GVHS Long Distance
Vanessa Pike - Head Coach
GVHS Track Team
Brian DeCania - Distance
Mike Holly - Pole Vault
GVHS Cross Country
Brian DeCania - Head Coach
Your son or daughter has joined the Green Valley HS Cross Country or Track team. More specifically the Distance Team. Distance events are the 400m, 800m, 1600m, & 3200m or farther.. In layman terms the ¼ mile, ½ mile, 1 mile, 2 mile & 3 mile. There are other distance events, & relays that utilize these distances, but these are the main races. Runners come to us here at GVHS Distance through many routes. Success in middle school, perhaps an older brother or sister ran, being recruited out of physical education classes, or maybe just coming out because a friend is on the team. Whatever the method, we welcome them and hope that they get involved and stay involved. As a result of being a participant on an interscholastic team, a student can become more qualified in terms of college acceptance. Team members often have the opportunity to come in contact with college coaches or representatives and become familiar with college programs, both academic and athletic. Some colleges and universities offer some form of financial assistance to students who are above average both in their running ability and academics. Of course we want them to become good runners. But we also take great pride in the academic achievements of our team members as well as their athletic ones. One of our coaching goals is to try and encourage them on to higher education. After all they are a “STUDENT Athlete”.. and Academics comes first. It is the coaches hope that you the parent will help to accentuate the total program and experience at the school by working with the coaches. In doing so, your runner will hopefully be able to better reach his/her full potential and enjoy their athletic experience and their high school experience to the fullest.
The Two C's
Committment and Communication
Running is a sport that takes quite a bit of time and dedication for students. Besides our weekday meets, almost 60% of our meets are held on Friday, Saturday, or both. With the addition of daily workouts to this schedule, many of our athletes are busy all the time. As a staff we feel that the above two words are very important for any team member to abide by.
Commitment means doing what is expected of you as a team member. Every team member will receive a packet of information from the coaches with regards to some of our expectations. Ask to see this and it will help you to get an idea of what we are trying to do with our team. Practice every weekday is one of the commitments we expect. What we are eventually trying to have kids show is responsibility, consistency, and loyalty. We hope that you as parents understand this and support this. While I am aware that unplanned family events come up please keep in mind that we expect to see your son/daughter at practice Monday thru Friday plus all meets and if they are not there we expect that they will let us know why.
Communication - We expect every team member to communicate with their coaches. We have more problems when they do not do this. If a problem occurs and they must miss practice, we expect them to tell their coach about this, not relay the information through a friend who might not tell us. If a problem comes up regarding a scheduled invitational or meet, let us know when you find out, not minutes before or after the fact. A lot of problems can be solved with good attempts at communication.
Following the two C's takes work for all those concerned with our program, the athlete, the coach, and the parent. It is not a one sided issue, all of us need to keep working at it both the athlete and program to be successful.