Regular Season
*Tentative Calendar listed below as attachments
Northampton HS Cross Country
2020 Team Rules
Cross Country can be an individual sport, but we win or lose as a team. Some of rules may seem simple or insignificant, but small things add up to big gains. We are a team and to be part of the team, we must all follow the same rules. Being part of any team, whether it is high school or college, requires that there be sacrifices made. MAKE THE COMMITMENT.
Rules
1. Practice: Perfect practice makes perfect. Obviously practice and training is important to success both individually and as a team. Therefore to be part of the team you need to be at practice. I understand that in life, unexpected occurrences come up; I would expect that you do not miss practice at all, but there will be a tolerance of 3 misses for life’s unexpected happenings. Schedule appointments around practice. Work and vacations are not an acceptable excuse for missing or leaving early from practice, make sure you can adjust your schedule before you make the commitment to the team.
Consequence: Once a fourth and so on practice is missed, a missed meet will be the result.
2. Practice length: Like I mentioned earlier, small things add up to big gains. So, practice consists of more than just going out for a run. It will involve warm-up, stretching, run, striders/core/strength, cool-down, and stretch. Practice will be 2 – 2.5 hours long. Practices will be: Week 1 - 8-10:45am, Week 2 – 6-8:45pm and after school from 2:45 to 5:15pm (these times are based on everyone getting to practice on time and us starting on time). Now practice could end earlier than those times, but to be safe I would not plan activates during those times (refer to schedule for times). Leaving early will count as half misses. We will also be practicing on Saturdays, practice will be in the morning and we will be done by noon at the latest.
Consequence: Same result as missed practices. Four early leaves are the same as 3 misses and the consequences will follow from there. Again, schedule around practice.
3. Meets: A meet is our big day. That is where all our hard work at practice pays off. We are a team at each meet. The meet consists of three things. The warm-up, the race, and the cool down. This year the girls run first at 4:00 and the boys second at 4:45. Each team will warm up prior to their race; they will each then run their races. Once both teams are done racing, we will come back as a team, both boys and girls, and we will complete a cool down and stretch as team. After we have completed our post-race team stretch and team talk, you are free to leave with your parents if they have signed you out on my clipboard, or get back on the bus to go back to Northampton. We should be done cooling down and stretching by 6:00ish. *For weekend invites and post-season meets, I realize they are long days, but if awards are won by a teammate, we will stay and cheer them on while receiving their award.
Consequence: We are a team and will cool down as a team. You would not leave a soccer, football, softball, basketball game before the team does and it will not be accepted in cross country. If you leave early from a meet once, you will be given a warning. A second time will result in a missed meet.
4. General: We will also follow Northampton’s school and code of conduct rules. Those two areas cover proper behavior in and out of school, attendance, and grades. Sickness and injury are dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but my general rule is if you are too sick for practice/school than you are too sick for meets (safety). Poor grades (failing a class) will result in practice study sessions (hopefully not an issue).
Consequence: Failure to follow Northampton Area School District rules and extra-curricular code of conduct rules will result in consequences dealt with in a case-by-case basis.
Only as a true team can we achieve our goals.
2020 Meet Schedule
Regular Season EPC Meets - Boys race starts at 4:00pm and Girls race starts at 4:45pm
Saturday September 5th - Northampton Invite *Meet Schedule attached below
Tuesday September 15th - @ Allentown Parkway against Central, Emmaus, Whitehall *Senior Day (meet will go longer)
Tuesday September 22nd - @ Allentown Parkway against Allen, Dieruff, Parkland
Saturday September 26th - @ Penncrest Invite
Tuesday September 29th - @ Nazareth Intermediate against Pleasant Valley and Pocono Mountain East & West
Tuesday October 6th - @ Stroudsburg MS against Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg North & South
Tuesday October 13th - HOME against against Becahi, Easton, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth *Senior Day (meet will go longer)
Tuesday October 20th - EPC Championship @ Desales University (only top 7 plus up to 3 additional from each team compete if they hit qualifying times)
Wednesday October 28th - District XI Championship @ Desales University (only top 7 from each team compete)
Saturday November 7th - PIAA State Championship @ Hershey PA (must qualify as individual or be part of top 2 teams at Districts)
Meet Guidelines:
Students will be dismissed from school and will take a bus from Northampton to the location of the meet. Once the meet is over (both boys and girls races complete, plus post-race stretch, and coach talks to team) then the team will head back to Northampton. If parents drive to the meet and want to take their child with them home instead of the bus that is fine as long as certain guidelines are followed:
Must still stay for the entire meet. If you are in the first race, you can not just run your race and head home. You must stay for both races, the post-race cool down, and give the coach the chance to talk to team to go over information. Be part of the team all the way through.
The coach will have a clipboard with you child's name on it. Next to their name will be a line for you (the parent) to sign your child out. You must sign your child out in order to be able to take them home. Once you have them signed out and the coach is finished talking to them, you are free to take them home. We need to follow this procedure for liability reasons. We as coaches are responsible for all athletes and we need to know where they are. If the guidelines are not followed, we are going to have to enforce that all athletes return to school on the bus. We allow students to leave with parents to make things more convenient, please follow the guidelines so we can continue this, thank you.