Am I Plateauing? Can I Make Varsity? Will a Coach Help Me Qualify for State?
By Coach Justin Roeder | Roeder Multisport | April 16, 2026
If you're asking these questions, you're already a runner who cares. And that matters more than you might think.
These three questions come up in almost every conversation I have with high school athletes and their parents. They're honest questions — sometimes hopeful, sometimes frustrated, sometimes both at the same time. Let's take them one at a time.
"Am I Plateauing?"
Here's a truth that most runners don't hear often enough: plateaus are almost always a training problem, not a talent problem.
When your times stop dropping — or worse, start creeping back up — it usually means one of a few things is happening:
You're doing the same workouts over and over. Your body is incredibly efficient. Once it adapts to a stimulus, it stops responding to it. If your Tuesday workout looks the same in October as it did in April, your fitness curve has probably flattened.
You're not recovering enough. High school runners are notorious for this. Between school, sports, and life, sleep and nutrition get sacrificed. Your body gets faster when it recovers, not when it trains. If you're always tired, you're not adapting — you're just accumulating fatigue.
You're missing easy mileage. Most young runners run their easy days too hard and their hard days not hard enough. The result is a mushy middle — never fully recovering, never fully stressing the aerobic system. Real progress comes from training with intention at both ends of the effort spectrum.
You've outgrown your current program. Team training plans are built for the whole team, not for you. If you've been on the same school program for two or three years, it may simply no longer match where you are as an athlete.
A plateau is not a ceiling. It's feedback. It's your body telling you that something needs to change — the volume, the intensity distribution, the recovery, or all three. A coach's job is to read that feedback and adjust.
"Can I Make Varsity?"
This one requires honesty, and I'll give it to you straight: most athletes who want to make varsity and are willing to train consistently can get there. The ones who don't usually stop before they find out.
Making varsity in high school running is less about raw genetic talent than people assume. It's about:
1. Consistency over time. The athletes who make varsity aren't necessarily the most naturally gifted — they're the ones who ran over the summer when no one was watching, who showed up to practice when they were tired, and who built mileage patiently instead of spiking and getting injured.
2. Smart progression. Year-over-year improvement is the goal. A 5:30 miler as a freshman who improves consistently can be a 4:45 runner by junior year. That kind of development doesn't happen by accident — it happens with a plan.
3. Knowing what to work on. Some athletes are aerobically strong but lack finishing speed. Others have natural speed but fade over the last quarter mile. Making varsity means identifying your specific limiter and training it — not just running more of what you already do well.
I've worked with athletes who were well back from their team’s top 7 squad as freshmen and made varsity (top 5-7) as sophomores and eventually one of their team’s top runners as junior and seniors. I've also worked with athletes who were talented but never reached their potential because they didn't train intelligently. The difference almost always came down to the quality and specificity of the training, not the raw ability.
If you're serious about making varsity, the question isn't whether you can — it's what specifically needs to change in your training to get you there.
"Will a Coach Help Me Qualify for State?"
This is the big one. Let me answer it directly: working with a private running coach won't guarantee a state qualification — but it dramatically improves your chances if you're already in range. This past fall (2025) I guided 12 first time girl state qualifiers (mostly from small schools) to the IHSAA state championship.
Here's why:
A coach gives you a plan built for your body and your goals. School coaches work with 30–60 athletes at once. They can't tailor every workout to your specific aerobic profile, injury history, or race calendar. A private coach can — and that personalization makes a real difference when you're chasing a qualifying standard.
A coach catches problems before they become setbacks. Overtraining, form breakdowns, early signs of shin stress — these are things a coach notices when they're paying attention to you. Most state-qualifying runs are derailed not by lack of talent but by an injury in the final four weeks. Proactive coaching prevents that.
A coach gives you a competitive edge in race execution. Knowing your splits, understanding how to read a race, learning when to surge and when to hold back — this is coachable. Most high school runners run by feel and hope. Athletes with coaching run with strategy. Over a 1600m or 3200m race, that's worth 5–15 seconds.
A coach keeps you accountable. Big goals require sustained effort. It's easier to back off when no one is checking in. It's harder to skip a workout when someone is expecting a report. That accountability isn't about pressure — it's about support.
I'll be honest with you: if your current PR is 30+ seconds off the state qualifying standard in your event, we're talking about a multi-season project, not a quick fix. But if you're within striking distance — 5 to 20 seconds off that standard — dedicated, personalized coaching over the next 6–12 months can absolutely get you there.
So What Do You Do Next?
If you're still asking these questions, here's my honest advice:
Stop waiting to see if things improve on their own. Plateaus don't fix themselves. Varsity spots don't materialize without a plan. State qualifications don't happen by accident. Every week you train without intention is a week of potential you're leaving on the track.
At Roeder Multisport, I work with high school and adult runners from 800m through the marathon — including athletes competing at the middle school, high school, and open levels. Every athlete I work with gets a training plan built around their specific goals, race schedule, and life demands. We do video gait analysis, weekly check-ins, and constant plan adjustments based on how your body is actually responding.
Whether you're trying to crack the varsity lineup, drop time before the end of track season, or set yourself up for a breakthrough cross country campaign this fall — I'd love to talk.
No pressure. No commitment. Just a conversation about where you are, where you want to go, and whether working together makes sense.
Coach Justin Roeder is a USA Triathlon Level I Certified Coach and Exercise Science graduate of Butler University. Coach Justin Roeder works with runners from 800m to the marathon at the middle school, high school, and adult levels, both online and in-person in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Questions? Reach out at justin@coachjustinroeder.com
