For Megan Bost, being a counselor and a coach isn’t just a job — it’s a lifestyle that has been shaped by her own experiences growing up as a student-athlete. Both roles started as something much more personal to her: running.
“I’ve ran my whole entire life,” Bost said. “My dad was a runner and I kind of took after him with that.”
Bost uses her passion for running not just to train athletes, but to help students navigate the emotional ups and downs of growing up.
“I also did a lot of sports growing up and saw all of the anxiety, the need to fit in, the comparing between athletes,” Bost said. “I felt like middle school and high school students really just needed that extra mental health support to make it through their normal days.”
With time the balance shifted from running to win, and more towards running to help.
“Running helped a lot, it changed a lot for me in high school towards my mental health,” Bost said. “I found that when I was running, it would help with my stress. It was a really good coping skill, but it was kind of hard in high school as well, because it was also competitive — so it almost helped my mental health but also hurt it at the same time.”
That clarity is something she now works to share with her student-athletes, whom she coaches at Hamilton Middle and PHS, since many of them are under increasing pressure both on and off the track.
“I feel like the student-athlete mental health crisis is becoming a little crazy,” Bost said. “We’re pushing kids harder and harder, so being able to be their coach but also that positive listening ear is really important for me.”
Bost approaches her coaching with a focus on both physical performance and emotional well-being. She wants students to know that running can be healing, not just competitive.
“I really love running. It has helped me through a lot of not-so-great times when I was younger in high school,” she said. “So just trying to get younger kids to understand the impact running can have on you, even without the competitive aspect.”
Bost finds fulfillment in watching her athletes grow, not just as runners but as people.
“I haven’t really been able to see it yet, but I think one of the most rewarding things will hopefully be when I see some of my younger athletes as they grow up, continue to run, continue to use the lessons that I was able to teach them in middle school,” she said.
She’s already seeing early signs of that growth, especially since moving to the high school level.
“Right now, it’s just been a few years, so even just watching my middle schoolers transition into high school and watching how their athletic journey continues — that’s been rewarding,” Bost said. “I know right now I have some kids at the middle school who ran track just for fun, but now they’re on the cross country team in like the top five spots — which is something they never thought would happen.”
For Bost, the roles of counselor and coach are constantly evolving.
“Counseling and coaching changes me every day,” she said. “Every day I step into practice, every day I step into the school, the kids I encounter, the stories I hear, it changes my life every day.”
