Seven years ago today, Owen McGlothlin ran for the San Marcos High School track and cross-country team where he earned up to seven district titles during his high school career. Yet his journey at SMHS didn’t end when he graduated in 2017. In fall of 2024, McGlothlin returned to his roots, where he assumed the head coaching position for San Marcos’ cross country team in hopes of pushing the program to new heights.

McGlothlin started his running journey his freshman year of high school after his parents forced him into joining the school’s cross-country team. Nonetheless, McGlothlin quickly took to the sport. “I tried it, stuck with it, ended up liking it, and that’s how I got started,” he commented.

Out of McGlothlin’s seven high school district titles: two individual cross titles, two 1600m titles, two 3200m titles, and a team title, he thinks “out of all of those, I enjoyed the team one the most.” Although he had many accomplishments during his high school years, McGlothlin believes his biggest win was during his senior year at his area track meet, in which he was ranked sixth in the 3200m, yet he managed to tactically come out on top in the last 100 meters of the race, despite racing against, as McGlothlin put it, “one [future]  UT runner, one [future] TXST runner, then one [future] Ole Miss guy that are all better than me, still better than me.”

Fresh out of high school, McGlothlin took his running career to Texas State University after receiving an athletic scholarship to run for their cross-country and track team. But it wasn’t the scholarship that swayed his decision to run for Texas State, rather the coach. McGlothlin conveyed, “I think a good coach can convince and create a culture, and he convinced me that I wanted to be a part of that culture.”

In fact, McGlothlin credits a few of his past coaches for having a significant impact on his development as a coach. He said, “One was my club soccer coach…he kind of installed the work ethic into me and how to be a good athlete. I had a coach that I felt didn’t like me … but it turned out he just really thought I was better than how I was performing and he wanted more from me. My college coach … was very into the science [of running] and that everything we do has a reason, and that kind of opened my eyes to a bigger world of running.”

McGlothlin started coaching during his college years when he picked up some private coaching opportunities that warmed him up to the idea of continuing his career in that field. He explained, “When I started I felt like, ‘ok this is what I want to do.’ I am helping kids, I’m still in the sport, I can help them love the sport, make them better at it and it just stuck with me.”

Before making his way back to San Marcos High School, McGlothlin worked as a soccer coach in San Antonio for two years where he “learned the ropes of being a head coach.” Now back in San Marcos, McGlothlin speaks on the main factor that led him back to his old high school to coach.

“Mainly just being from here, I see a lot of potential growing up in the city and the kids that go here,” he said.  “And not that I think it’s my duty but I think it’s more of something I am really passionate about: making the city [and] program…better. At least being part of making it better.”

Even though McGlothlin has only been back at San Marcos High School for half a year, he feels he has already gone full circle by coaching his own brother, Connor McGlothlin, who is currently a senior at SMHS. McGlothlin commented, “It’s been interesting to coach my own brother; coaching him to beat my own records, which is bittersweet. I hate seeing [the records] go, but at the same time I really love seeing my brother beat them and I am glad it’s him [more] then anybody else.”

McGlothlin also hopes to pass on his past knowledge from his high school and college days onto his runners and students now in order to prepare them for what the future holds. He said, “I’d like to pass on the general idea that if you are consistently working, consistently disciplined, and you learn those tools that, not just in the running side but also in work life and personal life, those things will carry you pretty far.”

Currently in the six months that McGlothlin has been coaching at SMHS, he has already made a great deal of achievements during the past cross-country season. He managed to send three runners off to regionals, with two advancing to state, and one of those two even became the regional champion for the girls division. McGlothlin commented, “It’s not bad. I’ll take it in my first year, now I want to get a team there. That would be awesome.”

As he looks towards the future, McGlothlin’s biggest hope is to set his runners and students up for success, while simultaneously elevating the cross-country program at SMHS. “If I can help them do that, then I  succeeded,” McGlothlin explained. 

McGlothlin continues applying his past lessons to his present coaching style in pursuit of instilling positive values: “The most valuable thing I took from highschool and from college is that I could always do more…so because I knew that I could always do more, I know that the kids can always do more too. I just need them and want to push them to find that. They all have it, it’s just getting there.”