Wakeland Cross Country: Parent Info
A Parent's Guide to Cross CountryParent’s Guide
Wakeland Cross Country
Welcome to the Wakeland Cross Country Program. This guide will walk you through our program as we begin a new tradition at WHS. You, as a parent, are an important and integral part of our team and this guide will explain how you can help. If you have any questions about your son or daughter or our Cross Country Program, please contact us at any of the following:
Jody Brown Amy Gabehart
Boys Cross Country Girls Cross Country
Office Phone: 469 633-5762 Office Phone: 469 633-5769
Cell Phone: 469 223-8680 Cell Phone: 254 715-6827
E-mail: brownj@friscoisd.org E-mail: gabehara@friscoisd.org
Fax: 469 633-5750 Fax: 469 633-5750
Communication
While e-mail may seem impersonal, it is probably the best way to contact us during the school day. If an important matter arises outside of school time, please contact us at home or by cell phone. If your son/daughter is going to miss practice, have them contact us by cell phone before practice begins. They can leave a message if we do not answer.
We have our own website which is located at www.eteamz.com/wakelandcc . The website has information about the schedule, cross country meet locations with maps, and a newsletter with information about upcoming practices, meet results, and information about our upcoming meets.
Results for WHS runners will be in The Frisco Enterprise each week. We will also have articles in the Running Section of The Dallas Morning News Sports Page. In addition, most of the results for the meets we attend will be in The Dallas Morning News Sunday addition. You can also get meet results at www.texastrack.com , www.txrunning.com , www.cccat.org .
What is Cross Country?
Cross Country is the truest of all team sports because every person on the team has an affect on the team’s outcome. Each varsity team can run up to seven runners, while junior varsity teams can have unlimited runners.
A Cross Country Meet is scored by adding up the places of a team's top 5 finishers. Just as in golf, the low score wins. For example, a team that scores 26 points places ahead of a team that scores 29 points. Fifteen points then, is the best possible score for a team (1+2+3+4+5=15).
|
Wakeland |
Centennial |
Wakeland wins the meet!
Now, the reason we race 7 athletes instead of just 5 is because, if either of our 6th or 7th place runners place in front of our opponents top 5 finishers, they push up our opponents' score:
|
Wakeland |
Centennial |
As you see above, had Wakeland not had its 6th and 7th place finishers in front of Centennial’s 5th place finisher we would have lost the meet. But, because they pushed up the score for Centennial, Wakeland won the meet. In junior varsity races, each racer after our 5th place finisher can push up our opponents score. Because of this scoring system, every runner on our team can help us win the meet.
What do parents do at meets?
There are many things that you as a parent can do to help us be successful on race day. This page will also give you information to make your meet experience more enjoyable.
Night and morning before a Meet
Make sure your son/daughter does the following:
Go to bed early
Eat a healthy supper and breakfast
Drink lots of water (you have our permission to stop buying soft drinks)
Get their meet gear ready before they go to bed
Arrive at school 20-30 minutes before the bus is scheduled to leave
What to Bring
Copy of our newsletter, map, lawn chairs, water, video or still camera, stopwatch
Meet Etiquette
Do not:
follow your son/daughter around as they get ready to race, panic if they throw up, gather at the starting line with the athletes at the beginning of a race, place unnecessary pressure on athletes on meet day, think that every runner is going to have a great race every week, take your son/daughter away from the finish chute before they talk to coach.
Do
support the entire team enthusiastically, encourage your son/daughter to be a part of what the team is doing, understand that not everyone has great race every week, be willing to help when needed and be willing to simply watch and cheer when not needed, feel comfortable to ask the coaches anything, have a great time watching our kids compete.
Other ways to help
Beat the team to the meet and help set up the tents
Find a place to watch the meet, preferably in the middle of the course. Our runners will need the most encouraging at the mile, mile and one half, and two mile markers.
Volunteer to bring meals on meet day
Take lots of pictures
Cheer for other teams (they will be cheering for us also)