Cross Country Teams Take Sportsmanship Seriously

Samantha Nachtman, Veritas Staff

October 9, 2016

“Just get out there and get started,” Patrick Finn, the girls cross country coach, said. “Everybody starts somewhere and there is no way that you won’t progress.”

Cross country is a sport that consists of lots of running. They run about threemiles every race and to most people that might seem like a lot.

How much do these students actually practice? Every single day. After school they run three miles for practice and then on Tuesdays, they run in their meets.

“I do find it hard to run the far distance,” said freshman Kyley Houde. “You start to run out of breath sometimes, and it’s difficult to keep going. But when you don’t think about it, it’s not as hard. That was my first meet so hopefully it will get easier every time.”

Another freshman runner at RHS, Sean Belmonte, says practicing and getting a better mindset has helped him. “At first I found it hard to run the far distances, but when I started practicing more and getting better I realized it’s not so bad since you learn to get a better mindset and develop a good pace.”

Junior Seth Rosczewski, has been doing cross country since his sophomore year, and says what he loves most about his team is that they have an “outstanding amount of sportsmanship.” He explained, “The coaches take sportsmanship very seriously and I can say that I’m proud to run for them because of that.”

Belmonte and Houde both said their teams are very positive and sweet and they both really like the sport.

“I didn’t like it that much at first because it wasn’t really what I expected, but now I actually love it. It’s fun to run outdoors and I’m very competitive so it’s good,” said Houde.

They all seem like they like it a lot, but that doesn’t mean they don’t find different things to be stressful.

“The most stressful part of the sport is definitely the races because there is sometimes a lot of pressure being put on you to do well for your team,” said Belmonte.

Rosczewski also gets nervous and stressed about the beginning of the races.  “The most stressful part of this sport is definitely the pre-race set. The nerves running through my head, waiting for the official to pull the trigger is terrible.”

Rosczewski plans to continue cross country (XC) when he goes to college “After high school I would most certainly love to run XC. The ideal goal for me would be to run for Boston University because that is the college that sticks out to me the most.”

Recently, the boys and the girls team beat Middleboro. The girls team has had two wins and two losses and the boys team has had three wins and one loss so far this season.

In closing if you ever thought about joining cross country, take the boys cross country coach,  Mr. Murphy’s advice: “Stick with it! Don’t give up! Athletes with this philosophy can only improve.”