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Sam Coates-Finke of Northampton had a strong finish to the season. Coates-Finke has been named the Daily Hampshire Gazette Player of the Year for boys cross country.

Sam Coates-Finke learned everything he knows about running during his first cross country season for Northampton.

As a junior, he studied under seniors Ian Lutz and Harrison Hunter. That team eventually won the western Massachusetts Division 1 championship.

As a senior, it was Coates-Finke's turn, along with fellow captains Alex Sullivan and Parker Ziegler, to lead the Blue Devils.

Lutz and Hunter "taught me everything I knew about running," Coates-Finke said. "This year was more of the year I broke away, where I started to make discoveries for myself."

Coates-Finke led by example and his hard work turned into a third-place showing at the western Massachusetts meet. He also set a program-best mark for a 5k with his 15 minute, 44.71 second performance at the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference meet. Coates-Finke has been named the Daily Hampshire Gazette Player of the Year for boys cross country.

"The thing about cross country is you never know what's going to happen," he said. "You never know how you're going to feel the next week, and because running is so much a mental sport, you can never predict how well you're going to mentally cope with the season."

Coates-Finke did just fine. He entered preseason in top shape and wasn't bothered by the grueling workouts on the team's three-day trip to Stratton Mountain in Vermont. The trip is designed to test a runner's mental toughness and fitness.

"Sam was ready from the get-go when we left to go on that three-day trip," first-year coach Sydney Henthron said. "He just got stronger and stronger the whole season."

Coates-Finke earned two dual-meet victories during the season, but that was preparation for the championship season. And there were two contributing factors to Coates-Finke's postseason success.

An avid participant in yoga, Coates-Finke introduced the exercise to his teammates. His brother got him to start practicing yoga a couple of years ago, and now his whole family does it.

"It's given me a lot more awareness of my body that I can use in races and a lot more focus," Coates-Finke said. "It's helped with my form a lot. I'm a lot more aware of the tension in my body as I run so I can make my running more efficient.

"It's been quite a journey and it's been a fun addition to running and I think that's one of the reasons I was successful this year," he continued. "Even though I was running for four years, the yoga has kept it fresh."

The other factor was Coates-Finke's training. The in-season workouts gave him a finishing kick. At the sectional championships, Coates-Finke was ninth coming out of the woods at Northfield Mountain. With about 400 meters remaining, he passed six runners to finish third and was less than a second away from second place.

A kick "changes everything and it gets back to the thing before about the mental aspect of running," Coates-Finke said. "The training is as much about physical conditioning as it is about mental preparation and that was some of the genius of the new workouts we did this year. They taught me how to sort of make the mental switch to go from running race pace to the kick."

Taking on the leadership role as a captain also contributed to his growth.

"There was more pressure, but in some ways it never felt overbearing," Coates-Finke said. "Because I had never been in that position before, all of a sudden having this responsibility to lead the team in that way came as a really good way for me to grow as a runner."

Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com.