by Danny Waldo
The most dominant high school cross country program in Montana, if not the entire Northwest, is losing their head man after longtime head coach Clint May accepted a position at Southern Virginia University recently May will take over the head coaching duties of both the track and field and cross country programs at the newly granted DIII school located in Buena Vista, Virginia. “I will say that I was looking for some form of change,” said May. “That didn’t mean, ‘I have to get out of high school coaching’…There just comes a time when you go, ‘I have to shake things up.” May has been the head cross country coach for the past 12 years, leading the girls to their ninth consecutive state title this past fall, and eighth consecutive for the boys. The boys also won state nine titles overall during May’s tenure. The longtime Hawk coach came to Bozeman 25 years ago to run cross country for the Bobcats before being hired as an assistant to former coach Mary Murphy. When Murphy stepped down following the 2005 season, May was tabbed to take her place, and he quickly set out to put his stamp on the program, and it didn’t take long. “What helped us see some higher success is pulling more work out of the kids,” May said. He turned Bozeman not into just a state power, but a national power as well.
This past season, the Bozeman girls took home their second Nike Cross Regional title, while the boys earned a second place finish. At nationals, the boys finished eighth and the girls cracked the top 20, finishing in 19th place. Now, the challenge will be for May to replicate that success at the collegiate level, a task he readily accepts. “I’m just proud that we’ve got kids who can finish a state meet in October, turn around on Monday and Say, ‘What’s next?” May said. “I absolutely am going to miss working with kids of that dedication. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to draw that out of college students to the level there is in Bozeman. All I would say is the kids here have taught me how to dream bigger and to quit limiting my thinking. I’m just grateful that I will take that to the next level.” With summer break set to begin next week, Bozeman will begin the search for May’s replacement immediately.
Danny Waldo is a local freelance writer covering Bozeman Hawk and Montana State Bobcat athletics. •
