Cross Country Camp

This is another in the Sunday Story series. No politics here, just some stories of Cross Country running teams from “long ago” through today.

Tradition

I went out to my old Cross Country team’s summer camp this week.  As my good friend and their current coach John Jarvis pointed out, the Watkins High School Cross Country team has a forty-eight year history. Over that entire time, there were only three Head Coaches.  Coach Jarvis was my assistant for eleven years before he took over in 2009.  I was John McGowan’s assistant for six years before I tried to follow in his footsteps in 1985.  While the current crop of runners only vaguely know who I am, and know my predecessor by name only, they don’t realize that much of what they do in practice and as a team started before they, and even some of their parents, were born.  

One of those traditions is that all three of us treated kids as individuals, as people, not “just” runners.  We didn’t try to “fit” kids into some pre-conceived mold.  We took them as they were.  They were willing to try, and we did whatever we could to make them better, as runners, but more importantly, as people.  That was and still is the one “true North” of Watkins Cross Country, that John McGowan established, and that we all followed.   

Another principle that has come down through “the generations” is that we, as coaches, must be willing to learn, and to change.  Over forty-eight years the science and art of training runners has grown.  We know so much more about the physiology of athletics, and the psychology of runners.  At the core, kids haven’t changed in their desire to belong, to try, and to succeed.  But the stresses and demands on kids are qualitatively different today, than they were back in “the day”.  As coaches, we recognized those changing influences, and adapted.  

Going to Camp

When we first went to camp in 1997, one of the best parts of the experience was that there was almost no cell phone service there.  We had the kids “in the moment”, with no distraction from the “outside” to break their attention.  Now, twenty-five years later, technology has come even to eastern Licking County.  Everything that kids do now, at camp and in life, is part of a “public record”.   There is lots of good from that, but it means that being “in the moment” is an experience many kids never have.  “The moment” is always shared, always interrupted, always includes others not “in the group”.   It’s no good taking kids on a “snipe hunt” today. Someone will “google” snipes.  Every move is subject to “fact checking” and scrutiny.

The one thing not subject to cell phone interference is the running.  Kids (most) don’t run with their cell phones.  It ultimately is more hassle to carry than it’s worth.  And the secret of “bonding” on a cross country team is the shared “suffering” of long runs on hills and dusty roads.  Hours on the road means hours of conversations, some grunted going uphill, some casual while striding along in the sun.  Want to grow close to someone:  run with them, hours at a time, every day.  You may not grow to “love them”, but you will grow to know them.

Camp Memories

Going to camp is nostalgic for me.  When I was the coach, I treasured the early morning walk from the cabin uphill to the lodge.  The sun was just rising, the crows calling out.  And there was often a small herd of deer culling the tender shoots of dew-soaked grass.  It was quiet, before we “rousted” the kids for morning run.  Time for a cup (or two, or three) of coffee, and a moment to contemplate the day.

I didn’t stay overnight at camp this time, but I was pleased that a lone deer came out into the field as I walked near the lodge.  It reminded me of how loaded camp was with stories.  Here’s where Doug “boobytrapped” the shelter for the “capture the flag” game.  There’s where we all lay on the hillside at midnight, watching the Perseid meteor shower.  That’s the path where I started the team on my “run to get lost, run to get found” morning jaunt.  

In the cabin is the bunk where my dog Paige hid as the raccoon came in looking for snacks in the middle of the night.  And that’s the porch where we had so many conversations; about running, about school, about life.  Camp only lasted four days then (three now in an era when school starts in the middle of summer), but it became the inflection point, the end of last season and the beginning of next.

Family

John’s building a team through hard work and hard fun.  Sure that’s a good thing for being successful:  kids will run harder for their team than they would for just themselves.  But more importantly, John is building a cross country “family”, a “family” that’s been going on since 1974.  Three generations share that bond, with the oldest now in their sixties.  Their team experience is forty or more years behind them.  But they would still recognize the “aura” of Watkins Cross Country.  It’s still family.

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22
• Mind Numbing – 2/20/22
• Track Weather – 4/3/22
• What’s Missing – 4/11/22
• A Scouting Story – 4/17/22
• Waterproof Paper – 5/8/22
• Origin Stories – 5/22/22
• Origin Stories – Part Two 5/29/22
• Back at State – 6/5/22
• Out in the Country – 6/19/22
• Pataskala Downs – 7/4/22
• Car Stories I – 7/24/22
• Car Stories II  – 7/31/22
• Old Man Experience – 8/7/22
• Cross Country Camp – 8/14/22