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Parent Information
Team Philosophy and Policies
2023
Welcome to West Genesee Varsity
Cross-Country. We are a no-cut sport that offers a unique sports opportunity to
anyone willing to work hard and with purpose. All athletes who attend required
practices and give the required efforts are welcome members of our team. Our
primary expectation is that all athletes, despite their talent level, can—and
will—achieve personal success and be important contributors to the team.
Team Philosophy
WG Cross-Country is a truly
democratic sport that allows all participants, with commitment and effort, to
achieve personal success while contributing to a team effort. We believe that
most of the value of our sport lies beyond winning, and that the personal
discipline, the physical and mental efforts, and the teamwork necessary to train
and compete at one’s best are attitudes and behaviors that can be put to good
use in the wider world, both now and in future years. Cross-Country done right,
of course, is hard, so team members must expect and value daily hard work. And
Cross-Country at its best is communal. The individual skills and talents of
athletes achieve their greatest value when put to the service of teammates and
the team.
Team Composition
Varsity Cross-Country is unlike
many other scholastic sports. New York State provides only Modified and Varsity
levels of the sport, therefore all 9th-12th grade athletes
are members of the Varsity team. Selectively classified 7th/8th
graders may also be members. Returning and veteran members of the team are
expected to exemplify the best traditions of the sport by modeling hard work and
perseverance in pursuit of personal and team mastery. The primary role of
underclassmen on the team is to first learn how to train properly as
middle-distance athletes. As they gain distance running skills and bring
themselves to ‘race-readiness,’ they can make important competitive
contributions to the team.
Coaching Policies
Our WG combined boys/girls teams
typically number 35-55 athletes, and the range of talent and athletic experience
on each team is often wider than in any other sport in the district. As a result
of the high ratio of athletes to coaches, and the large geographic spaces of our
workouts, we require a significant level of individual responsibility from the
athletes. They need be where they are told and do what they are instructed.
Athletes who repeatedly do not follow the directives of their coaches will be
subject to team discipline policies. In coaching our athletes, we follow several
primary procedures:
·
Behavior/attitudinal issues with athletes will be handled privately before or
following practices.
·
Athlete training and roster decisions, as per school athletic guidelines, will
not be discussed with parents except by a coach’s choice. Those decisions will
be discussed with the athlete directly who may then, of course, discuss them
with parents.
·
Parents with concerns about any training or roster decisions for their athlete
should contact the Athletic Director, who may then schedule a meeting with the
coach, the parent and the athlete to address the concern.
·
Important personal/family information that may affect the conduct, safety or
daily efforts of athletes should certainly be shared directly with the coach.
Athlete Team Qualifications
Athletes voluntarily join Wildcats Cross-Country, where they are expected to
attend all required practices, team meetings and designated meets.
This is also a school athletic policy. Only verified absences due to illness,
injury, doctor appointments, college visits and family emergencies are
considered excused absences. For the health and proper performance of the
athletes, they must maintain an overall 80% practice-attendance average to be
eligible to compete in meets, with possible exemptions made by the coaches due
to injury/illness. All absences must be verified by a parent note or e-mail to
Coach Vermeulen. Any absence not verified in the prescribed manner is considered
an Unexcused Absence. Multiple unexcused absences may lead to the loss of
Varsity letter eligibility, the loss of meet privileges or, in some cases,
suspension or dismissal from the team.
Meet Readiness:
A house built on a weak
foundation is at risk. Likewise, starting our season, runners unprepared with a
proper base of fitness take risks. They risk failing to achieve their full
potential as Wildcat XC members. They risk not making their best possible
contributions to the team. And they are at a higher risk of injury while
training--and especially with the high stresses of racing. Proper summer
preparation, in most cases, is a bare minimum of 150 miles of mixed training
mileage for boys and 100 miles for girls. Should a team member fail to complete
that mileage, we will withhold them from racing until that necessary
preparation, through team practices, is completed. Athletes keep
track of their summer runs on our team Mileage Log. Any exceptions to our
race-ready policy will be made by the coaches.
In addition, eligibility for
Saturday invitational meets is determined by performance times. While we ensure
that athletes participate in all league meets if attendance-eligible, to qualify
for invitational meets, the athlete must demonstrate that he/she is capable of
completing a 5k course in at least 32 minutes for girls and 30 minutes for boys.
Any exceptions to this requirement will also be made by the coaches.
Levels of Achievement:
All
team members, regardless of age/grade/ability, are eligible to earn a WG
varsity letter in Cross-Country. To do so, they must meet the following
standards:
1.
Maintain a minimum 85%
attendance average through the end of the full-team season(date
of the SCAC Championship or final invitational meet for full team). Attendance
is determined in this manner:
a.
Athletes receive credit for a fully completed practice(a practice-attendance
credit) or any meet for which they are scheduled. In some—but not
all—circumstances, an athlete is given credit for completing half a practice as
determined by time. Athletes are not given practice credits for days
missed due to illness, injury, appointments, college visits, family vacations,
activity conflicts or other forms of absences.
b.
Athletes with season attendances below 80% will not qualify for a varsity
letter.
c.
Athletes with season attendances of 80-84% will be reviewed by the coaches, with
possible attendance credit awarded for days missed due to illness, injury or
appointments.
d.
Any
exceptions to these criteria due to unique circumstances will be determined by
the coaches.
2.
Complete summer mileage target.*
3.
Demonstrate Improvement
over the course of the full-team season.
a.
Improvement is indicated either by improvement of their 5k competition times,
their Speed Rating as determined by
www.tullyrunners.com
or by improvement of their place on the team depth chart, which is determined by
average finish place in races.
b.
Athletes competing beyond the dual-meet season may demonstrate improvement in
those championship meets.
4.
Compete in ALL meets for which the athlete is qualified
and expected to race.
5.
Finish in Team Top-10(finishing time) at least twice in
meets or qualify for Sectionals.*
*Athletes not meeting criteria #2 or #5 will qualify
with coaches’ approval of demonstrated
effort,
attendance and improvement.
Any team member who does not meet
the Varsity Letter qualifications but follows the WG Code of Conduct guidelines
and team policies will be considered a JV-level Cross-Country athlete and
a team member in good standing.
Types of Meets
There are three types of
Boys/Girls Varsity Cross-Country meet competition, each with different athlete
qualifications:
1.
DUAL MEETS
2. INVITATIONAL MEETS
3. CHAMPIONSHIP MEETS
1. DUAL MEETS:
These are two/three-team meets held during the week after school, usually on
Wednesdays. They are raced either at our CMS home course or away, on the home
team’s 5k course. Team members with a required
80% attendance and in ‘good
standing’ according to team/school rules will participate in ALL dual meets. Any
exceptions will be made by the coaches.
2. INVITATIONAL MEETS:
These are Saturday meets of 5 or more schools. Top finishers usually
receive ribbons, sometimes medals. The level of competition at invitational
meets is higher than at dual meets. We will attend a designated number of
invitationals this fall. Rosters will be determined by the coaches. All team
members in good standing who can meet the 5k standard(32:00 for girls, 30:00 for
boys)will eligible to compete in invitational meets.
3. CHAMPIONSHIP MEETS:
These meets occur at the end of the season and are those for which athletes have
trained to give their best seasonal performances. We participate in several
championship meets. Eligibility for each is described below:
·
League Championship
– this championship meet includes the teams in our SCAC Metro Division who we
have faced in dual meets. All team members in good standing who meet the 5k
standard will compete in the League Championship.
·
Sectional Championship
– this is the Class A Section III championship. Teams are allowed a maximum of
10 runners. We will race our top-10 runners based on race performances, with an
emphasis on the most recent. Those athletes must be in good standing and have
the required attendance. The top team finisher in each class and the next 5
individual finishers in each class advance to the State Championship.
·
State Championship
– this is held in
early/mid November at rotating sites throughout NYS. A team or individual state
championship qualification is a significant accomplishment.
·
NYS Federation Championship
–
through a selection process by Sectional Representatives at the State
Championship, 17 public schools are selected regardless of class size to compete
in this best-of-the-best championship in mid-November. Individuals also compete
and are selected from state championship finishes. WG has advanced teams,
individuals or both to this prestigious championship in 10 of the past 12
seasons the championship has been held.
Athlete Behavior
The
renowned American coach, Joe Vigil, said he had only three ‘expectations’ to
guide the behavior of his Adams State University team members during their
seasons. We do likewise.
Coaches will work with any athletes struggling to meet the three expectations.
Training Requirements
With the support and cooperation
of our district, Wildcats XC has, over the years, constructed one of the finest
school-property training/racing sites in Central New York. Our training/racing
trails at Camillus Middle School are superb, but our extensive topography also
means we must trust the athletes to not only use them safely but properly,
according to team guidelines. A word on walking: unless prescribed for recovery
or as part of injury rehabilitation, walking does not contribute to the fitness
of a runner or the effort standards of our teams. During practices, athletes
always have the option to slow a pace if necessary, but except in cases of
injury or illness they are not to walk.
Training
Groups
For maximum runner improvement
and protection from run-related injuries, it is important that athletes conduct
training at paces commensurate with their ability and fitness levels. One way we
ensure this is through the use of training groups. Based on conditioning,
experience, and talent, we may divide teams into three training groups:
Gold/Blue/Cats. Most times, all three groups do the same workout in varying
volumes and/or intensities. We like athletes together. Sometimes, however,
different groups complete different workouts based on their particular training
needs. After initial evaluations, all athletes may be placed in a group.
Movement between groups is always possible based on fitness improvements or
increased effort levels by athletes. Rehabilitation from slight or moderate
injuries/illness may also necessitate a change in training groups. Placement in
a particular group has no effect on varsity-letter eligibility.
Length of Season
Our official team season starts on August 21st, though
athletes will have been preparing with summer runs on their own as well as
attending voluntary summer Team Runs. The final seasonal race involving all team
members will be the 10/18 SCAC Championship. After that meet, 10 boys and 10
girls will be named to the Sectional Championship squad, the maximum allowed by
the section. They will train for the 11/4 Sectional Championship at a site to be
determined. Those not on the Sectional Squad will have completed their seasons
on 10/18. Athletes not on the Sectional Championship squad may make requests,
subject to the coaches’ approval, to continue training with the team until the
sectional championship.
Team Communications
Athletes and parents have a variety of methods for obtaining team information.
Those are as follows.
1.
Team Web Site: the
www.wgrunners.com
web site provides team information, meet results, meet schedule and a team
practice schedule, among other features.
2.
Team Weekly E-mail: team members and parents
are e-mailed each Sunday with information on the coming week’s practices, meets
and other team information.
3.
Facebook: Our West Genesee
Cross-Country and Track Facebook page will post as many meet photographs as
possible. You can join by liking that page.
4.
Twitter: Team photographs and
information can also be accessed on Jim Vermeulen@VermeulenJim
5.
Post-Packet: at the annual post-season team
banquet, athletes are presented a post-packet containing seasonal team/personal
achievement data.
West Genesee Varsity
Cross-Country Head Coach