Consistency, Tradition Central To Bishop Blanchet's Enduring Success In Seattle

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

As a star-struck sophomore on the boys cross country team at Bishop Blanchet High in Seattle, John O’Leary already had his future mapped out.

It was the fall of 1989 and that passionate 15-year-old runner knew in his heart of hearts that one day he would return to Blanchet and coach.  

“I got addicted to that idea you could start off 40th on the team and by the end of the year you could be No. 10. That’s all I needed,” O’Leary said. “By that point, there was nothing else I was going to do; I knew as a sophomore I was going to run in the offseason and better myself. But I also knew for a fact, I was going to come back and coach at Blanchet.”

It’s now the fall of 2021 and O’Leary is in his 20th season as the cross country head coach at Blanchet. The fire that drove him 30 years ago is alive and well within the Blanchet program.

Blanchet, ranked No. 24 in the current DyeStat rankings, is vying Thursday for a 27th overall league title at the Metro League Championships at Magnuson Park. In early November, the team will look to extend its state record for appearances, which would be 53. The boys have won eight state titles, but none since 2004. 

“Any alumni in the 80s, 90s would still feel it’s the same program,” O’Leary said. “Workouts change over time to fit the athletes, race strategies change of course to fit the team, but the blueprint of the program has stayed relatively the same.”

O’Leary grew up as the youngest of four boys in a competitive Irish family. He said sports were always something he wanted to do, especially at the high school level, but nothing really resonated until he found cross country. O’Leary said it was during a physical education class when he was running around Green Lake, legendary head cross country coach Leo Genest came up and suggested he should give the sport a try.  

“That kicked the door down. I wasn’t a superstar by any means, but I just got addicted to the success of the program and would sit at home and look at the history of the program and study the runners,” he said. “It was just like when you’re a little kid collecting sports cards, but now I was experiencing that as a high schooler.” 

O’Leary developed a strong relationship with Genest and latched onto the philosophy of goal-setting, fierce competition, and family-like environment that Genest instilled. It was built on a brotherhood of individuals becoming the best versions of themselves on and off the course. 

O’Leary said his experiences as a junior and senior planted the seed that he would one day come back to Blanchet and coach. In 1990, he was part of one of the most talented teams in the country, which included senior All-Americans David Gurry (Arkansas and Oregon) and Nick Pavach (University of Washington), but the team finished fourth at the state meet. He and his teammates were determined to win the following year.

O’Leary made good on that statement, helping Blanchet claim the 2A state title and a US#15 ranking by The Harrier magazine.

“I think when you have that experience as a young athlete, you try, especially with the right group, you try to not necessarily talk about your history, but exude that same focus, and confidence and passion. I know from my history that it’s attainable with the right group,” he said.

O’Leary returned to his alma mater in 1997 as an assistant and officially took over the program from Genest, who won state titles in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1991 (2A), 1992 (2A) and 2001 (3A). Since then, O’Leary guided Blanchet to 2002 and 2004 state championships, along with 26 league titles, and continued the conference success, winning 23 Metro crowns.

“I think Coach O, he’s really team-oriented so he focuses a lot on our team, and just building a cross country brotherhood,” Blanchet’s top runner, junior Will Schneider, said. “We do everything together and include our next top guys, so that really motivates us to show out and be there for each other. He’s created an environment where we’ll get like 80 kids for our entire program.”

Junior Drew Oliver, who transferred into the program as a sophomore, said he knew about the tradition and wanted to compete for a coach like O’Leary. 

“He always wants what's best for each individual runner and the team as a whole,” Oliver said. “He is enthusiastic about everything that we do.”

For this fall's team there’s a lot to be excited about. After a wake-up call at the Bellevue Invitational in late September, the team finished runner-up to US#4 Jesuit OR at the Nike Hole In the Wall Invitational.

Schneider, who O’Leary describes as “a coachable runner with an insatiable appetite for competition,” led the team with a third-place finish, clocking a personal-best 14:54.9. 

“It’s really just buying into his training, and his training has worked super well for me,” Schneider said.  

At the Hole In the Wall, Blanchet had three runners in the top 25 and four in the top 35. 

“If someone is having a tough day, even outside of varsity, we are always encouraging each other and want them to do the best they can,” Oliver said. “It’s really just a common goal of what we want to do.”

Despite the cancellation of Nike Cross Nationals, the end goal for Blanchet hasn’t wavered. A program built on tradition and pride, this Thursday’s Metro League meet and a chance to win a state title in a historically tough state carries a lot of meaning. 

“I think we always pride ourselves on the Metro League title, it’s.really big for us,” Schneider said. “A bunch of students come out and that's really big. We carry a lot of pride in winning Metro and state titles. Everyone recognizes us as being able to reflect the new generation of Blanchet runners, and recognize that you’re part of this historic team program.”

While the names and faces have cycled through generations, the tradition maintains and is keeping O’Leary going into another decade.

“I think it’s really just continuing the concept of hanging in there, no matter what,” he said.