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DEL.ICIO.USHoya Cross Country: An Emerging Sport
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As in most metro-area highschools, cross country programs are shadowed by more popular, team oriented sports, such as football, basketball, soccer, and baseball. As an AJC and Marietta Daily Journal reader, I rarely see recognition of any kind to top ranked runners. Cross country meets occur weekly, yet still remain under the radar.
The Harrison Cross Country team doesn’t care whether they’re recognized. They don’t stop training two hours each day, even the day before a big race. It’s amazing to hear how much they actually do run: 1 mile splits one day, marathon pace the next. It seems that they never take a day off. A close friend of mine tells me their “day off” is a light day consisting of some sprints and short distance running.
Another concern of mine is the belief that running cross country isn’t a sport, and takes little to no talent to compete in. Granted, being the quarter-back of the varsity football team might take more “talent”, being able to exectute different aspects of the game (passing up the middle, reading the open man, etc.). But let me say this, do we consider sports as activites which take only talent to compete in? And what is the true defintion of talent? I would consider running a 16:54 5K as talent. Being able to maintain under a 5:40 mile for more than 3 miles is pretty impressive. With these statistics, I would consider Jakob Roedel, the #1 male runner for the varsity cross country team, as an athlete. Try to find any baseball, football, or basketball player who can match those numbers. Chances are, you can’t.
So far, all the hard work has paid off for the Hoyas. At the recent Cherokee Warpath Invitational at Boling Park, the varsity boys came in 4th overall while the girls recieved 3rd place. Even more impressive was the JV team, girls placing 1st overall and boys 2nd. As an anchor on the morning announcements at Harrison, I plan on showing the entire school how well our cross country team is performing, hopefully giving the team the recognition they deserve.
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