Trees, trails, and wind against the skin. The season has begun for the FC cross-country teams. Both the girls and the boy’s team are looking to use their strong leadership skills to win meets and make a push during the postseason competition.
Running is one of the few sports in which the coaches can not coach their players during their races. This pushes a majority of the leadership onto the students on the team. While there is always a level of student accountability in any sport, cross country relies on upper-class leaders to guide the team.
“Molly Spine has done an amazing job of helping lead our team. She leads drills and things like that,” said girls cross country coach Solomon Bennett.
Both the girl’s coach, Coach Bennett, and the boy’s coach, Timothy Korte, ran in their high school years so they know the importance of having leaders on the team. They are both very passionate about running and coaching which is very helpful to all runners and they can relate to the struggles.
Coach Korte feels that the seniors helped to set the standard for the new runners and they show what is expected in high school cross country.
“Just trying to show the newer guys, because we have a decent little freshman class, show the newer guys like how to do things and what we expect,” said Coach Korte.
Coach Korte believes that the team leader doesn’t necessarily have to be a senior. He wants the leader to mature into the position so that they are comfortable being there.
“I don’t know if it would fall to a senior, you know, we don’t necessarily say, oh, you’re a senior you have to be a leader, or anything like that. My philosophy would generally be more of like, I want people to mature into the role that they’re gonna be, rather than push someone into a role that doesn’t fit them,” said Coach Korte.
Many of the runners on the team have been running for years, but with each grade, they gain new roles and take on a new set of expectations. As experienced upperclassmen, there are many new jobs that runners take on during their senior year.
“Being a senior, I’ve gained a lot of responsibilities. I’m head captain this year, and I think that’s where most of the responsibility comes from. It’s more than just leading girls during workouts, it’s making sure morale is high,” said senior captain Molly Spine.
Although there might’ve been a nominated team captain for the girl’s cross country team, Coach Bennett believes in creating a team bond so strong they consider each other family.
While running is commonly considered an individual sport, the team aspect of cross country is something that can’t be overlooked.
“[Having a good team bond] is the entire sport, almost. At the end of the day, it’s the team that scores the points and wins so if everyone’s on the same page and everyone wants it as much as the others, it makes the experience better and makes everyone compete better as a team,” said senior Luca Cirincione.
This year’s seniors have taken on the role of creating a strong bond between all of the runners. They do a good job of including everybody and coming up with ideas to learn more about each other. There might be a lot of responsibilities that come with being a senior but the seniors are doing a good job of making cross country fun.
“To help bond we like to go on runs together on the weekends, go out to eat with each other, and get workouts done with each other,” said freshman runner Luke Baylor.
Team bonding within cross country is an extremely important aspect. These activities done outside of practice are heavily influential on the strength of the team as a whole and have a positive impact on the team’s overall performance.
“[Team bonding] is really important to us, we will have team dinners and stuff and we also all try to do activities together… we are kind of like one big family,” said junior Georgia Atzinger.
There is a very tight bond between boy and girl runners, senior Noah Nifong and freshman Noel Nifong, who are brother and sister. Noah is a runner planning to take his skills to the next level. Noel is a freshman this year and is considered one of the top runners on the girls team. Noel values the bond with her brother.
“Well he’s like my role model, and since he started running I wanted to start running. Seeing that he does great things makes me want to be just like him,” said sister and freshman runner Noel Nifong.
In addition to Noah being a fantastic role model for the younger runners, he is also an extremely talented runner who has made some incredible accomplishments for the FC boys Cross Country team. While his Floyd experience has been one for the history books, there are many exciting things yet to come in the cross country seniors’ futures.
“I think nothing but fondly of my girls and the high school team, and I’m ready to move on to other things. The 5k distance, I like it, but I prefer longer distances. This spring and summer, I’m training for a triathlon, so that’s my next step,” said Spine.
While some, like Spine, are training on their own for personal running goals and activities, others are working hard in-season to prepare themselves for their next steps toward college cross country teams. While this shift may not be easy, it is one that the players are being adequately prepared to take on.
“I have been taking it slow and just doing my thing right now, in season, and letting the colleges slowly reach out to me. I have just been training hard and I have an older sibling who runs in college as well so I have been using her for any questions that I have,” said Cirincione.
Many of the seniors are looking forward to what is to come but can’t forget about the long season ahead and their responsibilities to lead this years team. The boys and girls next meet is Saturday, September, 28 at Bedford North Lawrence.