Welcome to Cary Fire! We are glad that you and your child are interested in our team. This handbook covers important information about the team, including expectations, schedules, and guidelines. Please take the time to read through it carefully. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the coaches.

Mission and philosophy

Cary Fire is a Christian home–school cross–country team. We seek to develop young athletes physically, and to cultivate Christian virtues in an athletic context, for the glory of God.

Because we are a home–school team, we seek to accommodate and challenge runners of all skill levels.

Athlete expectations

Athletes are expected to practice Christlike behavior at all times, walking in the fruit of the Spirit.

Cross country is a team sport. Although our athletes are gifted with different levels of natural ability, we expect all of them to work hard to develop their skills for the good of the team, and also to encourage and cheer one another during practices and meets. Our coaches will strive to instruct, challenge, and encourage your athlete, but you and your child are ultimately responsible to develop their motivation to participate, to work hard, and to excel according to their ability.

We expect athletes to be capable of running or jogging for three miles without walking. You should be aware that for some practices we ask athletes to run for as long as 50 minutes at a reasonable individual pace.

During the cross country season, we provide several team practice opportunities each week at different times and locations. Athletes are not required to participate in every practice but are encouraged to participate in as many as possible. Athletes are expected to supplement team practices with runs on their own. Beginning runners should run at least three days per week, and experienced runners should run at least five days per week. Runners are expected to rest at least one day each week and also to practice a reasonable balance of high– and low–intensity running. Athletes may cross–train with other sports or activities but should carefully consider how this impacts their running.

Young children: Athletes who are younger than middle–school age are welcome to participate on the team. However, although we encourage and remind our athletes to run with a buddy, we cannot guarantee that your child will be able to find a buddy at their running pace, especially if they are not able to run for the entire time. You should also understand that some competitive events may exclude runners younger than middle school age. If you can accept these limitations, your child is welcome to participate in our team.

Parent expectations

Parents are expected to practice Christlike behavior at all times, walking in the fruit of the Spirit.

We ask parents to volunteer for routine race responsibilities such as providing water and snacks. Some races ask us to provide volunteers for race–specific needs such as timers and course observers, and we ask parents to volunteer for these responsibilities as well.

God has always graciously provided enough parents and graduates who are willing to coach, but we do not presume upon this gift and are always grateful for additional help. Please reach out to the coaches if you are interested in helping to coach.

Thank you for your enthusiastic support for your child and for the team!

Commitment and registration

You are welcome to visit several practices and talk with our coaches and other parents and athletes in order to decide whether Cary Fire is the right place for your runner. For families with children at varying levels of running interest, we offer the option of participating in practices only, or in practices and races.

We ask that you commit to the team within a reasonable time frame. Our registration process and fees provide for coaching, administrative fees including insurance coverage, and race registration. You should also expect to purchase a uniform for your athlete.

Many competitive events charge our team a fee per runner. You will have the opportunity to commit your runner(s) to races in the TeamSnap system. We ask that you make timely commitments prior to the posted deadline, and strive to fulfill your commitments. We understand if there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from attending a race, but once your athlete has been absent from more than two commitments we ask that you compensate the team for race entry fees for each subsequent absence.

Communication

Our team uses TeamSnap for communications and planning. Our normal schedule is posted on TeamSnap; changes to the schedule and planning for races also take place using TeamSnap messages. Please reach out to our coaches if you need access to TeamSnap.

TeamSnap messages include both email and chat. We strive to use email whenever possible, but for last–minute communications, chat is necessary. To participate in chat you need to install an application on your mobile phone.

Cross–country practices

We begin pre–season practices in early June. During the pre–season we strive to conduct practice three times a week, when not prevented by inclement weather or the availability of coaches. Each practice has a different focus area. Sometimes we vary the practice location or theme, and over the course of the year we vary the time of evening practices as sunset shifts.

We encourage athletes to run with a buddy, but we cannot guarantee this. During practices our runners are not always in sight of a buddy or of adult supervision. You must evaluate whether your athlete can perform well under these circumstances.

During the race season we strive to maintain this practice schedule, but we will adjust it as needed due to our race schedule.

Cross–country races

Cross country is a team sport. Although some races differ slightly, in a typical race, a team’s ranking depends on the placement of their top five runners, with two additional runners being able to “spoil” the points given to other teams’ runners. If you are in the top seven finishers on our team, you are contributing to our team’s standing!

We participate in a variety of races, ranging from informal weekday afternoon scrimmages to professionally organized races with many large teams. The highlights of our year are the annual NCHEAC state meet in Greensboro in mid October, and the annual home school national meet in Nashville in early November.

Please be aware that some races may restrict our team’s participation:

• In some cases only a limited number of runners are allowed to participate, or your runner may be assigned to a particular race group based on their average running times.
• In some cases, athletes younger than middle school may not be allowed to participate.
• In rare cases, athletes younger than high school may not be allowed to participate.
• In rare cases, your athlete may not be able to participate if we do not have enough participating runners for a given age group to field a full team (typically 5–7 runners).

Team captains

Cary Fire coaches will invite and appoint captains for each team, consisting of two boys and two girls for both the high school and middle school groups. The responsibilities of a team captain include:

• At practice, regularly lead in opening prayers, stretches, and other workouts.
• At races, take leadership in course familiarity, lead warm–ups, opening prayers and cheers, and cool–down runs.
• Be attentive to your fellow runners; encourage, challenge, and help them.
• Lead your fellow runners in showing attentiveness and appreciation to coaches and race coordinators.

Attire

Girls are expected to wear a cover over their sports bras during practices and races.

Boys may remove their shirts while running but should wear them at all other times.

For competition, all runners are expected to wear our team uniform. This includes:

• Solid black running shorts (no stripes) or skorts
• Middle schoolers may wear any of the jerseys we have used in previous years
• High schoolers must use the current year’s jersey

Health and injury

All Cary Fire coaches are volunteer parents or recent Cary Fire graduates; none of the coaches have medical training. We strive to give common–sense advice and help to our runners. We seek to challenge them to expand their capacity and to exceed perceived limits, which includes discomfort. Please work with the coaches if your child encounters pain or other limitations, but you should also understand that none of the advice we provide is qualified medical advice or is able to fully account for your child’s specific needs, condition, or limitations. You are ultimately responsible to determine and direct an appropriate training program for your child, and to determine appropriate rest and recovery plans if your child is injured.

Our practices vary in time and distance. For races, a typical distance for middle school is between 3km (1.86mi) and 2 miles. High school races will almost always be 5km, which is approximately 3.1 miles.

Our earliest races take place in August. We are thankful for the preparation these races provide for our fall races, but the late summer races can be very hot. Hydration is always important but is especially important for these races, and this includes hydration the day before the race as well as the day of the race. Heat exhaustion is always a possibility and you and your runner should be aware of your runner’s limits and needs.

Remediation

Cary Fire coaches reserve the right to remove families and athletes from the team without refund if, at our sole discretion, we believe you or your athlete are undermining our mission and work.

Grace and peace to you!