Teaching Kids To Run Life with Endurance

story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER             photos by SUSAN DELOACH

Josiah and Hillary Tobin are educators, coaches, and role models for the students at Holy Trinity Classical Christian School (HTCCS). They have spent the last eight years working in Beaufort and doing their very best to have fun, make a difference, and ultimately bring glory to God.

Josiah and Hillary met in college at Grove City College, which is a Christian school outside of Pittsburgh. They met while they were both participating in cross country.

Josiah had started out as a finance major but transferred to education. He wanted to teach and invest in kids because he had worked at summer camps and absolutely loved it. The opportunity to do that full-time was super appealing to him. Hillary was an early education major and always knew she wanted to be a teacher.

Josiah and Hillary got engaged their senior year in college and got married shortly after they graduated. Josiah was doing his student teaching at Slippery Rock High School and met Mr. Jake Jefferis, the brother-in-law of Reverend Chad Lawrence, headmaster of Holy Trinity. They became very close. Josiah and Hillary were applying to overseas schools and public schools in the States, but hadn’t applied to any private schools. Mr. Jefferis told Josiah that he and Hillary should apply to his brother-in-law’s school in Beaufort, SC. He told them about the private classical Christian school he was opening. They did a Skype interview with Reverend Lawrence to get some information and could tell right away that there was something different about the administration and how this school would be run.

Josiah and Hillary flew down to Beaufort to check out Holy Trinity, and they stayed with Barbara and Alden Hathaway while they were here. The Hathaways prayed over them that night, and the sense of family and the presence of the Holy Spirit were huge for both Josiah and Hillary before they ever set foot in the school.

The tour of the school was even more amazing. “The kids were lively, in a controlled way, and you could just tell that they loved what they were learning.” At the time, the school was in its first year and only went up to 5th grade. This was in the Spring 2013.

Josiah and Hillary graduated on May 18th, accepted positions at Holy Trinity Classical Christian School on May 20th, and got married on May 25th. Their initial positions were as the 5th and 6th grade teachers of the school. (The school has added a grade each year.) Josiah and Hillary taught across the hallway from each other, staying up late and spending almost all weekend working on lesson plans. The school had never had a 6th grade before, so that was a learning curve for everyone involved.

In the Spring 2014, Josiah and Hillary pitched the idea of starting a running club. The kids were split into two groups: a 5-minute group and a 10-minute group. At the time, the school didn’t have any extracurricular athletics, so seventy-five percent of the students in 5th and 6th grade participated in “Fun Run Fridays” with the Tobins.

In the Fall 2014, the school added 7th grade and the Tobins started their cross country team. The school didn’t have an athletic director or any uniforms at the time. Holy Trinity had never participated in any kind of official athletic event. Josiah coached the boys, Hillary coached the girls, and they figured out the logistics together. They ran against local schools for the first year. At the start of the season, there wasn’t a single kid who could break 30 minutes in the 5K. Both Luke Greene and Christopher Newnham have run for Josiah since fifth grade and will graduate this spring.

Of the three grades that they coached the first year, they had 14 kids. The next year they had over 20, and the following year when the school added 9th grade, they had over 30 kids. That year, they went to the SCISA state cross country meet for the first time, and both the boys and the girls surprisingly won, defeating many schools that went up through 12th grade.

Hillary ran cross country from 7th grade until her senior year in high school and all four years in college. She never missed a single race in high school or college, started the running club at HTCCS right out of college, and has been coaching ever since. “When you become a runner, it becomes a part of you. Getting to see the kids grow, learn, and develop through the sport is even better than just enjoying it for yourself.”

The kids develop a family through the sport. They form a unique bond and love being together for practices. None of the kids are participating to only win state titles or just to be fast. They love being with each other and running. Running can seem like an individual sport because you are not passing a ball or defending your teammate against a tackle, but running isn’t solely an individual sport. The kids at HTCCS have placed a huge level of importance on building each other up and encouraging one another. “There has to be a selfless aspect to a cross country team in order for them to thrive and we’ve seen that in both the boys and the girls teams.”

Josiah and Hillary not only try to teach these kids to be fast runners but also intentionally discipline their runners with the Gospel. They will pray for them and with them, share Scripture with their runners, and put a huge focus on running for the glory of God and not for their own glory. They encourage their runners to pray for each other during the races when they are feeling tired. Josiah and Hillary have two young children, Hawley and Michael. They have found ways to make cross country a family affair, sometimes even bringing their children to races and team events. The cross country parents have been like family, helping the Tobins with childcare at the races. Coaching together is what makes it work for Josiah and Hillary — neither one of them wants to do it alone.

This was HTCCS’s fifth year competing in the SCISA. They have also had boys and girls individual state champions, giving them a total of 8 state titles.

Luke Greene, one of HTCCS’s original running club members said, “Cross country has been a staple of my life for seven years. During those years, the team became like a second family to me. More than the exercise, the fellowship of the team and the guidance of Mr. Tobin has had a huge impact on my life. I learned how to run, how to compete, and how to lead.”

Hannah Reedy, one of Hillary’s team captains, said, “Cross country is one of the best things I did in high school. It has challenged me physically and mentally, and I hope to keep the lessons I learned there throughout my life. I’m so thankful for the Tobins and for all the encouragement along the way.”

When they aren’t teaching at HTCCS, coaching cross country, or riding their tandem bike, Josiah and Hillary are very involved at Cross Community Church, where Josiah serves on the elder team.
“Cross country bonds you through communal suffering,” Josiah jokes. “That is something I shared with my girls at the end of a really hard practice,” Hillary says. “They had the same footprints in the same places for miles and miles, and that is something they don’t share with anyone besides their teammates. When you’re on that starting line and in the middle of the race when it’s getting hard, you can remind yourself that you’re not alone. Your teammates are right there with you.” Josiah and Hillary have three goals when it comes to coaching these kids: “We just want them to run fast, have fun, and give the glory to God.”