Preseason Practice  

Our preseason practices will be held before school begins (see the calendar for exact schedule).  These weeks are designed to get you into shape before the regular season begins.  No matter what physical fitness level you arrive with during our first practice, Coach Kuno and I will put you in a position to succeed this year!  Runners should be in their gear when they arrive to preseason practice.  Please remember that runners must have ten practices before our first race.  If you do not have ten practices, that's ok!  Your first race will just be after you have completed those ten practices.

Regular Season Practice

Practices during the school year will begin after school at 5:15pm.  Runners have the option to have a locker that they can place their gear in before school.  Runners should headhome after school and plan to be back to Dempsey (most days by 5:00pm).   RUNNERS MUST BE PICKED UP BY 6:30PM.  Failure to do so may result in runners not being able to participate in our next race. Due to home football meets will be have one practice a week at Gallant Woods (see the Calender for specific dates). We will also hold 4 practices directly after school in September (see the Calender for specific dates).

What to Expect at Practice

During the first week of practice, we work to get our runners comfortable with practice and knowledgeable about XC.  Practices generally consist of a 20 minutes warm-up period (warm-up laps, dynamic stretches, and accelerations), 40-60 minute core workout (distance/speed or strength workouts), and a 10 minute cool down period (cool down laps and static stretching).  Runners should bring a water bottle, wear appropriate clothings and shoes, and wear a watch if they have one.  

Once runners have eased into practices, we will place them into groups according to their current running ability.  There will be six groups with roughly ten runners in each group.  Runners are placed in these groups so that they can train with people at a similar level.  These groups change about every week or so based on practice and race times.  The use of groups helps keep our runners healthy and motivated.

Runners will experience discomfort during the first couple weeks of practices as their bodies work to get used to the demands of running distance.  Coach Kuno and I will work to help each runner achieve success and avoid injury.  We ask that our parents help by being supportive of their runner's goals, drop-off/pick-up from practice on time, having them drink 6-8 glasses of water per day, and have them try to get enough sleep (easier said than done ;-)!).

We compete in two different types of races: Dual Meets and Invitationals.

Dual Meets are usually held on weekday nights and are usually against one to two other teams.  There are usually two races that occur: a girls and boys race. However, these races sometimes have four races:girls varsity, boys varsity (our top 5 runner race in these), boys open, and girls open (the remaining runners race in these).  We will email our parent list when specific information about these races become available.  These meets usually start between 5-5:30pm and last until 7 -7:30pm.  Before home meets, we ask that runners go home and around brought back to Dempsey at 4:45pm.  Before away meets, runners will stay at the school and remain in the commons until our buses arrive.  Runners will participate in the race and then will either be bused home or taken home by a parent (away meets).  Parents will be asked to fill out an online form if they are taking their runner home from the meet.

Invitationals are usually held during the weekdays and are against multiple teams.  They usually follow the four-race format with a boy varsity, girls varsity, boys open, and girls open race.  Specific information will be available as we get closer to the event.  Please see the race schedule for specific times and locations of each of these races.  Runners will meet at Dempsey before the race begins and will be bused to the event.  We will set up a home base at these events that our runners and parents will meet at.  Runners will participate in the race and then will either be bused home or taken home by a parent.  Parents will be asked to fill out an online form if they are taking their runner home from the meet.