Running with Rocco

 

Thursday, December 18, 2014 11:47 AM

Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? Give yourself the gift of running! That’s right, Running with Rocco continues throughout the Winter Break! 

 

Here are the dates & times for the next two weeks of running:

 

                Saturday              12/20     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Monday               12/22     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Tuesday               12/23     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Friday                    12/26     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Saturday              12/27     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

 

                Monday               12/29     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Tuesday               12/30     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Friday                    1/2         9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Saturday              1/3         9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

 

Is it a holiday miracle? Not quite, but it’s close! It’s Running with Rocco!

Running Club Update

Running with Rocco continues this week and next!

Here’s the updated schedule for the next couple of weeks:

                Tuesday               12/2       3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Thursday             12/4       3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Friday                    12/5       3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Saturday              12/6       9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Monday               12/8       3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Thursday             12/11     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Friday                    12/12     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Saturday              12/13     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track         

We’ll meet in Coach Rocco’s room (404) each day! Please dress in layers, bring a snack & water, and wear a hat and gloves! Running with Rocco—it’s the club where you get to run with Coach Rocco!

Running Club Update

Running with Rocco continues this week and next!

Off-season running with Rocco has already started. If you’re interested in running track, want to get in shape for another sport, or just want to start a training regimen, then Running with Rocco is for your! All distance runners are required to run 3 times a week for 20-30 minutes a session, from now until the start of Track & Field season.

Here’s the updated schedule for the next couple of weeks:

                Friday                    11/20     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Saturday              11/21     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Monday               11/24     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Tuesday               11/25     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Wednesday        11/26     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

                Friday                    11/27     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.              ALHS Track

We’ll meet in Coach Rocco’s room (404) each day! Please dress in layers, bring a snack & water, and wear a hat and gloves! Running with Rocco—it’s the club where you get to run with Coach Rocco!

Running Club is Starting!!

Attention all Cross Country & Track and Field Athletes:

Our off-season running club will be starting this week. Running club is for all distance runners and sprinters who are getting ready for the upcoming Track & Field season. All distance runners are required to run 3 times a week for 20-30 minutes a session, from now until the start of Track & Field season. If you can’t make any of the sessions throughout the winter season, make sure to run on your own, run on a treadmill, or do some elliptical work! It is mandatory, even if you’re in a winter sport, that you run 20-30 minutes, 3 times a week.

Here is the schedule for our first couple of weeks. In addition to this schedule, please go to the Learwood Cross Country Blog Site for details:

Thursday             11/12                     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

Saturday              11/15                     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.             ALHS Track

                Monday               11/17                     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Tuesday               11/18                     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Thursday             11/19                     3 – 4 p.m.                            Learwood

                Saturday              11/22                     9:30 – 10:30 a.m.             ALHS Track

We will meet in Coach Rocco’s room (404) each day. Please dress in layers, bring a snack & water, and wear a hat and gloves! Also make sure to arrange for transportation home at 4 p.m. each day. If you have any further questions, please see Coach Rocco in Room 404.

OHSAA Week Update

Weekly Update 10/18

·         Congratulations to the Shoremen on their SWC Championship! That was an awesome race. While we talked about our assignments, what to do and when to do it, and who to run with, it really comes down to execution. You guys executed perfectly! That was an awesome race!

·         Congratulations to the Shoregals on your 3^rd place finish! You really pushed through some adversity to place a very close 3^rd place. I realize you really wanted to repeat as SWC Champions, but you did the best you could on Saturday, and that’s all anyone can ask of a person or a team. Thanks for a great couple of seasons, girls!

·         Please turn in uniforms to Room 404! Please wash your uniform and turn it in to Coach Rocco in room 404. Please place everything in a bag and label it with your name.

·         Starting next week, you need to take a break! One of the problems distance coaches have with good teams—and we have two really good teams—is getting those teams to rest. Rest is important! Take 3 weeks off of running, starting next week. No running! This is ‘Couch Potato’ time, where you have permission to be a lazy kid for three weeks. Eat what you want, play other sports, sit on the couch and watch television/play video games. Time to rest!

·         Running with Rocco (our off-season running program) starts the week of November 9^th. If you are not involved in a winter sport, or if the winter sport you are involved in does not conflict with our off-season running, then you need to start running the week of November 9^th. We will meet 3 days a week, after school, from 3 – 4 p.m. We will definitely be done by 4 p.m. We will also meet on some Saturdays and we’ll start advertising road races as well. Running Club starts in November and goes until February, when Track & Field conditioning begins. It is important for runners to run in the off-season! Nothing crazy, but you want to get out there after your rest period. We’ll be running outside so dress for the weather!

·         I’m updating the Cross Country bulletin board with our new individual and team records. Parents, if you have any pictures you can bring, I’ll laminate them and put them up. I don’t have any pictures myself so anything you can give me would be great. The pictures we currently have are from 2 years ago!

·         Thanks for a great season! This season has been exhausting with such large numbers, but it’s also been one of the most fun! Thanks for being such great kids, and thanks go out to all the parents for all your help, donations, and patience this season! We’ll be updating the blog every couple weeks with our Running Club dates/times, races, and workouts!

OHSAA Middle School Invitational

·         Bus leaves TROY at 8:30 a.m.  Be there at 8:25 a.m., and be ready to sleep on the way down. We’re taking 2 buses!

·         We should return around 7 p.m. We plan on stopping for food on the way back home.

·         This meet will be held at:

Waggoner Road Junior High School

360 N. Waggoner Road

Reynoldsburg, OH 43068

·         Dress for the weather! Right now it looks like it will be 54 degrees, with a chance of rain. Dress in layers. Bring at 2-3 pairs of socks, a pair of dry shoes you can keep on the bus to change into on the way home, and rain gear if you have it (I’ve got home-made ponchos from clear plastic bags should you need it). Hats and gloves are good too!

·         Pack a lunch. You’re going to want to eat lunch on the way down to the meet, or when we get there (depending on when you run).

·         Bring extra food/water. I’ve got extra water but you’ll want to snack when we get there so bring some food and a sports drink!

·         Bring money! You might want to buy apparel when you get there, and we’ll be eating on the way back.

·         Here’s the course map: http://www.baumspage.com/cc/ccframe.php?path=http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/cc/default.asp

·         Here’s the racing assignments:

Race Assignment	Race Time
Section G - Boys Open	1:00:00 PM
Section H - Girls Open	1:30:00 PM
Section I - Boys Team Scored	2:00:00 PM
Section J - Girls Team Scored	2:30:00 PM

·         Here’s who we’re running against: http://www.baumspage.com/cc/ccframe.php?path=http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/cc/default.asp

·         Here’s Avon Lake’s roster—we can take 10 people on TEAM for this race (names are not in any particular order):

BOYS OPEN        1 p.m.

Nick Foley

Erik Fjeldstad

Clay Ledbetter

Anthony Powe

Luke Brodke

Eddie Wolski

Kyle Burr

Tyler Stepak

Sam Baugh

Nathan Jagodzinski

GIRLS OPEN        1:30 p.m.

NONE

BOYS TEAM        2:00 p.m.

John Swansinger

Michael Mandel

Jacob Nasr

Michael Kuban

Ryan Keller

Abud Salem

Brandon Holton

Joey Carson

Jacob Morris

Patrick Neipp

GIRLS TEAM       2:30 p.m.

Camden Lockner

Catherine Arebaugh

Julia Dixon

Lauren Davis

Elena Stojanovski

Alyssa Whalen

Olivia Crimaldi

Liz Murdock

Mackenzie Tyson

Ava Kramhoeller

SWC Week

SWC CHAMPIONSHIP

Here we go! This is the final race of the season. Let’s go to work:

·         Please check Coach Walters’ room for any missing items! At the end of our season we’re going to place all missing items in Learwood’s Lost & Found.

·         Parents, while this final race is centrally located, make sure to remind kids to stick together!

·         Time to get some rest! Eat health, drink a lot of water, stock up on sleep (9 hours, 15 minutes a night), and STRETCH before bed! Avoid soda, junk food, and limit sweets to one dessert a day! Remember, it’s not what you do Friday night, it’s what you do this whole week.

·         Parents and athletes: typically athletes like to toilet paper my house after SWCs (Saturday night). Just remember: we love Coach Rocco and we would NOT want to do any damage to his home.

·         Bowling Reminder: after SWCs we meet at Spevock’s Bowling in Avon Lake.  The coaching staff will be collecting uniforms/jackets. If you can wash them BEFORE you return them that would be AWESOME!  However, because of the short time between race and bowling we understand if that is not possible. 

·         Parents: we’ll be updating Avon Lake’s Team Records & Individual Records. We’ll also post this on the blog after SWCs.

·         I’m including Avon Lake’s SWC History here. Take a look at what athletes have done over the last 20 – 25 years!

Southwestern Conference Championship

·         Bus leaves at Troy at 12:10 p.m. (be there at noon).

·         Boys run at 1:30 p.m.

·         Girls run at 2 p.m.

·         SWC Awards Ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Top 7 runners (All-SWC) will be recognized, then Top 8-14 runners (2^nd Team All-SWC) will be recognized, then the SWC schools will be recognized.

·         There is an Elementary Race at 12:45 p.m. It’s 800 meters and it’s open to any young athlete in the SWC! Pre-registration is over, but all elementary kids (grades 1 – 6) can still register tomorrow by the tennis courts if you want to race.

·         SWC apparel will be available! We pre-ordered but they may have extra apparel should you want to get something.

·         We’ll leave around 3:15ish.

·         Once we return to Avon Lake, go home, shower, then come bowl with your team (don’t forget your uniforms if you’re not running at the OHSAA Championships). Bowling takes place from 7 – 9 p.m. at Spevock’s in Avon Lake.

·         I’m posting the final Cheat Sheet of the season! We passed this out on Monday, but here it is one more time. Thanks for a great year!

OHSAA Middle School Championship Meet

·         We will go over this early next week—we just got our confirmed race times and we’ll set everything up for those participating at the state-level!

New Information for jack Wilhelm Meet

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

UPDATE TO TOMORROW’S MEET!

·         The weather looks like it could be nasty tomorrow morning (47 – 49 degrees, windy, rainy). So, we’re going to meet at Dairy Queen at 8 a.m. We are NOT going to walk the course. So tomorrow we will be meeting at 8 a.m. at Dairy Queen!

ANOTHER NOTE:

·         The Westlake Fun Run will be held on Tuesday, October 7^th. Here’s information regarding this race:

ü  The race is held at Clague Park in Westlake

ü  It is 1.5 miles in length

ü  Here’s the schedule:

7^th grade girls – 4:30 p.m.

7^th grade boys – 4:45 p.m.

8^th grade girls – 5:00 p.m.

8^th grade boys – 5:15 p.m.

ü  I’m including a map of this race here

ü  We should return to Avon Lake around 6:45 p.m.

Jack Wilhelm Week

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

Coach Walters' Announcements:

1.  SWC Apparel Pre- Order-- if you are interested in getting some SWC apparel you can pre-order now.  There is NO guarantee that shirts will be available to buy at the meet.  Please pay attention to DEADLINES and payment requirements.  Click here to order. 

2. Team Bowling Celebration-- Our traditional bowling party will be held on Saturday, October 11th from 7pm-9pm @ Spevocks bowling in Avon Lake. Two hours of pizza  and cosmic bowling will be taking place.  

Cost:  $12.00/bowler (please bring CASH ONLY in a sealed envelope with athlete's name on it)

Bowling ends PROMPTLY at 9pm.  Cash due by Thursday, October 9th. 

Parent Volunteer: I need a parent volunteer that can stay until all athletes are picked up because coaches will leave at 8:59pm :-)  

Dessert Options:  The cost covers pizza/soda.  If anyone would like to donate desserts that would be awesome.  

Here’s our weekly update:

We will go over who signed up for the OHSAA Middle School Meet this week!

 Time to eat healthy, drink plenty of water, and stock up on rest! Our hard workouts are over for the year. It’s time to rest, we are beginning to taper. Taper…this is one of the greatest words in an endurance athlete’s vocabulary. For this last week, avoid all soda, eat very healthy foods, drink plenty of water, get a LOT of sleep (middle schoolers need to average 9 hours 15 minutes of sleep a night), and STRETCH after practice, on Sunday, and before you go to bed each night. It’s not what you do the day before a race, it matters what you do the WEEK before a race!

Movie Night is moved to Friday, October 10th. 

We will be voting on what movie we want to watch this week!

Our final ‘Cheat Sheet’ of the year will be passed out at our final team meeting (Monday, October 6^th).

Jack Wilhelm Information:

·         We will meet at DAIRY QUEEN parking lot at 7:35 a.m.

·         We will return to DAIRY QUEEN around 11:15ish, where we will get ice cream.

·         Athletes, the coaching staff cannot afford to buy you all ice cream (sorry), so make sure to bring money for your ice cream/lunch (this should be your last ‘garbage’ food you eat until SWCs).

·         Normal breakfast still applies, with a light snack both before & after the race. Bring water for both before and after the race, and don’t forget your sports drink!

·         Results will be posted on baumspage.com for this race!

·         This race is at LCCC. The same course map is used. We’ve got a link of it on the blog.

·          Here’s the schedule:

10:00 a.m.       ALL Girls                     

10:30 a.m.       ALL Boys

Upper Sandusky Meet

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

Here’s our weekly update:

·         Cloverleaf was awesome! Even though it was a tough course, it looked like it was a PR day for many of the runners! Congrats!

·         Clague Park Fun Run is set for Tuesday, October 7^th. This is a tri-meet with Amherst and Westlake, an informal 1.5 – mile run and a tradition for these three SWC schools! We’re still trying to get buses for this race, but shouldn’t have a problem. Here’s the schedule:

7th Girls     4:30

7th Boys    4:45

8th Girls     5:00

8th Boys    5:15

·         We are organizing for the OHSAA Middle School Invitational. This is an optional race, where we take the top 40 athletes. We are taking 10 team boys & 10 open boys and 10 team girls & 10 open girls. We will base this first on who wants to go, then on the top times of each gender. We’re asking runners to let us know by Wednesday, October 1^st, if they want to attend this optional meet, so we can start planning for this race!

          If you are interested in going to this meet please fill out this form by Wednesday, October 1st.  Click here to get to the form. Reminder: The TOP 20 girls and TOP 20 boys will be attending.  

·         The end of the season is quickly approaching! With the end of our season soon upon us, the coaching staff is planning some fun activities that hopefully will promote team-building and an appreciation for the hard work put in this season! The next 2 weeks’ activities include:

Friday, October 3^rd                         Friday Night Dinner & AL CC Movie Night (in the Learwood Auditorium)

Saturday, October 4^th                     Dairy Queen AFTER Jack Wilhelm Invitational (parents can pick up athletes from Avon Lake Dairy Queen)

Wednesday, October 7^th              Clague Park Fun Run

Saturday, October 11^th                  End-of-season Bowling Celebration (after SWCs)

·         I’m attaching a copy of the Upper Sandusky Meet Cheat Sheet here.

Upper Sandusky Information:

·         We are replacing our Vermilion Invitational for the Upper Sandusky race. Parents, we realize this race is far away, but we strategically tried to find a replacement meet that has a flat, fast course for this particular week. Vermilion used to be the meet that met that criteria for us. Vermilion is no longer an option for us, and we’re not going back there.

·         We are leaving school early for this one! Students will be let out at 1:55 p.m., and we’re leaving Learwood between 2:10 – 2:15 p.m.

·         We should return to Learwood between 8:30 – 8:45 p.m. Parents, we’ll make sure students are doing homework on the bus.

·         This is an OPEN race! We’re running OPEN races from here on out.

·         Please pack a nice snack for this (crackers, banana, apple, water, sports drink), as you’ll want to eat prior to arriving to the meet and after your race.

·         Results will be on baumspage.com

·         Weather looks much better this week! Remember to dress in layers!

·         There is no concession stand, but all runners will get a free hot dog, potato chips, and water

·         This race is held at:

Harrison – Smith Park

East Wyandot Avenue

Upper Sandusky, Ohio

·          Here’s the schedule:

5:00 p.m.         All Boys

5:30 p.m.         All Girls

Awards Presentation will be held after the Girls’ Race

Cloverleaf Week

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

Here’s our weekly update:

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

First, congratulations on participating in the 1^st Annual A.L. Fun Run! While the weather didn’t cooperate with us in the morning, it was still fun. According to our measurements, the course was about 1.91 miles in total length. The winning team was the NO NAMES!

1^st ANNUAL AVON LAKE FUN RUN RESULTS

Champions     NO NAMES                                         110 points

                        The names of the ‘No Names’          

Tyler Stepak   

                        Natalie Miller

                        Cole Sparker

                        Melanie Carr

                        Patrick Neipp

                        Catherine Arebaugh

                        Owen Bornhorst

Runners-Up    Flying Fergatis                                    124 points

3^rd place          My Name Is…                                      152 points

4^th place          Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles           160 points

5^th place          Team ‘Death’                                      164 points

6^th place          Shin Splinters                                      169 points

7^th place          A.L. Dragons                                        197 points

8^th place          Team 9                                                202 points

9^th place          Uni-Bacon-atis                                    209 points

10^th place        Killer Kats of Kandy Land                    229 points

·         Parents, we still have a surplus of paper plates, plastic cups, plastic silverware, napkins, and drinks for the dinners. Just stop by my room (404) to pick up what you need!

·         Apparel: any issues, see Coach Walters. We passed out apparel on Wednesday, but a lot of kids left their new clothes in her room. Stop by to claim your gear!

·         Lost & Found: we have missing items in our classrooms. Please stop by again to claim your items! Any lost items, by the end of the season, will be donated to charity.

·         We have added a meet to our schedule! The Clague Park ‘Fun Run’ is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7^th, at Clague Park in Westlake. We will be running with Amherst and Westlake. This is an additional meet that the three teams schedule each year—our little tradition. The race is 1.5 miles long and the kids LOVE it! We’ll post times for this in the near future.

·         Just a heads-up…very soon we will need to know who is willing to go to the OHSAA Middle School Cross Country Championships. We can take a maximum of 40 athletes: 10 Boys’ Team/10 Girls’ Team/10 Boys’ Open/10 Girls’ Open. The race is a week after the SWC Championship (Saturday, October 18^th). We’ll talk to the team about this but we need to know who can make this meet so we can take as many kids as we can, without leaving anybody out who would want to go!

·         I’m going to send out our Cheat Sheet here!

Cloverleaf Information:

·         We will meet at Troy at 6:15 a.m.

·         We should return around noon.

·         This meet is where we take a lot of the OPEN runners and bump them up to TEAM status. Team runners will run a workout with me, then cheer on their teammates. Any TEAM runner we rest will get their spot back for the Upper Sandusky race. We want to rest some runners who need it, while still allowing other runners to run TEAM this week. All runners are expected to be in attendance!

·         Here’s the course map: http://www.baumspage.com/cc/cloverleaf/2013/Middle%20School%20Course%20map.pdf

·         Normal breakfast still applies, with a light snack both before & after the race. Bring water for both before and after the race, and don’t forget your sports drink!

·         Results will be on baumspage.com!

·         Weather looks great! For the first time in a few years, it looks like it will be sunny and dry (much to the disappointment of the kids).

·         Parents, this race usually charges an admission fee.

·         Concessions and t-shirts will be available.

·         This race is held at Cloverleaf High School (8525 Friendsville Road, Lodi, OH 44254).

·         Here’s the schedule:

9:00 a.m.         Girls Team

                        Mackenzie, Liz, Elle, Liv, Caroline, Ava, & Abby Baird

9:20 a.m.         Girls Open

                        All other girls

9:45 a.m.         Boys Team

                        Jacob Nasr, Ryan Keller, Brandon, Jacob Morris, Danny, Owen, Michael Mandel

10:05 a.m.       Boys Open

                        All other boys

Week of Avon Meet

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

Here’s our weekly update:

• Great job at Tiffin last Saturday! That was our best overall finish. Our girls came in 7th place overall, and our boys came in 3rd place out of 42 teams! Our open races were amazing! Our girls came in 13th place out of 25 teams, and our boys won their open race, coming in 1st place out of 27 teams!

• If you still want to get a jacket, just let Coach Walters or Coach Rocco know on Friday.

• FYI parents: I've got a lot of supplies for the Friday Night Dinners in my classroom. Feel free to stop down and pick up any needed items before our next dinner.

• Speaking of which, there will be no Friday Night Dinner this Friday. Our next dinner will be next Friday, September 19.

• We will be having our 1st Annual Intra-Squad Meet this Saturday. We will be leaving TROY at 8 a.m., and should return between 10:30-11 a.m. We are going to LCCC. Coach Walters and I are organizing this event. It will be very low-key, but we would welcome a few parents to help out at the finish line. We'll need help organizing the runners into our 'chute' and we'll also need to assign place cards to each runner. We would also need a timer at the finish line to yell out times for our runners, as we won't be able to write down all the times (the course will be less than 2 miles, FYI). So, if you're interested in helping, please be at LCCC between 9-9:15 a.m. This should be fun!

• Injuries…please let us know! The trainer at the high school is very good, very nice, and…she’s very free. It doesn’t cost you anything to go see her. Although, Coach Arebaugh’s really good at diagnosing problems and he’s good at treating them (better than me). So let us know at the end of practice, or head up to the Athletic Office at the high school after school to see if Miss Reading can assist you! If she’s not in the trainer’s office she’ll be on the football field but she said you can meet her there too.

Avon Cross Country Course of Courage (ATHLETES):

• The Avon Meet on Thursday is going to have a lot of great competition. This is a perfect opportunity to practice racing with our SWC competition!
• We will be leaving Learwood at 3:15 p.m. and we should return around 7:30 p.m.
• Bring a healthy snack to eat after school on Thursday! Also, bring extra water for the meet.
• Right now, weather looks cool and dry (at least for the meet).
• Results will be posted on baumspage.com for this meet.
• This week's cheat sheet:  Click here.

Avon Cross Country Course of Courage (PARENTS):

• The course will be held at 3701 Veterans Memorial Parkway Avon, OH 44011
• Races start at the west end of the park (by fields #6 & #7)
• We've been told that the course is slightly different that last year's...if you remember last year's course, the start and finish were on opposite ends of the park. So, essentially, you had to run the length of the course to see the race. We'll have to find out what it's like this year!

SCHEDULE:

• Boys Team – 5:00 p.m.

Michael Kuban

Jacob Nasr

Charlie Krause

Ryan Keller

Joey Carson

Hunter Hall

                Brandon Holton

• Girls Team – 5:25 p.m.

Lauren Davis

Maggie Brion

Elena Stojanovski

Mackenzie Tyson

Alyssa Whalen

Lucy Ross

Elle Dils

• Girls Open – 5:50 p.m.

All other Girls!

• Boys Open – 6:15 p.m.

All other Boys!