By Rex ’25
When I first joined the Harvard-Westlake cross country team, I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. What would practice be like? What would my teammates be like? In no time at all, I had both of those questions answered. Practice? Grueling. My teammates? Amazing. I was quickly welcomed by everyone, and soon enough I could tell that I was going to have a great season.
Cross country is unlike any other sport. On paper, it seems easy enough. Run fast. In reality, it is one of the most difficult sports you can do. Because of this, there is a sense of community in the team that you can’t find anywhere else. Everyone supports each other, and it makes you feel at home. Our coaches, Coach Sharpe and Coach K, do everything they can to help us improve, even if that is by making practice so difficult that it makes us feel like our bodies have broken. Because what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
The team trained in Big Bear for a week before school started. While we were there, we didn’t just run. I felt like I was at summer camp. We swam, hiked, played basketball and soccer, and even got ice cream in the town. While we did have a strict bedtime of 10:00 so that we could wake up at 6:00, we also had a talent show. And an egg cooking competition. And even a water balloon fight (which also included shaving cream). This shows how the Harvard-Westlake cross country team isn’t just a team, but a family. Everyone knows one another, and everyone cares about each other. I never saw anybody alone on that trip.
Even though I have only been on the team for a short amount of time, I’m looking forward to the many practices and races that lay ahead because I know that I’ll never feel alone or excluded. After all, I am on the cross country team.
