-What commitments do you have to do for cross country?

“We have practice five days a week and then we have a meet every Saturday. So we go to practice every day after school from 3:30 to about 5:00 or 5:30. Friday nights before the football games we have our pasta parties. We wake up Saturday morning- usually early- and then we go get on the bus, go to the meet, and then we get home in the afternoon.”

-What’s your best time?

“17:41.”

-So what kinds of things have you accomplished with cross country?

“We’ve won some of our invites. Like we had this one, our Mariner invitational, where we got first place. At the Huron invitational, we got first place also. Regionals is coming up in a few weeks and if we get top two in the region we could go to the state meet, so that’s coming up but other than that it’s basically just point scoring.”

-Why do you like to run?

“I enjoy just running by itself. What I love about cross country is the team building and the brotherhood that is behind it, because that’s really important since there’s a lot of kids from a lot of different backgrounds on our team and not all of them enjoy the running aspect.  Some of us do, so it’s important that we are still making them feel included and valued on our team and not just like another number, because we’ve got like 70 guys on our team we are one of the biggest teams in the state for guys. So it’s important that especially the freshmen and sophomores feel included. Our practices start in August so we actually get to meet the freshmen before they come to South so it’s cool so when they start high school they already know 50 guys on the team they are not just walking around, they know us so that’s what’s cool about it. “

-So is this something that you’d like to do in college or later in life?

“Yes.  I love running for the team, but if I wasn’t able to run for a team I’d still love to run beyond college. One of my dreams is that I want to run the Boston Marathon.”

-Is there anything you want to add about the team or what you guys do? What does it take to get on Varsity?

“Varsity is the top seven. Our first meet of the year is the Alumni Run at Patterson park, and we all run and then the top seven people are on varsity and then basically that is the benchmark so then if you want to be in the top seven you have to beat one of the varsity times. So if you run the JV race you have to beat a varsity’s time.”

-Would that person get kicked off varsity then?

“Yes. Varsity wears a white jersey and JV runners wear blue. Let’s say you’re seventh and you get an 18:20 and someone else runs an 18:10 then that person gets put on varsity and wears the white jersey and you get demoted with a blue jersey.”

-So there’s only seven people on varsity at all times?

“Except for our jamborees where you can run 10 on varsity.”

-So everyone was on JV?

“Everyone’s JV, that’s what’s cool about our sport, we don’t cut people. And also even if you’re not a natural runner- I am not a natural runner- I just ran a lot of miles, but some kids come on and they’re not meant to run, they can’t even run the race the first time and sometimes they may have to walk, but by the end of the season they will have shaved off like six or seven minutes off of their 5K time which is like two minutes per miles, so that’s a lot of time. That’s what call is like we don’t call anybody and they just work hard and bust their ass.”

-What do you usually do at practices?

“We always do I warm up, a two lap warm up, then some team stretches. Something new we did this year is that we had five captains and we have four grade levels so each captain will take a grade level. So I’m in charge of the freshman, I’ve been in charge of the freshmen the entire year and so if I coach says, “OK we are going to run to North and back”, like we did yesterday, we get in our group and then our whole group runs together, and sometimes we will bring a speaker and listen to music. We do all sorts of stuff on the run to make it interactive.”

-OK is there anything you would like to add about your team members?

“I don’t think I can emphasize this or make it a big enough point, that everyone is welcome on cross country. I know a lot of people are like, “I don’t want to join because I can’t run” or “I can’t run”, because that’s exactly how I was and somebody had to drag me on the team, but now I love it and I feel like it’s almost like my second family. You just get to know everybody and even if you’re not a natural runner, it sounds stupid but that’s not even a biggest part of it. So just even if you don’t think you will fit, give it a try!”