Regular Season
*Tentative Calendar listed below as attachments
Northampton MS Cross Country
2020 Team Rules
At the middle school level, we try and stay a little more flexible to allow students to figure out what they want to be involved in at the high school level, while also preparing student-athletes for the higher expectations of the high school cross country team. General rules are listed below:
Rules
1. Practice/practice length: 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. Now at the middle school level, we realize that kids are still figuring out what they want to do. So, if a practice has to be missed for another school organized activity, like band, newspaper, etcetera, that is ok as long as coaches are notified beforehand and it is not excessive (multiple times in the same week). Missing or leaving early for non-school related activities, like outside club sports will not be acceptable. There will be a tolerance of three unexcused missed practices.
· In addition to dedicating time to attend practice daily, you will be expected to stay for the entire duration of each practice. The middle school Cross Country team will practice Monday through Thursday with a few random other days throughout the season. The first two weeks of practice will be in the evening, and weeks 3-8 will take place after school. Please check the calendar for estimated practice times!
Consequence after three missed practices/ leaving early: Once a fourth and so on practice is missed, a missed meet will be the result. Schedule outside activities and appointments around practice and meets.
2. Meet: A meet is our big day. That is where all our hard work at practice pays off. There will be separate boys and girls races starting at 4:00ish and 4:30ish. The order might vary depending on the host school. At the meet, the team will warm-up, then race, and then cool down. 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 the team has completed their post-race stretch and team talk, you are free to leave with your parents if they have signed you out on the clipboard, or get back on the bus to go back to Northampton. The team should be done cooling down and stretching by 5:45ish.
Consequence for leaving meet early: 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.
3. 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 *races are roughly 2 miles long
Thursday Meets - Girls will race at 4pm and Boys will race at 4:30ish
Saturday September 5th - Northampton Invite *Meet Schedule attached below
Thursday September 10th - @ Freedom High School
Thursday September 17th - @ Lower Macungie Middle School
Thursday September 24th - Home (Bicentennial Park)
Thursday October 1st - @ Parkland High School
Thursday October 8th - @ Freedom High School
*Tuesday October 13th - the middle school team will get out early and take bus over to Bicentennial to help with Senior Day
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.