Endurance, leadership are the key for cross country team

2010-11 CHS cross country team (photo courtesy Larry Simons)

By Brianna Smith, Chronicle staff

Cleveland High School cross country.

You don’t hear that a lot, do you? Well, maybe you should.

Cross country takes a lot of work and hard training to get to the point where you can actually compete. The team practices immediately after school, and they run 3-7 miles everyday. However, they don’t do it alone, Coach Larry Simons is there everyday to bring out the best in the cross country team,and he also encourages them to run at least one day of the weekend.

Some people ask, "Do they compete?" Yes they do, as a matter of fact. They competed over the weekend at the UNC-W Invitational, and put together a very strong showing - 9th place. Being that they're only freshmen and sophomores going up against squads with juniors and seniors, the team's leaders will have to grow up fairly quickly. Simons says, "We don’t have senior leadership, so it is important for sophomores, and a few of the freshman, to step up and start thinking as seniors now. It is critical that we get leadership now if we are to be successful in the future."

Simons says that they have already have had some tremendous outings. They competed in the Smithfield-Selma invitational, and put a strong fight against C.B. Aycock - losing by only one point. Some of the top runners are Cole Simons, JJ Ambelal, Jarett Hayes, and Sage Lowery. Simons says, "Those who have a desire to be successful have to have something inside themselves to make it happen, and a coach doesn’t put that in you, he just brings it out."