It’s Cross Country Season again. This will be the fourth season of Cross Country at AE/MS. The team is still young enough that we have “firsts” every season. This past year the girls team added a big one with their first All-State runner. This year the focus will be on the team.

Cross Country is about working together as a team, training together in the summer, then racing together in the fall. Teammates encourage each other to stay together, sometimes pulling each other, sometimes pushing each other to be the best they can be.

Summer runs have started. The team meets Wednesdays at 6:30 at AE/MS for group fun-runs and games. Anyone who will be in fifth through eighth grade this fall can join the team.

It is possible for athletes to play soccer and cross country in the same season; many team members have done it very successfully over past seasons. The sports complement each other nicely.

To inspire kids to run over the summer, there are 50-, 75-, and 100-mile shirts given at the Thursday, September 1, practice for kids that run 50, 75, or 100 miles from July 15 to August 30. For the 100-mile shirt, that’s 16 miles per week, or a little more than two miles a day. (It’s supposed to be hard!) The 50-mile shirt is very attainable, at around a mile a day. There are also wrist bands for those who can run two miles without stopping on September 1.

Our first official practice will be on Monday, August 22, at 6:30 PM at AE/MS.