Cross Country Camp Narrative

Being girls of the ages fourteen to eighteen we did not know how to react. We have never in our life went to school and heard all these headlines about how the program we worked so hard to build is not going to make it in our county. Knowing we had no support from anyone besides our coaches and families led us to constantly being down. We were continuously mocked of from higher ranked teams, even if we won a game. All that proceeded in our heads were that how can people think so small of a group of teenage girls. No one wanted to be last in our division anymore, but we didn't have faith in ourselves as a result of no one having confidence in us.

The final seconds of a cross country meet when you are sprinting down the straight away, looking at the finish line, trying to beat just one more person, is one of the most mentally and physically exhausting moments I’ve ever encountered. In the Fall of 2014 things just clicked with our girls cross country team. Winning Bi-county, Conference, Sectional, and advancing to Regional and Semi-state, was unexpected to everyone around us. Losing five of our seven varsity runners the year before got us moved from our small school rank of 3rd to 13th. Getting moved ten spots on that list motivated us even more to prove to everyone what we could do without those graduated seniors.

It was 7:00 in the morning when we arrived at the Johnston City High School. Once everyone arrived at the high school, we got on the bus and headed off to Benton. As we stepped foot on the bus, we all sat there quietly, nervous about the results of this game. This was the game that determined whether or not we went on to state. Coach Simon and Coach Shane gave us one of their what we like to call "before the game warm-up talks". We were all nervous of course, but we were all determined to win this game. We had been looking forwards to winning regionals and going to state the whole season and that day was the day that we gave us the opportunity to go to state. After the thirty minute bus ride, we finally got to Benton and once we got there,

Last year when I won the Highland Conference in Cross Country, is when I really started to like running. I remember the first meet of the season. I had been running a lot, like 35 miles per week a lot, I was feeling very ready and just felt like I had the advantage on everyone else. I was in such good shape that the two miles you run in an actual meet felt like nothing compared to how much I had been running on my own so at that first meet I kind of surprised myself. I took off a lot faster than everyone else it seemed. I kept a much faster pace than most and just kind of kept it that way. The meet was at Manton, so half way through the race I remembered Manton’s cross country course is known for the signature obstacle, the mudpit. When I got

The girls team was going to be better than ever, it was actually the first time in the history of Cameron Cross Country that we would have a full girls team. Around the fourth week of practice, late August early September, I was running in practice and could hardly move my left leg. It got tight and I was unable to straighten my leg. I found out that I pulled my hamstring, so we immediately got into physical therapy. I was in physical therapy for about four weeks and I made it back for our home meet. I got to run four meets after being out of physical therapy for a month. My last race that I ran at was Kearney and I did not get to finish the race due to reinjuring my leg, this time patellar tendonitis. I was in physical therapy for another four weeks and was not able to finish out the

The team bonded and practiced diligently to get better. Our team was evidently young, but we were progressing. Once the fall performance season started in August, we hit unexpected bumps in the road. Many of the girls thought that we were going to have a “rebuilding year” and lacked passion and drive. Those feelings were contagious and created a toxic environment in practice. We were plateauing instead of increasingly improving. To add to the disappointment, Taylor quit the team due to the revoking of her captainship and an injury. Suddenly, I became the sole leader of a team that was giving up. I started to feel doubt, but then I remembered my goal. I had one year left, and I was not going to let it go by unsuccessfully without trying to motivate the team, even if it felt like a fruitless attempt. I decided it was imperative that I talk to the girls about our season last year to reminisce the pure joy and accomplishment we felt when we won the State Tournament. We discussed the effort and commitment it took to be a State Champion team, and we talked about how if winning was our goal for this year, we were currently not on the right track to meet that goal. After our heart-to-heart, the team dynamic changed. The entire team was on the same page and working to progress every minute of

My freshman year we entered playoffs with a hopeful optimism that in our first year in 3A, the largest division, we could make a statement that we were here to stay. In the end, the game didn’t go our way. There were some questionable calls made but in the end, it is what it is: we weren’t good enough to win. A tough reality but often times you learn more from a loss than from a win. Sophomore

In addition to everything that happened prior to my high school years, my freshman year was one, if not, my most memorable when it comes to sports. Track may have been my only sport in high school but I took a great deal or pride and passion in what I was doing and the team I was on, felt like another family. We had a track meet in Eudora, Kansas, and I was on the four by one team relay, which is four people that each run a 100 meter dash and pass off a baton. I was the anchor of the team and we were in first place in the event. When I got the

We were out for vengeance, and as the first heat came to a close, the three remaining teams lined up. Our team was Brandon Reid starting off the blocks, Isaiah running the second leg, me securing the third, and Bawa trying to end the race in strong fashion. As I loosened my legs up, the gun sounded, and I watched Brandon get off to a quick start. Before I knew it, Isaiah was 10m behind me and was ready to pass the baton. As I grabbed the baton from Isaiah, I noticed I was a few meters behind a kid from Avon. Never, ever again I thought. My legs planted and exploded off the ground in a simultaneous motion. I was like a cheetah chasing after a gazelle. As the wind blew through my cleanly cut hair, I began to close the gap between myself and the man ahead. In the closing 20m, I tried my hardest to catch the Avon kid, but I couldn’t. As I passed the baton to Bawa, my heart sank. As my chin dipped to my chest so I could only notice the ground, I realized I did not run the fastest 100m. At the end of the race, we finished second behind Avon, again. My arms tensed and my stomach dropped. Losing to Avon was the worst possible ending to my track season. However, my head would be picked up by a more important event that followed days after the Founders League Tournament.

I take a deep breath and start down the dirt path to where I will live for the next twelve days. The air is crisp, oddly like autumn for an August afternoon. I pull my thin cotton T-shirt closer to my body. I already miss the stifling dry heat. !follow the other two kids and the camp counselor in front of me, trying to avoid turning my ankle on the roots in the path that seem to pop up from nowhere. The boys in front of me don't seem nervous, they're joking with the counselor like they've been friends forever even though they had only just met. I paste a too-stiff smile across my thirteen-year-old cheeks and try to close the distance between myself, the boys, and the counselor. The counselor stops abruptly by a patch of knee-high grass just before a fork in the road and turns to me. I feel my face redden. The counselor is around nineteen years old with curly chestnut hair fashioned in a short haircut that has clearly grown out throughout the long summer months, a stray curl loops around their unpierced ear and rests against their cheek; they have an

The piercing ring of alarm went off for the last time, waking everyone up an hour later than usual. Light quickly streamed into the jet-black cabin when our chaperone turned on the small cabin’s only lamp, “Wake up girls! It’s the last day of band camp!” All the freshmen girls groaned and slowly crawled out of bed. Quietly, everyone started getting their stuff together, so they could easily leave after the performance. No one had the energy to talk in the morning because we were all worn out from the work we did the day before. Everyday we did 7 hours of marching, and 3 hours of music practice. Yesterday was the hardest we ever worked because we had to be ready for the performance.

Last year I started a new sport, cross country. I only did it because my lacrosse coach said that it might help me get better for lacrosse. So I went to the first late summer practice last year to see what this was like, so then we did warm-ups and a lap around the track. Then it was the first time I met coach Chase, My first impression of him was going to be very strict, But soon realized that this was false because of one of the first things he said. He said “I know there are a lot of nerves here right now, but cross country isn’t about winning every race, that comes later” then continued with “Cross country is about showing what you can do to yourself.” This struck me very hard because I was not that fast and was near the back. Through that fall the team did very well, I also made some progress myself. After the season was over I made a decision.

My running has been a big part of my life ever since I was younger and saw my dad lace up his running shoes to go out for his daily run. I ran cross country and track for La Crescent every year since seventh-grade and have been fortunate enough, through dedicating myself to thousands of miles of training, to see great success during my time here. Last fall, I ran my final season of high school cross country. Ending the season, I was able to achieve my first state championship which brought me a sense of accomplishment no words could ever describe. I was overjoyed to see all my hard work pay off. The most interesting aspect of that whole experience was how the La Crescent community received the news. The night of the state meet, and the days that followed, allowed me to talk with friends, teachers, and community members alike. Through these interactions I noticed that winning state brought a great sense of pride not only to me but to the La Crescent community as a whole. Everyone felt a part of the accomplishment and it seemed that we accomplished something together. I’ve often heard criticism about La Crescent athletics, but I’ve come to understand, and others have to, that we aren’t as bad off as it might seem. In three years, we’ve had three people win state: myself, Zack Emery, and Clair Shepardson. A vast majority of schools can’t say that. I’ve noticed

I looked up at the scoreboard and the time read 8 minutes left. As I looked at the scoreboard I felt a jolt of energy enter my body. I had felt as if a fire was lit under me. My eyes opened as if I had just seen a ghost. I remember thinking to myself, “how can we lose this game?” I made a promise to myself that I would win 4 state titles while being at Battlefield High School. This was my sophomore year of high school and I had already won one state title, how could I give up now and let my dreams be crushed, I worked too hard for that to happen. In that moment I knew there was only one result I was going to walk off the field with, and that was with a win and another State Championship. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, “My team needs energy. They need a leader.”

It was the week of August 22nd, 2017, and we had our first tournament in Bad Axe, Michigan. Tensions were very high for all of us, and as the tournament progressed, we saw we had a lot to work on. Between girls fighting on the court, to others not knowing where they were supposed to be, the tourney was a total flop like the schools food. We all were discouraged and just wanted to go home and wallow in our own tears by time the fourth game came, but we stuck it out because our coach gave us hope and encouragement. To our surprise, we ended up