Cross Country Hits the Pavement Early
By John Earp
The Jal Cross Country Team has been putting in the early morning miles this summer. Head Coach Joe Cole says the team has been having unofficial, nonmandatory practices have been going on all summer, with a significant increase in the number of runners this year over last. Practices start at 6 in the morning, currently on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.
Cole says that the sizable increase in numbers this year is with the junior high, with 11 to 15 kids showing up for practice on a regular basis. Cole credits Alfonso Cervantes for getting several the girls on his softball team to go out for cross country. Cole says most kids might not enjoy running when they first start practicing, but the ones who stick it out, grow to enjoy it.
This is Cole’s fourth year coaching Jal Cross Country, with this coming school year being the first time he has had a junior high team in addition to his high school student athletes. Junior High Cross Country runs a 1.5-mile course, with the high schoolers competing on a 5K/3.1-mile course.
Cole says he is trying to build the entire cross-country program, which can be a hard sell at times, as cross country generally is not a high-profile or immensely popular sport compared to football and basketball, for instance. Nevertheless, any athlete’s athletic ability can definitely be enhanced through long-distance running, with increased aerobic capacity translating to better endurance and performance in any sport requiring strong heart and lung capacity.
Cole says, “The high schoolers do one level, every lap they do, they do the same number of laps around the track, and then when they come back to us, it just creates that extra 3 quarters of a mile, basically, which helps.”
The team’s first meet is on August 29th.