Tuesday, October 18, 2016

States

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

·         Congratulations to both the Boys & Girls on their SWC Championships! That was awesome! Great execution of that 1st mile, and a great finish. That makes 3 SWC titles in a row for the boys, and the girls have won 3 out of 4!
·         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. Don’t forget to 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 GREAT 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 14th. 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 14th. We will meet 3 – 4 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 WITH ROCCO starts in November and goes until the beginning of March, 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! All updates of RUNNING WITH ROCCO will be on our team blog.
·         I’m updating the Cross Country bulletin board with our new individual and team records. I’ll be sending athletes updated Avon Lake Cross Country records, along with SWC history.
·         Thanks for a great season! There’s a lot of people to thank for this season:

1.       PARENTS – Thank you for all your support through the Friday Night Dinners, helping us out at our Fun Run, and taking all the pictures at meets (thanks again to Mr. Matuszak)! I tell teams at the beginning of the season: If we as coaches do a good job this season, you won’t want this season to end—you’ll want to keep running together. This has been another awesome season, and one of the central reasons is that it was a community event. Thanks for making it great!
2.       COACHES – We have an awesome staff, and if you get a chance, be sure to thank Coach Walters. She will be leaving us after this season, so thank her for all her contributions to the team the last six years!
3.       ATHLETES – As coaches, we try to set our expectations high for you guys, and you met or exceeded them every time. I tell teams in the summer that you will be spending the next 3 ½ months together, and, for some of you, you’ll be running for the next 6 years together. In that time, you’ll change from a group of strangers to a family. The first thing we heard as coaches from other teams or parents wasn’t how good you were (although we did hear that a lot), but what nice kids you were. Avon Lake is a place we all call home, and it’s awesome to see our town represented by you guys. Thanks for a GREAT season, and GO AVON LAKE!

OHSAA Middle School Invitational:

·         Bus leaves TROY at 6:15 a.m.  Be there at 6 a.m., and be ready to sleep on the way down. We’re taking 2 buses!
·         We should return around 5:30 p.m. We plan on stopping for food on the way back home.
·         This meet will be held at:

Ohio University-Lancaster Campus
1570 Granville Pike
Lancaster, OH  43130

·         Weather looks good! Right now it looks like it will be 55 degrees. Still, dress in layers. If the weather forecast changes we’ll go over it with the team this week.
·         Bring a snack. We’re leaving early for this one, and you’ll want to eat a large snack prior to racing.
·         Bring extra food/water. I’ve got extra water that I’ll be bringing, 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 a late lunch on the way back.
·         Information for this meet can be found here (including course map): http://www.baumspage.com/cc/ccframe.php?path=http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/cc/default.asp
·         We’ll go over our roster for this meet later in the week, but here are the times Saturday:

BOYS OPEN        11 a.m.

GIRLS OPEN        11:30 a.m.

BOYS TEAM        12:00 p.m.


GIRLS TEAM       12:30 p.m.               

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

SWC Week

Cross Country Videos.... ENJOY.


Boys


Girls
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6jT3RAsve-dWEpGRjVPRXBCZU0/view?usp=sharing

(Youtube would not let me upload girls, because of copyright issues)  




SWC WEEK
 Here we go! This is the final race of the season. Let's get to work:
  • Please check Coach Rocco’s room for any missing items! At the end of our season we’re going to place all missing items in Learwood’s Lost & Found! Anything not claimed at year’s end will be donated to charity.
  • Parents, while this final race is centrally located, make sure to remind kids to stick together!
  • Time to get some rest! Eat healthy, 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: we've been very flexible with the athletes' sports schedules this season...we are going to ask that those other sports be flexible with us this week. We are tapering this week, and we need the kids to REST! We've been pushing them these last few weeks, and I know a lot of them are participating in multiple sports. We want them to peak at the right time, and that means they've got to rest this whole week. If you could adjust their sports' schedules this week, we would really appreciate it!
  • Parents and athletes: typically athletes like to toilet paper my house the week of SWCs (it's tradition). Just remember: we love Coach Rocco and we would NOT want to do any damage to his home. Also, the tradition also stipulates that athletes meet the next day to clean up--don't forget that.
  • State Meet Info: we’ll go over the list of athletes who expressed interest in attending this meet—we’ll probably go over this Thursday-Friday of this week, and we’ll follow up with information next week.
  • Parents: we’ll be updating Avon Lake’s Team Records & Individual Records. We’ll also post this on the blog after SWCs. As soon as this is updated, I’ll send it to the kids and update our bulletin board.
  • I’m including Avon Lake’s SWC History here. Take a look at what athletes have done over the last 25+ years!
Southwestern Conference Championship
  • Bus leaves at Troy at 11:10 a.m. (be there at 11 a.m.).
  • We would like ALL athletes to ride the bus TO and FROM this meet! We would like the entire team to be present for the awards ceremony at SWCs! GO AVON LAKE!
  • Boys run at 12:30 p.m.
  • Girls run at 1 p.m.
  • Parents, there is an Elementary Race at 11:45 a.m. It's 800 meters and it's open to any young athlete in the Southwestern Conference (grades 1 - 6). If you want to pre-register a runner, please email Coach Rocco at rob.rocco@avonlakecityschools.org. If you don't pre-register, you can still register the day of the SWC Championship at a table by the starting line. The starting line for this race is close to our middle school start line.
  • SWC Awards Ceremony will be at 1:30 p.m. Top 7 runners (All-SWC) will be recognized, then Top 8-14 runners (2nd Team All-SWC) will be recognized, then the SWC schools will be recognized. The awards ceremony will be by the tennis courts.
  •  SWC apparel will be available! We pre-ordered but they may have extra apparel should you want to get something.
  • We’ll leave around 2:15ish.

  • Thanks for a great year!

SCHEDULE FOR PRACTICE

Wednesday
No Practice
Run 20-30 EASY on OWN

Thursday
Practice @Learwood 3:30-4:30
20 minutes EASY

Friday
Practice @Learwood 10:00am-11:00am
10 minutes EASY 


Sunday, October 9, 2016

State Meet

If you are interested in going to the STATE meet, please fill out the form below. You must be signed in to your school GMAIL account to gain access to the form.  You can only sign the form out ONCE.  Don't worry, if you PR time has improved, Coach Rocco changes it within the form.

Please not verbally tell us you want to go (and not fill out the form) or email us and tell us you want to go.  The form MUST be completed to be considered to go to the state meet by Wednesday, October 12th.

https://docs.google.com/a/alstudent.org/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefn-5Jj8iPLhQ96qaiaA4bNOX5zdXNYwxe8M_vpZty-P-P1A/viewform 

Thanks,

Coach Walters

State Meet

If you are interested in going to the STATE meet, please fill out the form below. You must be signed in to your school GMAIL account to gain access to the form.  You can only sign the form out ONCE.  Don't worry, if you PR time has improved, Coach Rocco changes it within the form.

Please not verbally tell us you want to go (and not fill out the form) or email us and tell us you want to go.  The form MUST be completed to be considered to go to the state meet by Wednesday, October 12th.

https://docs.google.com/a/alstudent.org/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefn-5Jj8iPLhQ96qaiaA4bNOX5zdXNYwxe8M_vpZty-P-P1A/viewform 

Thanks,

Coach Walters

Monday, October 3, 2016

Jack Wilhelm

Cross Country Athletes & Parents:

Here’s our weekly update:

·         We will go over who signed up for the OHSAA Middle School Meet this week! If you want to participate in the OHSAA Middle School Invitational, please sign-up with Coach Walters!
·         Time to eat healthy, drink plenty of water, and stock up on rest! Our hard workouts will end this week. 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!

Jack Wilhelm Information:

·         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


END OF SEASON BOWLING PARTY

In the past we had the end of season bowling party the day of SWC's.  We had to change the date because Coach Walters' will be in UTAH for her niece's wedding.  She is very disappointed she is missing the biggest meet of the year (especially since this is her last season) but she did not want to miss out on the fun bowling party as well.

When: Saturday, October 8th from 4pm-6pm (Jack Wilhelm Meet)
Where:  Spevocks in Avon Lake
What: athletes will be able to bowl for 2 hours.  Plus have pizza and soda.  Families have the option of donating a dessert.
Cost:  $12

Please give Coach Walters $12 CASH in a sealed envelope with the athletes full name on the front.  The due date for the money will be Thursday, October 6th.