Your daughter/son  has joined the North Schuylkill Cross Country team. Cross Country is a fall sport that differs from any other due to the running on a wide variety of terrain that includes streets, parks, trails, and hills.

This handbook is specifically for you, the parent, as well as the athlete as it will give you a good insight as to the expectations of our team. It is the hope of the coaches that you, the parent, will help to accentuate the cross country program by working with us. In doing so, your daughter/son will be able to better reach her/his full potential and enjoy cross country to the fullest.

As students get to high school, many choose to get involved in an interscholastic sport. Cross Country provides the opportunity for individual and team accomplishment at this level. Runners show up at the program in North Schuylkill through many different routes. Some are here because they have had siblings that ran. Some have been noticed by myself or my assistant coaches and  recommended. Some use cross country as a way to staying in shape for track and basketball. Some join because their friends are involved. However they choose to get involved, we welcome them and hope that this experience will enrich their high school & junior high experience.

As a result of being a part of an interscholastic sport, a student can become more qualified in terms of college acceptance. We often come in contact with college coaches and recruiters and learn about their programs. It is not uncommon for colleges to offer financial assistance to atheletes who are above average in both academics and running ability. We take great pride in our running, but we remember that the primary reason your daughter/son is here is to do well in school and we try to encourage them on to higher education.

We try to provide a good training program for your daughter/son throughout the season and during the offseason. There will be times during the year where they will need to do their own self-training program to get the most out of their sport. Summer running is a must for cross country athletes that want to excel because our first meet of the season is usually less than two weeks after school starts.

During the first couple weeks of training, there are a few areas that may be of concern to you as a parent. Is there anything you can do to help? What can you expect? How can you help prepare your daughter/son for training, competition, and the everyday rigors of life combined with cross country?

First, as a general rule, don't change your daughter's/son’s normal daily routine. Everything should remain the same in terms of responsibilities, appropriate eating, sleeping, and social habits.

Second, be aware that a common result of training (especially early on) is muscle soreness. If she/he doesn't have a long background in running, this muscle soreness may last as long as a week at the beginning of the training. It is best that she/he let her coaches know about this so that we can adjust their workout to get a faster recovery. Also, with any sport, there is the risk of a sports related injury. All concerns regarding these should be directed to the coaches, our trainer, or a physician.

Third, a well balanced diet is going to help any athlete in her performance. Any changes that you might want to impliment should be gradual. On competition days, high fat, fried foods, sodas, and highly acidic drinks should be avoided. Distance runners should be drinking about 8 glasses of water a day and on days that are especially hot and humid, even more. We recommend eating a diet that is high in carbohydrates, which is excellent fuel for a cross country runner. We understand that everybody's dietary needs are different, but it is usually better to go into a race on the hungry side (the opposite can lead to cramping).

Fourth, our mandatory practices start at the school in August .Your daughter/son is expected to be dressed and ready to warm up at 3:05PM. Practice usually ends between   4:30PM and they are expected to be at every workout. If your daughter/son is involved with an another sport, it is not uncommon for there to be time conflicts I ask they put cross country first.

Fifth, we ask that if your daughter/son needs to make a doctor or dental appointment, if it is possible to schedule it near the end of practice. If that is not possible, please let us know ahead of time so that we can give them an alternate workout for her/him to do on her/his own.

Commitment and Communication

This is a sport which requires time and dedication. Along with our meets that take place during the week, approximately half of them also take place on Saturday. With our workouts included, this makes for some very busy athletes and coaches. Hence, we feel that "commitment and communication" are important for all members of our team to abide by.

Commitment is bearing the responsibility of what you need to do as a member of a team. Each athlete received a packet with information informing them about what required of them this season. You should ask to see this since it will give you an idea of what this team is trying to accomplish. It talks about practices, equipment, and team loyalty. We hope that you, the parents, understand and support this. We, the coaches, are aware that unplanned family matters come up and must be attended to, but outside of that, your daughter/son is expected to be at all practices and competitions. If there is something that comes up, we expect that your daughter/son will let us know.

Communication -- We expect all team members to communicate with their fellow teammates and their coaches. Problems come up and we deal with them more effectively if there is good communication between all sides and parties involved. Problems only grow when communication is compromised. If something comes up, we expect the athlete to speak with myself as the head coach or my assistant coach directly and not go through a friend who might forget completely. If something comes up involving a competition that could affect other teammates, don't tell us minutes before, but let us know when you find out so that we can take appropriate steps. A lot of problems can be solved with good communication and some can even been avoided all together.

Commitment and Communication takes work from all involved with our program: the athlete, the coaches, and the parent. It's not just one side, but it needs all of us working together for our program to be a success.

The Cost of the Right Stuff

Shoes -- In this regard, it helps to go to a store that deals primarily with running equipment or that has an experienced runner as their salesperson. We generally recommend Schuylkill Valley Sporting in The Schuylkill Mall, The Inside Track in Harrisburg or  Running Warehouse at www.runningwarehouse.com  All have salespeople who can help you make a good decision based on size, width, running style, and type of running (training, general running, and competition). We handed out discount cards to The Inside Track at the beginning of the season. The Running Warehouse has free shipping. Here are four things you should you pay attention to when buying a new shoe:

1. A good shoe fit will feel the best on your feet the first time you put the shoe on.
2. It helps to buy a good shoe. You don't have to get the most expensive one, but sometimes a cheap shoe causes more problems than it is worth. Remember, your feet take the most abuse in running, so if there was a time to be a little less thrifty, this is that time. Running shoes that are on sale generally are on sale because they aren't selling and they don't sell because most runner's don't feel that they work well for them. With shoes, you offen get what you pay for.
3. Make sure you have some room at the tip of your shoe. A good rule that the space should be the width of your thumb. This allows some room for growth and any foot swelling from a hard run. You will also be doing the toenails a big favor, too.
4. Designate a pair for your training and one for other activities. Your training shoes are going to get run through fast enough without using them for other things. If you're lucky, you'll get 300 to 500 miles worth of running before they're shot.

Clothing -- It is not necessary to purchase clothing for meets. Uniforms are checked out to the athletes. For practice, tank tops or t-shirts and shorts are fine. Clean, dry socks are important for prevention of blisters, fungus, and other foot ailments that can occur. Athletes should purchase sweatshirts and bottoms to have them for the colder weather that typically arrives mid October. Sweatshirts and bottoms order forms are attached in your packet.

Watches -- These are good for runners to be able to see how they are pacing themselves during practice. You can get one that performs all the necessary functions for 10 to 15 dollars. You can not wear a watch at during a meet only at practice.

Safety-   Safety is a very important to all coaches, in cross country we take safety very serious. For this reason we DO NOT ALLOW your daughter/son to use their ipod or any other MP3 or personal music device while running at pratice or at a meet.  

Race Day

Pre Meet Preparation –  Get to know the course and look for good places to watch from, as well as the start and finish lines. Also, know what the Spartan uniforms look like so you can identify our team quickly during the race. Our team has the Red tops with the white & blue lettering, royal blue shorts.

Be careful in that many races will be run during the course of the meet. These meets last from two hours to four hours, depending upon how many schools are there and the number of races. Find out what time your daughter/son is racing so you won't be running around the course for each race, unless that is what you really want to do, of course.

While they are warming up, do not be surprised if you aren't getting the attention of your daughter/son. They are usually using the time before their race to familiarize themselves with the course, to get warmed up, and to get prepared to run with last minute instructions from their coaches.

The Race -- This is not a sport that is watched from a single point, like other sports. Here, you usually move from point to point on the course and cheer your athletes on. Usually, follow the some of the coaches, they usually go to the mile markers and those are pretty good points to cheer from. Also, keep that mental note of the start and finish lines because you don't want to miss those. A quick note of caution: it is against the rules to run alongside a runner and pace them. You can also not give water. These will get your athlete disqualified from the race.

End of Race -- As a runner finishes and goes into the finish chute, they must keep in order and give their race tag to the people that are collecting it. It is their responsibility to do so. Be aware that this is a responsibility they have to do otherwise it could cost them a place and hurt their team placement as well. After they are done, we require that they warm down as a team and cheer their teammates on that are yet to run.

All Runners are important-  We have a lot of extremely talented runners, and runners who improve significantly over the season. Most runner will not score in a meet or win medals at invitationals, but are an integral part of the team and contribute to the success. Please keep in mind that most people can not run as well as your child! Please congratulate ALL of the RUNNERS after they compete, no matter how they place. 

Important Notes -- once a race is over, parents are often surprised (especially the first time) to see how tired their daughter/son is. These symptoms are normally weakness in the knees, stumbling in a fainting like manner, overall weakness, glossy eyes, and nausea. These generally pass quickly. A common mistake that parents make is to take their daughter/son and try to care for them. Please let us take care of them as we have the necessary equipment to rehydrate them and treat them for exhaustion, if needed. My coaches have been trained in first aid and are aware of these conditions at the end of a race.

Also, once the race is over, it is a good thing for them to drink water and usually gatorade. This replaces the lost fluids and the electrolites that typically are lost during a race of this magnitude. Don't give them juice or soda for at least 15 minutes afterward because it sometimes can cause nausea.

Low score wins as it does in golf. The object is to get as few points as possible. So, if North Schuylkill has 15 points and CV has 40, then North Schuylkill wins. In the race, the first place finisher is 1 point, second place is 2 points, and so on and so forth.

Scores are taken from the top five finishers even though teams have more running in the meet.

So here we have North Schuylkill winning with the low score, but if you notice, the 10th place isn't listed and it jumps straight to 11 in the scoring. The 10th place was displaced in that it wasn't used in the point total. This actually is an advantage to us in that it gives our opposition extra points if we can displace runners and gives us a better chance of winning. Also, if the score is tied, it goes to who had the better placement of the 6th and 7th runners.  

 1 2

 3 6

 4 7

 5 9

 8 11

Total 21 35

A team can lock up a race (not invitation scoring) by getting the first three places. If you do that, it is impossible to lose in the scoring, even if the opposing team gets the next seven runners across. Let's take a look  

As you can see, an extremely close race, but NS squeeks out a 1 point victory. A win is a win after all.   

 1 4

 2 5

 3 6

 11 7

 12 8

Total 29 30

Awards -- No awards are given out at dual meets or tri meets, but they are given out at invitationals. Usually it is in the form of a medal for an individual and a trophy for a team.

Be a Parent Booster

If you have the time, we can always use a little help here and there. Our summer picnic, end of the season banquet plus senior gifts cost money! All the money must be raised by the booster club. In addition to the fundraising the at the XC meet food stand our booster club also has a food stand at the Girardville St. Patty’s Day parade. We ask if the parents can give a little support as well. This usually comes in the form of helping provide transportation to a site to practice, helping work the food stand, bringing cut citrus or fruit for snacks, or helping at a meet that we are hosting. Or if anyone is interested being and officer with the booster club.

We try to make this program as enjoyable an experience as possible. With your help it will be. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.