480-444-8841   |   flash.santoro@gmail.com   |

Maybe you have one or more of the following situations:

1. Your runner child is at a middle school or high school they love, loves the sport or shows great potential, and has his/her sights set on running for a lifetime, competing in college someday. The school's team, however, isn't going to get them to where they want to be.  
   • ​the school coaches are super nice, but not knowledgeable about the sport
     
   • coaches are hires from within the school and their top qualifications to coach are "employee of [Insert District Here]" or are appointed by the Principals because "You ran a marathon 25 years ago, you're qualified to coach cross country and track."
     
   • the coaches aren't nice or don't care, and the program is a joke or a negative setting for kids.
     
   • there is no encouragment or advice being given
     
   • the team is comprised of individuals that don't gel with your child.
     
2. Your child (regardless of ability) isn't getting any coaching outside of "Go run fast" or other favorites like "Go get 'em, tiger!" ​
   
3. The time and training and overall demand of the sport through the school isn't sustainable for the athlete.
   • School practices are too long, or at inconvenient times.​
     
   • It's difficult to arrange a ride to/from during a parent's work hours
     
   • Meets are 12+ hour affairs and take up an entire day or keep the athlete up late during the school week.
     
   • Meets exceed 80-100 degree temperatures and ruin athletes' performances
     
4. You realize your child's current path is not set up for success
   
   • Transferring schools/moving or finding transport to another school is not an option
   • The talent pool on the team is deep and your child would be #1 runner at most other schools, but isn't getting the opportunities to compete and get noticed because of the depth of talent
     
   • The program is good, but there is no rapport or chance for a rapport with the coach.
     

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alternative program - Middle School & high school Cross Country & TRACK

Email me at flash.santoro@gmail.com with any questions. 

Initial Session is 90 minutes for $200

Monthly rate available thereafter for those serious about the sport, starting at $300/mth

Perhaps you've already read through this other page and have determined that your child would benefit from some outside coaching.  Sometimes that isn't enough. Because of the demand, I offer a complete replacement for the school experience for those desiring to run and excel at distances 800m and up. 

The Alternative Program can be employed in different ways:

1. Continue to run for one's school cross country or track program, but have the following going on in the background
   • Child receives strategy, advice, encouragement and knowledge to help them improve within the confines of their program. 
   • Child trains during the summer with me
   • Child is given appropriate paces to plug in for the runs and workouts given by the school coach, or in rare circumstances, child is given an entire training schedule because the school offers little to no training or coaching, just a supervisor Coach that says "just go run."
2. Replace school track entirely with track meets that are open to all, and this offers:
   • direct results to college coaches, and the opportunity to talk to them at meets
   • Meets that are well-run, on time, and only take up a small portion of a weekend or weekday.
     
   • full, professional coaching on everything that a runner needs to improve upon.
   • careful guidance and progression
   • the complete knowledge of a racer with 37 years of running, training, coaching experience, allowing a runner to essentially skip over all the things that set back other runners (overtraining, racing in practice, running just to impress people, etc..)
     • ​Community College meets
       
     • Open/Masters meets like the Desert Spectacular
       
     • All-comers meets
       
     • Distance in the Desert Series
     • USATF meets (limited)

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​2026 Alternative Plan Schedule

​Here's a link to the Alternative Schedule Meets in 2026 There were 23 meets available in Arizona during the 6 months from December 2025 to May 2026! Most of them ran on time with little difficulty and the ones in December through February had perfect weather.