So the Fourteen-Year-Old turned in his fall sports uniform today, and in exchange got his team picture--a picture of all of them, all 130 of them. All 130 members of the Campolindo High School cross-country team.
The first overwhelming impression is one of fitness. Complete fitness. Completely fit. You have never seen 130 teenagers so fit crowded into one place ever before. They are all so fit.
The second overwhelming impression is one of size. 130 teenagers is 9% of the high school. How do Coaches Walsh, Pedrotti, and Adams persuade 9% of the student body (the fit part of the student body) that they want to spend 2 hours after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays all fall training to run the two-mile cross country course (plus one hour before school on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the pool, getting a low-strain aerobic workout in the pre-dawn darkness while huge clouds of condensation rise from the heated pools of the Soda Aquatic Center)?
It's an amazing achievement. 130 people on the cross-country team.
Posted by DeLong at November 17, 2004 08:47 AM | TrackBackCoach Walsh is the greatest ever.
I can still crack up my old friends doing his voice.
"Talbot, We're running"
Tues/Thurs.'s in the pool were actually kind of fun, but only if you can wake up early.
Cougar Pride!
Posted by: Andrew Talbot at November 17, 2004 10:10 PMI WISH Jordan's cross-country team had been able to become that populous! Being so simple, I'd think that we would have topped out at better than the perhaps 15 runners, with maybe 7 competitive, that we did from 95-97. At least JHS has a new coach this year, from a different state, who's both detail-oriented and encouraging (at least that's the impression that I got from his website). Don't let the Fourteen-Year Old slack off in the offseasons like I did--it kept my times from moving down off my plateau (weekends help too). Falcon Pride!
P.S. I know SF, and Marin Co, since my mother grew up there, but I don't really know Alameda County. Is his course particularly hilly? Jordan's was, but not compared to the 3 of the other 5 members in our conference, so I didn't have many times <20 min for the 5 k.
P.P.S. BTW, I'm surprised that the course is 2 mi. Is that JV, or standard throughout his class of high school?
Posted by: James S. W. at November 17, 2004 10:59 PMJust an addendum: my high school was about the same size as the Fourteen-year-old's so the percentage of the guys who ran cross-country was MUCH lower.
Posted by: James S. W. at November 17, 2004 11:39 PMMy highschool cut off varsity at the top 7 runners, so it was very competitive. You had to show up in August able to run 6 miles in under 40 minutes. Our coach wanted every person on our team to be better than the 7th worst person on the other team. It was generally an effective strategy, though it put a lot of pressure on each of us. Also, our Junior Varsity team was ludicrously good as a result.
Posted by: MDtoMN at November 18, 2004 04:51 AMBack in the late Pliocene, when I was in high school, our cross-country team was quite small until the new coach issued the team t-shirts that said, "Cross Country Runners Eat Their Dead." Within a week or two the team tripled.
The idea of signing up for the cross country team never even considered the possibility of crossing my mind, but I did like the t-shirts.
Posted by: JO'N at November 18, 2004 05:14 AMJordan's "varsity", which really applied only at the Invitationals, where there are different heats, but which don't really count, was those who could run a 5K in <20 minutes. (I always thought it should have been 21, because a 5K is a little over 3 miles, and if one can run it in <21 min, that means that one is DEFINITELY averaging under 7 min/mile). Our only timed item was a home course trial run, but a 40 min 6 mile, though vulgarly non-metric, would have been useful, if only because, as Coach Gray would say, "it'd get you candy-asses away from being just 3-mile runners!"
Posted by: James S. W. at November 19, 2004 03:53 AMHow did his team grow to 1/9 of his high school pop? They must have quite a bit of glory to lean on!
Posted by: James S. W. at November 19, 2004 04:10 AMHow did his team grow to 1/9 of his high school pop? They must have quite a bit of glory to lean on!
Posted by: James S. W. at November 19, 2004 04:10 AMI don't mean to be a jerk but my high school cross-country team practiced three hours a day, 5 days a week after school. And this was in dreary New Jersey, not sunny California.
Posted by: Anon at November 19, 2004 10:08 AMYou didn't say if it was co-ed, or separate male/female. Our school is small, so the spring track and field is co-ed. You have to keep your eye on that kind of stuff.
Then you have the cost-saving bus trips of both male/female basketball players. With J/V and both sexes, the games last a long time. But you know that they are always looking to save dollars, in exchange for breaking up the occasional heavy necking.
You know teenagers like to socialize with people of similar interests, and that includes sports.
Posted by: msk08 at November 19, 2004 01:09 PMYou didn't say if it was co-ed, or separate male/female. Our school is small, so the spring track and field is co-ed. You have to keep your eye on that kind of stuff.
Then you have the cost-saving bus trips of both male/female basketball players. With J/V and both sexes, the games last a long time. But you know that they are always looking to save dollars, in exchange for breaking up the occasional heavy necking.
You know teenagers like to socialize with people of similar interests, and that includes sports.
Posted by: msk08 at November 19, 2004 01:11 PMCross country in the DFAL (Campo's league) is co-ed = more runners than in the old days. Plus smart kids and parents in wealthy Lamorinda regcongize the value of being in shape. I'm pretty sure the boys and girls do 3.1 miles (5K?) and not 2.
Posted by: hrned at November 20, 2004 10:42 PM