O’Dea Cross Country
The O’Dea High School Cross Country Team is a non-cut Fall sport that welcomes runners of all abilities. The XC squad features a unique community with all grade levels, Freshman through Senior, competing and training together. With a focus on hard work and personal accountability, our athletes set out to achieve both individual and team goals in the spirit of a proud tradition of accomplished O’Dea distance runners.
In 2014 Andy Slatt, former O’Dea cross country coach, was inducted into the Washington State Cross Country Hall of Fame having already been inducted into the O’Dea Athletic Wall of Honor in 2010. Slatt’s former runner, David Bazzi (class of ’96) now coaches the team and looks to continue Coach Slatt’s focus on competition and teamwork.
Racing from 2 miles to 5km in the highly competitive Metro League, the Fighting Irish look forward to new challenges and successes in the year to come.
A 1996 O’Dea graduate, Coach David Bazzi returned to O’Dea in 2010 to take over the program from retiring O’Dea and Washington State Hall of Fame Coach, Andy Slatt. In his six years, Coach Bazzi has coached numerous state qualifiers while continuing Coach Slatt’s legacy of guiding his athletes into the collegiate ranks with athletes competing at West Point, University of Portland, University of Chicago, PLU and Xavier.