OHS Cross Country preview
The Olney Cubs cross country team got back to practice Aug. 1 and the team is excited for what they can accomplish in the 2016 fall season.
I had the opportunity last week to chat with Cross Country coach Dickie Scott and get a preview of what is ahead for the Olney girls.
Kyle Borne: How did it feel to get back to practice this week?
Dickie Scott: It was good to get back in the swing of things. It was still hot, but we take everything kind of slow this first week.
KB: Do you have any expectations this season?
DS: The girls have expectations. The girls have set some pretty big goals, get out of district, get to regionals and hopefully have chance to go to state. If we aren’t going to have goals to go to state, there is no reason to do it. We got everybody return from last year. We have three seniors and four sophomores.
DS: Last year, it was four freshman and three juniors. A couple of the juniors knew what this was all about, but the freshman didn’t have a clue. So, they made it regionals. They got a taste of what it was like. They got to see what those really good teams do. They all seemed to leave cross country regionals last year with a pretty good motivation to come back next year and really compete at it. The seven I got are ready to do whatever it takes to get there. So, last year was kind of an education year for them. This year is ok, ‘This is how good you want to be. This is what we have to do to do that.” There are all in favor of whatever it takes. So, if we have to do a seven or eight mile run, they’re game. So, that’s our expectations. The main thing is to keep everybody healthy. Last year we had a couple of injuries that kind of haunted us. Keep them healthy and train them hard and as long as they give it all they got, that is all you can ask.
DS: Our region is a tough region. It’s probably one of the toughest regions in the state. We got Hamilton, Hico and some of those schools are just predominately cross country monsters every year, plus we have Seymour. Seymour is in our district. They made it to state last year. They got second at regionals and got to go to state. They only lost a couple. Then we got Munday who comes into our district this year and Corey down there at Munday does a great job with his girls every year. Our district will be tough enough. If we can get out of our district, and get in the top three than you’ll compete well at regionals. It just depends how good you are at that point.
KB: How much of a change do you think it will be this year at district with the re-districting?
DS: Well, for us it’s just a little bit unknown. I know Munday. They will be good. They got some kids, some juniors and seniors that we have been watching for two or three years and they are pretty talented. So, we know that factor coming in. Knox City, I don’t know anything about. Quanah, don’t really know what they have done in the past. I know three or four years ago Quanah’s junior high they had some new coaches in there and they had every one of their girls running cross. We went to their junior high meet and there were 30 girls from Quanah. I don’t know if that’s still the standard or not at Quanah, but if it is that’s going to be tough. Other than that, Electra, Windthorst a lot of those schools since they play volleyball, a lot of them won’t have a full team. They won’t have anyone running. Knox City and Quanah are kind of the unknown factors. It will be tough enough to get out of district because Munday is going to bring in their good game and Seymour, Coach Hunt does a great job with those girls. So, we’ll see.
KB: Do you think it’s an advantage for cross country purposes to not have a volleyball team here?
DS: It should be. Every school is having a hard time getting numbers. When I was at Paradise, we had volleyball and I didn’t have many girls nine to 10 girls and we went to state two or three years in a row and some of those girls played volleyball and ran cross country. Not necessarily, but… I don’t want to say anything negative.
KB: Anything else you would like to add in there?
DS: We got these seven girls and they are up here at 7 a.m., and when school starts they get in here at 6 a.m. One day a week, sometimes two days a week, we get here at 5:30 a.m. With this bunch being able to do whatever it takes to get that good, there will be several days during the year, once we get a little deeper into the season (late September and the first of October) that they’ll run seven, eight, nine miles before school starts in the morning. While everyone else is still sleeping or eating cereal, some of these guys will be running seven or eight miles, and then take a shower, and clean up and then go to a whole day’s worth of school. The thing there is the dedication they put in to do the things that they do. A lot of people don’t realize how much it does involve. If they put in the hard work, that’s one of my favorite sayings, “If you work hard good things happen.” That’s kind of our motto. Work hard and good things happen.