Salina South

Cross Country Cougars!

ODDS & ENDS
Lettering Policy
    It is up to the discretion of the head coach as to who is worthy of a varsity letter. In the past only vasity runners who completed the season and all seniors lettered for cross country. The current head coach does not think this was fair to everyone who worked just as hard for a letter. In the past there were years when only seven runners lettered out of a squad of 25 athletes who worked as hard (or HARDER) and sacrificed as much (or MORE) than the top seven. It is not fair when they could have gone out for other sports who play a single down or one second and that counts as a quarter toward lettering with 52 other players. The old system got to the point where seniors went out for cross country only to get a letter before they graduated and the rest of the squad was only interested in getting on the top seven at the end of the season any way they could (and in some cases teammates would subvert the efforts of their teammates to get onto the varsity seven.

Obviously, this doesn't fit our philosophy of what high school athletics or extra-curricular activities are about. Our point is that instead of worrying about beating your teammates or even hoping someone quits or gets injured so you can get on the varsity, you should only worry about your competition and reaching your own personal peak. Give the best that you have, encourage others, and earn a letter.

We have a point system to lettering similar to what Coach Stonebraker uses in football at South. It will take 12 points to earn a letter. you can earn a point in various ways. Among them are as follows:

 
The Cougar Challenge
    Every week or so during the season and after school begins, a Cougar Challenge newsletter will be published for your benefit. It contains information about our meets, our progress, and articles that can help you become a better person and athlete. It is our hope that you read your Challenge from cover to cover and show it to your parents. I also hope you will contribute an article yourself. I have had poems, drawings, quotations, and articles from parents, other coaches, former South athletes, and others. I can use your help and you can use this as a way to earn a letter.
Supervised Practices
    Every practice must be supervised by a coach. Do not think you can make up a missed practice on your own. it just does not work.
Swimming Pool
    The swimming pool will be used from time to time on easy days, in the morning, or on days used to recuperate. Students must be supervised by an employee of U.S.D. #305 who has a CPR card. No exceptions. One other point, if you have been working out and have been sweating, make sure you take a short shower before entering the pool. they tell me that the chemicals in your sweat will compromise the chemical balance in the pool and may require the pool to be chemically treated before the swimming season. The "shocking" of the pool has always come out of the swimming teams' budgets and the general fund, but may partially come out of ours if we misuse the pool. I'm not even going to mention anything about using the pool as a bathroom.
Hazing
    The hazing or "initiation" of any teammate on this team will not be tolerated. We are all teammates by virtue of hard work and sweat to better ourselves. Initiating new members works against team cohesion and, no matter what you may believe, is not fun for everyone.
Assistant Coaches and Student Assistants
    We ask that you treat assistant coaches and student assistants with respect. Often they give up many hours of their own free time for little or no pay simply because he/she wants to help. We know we can count on you.
Jobs
    We will practice every day after school for at least an hour and a half and most days longer. Our team can not work around everyone's work schedule. Get your employer to set times for you to work and not sacrifice your time with your family, your schoolwork or cross country. Failure to get to practice on time or to have to leave practice because of work (or dentists, doctors, haircuts, etc.) will result in missing meets and not lettering.
Fund Raising
    Our cross country budget is a lot like other budgets: It is tight. To make up for this, we will sometimes have fund raisers such as working concession stands at football or basketball games or we will run off a tournament in the off-season. Many teachers and other coaches think we are crazy to do this for a few dollars here and there, but we have proven them wrong. In the past few years we have been able to provide our athletes with quality warm-ups for both boys and girls, a video camera and digital editor, two state-of-the-art stopwatches with printer, heart monitors, our awards at the end of the season, and medical equipment. Save aluminum cans at home and get them to the head coach when you have a bag or so. Every little bit helps. If you have an idea on how we can raise funds, let the coach know.

Cougar Cross Country Index

Coach Edwards' Homepage

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