General Information about Cross Country
Indian Hills Middle School Cross Country
Website: www.indianhillscrosscountry.weebly.com
Overview/Expectations
We are now entering our sixth season of cross country and we are excited for the upcoming fall. Last year, we have had approximately 100+ runners and we hope the strong numbers continue. We had a great season last year. The boys team won the league championship at Rim Rock for the second year in a row and the girls finished in third place. We are hopeful we can build on that momentum. The first thing that needs to be covered is all the paperwork that needs to be submitted. Please note, runners will not be able to participate until ALL forms have been turned in and processed. The cut-off to turn in all completed forms is Wednesday August 28th. After this date, runners will be not be able to participate with the team.
For those of you that are new to cross country, I will explain how the season is set up. There are seven meets throughout the season. Many of the meets are set up in a varsity/junior varsity format (modeled after how it is in high school). Prior to these meets, the coaches will select 8-10 boys and 8-10 girls to run in the varsity race. This will be based on running times, practice attendance and overall attitude. The remaining runners will run in the junior varsity or C-team race. Both races would allow runners to medal. Additionally, the lineups can change from meet to meet allowing improving runners to work their way up. We found that last year this worked great at motivating individuals to work hard in practice and it created friendly competition at practices. For many runners, the overall goal is to make it to the district championship race.
The length of the majority of the races are two miles. However, there are a few meets that also have a one-mile race. This is a good option because early in the season, not all the runners are quite ready for the two-mile event. The coaches are confident that if the runners work hard in practice throughout the course of the season, everyone should be able to handle the two mile distance with confidence. Our ultimate goal is to have all our runners participating in the two mile races.
Finally, we want to communicate that we have high expectations for cross-country. We understand that many of our runners don’t have much, if any, experience with running. We are confident that if they stick with it and run to the best of their ability during practice, their times will improve dramatically throughout the course of the season. We, as coaches, are committed to helping your child to becoming a better runner. In order to improve their running, we will be running 2-5 miles at each practice. We will do a variety of runs, including longer runs, speed work and hill workouts. Therefore, it is important that your child enjoys running and has a desire to run on a daily basis. In the past, we as coaches felt like there were students who didn’t enjoy running or didn’t have a desire to improve. If your child does not have an interest in running, cross-country may not be the best fit for him or her.
Gear/What to Wear:
Fall Practices: August 20th – October 17th
Meets
Gear
How Parents Can Help
We are looking for volunteers throughout the season to help provide snacks and drinks for our meets. Any help you could provide would be great. If you go to the cross-country website and click on “I want to help” it will take you to a website where you can volunteer to bring food and/or snacks. Thank you for your help on this. We do appreciate it (and so do the runners). This will be ready to go a few weeks before our first meet. We will remind runners at practice
Website: www.indianhillscrosscountry.weebly.com
Overview/Expectations
We are now entering our sixth season of cross country and we are excited for the upcoming fall. Last year, we have had approximately 100+ runners and we hope the strong numbers continue. We had a great season last year. The boys team won the league championship at Rim Rock for the second year in a row and the girls finished in third place. We are hopeful we can build on that momentum. The first thing that needs to be covered is all the paperwork that needs to be submitted. Please note, runners will not be able to participate until ALL forms have been turned in and processed. The cut-off to turn in all completed forms is Wednesday August 28th. After this date, runners will be not be able to participate with the team.
- Physical Form/Concussion: If your child has not gotten a physical, this needs to be taken care of as soon as possible (once turned in, it takes the office a day or two to look through these forms). If you go to the Indian Hills website and click on “Activities and Athletics” and then “KSHAA/Physical Forms” this will take you to the district athletic page. There you will need to print off two forms: KSHSAA Athletic Physical Form-PPE and SMSD Concussion & Head Injury Information Release Form. Once these are completed, they need to be turned into the Indian Hills office (the sooner the better)
- Skyward Forms: We were told this year that the majority of the forms parents/runners need to fill out are posted on Skyward. Parents and runners will need to log on, read through and submit those forms. Please make sure you fill out all of the forms.
- Off Campus Running Form: This form is in the office. Needs to read, signed and returned to Mr Jones in Room 141.
- At the end of this packet, there is an area that needs to be signed by the runner and their parents (I just need the back page). This can be turned into Mr. Jones in Room 141 before or after school
- There is a parent’s meeting scheduled on Wednesday August 14th at 7 PM. All parents are highly encouraged to attend this meeting. It will last approximately 30-45 minutes
- There is a mandatory runner’s meeting on Monday August 19th. This meeting will last approximately 45 minutes. We will discuss expectations for the upcoming season and also have concussion and heat stroke training. If a runner is unable to attend, they will have to do the training on their own and it is much more time consuming. If this is the case, please see Mr. Jones before or after school as soon as possible.
For those of you that are new to cross country, I will explain how the season is set up. There are seven meets throughout the season. Many of the meets are set up in a varsity/junior varsity format (modeled after how it is in high school). Prior to these meets, the coaches will select 8-10 boys and 8-10 girls to run in the varsity race. This will be based on running times, practice attendance and overall attitude. The remaining runners will run in the junior varsity or C-team race. Both races would allow runners to medal. Additionally, the lineups can change from meet to meet allowing improving runners to work their way up. We found that last year this worked great at motivating individuals to work hard in practice and it created friendly competition at practices. For many runners, the overall goal is to make it to the district championship race.
The length of the majority of the races are two miles. However, there are a few meets that also have a one-mile race. This is a good option because early in the season, not all the runners are quite ready for the two-mile event. The coaches are confident that if the runners work hard in practice throughout the course of the season, everyone should be able to handle the two mile distance with confidence. Our ultimate goal is to have all our runners participating in the two mile races.
Finally, we want to communicate that we have high expectations for cross-country. We understand that many of our runners don’t have much, if any, experience with running. We are confident that if they stick with it and run to the best of their ability during practice, their times will improve dramatically throughout the course of the season. We, as coaches, are committed to helping your child to becoming a better runner. In order to improve their running, we will be running 2-5 miles at each practice. We will do a variety of runs, including longer runs, speed work and hill workouts. Therefore, it is important that your child enjoys running and has a desire to run on a daily basis. In the past, we as coaches felt like there were students who didn’t enjoy running or didn’t have a desire to improve. If your child does not have an interest in running, cross-country may not be the best fit for him or her.
Gear/What to Wear:
- Runners should have an adequate pair of running shoes at every practice. No running shoes means no practice. No exceptions! Please consider investing in a quality pair of shoes. We had numerous runners last year miss practice and meets because of foot issues. Proper shoes can help alleviate potential problems. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the coaches.
- Runners should be wearing proper running clothes. No jeans/jean shorts, lacey tank tops, etc. It is highly suggested that you take home your running clothes after every practice as they will be very sweaty (7th grade boys have a tendency to wear their gym clothes and then just throw them back in their lockers)
- Runners should be prepared to run outside for every practice unless there is lightning or threatening weather. Hot, cold, wet, dry...We will run outside! If practice is canceled, we will announce it at the end of the school day.
- We will have water jugs for practice, but all runners are required to bring their own water bottle to practice. We had some issues with some runners not having water on longer runs last year and feeling negative effects from the heat. If runners do not have their own water bottle, they will not be allowed to run. Bottles should be filled up and ready to go at the beginning of practice. It would be a great idea to use a Sharpie and write your first and last name on the water bottle, as many water bottles look alike.
- It is not required, but highly recommended that runners wear a wrist watch while running to help keep track of time as well as splits on their routes/mile times.
Fall Practices: August 20th – October 17th
- We will practice five days a week (Monday-Friday).
- Practices will be from 4:00-5:15. All runners need to be changed and warming up by 4:00. All runners will need to be at practice the entire time.
- There will be no late bus for cross-country. All runners need to have their parents pick them up or have a ride arranged with a friend. We will make sure practice is over on time every day, so runners will need to be picked up promptly
- Runners are expected to be at practice every day. If a runner has a legitimate reason (tutoring, illness, other sports practice) to miss practice, the runner’s parent needs to communicate this with the coaches via email before practice begins. If you know about recurring conflicts ahead of time, please let us know as soon as possible.
- If a runner has an unexcused absence from practice, they will not be eligible to run in the next meet. There are no exceptions to this.
- If a runner has multiple unexcused absences, they will be asked to leave the team
- Because safety is our number one priority, runners will have to sign in and out of practice. There are no exceptions to this. With 100+ runners at practice it is absolutely imperative for the coaches to make sure everyone has returned from the runs. If a runner fails to do this the first time, he/she will not be able to run in the next meet. If a runner does not sign in or out twice, the runner will be asked to leave the team.
- Cell phones, iPods, or any electronic device are not allowed while running during practice or during meets.
Meets
- In order to be eligible to run in the meets, runners must show the ability to run continuously for the race distance at 9:30 minute/per mile pace. In addition, they need to meet the practice requirements (need to be at 60% of all practices leading up to a meet with no unexcused absences). In order to be eligible to run in the first meet, runners need to have practiced nine times.
- All runners will need to ride the team bus to the meets. The bus will always leave from Indian Hills. The departure time will be posted on the website prior to the meet and communicated to the runners during practice.
- Runners will be able to leave with their parents at the conclusion of the meet, not their individual race. With 80+ runners participating at a meet with multiple races and only four coaches, we aren’t able to check runners out early. We will have a sign out sheet available for parents approximately 10 minutes after the finish of the last race or awards ceremony. All runners must stay for the entire meet in order to cheer on their teammates and attend the awards ceremony. If a runner wants to leave the meet with another runner’s parent, we need written permission of this two days prior to the meet. If a runner fails to sign out of a meet, they will not be able to participate in the next meet
- We will have a bus return to the school at the conclusion of all meets. As we are leaving, we will have the runners call/text their parents letting them know what time the bus will arrive back at Indian Hills. Please be prompt in picking up your runner.
- All runners will be given a running jersey and shorts for the meets. They are responsible for jersey until the end of the season. If lost, the runner will have to pay to replace it.
- Here is the tentative list of meets for this year. It is possible some of the dates may change. If they do, information will be updated on the website (* indicates a possible change)
- Wednesday September 11th: Dual with Trailridge @ Shawnee Mission Northwest*
- Wednesday September 18th: Dual w. Hocker @ Indian Woods
- Saturday September 21st: Southwest Middle School Championship
- Wednesday September 25th: Shawnee Mission Park
- Saturday October 5th: Baldwin
- Saturday October 12th: Carl O. Classic @ JCCC
- Tuesday October 15th: District Championships @ Indian Woods: JV and C Teams
- Friday October 18th: District Championships (Varsity) @ Black Hoof Park: Lenexa
Gear
- This year we will have three different options as far as gear is concerned: an Indian Hills Cross Country short sleeve T-Shirt, a hoodie and a tank-top. Here is the link: https://ihmsxc19.itemorder.com/sale All orders must be made by August 26th. I will also include a link on the website
How Parents Can Help
We are looking for volunteers throughout the season to help provide snacks and drinks for our meets. Any help you could provide would be great. If you go to the cross-country website and click on “I want to help” it will take you to a website where you can volunteer to bring food and/or snacks. Thank you for your help on this. We do appreciate it (and so do the runners). This will be ready to go a few weeks before our first meet. We will remind runners at practice