SLV Girls Cross Country is looking forward to starting a solid season with a new coaching staff. They are expecting to do better than the last season, despite the loss of long-time coach Rob Collins. With a new crop of freshman, the older girls are hoping for even more success. After all, with every new season comes new opportunity for winning.
With the new season comes a new coaching staff. Rob Collins, an experienced coach who has been improving SLV runners for years, has retired. The new head coach replacing Rob is Jay Avenmarg. However, the new coach is not exactly new. Jay Avenmarg was the assistant coach last year, when Rob was the head coach. The new assistant coach this year is Jerusha Inglis. Jerusha is a recent UCSC grad and is hoping to help lead the team to success.
Last year the girls placed fourth in league. However, this year they are hoping to do much better. “With four new freshman girls and some good returning runners, the team should do pretty well.” says Maya McCabe Cross country is scored by the time of the top five athletes on the team, so having more runners means that they have a better chance of getting SLV runners into the top bracket, consequently scoring more points for SLV.
With the growing team, and more opportunity for success, the next big thing is training. The runners train every day after school at the SLV track and in Fall Creek. The girls train hand-in-hand with boys cross country because boys cross country is striving to achieve similar goals as the girls, so it works to train together. “SLV is lucky to have some prime training facilities to improve at. With the quarter mile track, and plenty of hills in the forest, it is almost an ideal spot to train” says Sophia Zachua.
Although the team is among one of the best in the league, they still have plenty of things to work on, and can always improve. According to some of the players, the team needs to work on consistency and team spirit. If the team can improve the consistency, they could have the potential to do very well this year in league, and maybe even go on to compete passed league.
Freshman Kayla Penny has been working with the Varsity girls for some time now and should prove to be quite an asset to the team. In addition to Kayla Penny returning, runner Abbey Meck should help the team quite a bit. With a larger team and new coaches, the team should do very well this year.
The team participated in their first match on September 3rd at San Benito High School in Hollister Hills. “I just know we will have a great season. All the girls have been and still are working hard and training hard. I am so proud of all the boys and girls. I am so excited for the season. It will be a good one,” says Captain Carolina Moreno. The team is hoping to achieve success and victory.
By Gabe Michaud
The Claw 