Cross Country team looks to makes tracks

Weiser High School’s cross country team and coach Scott Hale are looking forward to the season. With nine boys and 12 girls, and a mix of both experienced and inexperienced runners, Hale is excited for his second season as the Wolverine head coach.
 Hale feels that cross country is a bit of a unique sport in that someone can participate and compete in running for nearly his/her entire life.
 With that in mind, his coaching philosophy is to make life-long runners by showing athletes the physical and mental value of a running lifestyle.
 Whether it’s just a way to enjoy the outdoors, or a way to stay in shape, or even if you spend your life competing in fun runs, running is a life-long sport.
 Cross country can be one of the lowest pressure sports. It can be as competitive or as serious as each runner makes it for his or herself, with the main focus being on improvement, Hale said.
 For Hale,  running is a personal passion, and he looks for opportunities to share that passion with the team through teaching moments, encouragement, and celebrating the process of improvement. A natural result of these celebrations is that the athletes start to do the same with each other, and start to make a mini community among themselves. The team supports and pushes each other to be the best they can be.
 That push to improve is exactly what Hale says he enjoys about coaching the most. He sees improvements constantly, already noticing several runners improve both their speed and stamina this summer.
 Hale is confident Weiser will have a great season. While he expects to see great times from Emily Abramson, Kierra Hoobery and Ellie Walker on the girls side and Nate Lattin on the boys side, he also expects all of his athletes to have a strong year in the sense that they will each improve.
 The team has been preparing with long runs throughout the summer. While many of the runners ran on their own time, the team also ran together, usually completing about 20-25 miles a week.
 “At this point in the season it’s all about building base mileage. Ultimately, that means right now we’re focused high mileage and endurance. We can focus on speed at the shorter distances once the form and endurance are in place,” Hale said.
 The team will put their training to the test for the first time Saturday, Aug. 31, at the Jimmy Driscoll Invitational at Bishop Kelly High School.