Tim Stevens: Cross country on rise
Sunday, September 5, 1999
Original Source:
http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/09/05/sports08.html
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Cross country used to be the domain of basketball and baseball players who didn't want to play football. Roy Cooper, the Apex coach, remembers that in 1974 when he competed at Broughton, the team had 10 boys and no girls. And some of the boys were basketball players trying to get in shape. There are still some cross country runners who concentrate on other sports, but in recent years cross country has gained in numbers and prestige. Cooper has more than 70 runners in his program, many of whom run year round and will compete in the spring in track. Major invitationals are scheduled almost every weekend and the days when the school baseball or basketball coach supplemented his income by coaching cross country are gone at many schools. "There have been a lot of changes," Cooper said. "The influx of former runners as coaches is a big change and that has led to more big meets. "But by far the biggest change has been the numbers of kids that we deal with now. Cross country is one of the most popular sports in some schools." Cooper said cross country has benefited from the running craze of 20 years ago. Some of those fitness runners now encourage their children to be involved. "Running is one of the best things that we teach in high school," Cooper said. "I don't know how long kids wrestle or play football after they graduate, but they can run all of their lives." The increase in weekend invitationals is another result of having cross country coaches who are former runners. The new breed of coaches are more likely to devote the time and effort to develop and promote a major meet. "There is no question that the big meets are more fun," Cooper said. "If you have 140 runners in a meet, there is more competition all the way through," Cooper said. "But funding is always a problem for the big invitationals, and they take a lot of work." Not all of the changes in cross country have been positive, though. High school teams sometimes have to train on or beside roads. Former back road routes are now more heavily traveled. Coaches also worry about the overall safety of the runners. "You put a pretty girl out running and somebody driving past may say something," Cooper said. "We talk an awful lot about safety. At practice, we stress that they need to have someone run with them. We want them to run in packs. That is the safest way." Few, if any, high schools have gone to the length to ensure safety that N.C. State has. All of its cross country runners take CPR training. "The idea is that they could help one another in an emergency if they are out on an 8-mile run," said State coach Rollie Geiger. Cooper said on the high school level he prefers that in case of an emergency that one runner go for help. "Our runners are rarely far from the school," he said. "If there is an accident, we want to get the best help there as quickly as we can." The nature of the sport requires some constant reinforcement of safety rules and practices. Cross country is one of the few sports where the coach cannot be in constant contact with the athletes. That may be one of the allures of the sport. But it takes a special person to run as hard, as fast and as long as cross country runners. Cooper had more than 100 students come out for one day or more. Seventy-two stuck with it. "The kids will tell friends how wonderful cross country is and others will come out," Cooper said. "It is wonderful, for some of them. But for some others, it isn't a lot of fun at first and you have to stick with it if you ever want much pleasure from it." But the number of students who like it is growing. Ten years ago, there were 367 squads with 4,217 boys and girls participating. Last year, there were 533 squads (270 schools with boys teams and 263 schools with girls) with 6,958 runners.
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