Miles and Miles of Work on the Road to the Top

I have been a part of a Cross Country and Track team for more then ten years and each program is unique in itself in that they can market themselves and spread what the program is and stands for. I’ve learned that running is not the most popular sport in the world of athletics and with the exception of the parents that show up to track meets the fans are few and far between. The teams that I have been with have all driven and marketed very differently. I think I would take the approach of how my high school coach brought awareness to our program. With having a positive attitude and constant drive our team was able to stay motivated at the tasks that needed to be done.

Although, I would agree athletes need to be challenged in the competition that they compete against, I think going to meets where they are low key and the competition is minimal will also help with team morale and it would look great in the publics eyes. It’s important though that your athletes understand the morals that you their coach leads and stands by, for me I would rather have athletes on my team that aren’t troublemakers then win a few championships. I truly respect the kind of coach Charlie Strong is because although tons of coaches preach about having a team with great morals, he is one of the few that has followed through with kicking the athletes off the team that aren’t willing to be the exceptional young men he expects. Lastly, I would help build the community around me to be more running friendly, so that both my athletes and the community can benefit off the success that my team will be producing. There are runners everywhere but no everywhere is running friendly and a lot of the time the runners are hard to find.

   Cross Country and Track and Field are overall overlooked until the program is very well established and continues to have decades of success. Building a program is not an overnight fix when it comes to track and cross country but I have seen first hand where these programs can be a huge part of the school. Having athletes that love your program as much as the coach does and are willing to buy in is going to be the key component to the success of raising awareness about the cross country and track program. Your athletes will be your best marketers if other people can see the excitement and the success that you are bringing to the school other students will want to be apart of what your program represents. Lots of coaches all around don’t really understand how effective parents and other students can be at marketing your team especially if the moral and the success of the team is on the ups. It all starts with the positive attitude of the coach though and how bad that individual is willing to spread the word on his or her program.