Cross Country is a sport where teams of 5 or 7 people race each other to get the lowest point possible per team, your points are determined by your placement (for example if you place 1st you earn one point, if you place 2nd you earn two and so on). If you are running with a team of 5, a perfect score would be 15 points which is extremely difficult because every single member of your team has to finish after another.
Depending on your Country and State some courses are raced are some of the harshest weather conditions to be played in sports. Runners run through rain storms, ice, snow, mud, shallow water, rocky terrain, etc.
Meets rarely get canceled due to rain storms or snow unlike track and field.
D1 Cross Country athletes are also some of the most disciplined high school athletes in the world, its very common for them to have two practices a day for the whole school week with the goal of 70+ miles per week and unlike ball sports there are no drills or practice with any kind of ball, its just running this causes the practices to be repetitive and boring.
While these elements make the sport sound interesting and intense, Cross country sufferers from a lack of public recognition. People don’t come to the high school meets or college meets either especially because the courses are longer. Coaches at the college level are also relatively under paid. College Cross country coaches can make about 45,000 to 60,000 a year while most of the college football coaches have their salaries go into the millions making it hard for some coaches to stay and as a result coaches look for better jobs.
Cross country doesn’t get that much attention at Brio either. At the Cross Country try out there was around 20 people who tried out the first day. Comparing that to other tryouts for our other sports we can tell that cross country was the most unpopular sport.
Delilah Garcia(11th grade)“There was around about 35 girls who tried out for soccer and for the boys it was half the school im not even joking.”
Joe Cortez (11th grade) “Im not gonna lie it was a lot like about 40 people tried out for basketball 15-20 people made the team.”
Cross country is also the only sport that has their practices before school while other sports have their practices after school, this could also be a factor that makes it undesirable to join.
Looking at the tough race conditions, and the boring practices, it is clear why cross country isn’t that popular. While many people prefer not to watch the races in the rain or mud, the participating runners are driven solely by their passion for the sport. The enthusiasm of the competitors greatly outweighs any con the sport comes with.
