Original Sonnet

Original Sonnet: "Cross Country" by Katie Rippon

The school bus leaves the campus right on time
to travel to a scenic place. The bus
some students board; up dirty steps they climb.
In God alone this young sports team does trust.

The team has nineteen students; I am one.
Arriving at the destination, we
unload, hang out, warm up, and then we run:
the whistle blows; the gun is shot; we're free.

I go out hard, then settle in. My heart
beats fast, but I press on. I'm feeling strong.
I finish well; contributing my part.
We runners race, enduring distance long.

I love cross country for the atmosphere:
encouragement and joy from teammates dear.

[This is an original sonnet written by Katie Rippon ('20) for an 11th grade British Literature assignment at Tall Oaks.]

Golf Tees & Two-by-Fours

Specifically, a used, unpainted golf tee and a foot-long, unsanded section of a two-by-four.

When Coach Paul Shirley first showed up at practice with that golf tee two weeks ago, we runners were not quite sure what to think. Coach explained that the tee would be the reward for "winning practice" and would be presented at the end of each training session to the runner who had worked the hardest that day (collectively determined by the captains). Winners had to return the tee to Coach at the beginning of the next practice, but in the interim, they would be allowed to customize the tee however they wanted (although Coach did specify that he'd prefer it to remain in one piece, much to the chagrin of certain members of the team). By the end of that week, the tee had been initialed, painted blue, stenciled with stars, and striped with red paint. (Shoutout to all the practice winners from that week for your hard work and creativity--you know who you are :)

The golf tee by the end of the week (Photo: Brandan Leauby)

While a golf tee may not seem like a particularly exciting prize, Coach explained to us that if we were willing to compete for something that small and insignificant, we would be willing to compete for anything.

Last week, after our most difficult practice of the season yet, Coach retired the tee "to the archives" (meaning that boys captain Brandan Leauby was appointed to take it home for safekeeping) and arrived at practice with a section of a two-by-four about a foot long and complete with unsanded edges. Given the hard work put in by the entire team during our mile repeats on the previous day, he felt that we deserved a better prize for winning practice. So far, the ends of the wood have been sanded and the entire piece painted with gold, red, and black stripes.

This new winner-of-practice system is an outworking of our team motto for the season: Prepare, Encourage, Compete. (We're still working out how to incorporate that into our pre-race cheer; Coach already definitively nixed us yelling "PEC!" at the top of our lungs.) For the past few weeks, we've spent hours preparing for the season to come, building up our strength and endurance through timed miles, distance running, CTs, and drills, so that when race day arrives, we can focus on meeting and exceeding the goals we've set for ourselves. We've grown together as a team, encouraging one another by pushing our fellow runners to their full potential and rejoicing with them when they meet their goals. We've learned to compete by running our best and working our hardest for a prize as insignificant as a golf tee.

I can't wait to see what our team will accomplish this season!

Naomi

Notes and Updates...Again

Wow, have I seriously managed only one blog post since October 1?

First of all, I want to sincerely apologize for the lack of production recently at OnTheLineXC. I haven't done as much as I've wanted to do, mainly because I've been busy with schoolwork and college applications, both of which take priority over the blog, as they should.

In terms of what has gone on since the last post, our team ran a tri-meet (against Caravel Academy and St. Elizabeth High School) at Lums Pond last Wednesday, October 26. While it was not technically a home meet for us, it was great to have an opportunity to run at a course we had already been to earlier in the season to compare our times and see how much we have improved as a team. I had been waiting to write a race review in case any pictures from the meet became available on social media, but I have not found any yet. With that, I'll go ahead and post the full results and give a short summary here.

Joshua ('19) just missed out on the win, finishing second to Caravel's Jacob Puharic, three seconds behind. Noah ('17) ended up third, while I placed fifth. I was aiming for a sub-20, so to miss out on that by five seconds is a bit disappointing. Still, ending up in P5 in a tri-meet we won easily is hard to be unhappy with. On the Girls' side, Hannah ('21) and Mae ('20) finished second and third respectively, while Red Lion as a team placed six girls in the top ten.

Full results from the tri-meet.
(Photo: Nikki Pizzulli/Paul Shirley)

Tomorrow, we travel to Winterthur for a county-wide meet in preparation for State Championships one week later. I will try to get results and a race review up for both meets as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Benjamin Schneider

It Feels Good to Be Back

We've had a great first two days of practice as we get the XC season underway. I've seen many old friends and new faces alike. The preseason, in a weird way, is almost my favorite part of the season. There's no pressure; everyone is just getting back into shape or learning the ropes, depending on each runner's level of experience.

Despite the transition to Red Lion athletics, longtime Tall Oaks coach Paul Shirley is back, and we are thrilled to have him on board for another season. At the same time, Red Lion's coach, Nikki Pizzulli, is still with the team as well. I had heard nothing but good things about her leading up to the season, and I myself have nothing but good things to say about her as we start the season. She is clearly experienced and knows what we need to be doing, and I have no doubt she will work well alongside Coach Shirley this season.

Message received, Mike. We won't let you down this season.
(Photo: Noah Pfenninger ('17))

It has been hot these past few days. But really, even though school starts next week, we're technically still in the middle third of "summer" judging by the calendar seasons, so should we expect anything different? To all our new runners, I promise you, it will cool off. Every degree of heat makes a difference in how hard the human body can push itself.

I also want to thank former Red Lion XC great Michael Collins ('16) for his kind note yesterday. I already sent out a short message via Instagram, Facebook, and Google+, but I wanted to include something about it here in case you have not gotten a chance to see it yet.

I am looking forward to a great season. More to come.

P. S. The sixth and final Laws Series 5K is tonight. Joshua Deitrich ('19) and I were the only runners even considering attending the race; however, we decided it was more important to benefit the team by attending practice instead (Coach Shirley vetoed any attempts to do "The Double"). Given that my "non"-review was basically pointless and did not receive very many page hits, I will not be writing any posts about the final race in the series. Instead, I can only be thankful for your support during the summer runs and for those runners who came out and did the runs with me.

P. P. S. To all my teammates: if you want to contribute to this blog, I have no problem with that. Just let me know and I'll send you an invitation to do so.