2014
Parent Meeting
Dear XC parents:
Thanks for letting your son come out for the
team.
I am extremely proud of this team again this year. This group of
upperclassmen
is of extremely good character and the incoming freshmen have equally
impressed
me as well. This should be the best group we have had physically
in
over ten years.
My Contact Information
Please feel free to contact me at school from 8am to 3:00pm at 586-4962
or
[email protected]
Please feel free to contact me at home at 469-0005.
If you lose this information, I post it on the front page of the XC
website.
http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/boyscrosspage.html
Meet Schedule
The tentative schedule is online at http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/2014Meetschedule.html
I must warn you that it is tentative. High school cross country
coaches
don’t usually send us the exact times and locations to meets until
about
10 days before each race. I will let your sons know as soon as I
find
out if there are any updates. I will also update it on the
website
as soon as I find out. The times and locations for Conference,
Regional,
and Sectional have not been set at this point.
The tentative schedule indicates what times the boys run. If you
look
on the school site (not our XC site) they will list the start of the
girl’s
race. Girls often run 3 hours before the boys run. I would
hate
for you to show up 3 hours early to a meet, so that is why I have
included
all the different race start times. Some invitationals have 3
separate
races for the boys. They might only allow 7 or 10 runners in the
Varsity,
7-10 runners in the fresh/soph race, and ay additional runner in the
Open
race. I will let your sons know who is going to be in each
specific
race about a week before each race. .
Bus Times
The meet schedule also shows bus departure times. We do leave
exactly
on time. We never leave later than the departure time
listed.
We traditionally ask our runners to arrive about 15 minutes before the
bus
departs to help load the bus and to make sure all runners are accounted
for.
It isn’t personal, but we will leave on time even if not all of our
runners
are on the bus. The bus departure times are scheduled so that we
will
arrive about 55 minutes before the start of the first girl’s race if we
share a bus or the first boy's race if we don't share a bus.
The
runners will need the 55 minutes to properly warm up, use the rest
room,
and get checked in at the start of the race.
The school is usually locked on Saturdays. I will open the back
door
to our locker room about 20 minutes or so before the departure
time.
The runners should know where this door is located.
I have included an estimated arrival home time for our meets.
This
is only an estimate based off the last 7 to 13 years of going to the
meet.
The estimated arrival home varies slightly. I have included this
so
that you can plan your weekend accordingly.
Meet Directions
I have posted directions to our meets at this web address: http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/2014MeetDirections.html
There are different ways to get to each school, but this is the
directions
our slow and big buses go.
I included estimated driving times. This is based on a slow bus
and
no traffic problems.
I have not included Conference, Regional, and Sectional as these
haven’t
been set yet.
I was told that Conference will be in TBA, but this isn’t
finalized
yet.
Food for Meets
Some invitationals we attend have well over 200 bus loads of
runners.
Many of these buses depart meets at the same time and try to go to the
same
restaurants. I have found that this can delay our arrival home by
2
to 3 hours. I value your sons’ free time, family time, and study
time.
So at most of our meets we try to do a cookout for the runners.
We
usually grill hamburgers, have chips, cookies, and water bottles.
As
long as weather permits and we have someone to cook the food, we will
have
the cookout. At most meets, we have to wait about 30 minutes to
an
hour for results and awards. We ask that our runners cooldown and
eat
at this time. This appears to be the best use of their
time.
We will be having a cookout for the Charleston Invitational.
Each meet costs about $100 or so to have a meal. This is about $4
a
runner. One reason we have the cookout is that it is also cheaper
than
having our boys stop at a fast food place and spending significantly
more.
We pay for the meals with
donations.
Over the years we have had parents send chips or cookies or other
deserts
with the runners for their cookout. I really didn’t write this to
pressure
any parents into donations or baking foods, but to inform you about a
part
of our program that many parents ask us about.
If we are not going to do a cookout, I will let the runners know in
advance.
Runners can bring their own food if they don’t like what is provided at
the
cookout. Half of our invitationals also have concession stands as
well.
Boosters Reps
Each sport has a booster’s representative. Booster’s
representatives
donate their time and energy to advocate for their sport and to help
raise
money for all our sports programs. Boosters traditionally gives
our
program about $1,000+ a year. For the 2014 season we are hoping
to
buy team jackets. Our school budgets are limited and usually
cover the meet entry fees
and
a few hundred dollars extra. Without boosters support, we
could not do many of the
rewards
and nice things for our runners. Our booster’s rep
this year is Mr. and Mrs. Hyde. Thank you
http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/BoostersRepresentatives.html
Coaches
We have 3 coaches for the team.
Neal Garrison. I have coached boys XC at Mahomet for the past 13
seasons.
Todd Lafond. Todd has coached for the past 6 seasons
in our
program.
Gary Garrison. Gary has helped coach our program for the past 10
seasons.
Coach Lafond and Coach Gary Garrison are not paid.
They
are coaching out of the love for the sport and the kindness of their
hearts.
I am very grateful to them for giving up their time and energy to help
me
and your sons.
http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/2014CoachesCorner.html
Sports Clinic
Studies have shown that the high school sport with the most injuries is
girls
cross country. While cross country usually doesn’t have serious
injuries,
they do have injuries. Most running injuries can be eventually
resolved
with consistent running, ice, stretching, and rest. Carle offers
a
free service for area athletes at their Sports Clinic (just North of
Lincoln
Avenue in Urbana). The hours are 6:30 am to 8:30 am Monday –
Friday
and 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Monday through Thursday.
Practice
We practice right after school ends every day. Our practices vary
in
length, but traditionally last until 5:15 to 5:45 pm.
I do not require morning workouts.
I do not require weekend runs.
I do not require workouts on the days we don’t have school like Labor
Day.
This allows you to have family time and trips.
However, to be the best runner they can be, many of our runners do run
on
their own on these days. The sport of cross country doesn’t have
a
lot of skill, but mainly endurance. To get the most endurance,
they
will want to run, even when we don’t have a required practice.
The
nice thing about running is that they can run when convenient on the
weekends.
Many of our runners do still choose to run together on these days off
or
in the mornings even though no coach is present.
Weather
We run in all weather, except extreme weather like lightening.
We start the season in the high 90s and end the season in the 30s.
Encourage your son to bring long sleeve shirts, hats, gloves, and extra
dry
socks now since Illinois weather can change quickly.
Pasta Parties
Running is very physically and mentally demanding. The boys grow
very
close to each other as they suffer and work hard together on a daily
basis.
Cross country has been my favorite sport to coach as the athletes
really
bond as a team more than any other sport I have been involved in.
One
of the main things that our former runners have thought was the most
favorite
memories about cross country was the tradition of a pasta party.
These are not required of our runners, but I highly encourage our
runners
to attend as they do enjoy them and it is a great opportunity for our
runners
of different ability levels to get to know each other better. I
also
think it is great that the runners have a safe environment to have a
party
without the pressures of drugs and alcohol that are out there at other
parties.
Over the years our parents have volunteered to host a pasta party on
Friday
nights. I am very grateful to our parents for this. Our
practices
are usually done about 5:30 or so Friday night. Pasta parties
vary
in their start and end times, but they traditionally start shortly
after
practice. What parents have provided for food has also varied
from
pasta from Fazollis, to hot dogs, to chilli, to hamburgers.
As a coach I don’t want to offend parents or to seem unappreciative,
but
I intentionally don’t go to the pasta parties. One reason is that
I
don’t want it to seem like practice. I want the runners to be
able
to have fun with each other without that practice feelings. The
other
main reason is that I head home to spend time with my wife and 10 year
old
kid.
I am extremely grateful to our parents for opening up their houses to
24
runners. I know it is both a financial burden as well as a time
commitment
to prepare a house for that many guests.
http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/2014PastaParties.html
Meet Information
I have tried to create a top times list at each of our meets to
encourage
our current runners to run harder and to acknowledge our former runners
for
their efforts. These fastest times lists can be found at:
http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/2014MeetInformation.html
Letter Policy
Our runners can earn a varsity letter no matter what their grade.
Our
letter policy can be found at:
http://www2.ms.k12.il.us/mshs/athletics/mx_country/2014LetterPolicy.html
Thanks again for letting your son run in our program.
Neal Garrison