Burlington-Edison Summer Practice

Coach Wright speaks with the athletes at Burlington-Edison

To view the practice run gallery, click HERE

We met up with the Burlington-Edison, home of the Tigers, at a trail run near the airport in Burlington Airport. Many of the athletes had returned from White Pass Running Camp and were ready for a week of training before the Washington moratorium period that starts in August.

Burlington-Edison competes in the 2A division in Washington and Coach Sue Wright has been the long time coach who has won the 2A state championship in Washington three times under Coach Wright's tutelage. Burlington-Edison is about thirty miles from the Canadian border with Mt Baker to the east and the San Juan Islands to the west.

Coach Wright explained the program:

During the summer season, how often does the team practice?

We meet for practice 2-3x per week with the expectation that runners are training on their own or in small groups 5-6 days per week, depending on experience. For many of our summer practices we try to incorporate some element of speed training- fartleks, tempo, threshold run, etc. - so that athletes are doing these types of workouts under coaches supervision. We also keep a shared team training log (google sheet) as an accountability piece for athletes and a one-stop place for coaches to monitor athletes training progression. 

What are some special summer activities?

We usually have a decent sized group attend the White Pass XC camp each year. Our final summer practice is hosted at Coach Wright's house- a run followed by a pancake feed for all.

How do you build team culture?

By establishing traditions that athletes look forward to year after year. Examples are workouts such as the FroYo (predict a time) run, Homecoming Queen run, Tiger Triathlon (also doubles as a fundraiser), Tiger 3000, Poker run, Park to Park Run.  Each season there are also several team dinners that are hosted by XC families, typically held at a team member's home on the night before a meet. At our team meetings on the day after each meet we celebrate PR's  and award Athletes of the Meet (t-shirts). We also award points toward a varsity letter by presenting jelly beans (one jelly bean = one varsity letter point). Our athletes also enjoy volunteering at a Skagit Flats Marathon water stop each September. Any opportunity to spend time together outside of practice allows teammates to bond, creating a postive team culture.

What are some events that the team is looking forward to in the fall season?

As funds permit, we have traveled to overnight meets in recent years (Nike Portland and Seaside). This year our team's perennial favorite meet, the Nike Marysville Twilight Meet, will not be held so we are heading to some invitationals that our current athletes have not attended before (Bellevue Invite and Fort Steilacoom Invitational). 

After the run, we spoke with Burlington-Edison athletes Landon, Sam, Will, Addison, Maddy and Sawyer spoke about the team:

What are fun things you do in the summer?

Landon: I love when we were just at White Pass Camp to get to know like the team and get more bonding experience down with the team. I like getting out on the trails before the season starts and staying in town.

Sam: I really love just getting with the team members and getting our summer miles in and then in the fall I just love to see all those miles pay off and big PR's happen.

Will: I really enjoy meeting everybody new on the team who we have come out for summer practices. Also, I enjoy going to White Pass and getting those miles in for the season summer training.

Addison: During the summer I really enjoyed that some core honestly because I think all our team gets together instead of just after our long runs everybody just leaves. I think struggling together and getting to know everybody is important. In the fall I think I really like meeting everybody because our team becomes kind of family. I think that's the best part of cross country.

Maddy: I really like that I think in the summer or like just getting together and getting our summer miles in. Then I like the pancake run we do. In the fall I just really like our team dinners that we do before meets. We get together with our team and have a good time.

Sawyer: Honestly, I kind of agree with what they said like White Pass Camp is a really good bonding experience for everybody. I like the pancake run is really fun it's actually talking to new people and everybody whereas when you're running you can talk but not as much.

What are you looking forward to this season?

Landon: I'm super excited for districts because this is like the best squad we've had in a long time at this school. As a team our goal is to qualify for state, and I think we are on the right path.

Sam: My favorite part of the fall is we'd have some very fun practices that just kind of bring our team closer like during homecoming. We'll do some fun dress up practices or we do some fun relay practices that also bring us together closer to the team during the fall.

Will: I really like big invitationals that we go to we've been known to we've been down to Oregon in the past couple of years. I am definitely going to be missing Nike Twilight this year. Like these guys said those fun practices that they contain closer together.

Addison: I think in the fall I look forward to we do secret pals where you draw a name and it's someone random from the team so it's not always just one of your best friends that you get. It could be like a newcomer that you don't know, and you give you give him like a little goodie bag at each meet. I think that's a really good way that our team connects to people that you might not talk to on the daily and then at the end of the season we figure out who it is.

Maddy: This fall I am looking forward to having one last season with our seniors here we've been with for four years. It will be really cool getting together and learn about all the new people and having team dinners.

Sawyer: I'd also say like the team dinners and then it's where we like are on a longer bus ride. I feel like that's what was really fun and like getting to hang out with everybody else on the way there to meets.