Cross country team looks to makes tracks

Weiser High School Cross Country team coach Scott Hale is looking forward to the season. With 17 runners and a mix of both experienced and inexperienced runners, Hale is excited for his third season as the Wolverine head coach.
 Hale feels that cross country is a bit of an 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. The most important aspect is the push to improve. He hopes each runner always sees their own times as competition as much as the times of others in the race.
 “I try to teach my runners the balance between competition with others and personal competition. The most important thing is improvement. But having a bit of rivalry to push yourself just a bit harder than you could alone is very beneficial,” Hale said.
 Hale is confident Weiser will have a great season. While he only has three returning runners for the boys team and five returning runners for the girls team, two runners he is excited to see have great seasons are actually underclassmen. Ben Hathhorn (sophomore) has put in massive miles over the summer and has improved immensely. Kendall Rynearson (freshman) was a top runner at the middle school level and appears to be ready for high school competition.
 The team has been preparing with long runs throughout the summer. While one focus during the early season is always building base mileage, Hale said the team is also focusing on building team sportsmanship by encouraging each other to push a little harder.
 “We’re working on being a team and supporting each other by celebrating our successes whenever possible,”  Hale said.
 Fruitland and Parma have been the most difficult competition in the last few years. Hale said the teams look to be strong again this year. Fruitland has a new coach, however, so the competition there may be a little different this year.
 Hale shared that while COVID-19 did not change much in terms of prep work over the summer. It’s easy to social distance while running. Track workouts are done in waves, and runners naturally spread out.
 While the restrictions have not changed the practices, it has drastically changed the cross country schedule. The SRV has decided to hold three team meets of only SRV teams to reduce exposure to athletes from other places around the state. Many of the usual meets have been cancelled.
 The team will have six season meets then districts, instead of the usual 8 plus districts. The first meet is the Weiser invite that was reduced from 10 teams to only teams from the SRV district. The meet will be held at Rolling Hills Golf Course on Sept. 3 starting at 4 p.m.