Welcome to Kealing Cross Country and the Hornet Run Club!

Fall 2023

Register for Kealing Cross Country and the Hornet Run Club Starting in August 2023

Link for Registration will be found HERE

Important Links | 

1. Race Calendar  

2. Google Calendar with practices and meets found at the bottom of this page.

Welcome to the Kealing Cross Country website! We are excited to announce that Kealing Cross Country will be back for the Fall 2023 season! Our official season will begin the first week of school (August 15-19) and our first practice will take place on Thursday, August 18th from 3:15pm-4:30pm. For the first practice we will meet to discuss the X-Country season, hold a Q&A session, and then have a short practice for runners to learn our warm-up structure and get a chance to feel the heat of our practices. Please send your runners with comfortable, cool clothing, shoes they can run in, and a water bottle. The first real practice will take place on Tuesday, August 22rd. 

Basic Club Information 

What | Kealing Cross Country and Hornet Run Club are a space for runners of all levels to learn about and enjoy the sport of running. Our practices will be built to meet the needs of all runners and our hope is that all our runners, whether already competitive in the sport or brand new to running find joy in the sport we love. This year, Austin ISD has created space for 7th and 8th Grade X-Country to compete as a UIL sport. What this means is that our 6th graders will continue to run under the Hornet Run Club, but our registration fee will be significantly reduced. 

For X-Country, the level of commitment is solely determined by the runner and their family. While we would love to see your runner out all every practice and meet, we also completely understand that our middle schoolers are involved in a variety of activities and we want them to feel supported in all their interests. 

The Structure | Kealing Cross Country will consist of two groups, Kealing Cross Country and the Hornet Run Club. Why the two different names? Due to University Interscholastic League regulations we need to have our 6th graders registered separately from our 7th and 8th graders. Kealing Cross Country and Hornet Run Club will function exactly the same except for the fact that when we register 6th graders for the meets they will be registered under Hornet Run Club, asked to pay their meet fees (scholarships available) and wear a different jersey from the 7th and 8th graders. Thus, when you register your runner with our club you will be asked to register either for Kealing Cross Country or the Hornet Run Club depending upon your runner's grade level. If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Practices | We will hold in person practices twice a week, but provide workouts for our runners for 4-5 days a week. (The heat is pretty unbearable during our practice time and we want runners to have the option to train at a cooler time of day.) As of now, our practices will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school from 3:15pm-4:30pm. Most practices will take place on the Kealing campus, but we may, from time to time, take our runners off campus to run in the Kealing neighborhood if enough volunteers are present to do so safely. Runners will have the option of riding the late bus home or being picked up.  If you plan to pick up your runner from Kealing, please either be there by 4:30 or plan to pick your runner up from Think Tank (in the cafeteria). 

Meets | We will also participate in 4-5 cross country meets over the span of September to the middle of October. The race length for a middle school student is 2-miles. Meets are not required, but prove to be a lot of fun and great way for runners to get to know one another. Once we have our official schedule, I will post it on this website and as well send it out to runners and families. 

Club Costs | Kealing X-Country for 7th and 8th graders is considered a UIL sport and the costs are covered by the district, including meet fees and coaches' stipends. 6th graders are not allowed to compete as UIL athletes and will therefor run as part of the Hornet Run Club. We will not be asking for a registration fee, but runners will need to buy a dry-fit t-shirt ($10) and pay any fees associated with races. Race fees are usually around $10 per runner. As stated earlier, there are scholarships available for 6th grader runners. 

Parents and Guardians | 

1. All runners must have an AISD physical prior to running with our club. AISD forms can be found HERE. If your runner is in 7th or 8th grade, they should also complete the RankOneSport portion of the physical found on the above link.  If your student needs assistance from the district to receive a physical, please contact Coach Brant Speed.

2. Our main mode of communication will be through Remind.com. If you do not have the app, it is an easy installation on your phone or computer. Please use THIS (will be linked soon) link to join the Kealing Cross Country and Hornet Run Club group. We will be using Remind.com to send out practice, meet, and urgent information.

3. Volunteer to help out with Kealing Cross Country and the Hornet Run Club.

4. Complete the Registration Form linked HERE (coming in early August)

Volunteers | The only way our club functions smoothly is with the help of volunteers. Below is a description of ways families have volunteered in the past. Once registration forms are posted, we will also post a volunteer form. 

• Come run with us! We love when family members join us for practices. With 40-60 runners, the more adults we have helping the better. It does not have to be a weekly commitment, though we'd love that, but can be a "any time you want/are able to join" kind of thing.

• I DON'T run, but can help out at practices. We are always looking for adults to either sit with the student's bags while we are running (in the shade of course) or sit out on "blind sports" on our training course while students are running. If your afternoon or work is flexible and you can work from a comfortable camping chair, we have a job for you. : )

• Volunteering during the week is difficult. We completely understand that too and have jobs for you.

  • Team Treasurer | This is an incredibly important role for our team. To allow for greater flexibility in meet sign-ups, we need a volunteer willing to handle our funds outside of the school/district system. If we work within the district system, we will need to give our school accountant at least two weeks notice to write a check, which means we have to know which runners are participating in meets at least 2.5 weeks ahead of the meet. If we have a volunteer handling the funds, we can allow for runners to join/drop the meet up until (typically) the Wednesday prior to the meet. Having done this for a few years now, extra days to sign up allow for far more runners to join us at meets. 

    • Receive and chronicle all team registration fees via Venmo, Paypal, check or cash

    • Write a check for meet costs

    • Write the check for coach stipends

    • Write a check for any remaining money directly to the Kealing Cross Country school account

  • Team Manager | This volunteer role is for our family members who like to organize. The Team Manager will help keep the volunteer sign-ups organized and help to plan/find others to plan any team celebration. We usually have one at the end of the year, but I would also love to have a Team Pasta Party prior to one of our meets.

  • Any other way you can help | As the season progresses, we may have spaces and places for needed help. Or, if you have an idea on how you can help, please reach out to us. 

I know there is a lot of information above, but I'm also sure we are missing something. If you have any questions, or need any assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to Coach Brant Speed at brant.speed@austinisd.org

We look forward to working with your runners this fall!

Coach Brant Speed