To the untrained eye, cross country seems like a simple sport, but for Homestead’s 2025 girls team, it is more meaningful than running as fast as they can.
One aspect of long-distance running, especially cross country, is the opportunity for personal growth and improvement from meet to meet throughout the season.
Jay Fuller, girls cross country coach, said, “It’s different in that it is a team sport, but every time you show up, you’re competing against your past self and looking to improve.”
Another quality of cross country is the time team members put into their training both before and during the actual season, especially during the school year, when practices can last up to two hours between 3 and 5 p.m.
Sayla Theril, senior, said, “Freshman year, I was like, this is so much work, this is so tiring, but now I want to go to practice; I want to go run.”
Coach Fuller also described the experience of mentoring a sport where one of the athlete commitments is training up to six days a week from August to October.
He said, “It’s fun to see the process of the whole season, of the hard work everyone puts in… when nobody’s watching.”
In the 2025 season, Homestead’s girls cross country team gained more than 10 new runners; about 32% of the team’s members are competing for the first time this year.
Coach Fuller said, “This year we have a lot of new faces, and it has been fun and exciting to see all the new faces put in some hard work, and see that hard work pay off.”
However, this change in membership has not negatively affected the team environment.
Coach Fuller said, “The team dynamic this year has been a lot of fun …watching everyone get to know each other and grow as a team…it makes coming to practice everyday enjoyable.”
When discussing her experience with leadership, as one of the team’s upperclassmen, Theril said, “It’s weird because I’m so used to having people older than me… but it’s kinda fun because I love bringing people into something that I also love.”
Addie Kane, senior, and the oldest member of the varsity team, described her experiences with leadership similarly.
She said, “It’s been kind of weird… but good.”
Throughout the season, the girls cross country team had various successes, with the varsity team taking second and the junior varsity taking third in their conference. Additionally, members of both varsity and junior varsity had opportunities to place at meets or run personal records over the course of the season.
When discussing the future of girls cross country at Homestead, coach Fuller said, “I just see the team continuing to grow and improve as we move forward.”
