David Schnell has been a familiar face in the cross country community for over a decade. 

From his beginnings as a high school runner to becoming the head coach of the Wright City middle school cross country program last year, Schnell's proximity with the sport has been long and dedicated.

Most recently, Schnell was named the Wright City girls and boys varsity cross country head coach for the 2025 season. 

“Coaching high school cross country has always been a goal of mine,” Schnell said. “I know a lot of people on the team, so when the opportunity came up, I jumped at the opportunity.” 

In addition to leading the high school teams, Schnell will continue coaching the middle school program.

Schnell noted the middle and high school programs will practice at the same time, but the expectations and training regimes will be vastly different. 

“Once we get to high school, we’re taking the longer approach of ‘how do we develop you from a freshman to a senior?’ and ‘how do we get you to be competitive at a state level by the end of your time here?’ It’s more focused on building mileage up and building a very consistent training base across the years,” Schnell said. 

Schnell also noted the benefit of having known many of the high school athletes after having taught several of them in fifth and seventh grade. 

“It’s really great because there’s already a comfortableness and camaraderie built within the team,” Schnell said. “We already went past that initial phase of getting to know each other and straight into training.” 

Schnell has high ambitions for the program, including growing participation and maintaining a competitive edge. 

Last year, Ada Ferrell was Wright City’s representative at the Class 3 state meet. 

“We just want to see where we’re at and get out there and be competitive. I think everyone except our high school girls will have a full team for each meet,” Schnell said. “On the boys side, we should have enough for a full varsity team and junior varsity team.” 

Team culture has been a driving force of the program in recent years and Schnell is committed to building on that foundation. 

“Culture is always focused on being competitive, which we have a really competitive group, but we also want to stick to keeping it positive and family oriented,” he said. “The team is already really close, which is fantastic – just a really solid group of kids we have this year.” 

While instilling a high-intensity environment, Schnell also wants to ensure that practices are enjoyable for his athletes. 

“I always try to bring some fun into the practices whenever I can. One goal is to lighten the mood sometimes and keep it fun for the kids,” Schnell said. 

Schnell expressed excitement and gratitude for the new role.

“It’s really great to have the opportunity and I appreciate the people that have reached out, like Coach (Jeremy) Collins at Warrenton reached out to congratulate me – it’s been great to be a part of this pretty tight knit running community in the area,” Schnell said.