As a freshman, I am so happy that I was able to run varsity with such a great team. This season was a really fun start to my high school cross-country career and I can’t wait for next season. 

Being on varsity can be scary sometimes. It can be scary because I’m the only freshman here but I  love it. Everyone knows I need help with figuring out how high school works,so I get a lot of advice from teammates. When I’m running I know the courses and I get a lot of information because of my teammates. Sometimes it’s not just cross-country information, it’s stuff about life.. Everyone on the team is so friendly, so I’m not even scared most of the time. I’m only scared when I don’t know if I said the right thing. I just don’t want my team to be mad at me.  There are some scary parts but most of the time it’s really fun.

  There’s a big difference between middle school and highschool. The more obvious one is that we’re running a lot more than in middle school. We only ran four days out of the week, and now I’m running six. So that’s a big difference. Coaching, too. middle school coaches had us go on more fun runs, but here, coaches are more active, locked in, and serious about running. I get pushed a lot more in high school, which I like a lot more. 

Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m the only freshman. They make it feel like I’m just a part of the team. We get a couple of jokes about how I’m just the baby of the team and everyone has to be nice to me. But most of the time, I don’t even notice it. Like they’re all just my friends it’s like a big hang out. But of course, running is involved. Overall I really like school cross country and my teammates are giving me really good experiences. I ran 20:40.9 at state cross-country this year. They helped me push myself in races which led me to go to state.