One of the many sports offered here at Graham High School is cross country. Although this sport is not talked about very much, there is a lot of hard work and effort that goes into being a part of it. Cross country involves running long distances on different courses. Throughout the season the teams meet every school morning for practice outside the old gym doors at 6:00am (girls) and 6:15am (boys), and travel to a different town to run different courses each week.
The girls run roughly around 2 miles whereas the boys run roughly around 3 miles at meets. Practices may involve different distances and different speeds. This wouldn’t be possible without the coaches. You may know these two employees as the varsity basketball coaches, however they also coach this mentally challenging sport. The girls cross country team is coached by Coach Wood, and the boys team is coached by Coach Hise.
When asking Coach Wood what his favorite thing about coaching cross country is, he replied, “I feel like it’s a sport where when a student prepares and maximizes their efforts in practice, you see a direct correlation to their times at meets.” When asking Coach Hise the same question his response was, “I like getting to be around kids I’m not normally around. And it makes the kids that play basketball more conditioned for the season.” To see this sport from a runners perspective, sophomore Ellie Weatherman was asked what the most challenging thing about being a part of this sport is. Her response was, “The most challenging thing is having a strong mindset, and making yourself keep going.”
Kids that go to meets aren’t the only kids that run cross country. Some kids run the practices to get in shape for other sports such as soccer, and basketball. In fact, the basketball boys and soccer boys that don’t participate in football are required to show up for practices in the morning. Although this doesn’t apply to the girls’ team sports, it is highly recommended and encouraged because it will be beneficial for the season.
