Del Sol Summer Practice

To view the photo gallery to Del Sol's summer practice, click HERE

We met with Del Sol High School, home of the Jaguars, in Oxnard, CA for their out and back run through the nearby neighborhoods. Carissa McConnell leads the girls team and Tom Voshell is the boys coach. Del Sol is starting their third year of existence with freshman, sophomores and juniors entering this fall. Coach Tom Voshell talks about the team.

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

Two days on campus and one day off campus. Plus three days on your own.

What are some special summer activities?

Each week we have an off campus day where the team meets at popular running spots in Ventura County. We just had our first one at the beach. At the end of summer there is a team long run that ends with a pool party and outdoor movie night. Ice tubs are always fun in the summer. We plan on having a tie dye t-shirt day

How do you build team culture? 

Athletes are grouped based on experience with our new runners being evaluated in our newbie group. Each practice they are asked questions about the team, school, and running. An example was, who can name the most athletes on the team? Athletes received team stickers for trying and the winner received one of our team shirts from previous seasons. We always have a team meeting to start practice, and I usually share some story with the kids. We also make custom made water bottle stickers of the athletes name. Different veterans lead our warm ups and we stress that everyone has to be ready to lead, you never know when the team will need you. We do pizza and movie nights as well as stops at In n Out after big races. The 7/11 day is a fun run on July 11 to our local 7/11 for free Slurpees. 

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

We will be hosting the Scary Dairy Invite on Sept 6 at Cal State Channel Islands. We have some of the top teams in the state entered and are expecting thirty schools. We are very excited to be having our first varsity season, and although we will be very young, we have some very talented athletes and are expecting close to fifty runners this season. We look forward to our local meets in Ventura County which is one of the best running spots in the state. We also look forward to the big invites like Woodbridge, Mt SAC, and Clovis to challenge our athletes and to show our runners they can compete.

After practice we met with junior Charlotte and Edwin and talked about Del Sol Cross Country.

What are some of the summer activities you are looking forward to?

Charlotte: Some of the things I look forward to are the trail runs at different places and we are also going to have a pool party. Next week we are going to 7/11 which I am excited for. Yes, we are going to get free Slurpees.

Edwin: I look forward to having fun with the team and having a good connection, good relationship with the team and getting to know everyone better like the new kids. Also, going on peaceful runs to clear the mind and work on your conditioning.

Charlotte: During cross country season we usually do fun things like last year we did a Secret Santa which was really fun. I am hoping we do more team bonding things.

Edwin: I look forward to accomplishing good things with the team, setting records, making history with Del Sol, of course, and competing with other schools for the top.