches’ meetings, distributing information to the runners, and even going over courses unfamiliar to the students.
“She handled that very well,” Smith said. “She’s had some brilliant ideas on training.”
Even so, Daugharthy understands she has giant shoes to fill in replacing Smith, who taught or coached in some capacity at IHS since 1965.
“Marv has such a big personality,” Daugharthy said. “He’s always had such a great relationship with kids. That’s one of the things I admired most about Marv. He was so good at tricking kids into working harder than they realized.”
It’s a trait Daugharthy hopes to replicate now that she’s the one in charge.
She’s nervous, and excited, at the opportunity.
“I’m a super competitive person myself,” Daugharthy noted.
That she knows a thing or two about running helps as well.
The Eureka native was a four-year letter winner in cross country, and three-year letterwinner in cross country. She also won a league track title in the 200-meter dash while in high school track, and remains in the school’s record books by running a portion of the school’s fastest ever 4×400-meter relay.
She ran cross country at the University of Ottawa, and was part of a national-qualifying 4×800-meter relay team, before coming to southeast Kansas in 2017 as a special education teacher for the ANW Special Education Cooperative.
In addition to her cross country duties, Daugharthy also serves as an assistant coach on the IHS track team.
