XC TEAM RULES FOR THE SCHOOL SEASON:
You must either have 6th Period as a class or 6th Period Free. All practices are mandatory.
During the day, you can store your bags in one of three classrooms: Coach Pye's, Coach Kleibacker's or Mr. Russell's. If you don't know where that is, ask your Team Captains or one of your teammates.
Coach Pye's classroom will have a large gatorade jug filled with water. The freshmen are responsible for having it filled at the Trainer's every morning and the Captains will assign the task. Make sure you are stopping by there throughout the day to refill your water bottles. Drinking is very important when we are training in the hot weather, and just as important when it cools down.
Remember, fuel in, fuel out. School lunches are not the healthiest for an athlete. Nothing worse than eating school pizza and then trying to do a workout 2 hours later!!
Report to the room (H-131) at the start of 6th Period. Beginning the 2nd week, the classroom will be open at the start of 6th period for you to store your bags. Go to the locker room and change. Everyone should be out on the track by 1:40pm (back gate by the wrestling portables). You will meet with the Captains there, then proceed with your warm-up and we will take roll once again while you stretch.
Once practice begins 6th Period (except for the 1st week when we will begin after school until we have everyone switched into 6th), the classroom will be locked. Leave all your valuables in the classroom. Your backpacks need to be picked up and put on the desks so the custodians can clean the room.
Practice is over when it's over, usually between 3:30-4:00pm (except for this week). Please schedule your appointments for after 4:30pm.Remember, this is a class you are graded for, so yourattendance until the end is mandatory. Your grade is based on your daily attendance and participation. If you have to leave early more than three times this semester, your grade will drop.
Take your things out of Coach Pye's, Coach Kleibacker's or Mr. Russell's classroom at the end of lunch just in case they have a meeting and can't open it up before 6th period.
Pack your track bags the night before. Forgetting your gear is not an excuse. We do have loaner socks in the classroom just in case you forget those.
Injuries need to be treated. If they last longer than three days, you need to see a Doctor, Physical Therapist or Chiropractor. When you are injured, it is up to you to ask us for alternate workouts, whether they are in the pool or on a stationary bike. It's important we keep up your fitness as it is too easy to lose everything you've been building over the summer. This is an athletic P.E. class and if you are unable to run for an extended period of time, we will need to talk about transferring you to a regular PE class.
In order to run in the meet, you must have been able to finish practice the entire week.
Mental Toughness- The first two weeks of school are difficult because we are adjusting to practice in the afternoon and it is hot. Cross Country is a tough sport, and it's important to us that you can finish a workout or run every day. If you are having trouble, talk with the coaching staff and we'll try and work with you in alleviating any problems.
Practice Etiquette- Many of you joined late into our practice season and missed a lot of key meetings in which we talked about what is expected at practice. On workout days, it is important that you finish the workout, not race the first interval and be done. Practice with the people of your ability. Do not race the regular runs just to stay up with the varsity runners. You need to be able to complete the entire week. No picking and choosing, for lack of a better term, of the workouts kids prefer to finish. Don't become the boy/girl who cried wolf too many times, because we DO notice. A true athlete wants to challenge themselves, and if they are injured, they are doing everything in their power to rehab it and get back out there.
Varsity spots are decided upon by many things. We look at the top 7 finishers from the week before, practice attendance (not leaving early), completing all practices and finally injury status. We have two very strong ranked teams this year. It is important we put our best 7 on the line, 7 that we can depend upon and that can depend on each other.