By Steven Flores & Daniel Gonzalez
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. It is a sport that takes a lot of dedication and training to be the best. This year the cross country team was formed for the first time at Neuwirth thanks to everyone’s favorite art teacher, Ms. Stobart, who took it upon herself to push for it and make it a real thing at this school. We decided to sit down with her and talk about why she did this and find out what the team’s experience was during the season.
Coaches Experience
Going back to Stobarts time in high school, we found out she did not participate in cross country, instead she ran track as she was better at hurdles and things along those lines. Later in life she began running long distances and has been running marathons for 12 years now. She believes “It's more so about improving your own PR” as opposed to coming in at top spots, about the camaraderie with our team and the gradual improvement of all the runners, though of course placing high is a long-term goal every runner should be aiming for. This year she decided to coach cross country, first, because she loves her students, obviously, and second, because she simply loves to run so might as well do it with students and have a good time all the while. Becoming the cross country coach only made sense as she's an avid runner. Now she plans to coach following years and if possible have a co-coach in order to manage the 20 or so runners on the team. She worries that someday one of her kids might fall ill causing her to miss a meet which further stresses the convenience of having another coach to rely on.
Runners Experience
Obstacles our runners face other than the competitive nature of running for top spots among participants, is the pretty excruciatingly drastic difference between practicing on a leveled path compared to running on the natural and hilly terrain at the meets. Not to mention every time is different, sometimes the same student may take first place, other times another student takes first, it's partly dependent on how their body feels that day. The type of weather on the given day is also a factor contributing to performance, as hot weather usually strains the lungs more, making them work harder, which leads to quicker exhaustion. Though the biggest obstacle present is simply the insane course, as even an experienced runner would have trouble completing it. The crazy inclines, constant hills, and the rigid terrain definitely puts a toll on our runners. Many in which can become prone to injury due to these crazy inclines, It becomes way more taxing than running on a straight path. Not having the option to train the way that we need to; Ms. Stobart feels though she’s doing a disservice to her team seeing that they're not training as adequately as they could be, even having access to treadmills would be a huge help.
Training Underwent
Training thus far consists of a 3 mile run once per week, on Monday afterschool. On Thursday our athletes run at the actual course. Before the first meet the runners had no idea how physically taxing running up a slope could be; they’d only run on a straight, leveled course. The first meet was a real slap to the face, like “oh damn this is not at all what I expected”, all the runners were clearly worn out. So from then on the coach would add a couple minutes of stairs after the run to hopefully get the runners prepared for the crazy inclines at the course, though of course running up some stairs versus an incline aren’t very comparable. The coach highly recommends athletes take the time to practice on their own, in order to improve endurance and PR’s, “If you're not running you're losing it, losing your endurance.” Consistent practice equals improvement. Beyond training for better performance and placing, what's really important is to protect our runners from injury and/or give the injured the time to recover. Keeping our runners healthy is number one priority as there is no point if all runners are too sick or injured to run at all. Needless to say, practice will be tailored to accommodate any changes in circumstances that may arise.
Winning the Metro League!
After 4 years, Neuwirth is on the rise, back on the map for cross country, re-establishing ourselves is a must. A huge congratulations to all our runners for pushing through. Even with all these setbacks and disadvantages the team still managed to win the metro league finals, earning a huge trophy and the qualification to progress to the next level, the CIF preliminaries! None of which would have been possible without the undying support of our lovable coach and art teacher Ms. Stobart. A Special shout out to our top placing runners for giving it their all!: Arely Cambonchi, Kimberly Tale, Jocelynne Cambonchi, and Kevin Nino
What now?
Now that our team has progressed this far they have the ability to compete with others who have also reached this accomplishment. For our runners this will mean even more competitive opponents to compete against which means even more effort and determination in their training. They have to reach new heights to surpass their limits to take home the goal. And for the rest of us this means we have to support our team even more. To show them they’re not alone and that the whole school has their back, whether or not they win finals we shall stay proud of our team for making it as far as they have.