Parents Corner

First Couple of Weeks of Practice

Please try and have your child wear a shirt with their name on it.  We get lots of new kids and coaches, and it helps us to quickly learn everyone's name.  Also, if your child has not run before, the first couple of weeks of practice can be very hard.  The coaches will do their best to encourage the kids to hang in there as it does get easier.  Please reinforce this information with your child, and I promise once they get in shape, running is a ton of fun.

Other Items About Practice & Meets

• • Walking is always discouraged by the coaches.  We understand walking will occur with new runners until they are fit.  In the event the walking continues to occur on a regular basis, we will need to get the parent involved.  Because there are a large number of runners, we try and space coaches at the front, middle and back of all the runners.  However, eight coaches for 50+ runners is never enough.  It is not fair to all the other kids if one is walking.  If walking continues past a reasonable amount of time, the child will be sent back to the open air shelter until the end of practice.  

  • The child must always listen to the coach.  Bad behavior will not be tolerated, and the parent will be notified.  

  • Try and bring small water bottles to practice.  Often times we will practice at the back or side of the park, and we have the kids take their water to the new location.  It is much easier for them to run with a small bottle than a large one for the short distance to the workout area.

• Try and make every effort to attend as many practices as possible.  The more running and the more fit the child gets, the better they will perform on race day.

• We strongly discourage eating before practice.  A light snack when they return from school and then only fluids an hour before practice is preferred.  If they come to practice well hydrated and not full of steak and potatoes they will have a productive and comfortable practice.  If they happened to just finish up a Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese, don't bother to tell the coach.  We will find out soon enough what they ate! 

  • We have lots of families that participate in cross country simply for fitness.  This is wonderful, and we strongly support this.  However, at the end of the season we have been buying way too many trophies.  Going forward, a trophy will only be purchased if the child participated in at least one race.  If there are other reasons such as injury or other issues, and you want your child to receive a trophy, please notify the head coach. 

  • On race day many teams bring this spray that colors the kids' hair.  Although the kids love this, it makes them crazy, and they run around wasting energy.  Please do not bring the crazy colored hair spray to the meets. 

Pick Up and Drop Off Procedures

Due to the number of runners and for the safety of all kids, we ask that the you park the car and bring the younger runners to the open air shelter and check-in with one of their coaches.  Also, if you will be leaving practice early for whatever reason, please either notify a coach before practice or have the child tell a coach they are leaving.  Despite the number of kids, we do know when one comes up missing.  As a safety precaution, we typically count the number of kids starting practice and make sure we have the same number when practice ends.  We really worry when we finish with more, but go into panic mode when we finish with less!

The end of practice is very hectic, and again, we ask that you park the car and come to the shelter to pick-up your child.  We don't like the little ones walking through the parking lot and looking for their parents' car.  There is simply too much activity, and for the safety of everyone, please park and come pick them up. 

An even better idea would be to stay at practice and join some other parents for a nice walk or maybe even a run around the perimeter of the park!  It is 1-mile around so you can start setting a goal now!

Sign Up Process & Fees

See the Registration for all the information you need to know about registering for cross country.  It can be a confusing process, so please ask a coach if you have any questions.  If you bring any completed forms to practice, make sure to give them to a coach.  The fee for this season is $50.

Mandatory Parent Meeting

After practice on TBD at the open air shelter, we will have a brief parent meeting to discuss the logistics of the season and other important items.  

Meets and Other Events

All the meets and other important events of the season are loaded into the Calendar on this site.  Also under Meet Information  the dates are also detailed.  This can also be obtained by clicking on the CYO website link.  As the meets approach, detailed instruction on arrival times and routines will be posted.  An e-mail will be sent to check the website for the information.

Training Schedule

The training schedule for the season can be found here: Practice Schedule.  This is good to print off and have available in the event you miss a practice or two.  Just follow the schedule, and your child should do fine.  It is not required that your child attend all six practices that we make available each week.  Because we compete with multiple other sports, we try to have a sufficient number of available practices so the kids can make at least 3x a week. 

Volunteering

As you can see through the sign-up process, the help of every parent is needed to make this program fun and successful.  On the Volunteer Information & Schedules page, you will see all the details about the volunteer positions and how the volunteer captains will be calling on you to help out. 

Picture Taking

This is one of the most important parts of our program.  We try to capture images throughout the season of the journey the kids take from practices, to meets, and the championship.  The season ending slideshow is a highlight for the kids and keeps them coming back.  Please make every effort to take as many pictures as possible.  Tips are included under the Volunteer Information & Schedules, including how you get the pictures to the slideshow coordinator. 

Printing this page.  If this is too much information to read online, any page on this site can be printed by clicking on the "Print Page" button at the bottom center of the screen.  It is pretty small but it is there.