Our middle school cross country program is open to sixth through eighth grade runners. Registration for this team should be done through the middle school activities office with the official start date being the second day of the school year. The team practices Monday through Friday after school at Friendly Hills Middle School. Additional information can be found through the middle school websites.
In addition, any interested seventh or eighth grade middle school runners are welcome to train with the high school team for the preseason practices beginning on our first day of practice in August. To do so, an additional set of high school specific participation forms must ALSO be filled out through the high school activities office and a completed physical must be on file prior to being allowed to practice. The good news is that NO fee is required of middle school runners to participate in the preseason training. The forms required to compete for the middle school team are separate, and along with the middle school activity fee should be completed and turned in to the middle school activities office.
Seventh and eighth grade runners will be allowed to try out for the high school team during this preseason time. If a seventh or eighth grade runner is selected to compete for the high school team they will have the option to train and race as a Sibley cross country runner for the season. Should a middle school runner choose to do so, s/he must attend all high school practices and competitions. The runner would need to ride the bus to Sibley each day after school for practice and arrangements will be made by Coach Kluznik with individual parents for meet day transportation.
In order to try out for the high school team a seventh or eighth grade runner must attend all pre-season practices and competitions with the high school athletes. In addition to attendance, the high school coaches will be looking daily to judge fitness and each runner’s ability to succeed with the more difficult high school training. Finally, a time trial during the second week of practice will be used to select specific seventh and eighth grade runners. This time trial will take the format of a regular practice for the high school team with Coach Kluznik and Coach Lucio using a specific target time that seventh or eighth grade runners must achieve in order to be invited to join the high school team for the season. The invited runners will be talked to individually and be given the option to join the high school team for the season. This will be a decision made by the high school coaches and the offer will only be extended to seventh or eighth grade runners who are developmentally ready to handle the rigor of high school training and racing. All other middle school runners may continue to train with the high school team during the preseason, but when the school year begins those runners will join the middle school program. Any questions about this process should be directed to Erik Kluznik at erik.kluznik@isd197.org