FALL SPORTS PREVIEW 2013: Faith Academy cross country
The 2013 Faith Academy cross-country team is Rachel Ormsby (first row, left), Sierra Brinkley, Hailey Shipley, Sophie McCannon and Jessica Beckner; Kaitlyn Hughes (first row, left), Stephanie Hughes, Shelby Fairleigh and coach Steve McCannon. Courtesy photo
TEAM: Faith Academy of Marble Falls cross country
HEAD COACH: Steve McCannon
2012 RESULT: 4th at the Class 2A state meet
RETURNERS: Sierra Brinkley, Rachel Ormsby
NEWCOMERS: Jessica Beckner, Caitlyn Hughes, Shelby Fairleigh, Hailey Shipley, Sophie McCannon
OUTLOOK: To coach McCannon, no sport makes participants better athletes than cross country.
Take Shipley, for example, who is a 300-meter hurdler. Cross country will improve her endurance and speed, trimming her hurdle time, he said.
Cross country is a different sort of team sport, he added, because only one person can win the race. But if the Lady Flames can get four girls to finish in the top 10 and a fifth runner in the top 20, the team can contend for a championship.
So to him, correlation between being a top cross-country runner and a top-pier athlete go hand-in-hand with running the fastest times and being in great shape for other sports.
“My job is to get them to run their very best time,” he said. “You get the best of both worlds. Somebody is going to have to step up.”
Because so few TAPPS schools have cross-country teams, the Flames are already preparing for the state meet.
Faith’s toughest competition at the 2012 state meet, Abilene Christian High School, had two key runners graduate. So that fact, coupled with the chance TAPPS could move Faith to Class 3A is extra motivation to stand on the winner’s podium this fall, McCannon said.
TAPPS is expected to take enrollment figures from members and announce the new districts for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years in a few weeks.
jfierro@thepicayune.com