The Man Behind The Plan

Johnny Dutch:2008 Olympic trials 400 hurdles Finalist(48.52) ... Placed 2nd at the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships(49.25) ... Named All-American all four years of high school for indoor and outdoor hurdle events ... Won 2006 Nike Outdoor Nationals in 110 meter hurdles junior year (13.54) ... won 2007 Nike Indoor Nationals senior year (7.71) ... won 2007 Pan American Juniors in 400 meter hurdles (50.87) and 110 meter hurdles (13.47) ... placed second with the USA's 4x400m team (3:06) ... placed second at 2007 Junior Nationals in 400 meter hurdles (50.07) and 110 meter hurdles (13.39) ... won 2007 Simplot Games 60 meter hurdles in Idaho ... broke national record in 55 meter hurdles at an indoor meet with a time of 7.07 ... All- American all four years in high school and a nine time state champion in both hurdle events.

Booker Nunley: 2008 IAAF World Junior 110h Silver Medalist ... 2008 Junior National 110h Gold Medalist 2008 ... Junior Olympic 110h Gold Medalist ... 2008 Youth National 110h Gold Medalist ... 2008 NIN 60h Bronze Medalist ... 13.40 - US#1 Outdoor 110h & World #2 Outdoor 110h ... 7.78 - US#5 Indoor 60h ... 13.91(42"hurdles) 10th Fastest Time for High Schooler over Professional and Collegiate Height Hurdles in US History.

Wayne Davis: US #1 all time 55mH - 7.06 ... 60mH 7.62 7.83 ... soph record 60mH ... 7.32 soph 55mH record ... 13.65 110mH soph record ...13.18 World Youth record ... 7.06 55mH Jr record ...7.62 60mH Jr record ... 7.11 NCSAA 55mH record.

After looking at these athletes' accomplishments above, most of you are pretty amazed at what they have done. There is one thing that you may not know just by reading their accolades. Johnny, Booker and Wayne all have one thing in common, they have been taught by the same coach. Coach Steven Mcgill has been the driving force of the hurdling success of North Carolina
for the past five years. In the past couple of years having the Nations top hurdlers coming out of the Raleigh, NC area is a special honor in the sport of track and field. The strong depth in the hurdles, has helped North Carolina display their dominance in track & field to the rest of the country. North Carolina is in competition with the states like Florida, Texas, California, and Maryland to see who reigns supreme in the sport of track & field.



Coach Steven Mcgill Over the years has studied, learned and practiced the art of hurdling. He is now in the process of mastering the "PROPER TECHNIQUE" of hurdling. He has dedicated his life to the hurdles and by doing so, he has shared his knowledge to all athletes wanting to get better. Those who have taken his teachings and applied them to their race have gone on to do great things in the hurdles so far. Coach Mcgill has helped the likes of Johnny Dutch (Univ. South Carolina), Booker Nunley (Univ. South Carolina), Wayne Davis (Southeast Raleigh High), Malcolm Nunley (Southeast Raleigh High), David Coe, Gabby Mayo (Texas Tech.), James Robinson (NC State), Keare Smith (VA Tech.), Anthony Hendrix (New Bern High), Allison Johnson (Athens Drive High) and many more high school athletes. Steven Mcgill has also published his own website dedicated to hurdles. The site Hurdles first.com, has everything you need to know about the hurdles, training tips, workouts, personal stories and more. This website has helped many people trying to improve their skills and get faster. Coach Mcgill has often been contacted via his website, from athletes who are in need of his teachings. Through his website, Mcgill has worked with many post-collegiate athletes like Byron Gibson (Univ. of Alabama Grad.), Hector Cotto (ECU Grad. and Beijing Olympian), Kevin Watson (UNC Grad.) and many others. Coach Mcgill has plans to coach many more athletes this year and anticipates those who will come back and train after college.



I wrote this article because I wanted people to see just what this man has done in the sport of track & field. I'm not alone when I say that Steven Mcgill is the most under-rated coach there is. He has been credited very little for the success of his athletes. Booker Nunley, 2008 US#1 hurdler (13.40), has given credit to most of his high school success to Coach Mcgill. When Booker was declared ineligible for high school track, Coach Mcgill stepped in and turned up Booker"s training. In three years, Mcgill took Booker from an average hurdler to US#1. Mcgill has produced three US#1 hurdlers in the past five years. Even with all this knowledge in this event, Mcgill is constantly learning something new every practice, in pursuit to master the "PROPER TECHNIQUE". There has also been other speculation about Coach Mcgill. Many people along with myself have asked why Coach Mcgill hasn't had colleges come and offer him a spot on their coaching staff. Especially with local schools around here like NC State, Duke, UNC, these schools would really benefit by having a top-notch coach on staff. I believe he could really draw the top athletes to any school. Steve Mcgill is not only an excellent hurdles coach, he also has knowledge about many other aspects of track & field, like speed training and distance running.

IOC RE-TESTING BEIJING DOPING SAMPLES!

Every doping sample taken at Beijing 2008 will be retested by the International Olympic Committee to check for traces of the newly-discovered blood-boosting drug CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator).

The IOC conducted more than 5,000 doping tests during this year's Games, and the spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau confirmed today that every sample would be re-examined by the World Anti-Doping Agency's laboratory in Lausanne. The decision to test for CERA, an advanced version of the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO, was taken after the drug was detected in Tour de France samples that had previously been passed as clean.

Doping officials are still retesting samples from this year's Tour de France, and further positive results are expected. "I imagine there could be one or two more cases," suggested the race director Christian Prudhomme after officials confirmed yesterday that Germany's Stefan Schumacher and Italy's Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli, who won five of the Tour's 21 stages between them, had tested positive for CERA.

The IOC vice-president Thomas Bach told reporters yesterday that road cycling could lose its status as an Olympic sport altogether if the recent spate of positive tests continued. Moreau was more conciliatory today, stating that: "The IOC will continue to support the International Cycling Union and any other international federation as long as it is deploying meaningful and credible means and efforts to fight against doping."

Six athletes were disqualified for doping during the Beijing Games and three more cases are pending.

The Off-Season!

As the indoor seaosn draws near, many athletes are putting on the flats and getting back in shape. These off-season workouts are the worst of them all. I just recently started back working out for this upcoming track season. I have many goals I plan to accomplish. I'm really putting in double the work. I'm playing football right now for Southeast Raleigh Highschool, then when I find the time, I'm working out with my coach. My coach, Steve Mcgill, also understands my goals and we both know what it's going to take to achieve these goals. thats why we have gone ahead and went to work.
The workouts are kind of hard. They are all about conditioning. It's the time now we are taking to build the foundation for the upcoming season.