Cross country is a long distance running sport that takes place during the Fall here at EHHS. To get involved, Coach Rick Naracci is who you should email or talk to. Coach Naracci’s cross country team has gone from one runner to twelve in two years: here’s the process of recruiting and its results. Coach Naracci says that he “Found kids in classes that either did not play sports, were in their off seasons, or kids who had been cut from other sports teams and asked them to join the cross country team.” For two years this strategy was not strongly successful and he had only one runner to participate on his team.
Last year marked the first time in five years that the team had enough people to mark as a real team and receive points at a meet. Naracci also gives credit to team growth to the runners who joined last year who have promoted the program and recommended it to and gotten their friends to join. Naracci also says that a big part of his recruitment was his sole runner, Melania Korenovsky, inspiring last year’s participants to keep going with the sport and to recommend it to others. Naracci says, “I think that some of the kids on the team now, especially the boys who joined last year and were around her (Melania) last year, kind of fed off of and saw how committed she was, and now they’re committed to it. So she also kind of helped the boys program to where it is now.” In short, she inspired not only the girls program but the boys program as well.
Coach Naracci has been coaching cross country for six years and says that this is the biggest his team has been during his entire career. He also hopes to expand the team in the future. The cross country team welcomes any athlete who is willing to give the sport a try, the workouts are specific to a runner’s ability. For example, a new runner’s target time or even amount of repetitions they must do during a practice will likely be more lenient and less than a more experienced runner. Coach looks for athletes who are tough not only physically but, mentally, he would like for the members of his team to never quit regardless of ability. Naracci says throughout this season he has seen great improvement from all of his athletes old and new and hopes to see more new athletes succeed with him as a coach during the years to come.
Coach Naracci and his athletes have seen much more success over the last two years in expanding the cross country team and will continue to do so to the best of their ability for the upcoming years and seasons. The team has just completed in the state meet and concluded their season; but they are looking for new members all year long.
