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Potential and New Runners |
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Links Varsity Lettering Requirements
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Did You Run Cross Country In Middle School? If you answered yes to any of these questions you should consider What Hellgate Has To Offer: 1. A Great Coaching Staff that has built
a great program. Over the past three years Anders Brooker has turned around Hellgate Cross Country and recently lead the boys team to a 2nd placeState Championship. Both teams were highly successful this past season with both the boys and girls winning the city champions this year and competing well at the state meet. This year there were about 60 runners out for Hellgate Cross Country and Anders would love to see the team grow.
Beginning Runners Beginning runners may find Cross Country (XC) as a challenge at first but in cross country there are no time requirements. Runners can start out slow and work up to a faster pace during the entire season. The coaching staff understands each runners background and will start him or her off at the right level and help them improve throughout the season.Top Training New Runners are encouraged to run during the summer with the team. (Dates and times will be posted.) This will help build a good base for the season to come. Training during the season will be discussed in the Fall. No Cut Policy Cross Country is a NO CUT sport. This means that anyone who shows up to run will get to run. With the no cut policy every runner will be able to run in every meet (if eligible) during the regular season. This includes traveling meets. The XC Season The XC season is about ten weeks long. It starts in the middle of August and ends at the end of October. There are about eight meets during the regular season with half being in town. Away meets are usually in Kalispell, Great Falls, and Helena. In Missoula, most races are run on the UM Golf Course. A Typical Week during the season will have one or two work outs with recovery running in between. At the end of the week there is normally a meet. Under MSHA rules an athlete must have ten practices in before a competition. This is what the first two weeks of the season are for. Once a runner has ten practices in he or she will be able to go to every meet with the team. Competition In XC meets its every school vs. every school. Individual runners score for their team. Usually the top five runners score. Most of the meets are run with a Varsity/JV format. The top seven runners on a team run varsity while the rest run JV. The line-up of the varsity squad can change throughout the entire season based on times. Everyone gets to run at every meet. Hellgate is part of the AA classification in Montana. All this means is that the State Cross Country meet is the only meet where we race against only other AA schools. During the rest of the season we race against every school who is attending the meets we are at. Special Events During the season Hellgate Cross Country has Monday Night Dinners. This is for the whole team and their parents to attend. These dinners are a time for Anders to talk about the past week and about the upcoming week. This is also a team bonding experience as Movies are sometimes shown or Motivational Speakers are brought in. The End of Season team banquet is usually the Monday after the state meet. This banquet is used to hand out awards for the season and congratulate runners on a successful season. After Cross Country ends there is a Footlocker Regional trip down to L.A. for those who want to go. This involves fundraising for the trip as it cost about $500 to go. There is training for this after the regular season ends. Once the new year starts we start training for a half marathon (13.1 miles) that takes place in Seeley Lake. This is a fun way to get in shape for track season. The only cost for this event is the registration fee (about $25). There are also regular practices after winter break ends. |