Ms. Jesse, a well-respected member of the Jemicy community has always had a deep passion for running. She first got into running at a very young age. “I actually started running all the way back in middle school when they didn’t have a soccer team for me anymore. So I went to cross country and found out that all the bad things about soccer didn’t exist because just running is what I liked about soccer.” Ms. Jesse’s love for running didn’t stop when she graduated middle school. “So I ran competitively through high school, and then ran a lot on my own in college.”
Before Ms. Jessie found out about Jemicy she was working in a summer camp in Florida. While working there she met Ben Shifrin, head of Jemicy school. After getting to know Ms. Jessie he offered her a job to come work at Jemicy. Ms. Jessie then moved to Maryland right away and started working at Jemicy. Soon after she started her career at Jemicy she learned that a spot to coach the cross country team had opened. “And so when I got the chance to coach I was like yeah I would love to coach cross country.
Today she has coached the team for 15 straight years and this year has coached the largest and best team that Jemicy has ever had. However, the cross country team wasn’t always this big or notable. Ms. Jessie said that “When I first started coaching cross country I only had three runners, and we didn’t have any meets.” In the 15 years following her first year, the team has had ups and downs. Nonetheless, she stuck with the team and the hard work paid off.
Now the cross country team is able to participate in regular meets, and for the first time, this year has a winning record. Ms. Jessie is very excited about the team’s potential and told me that “This is the largest team that we have ever had, and it has the most natural talent that I have ever been able to coach at one time.” However, the team’s size has required adjustments to be made. “It was an adjustment coaching this year for many reasons. Just the sheer number of kids on the team made it difficult at first; we were constantly having to adjust workouts and plans to accommodate more runners. It also changed our focus. We had to switch to lower miles since so many of our runners were new and were coming into the season without any miles on their legs.”
Despite these adjustments, Ms. Jessie has had one of the most memorable, and enjoyable seasons of coaching ever. “This is one of the most fun teams I have gotten to coach. For the most part, they all want to work hard and are eager to do well. They also just happen to be a generally great group of students to work with. Most days, working with this team is the highlight of my day. I can have a tough day teaching, but I go home in a great mood because of them.”
One of the other comments Ms. Jessie made concerning the team was all the success displayed by the runners. “I think one of the great aspects of this team is that we have had so much improvement across the board. Every runner has dropped significant time and improved their overall performance.” Individually everyone has improved since the start of the season, and this translates into successes for the team as a whole during meets. “As far as the team’s success goes, we are in a large conference (12 teams) and we have only lost to 4 other teams, two of which were very close scores. That is by far the most successful MIAA season record we have ever had.”
Ms. Jessie is very passionate about running and this showed during the interview, and at practice. She always shows enthusiasm and a positive attitude towards every member of the team.
MOOSE PRINTS 
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