Gresham Summer Practice

To view the practice photo gallery, click HERE

We met up with the Gresham Gophers for their summer practice. Gresham is located east of Portland and compete in Oregon's 6A division. The team met at the school's track and then ran to a nearby park for hill repeats. After practice Coach Taylor Ramirez brought popsicles for the athletes. Coach Ramirez explained the Gresham cross country program:

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

Typically, we hold practice 3-4 days per week until the official start of the season in mid-August. Most of our athletes have jobs, family commitments, and a variety of other things going on in summer. It’s important to us that they feel they have time to rest before we hit the “go-go-go” part of the season which is pretty much the whole thing from August to October. Most of our athletes choose to workout on their own on days off, and some of our more advanced athletes are doubling a few days per week. This “limited scheduled” has led to a huge increase in athlete attendance and prevents mid-season burnout.

What are some special summer activities?

Some summers are different than others, but we will do a team pool party at the end of the summer, which is always fun. We’ve done team breakfasts, weekend workouts at local trail systems, volunteering for races and other organizations. I’m also a huge fan of a sweet treat, so the crew enjoys many a popsicle during the really warm summer months. We also do our “sponsor scavenger hunt” at the end of the summer where athletes go out and about in groups with a map of businesses to go in and see if they’re interested in sponsoring us. 

How do you build team culture?

There’s a few things we’ve done over the years that help build team culture. During our team pool party, we will set aside a time for athletes to write down 3-5 of their values or words they want to represent the team. They toss them in a bag and we read them all. We then let the team choose which ones resonate the most to them and to the incoming team. What and who do they want to our team to be? What is most important to them? Last year, our “pillars” or core values were “Commitment, Focus, Inclusivity, Respect”

We also provide leadership opportunities to everyone, not just the ones who are natural leaders already. It’s important to me that everyone gets the same opportunities, so one way we do this is by assigning the warmup leader each day. It keeps everyone in check because that could also include more than just leading warmups like making sure everyone made it back on time, checking for trash before we leave a space. It builds confidence in responsibility. 

Other small things we do to create the team culture is require study halls each week to maintain academics. You’re a student before an athlete, that’s why the phrase is “student-athlete” so if you can’t keep that in check, you don’t earn the athlete privilege. Our kids have learned to appreciate and enjoy the study halls and have really helped keep each other in check when it comes to grades. 

We also don’t start the warmups until everyone’s back from their run, we do head counts on the bus that require the kids to realize whether or not their teammates are there, we start practice as a team and we end it as a team. At the start of races, if you’re not warming up, you’re sending off the ones on the start line. We do a lot of things together so it’s just become the standard. We win as a team we lose as a team sort of thing. 

We also spoke with athletes Jack, Zion, Jordan, Leslie and Shaila about the Gresham cross country team:

What were some of the highlights of summer practices?

Jack: Going to practices in the morning and then in the evening and just working out with the people that really wanted to come out during summer and get better.

Zion: Kind of the same thing. Running under the lights practice for sure was super fun and being able to meet new people that are coming out for the first time.

Jordan: I really enjoyed the community and the space and the jokes we made.

Leslie: I really like meeting new people.

Shaila: I really like the early morning runs and meeting new people.

What are you looking forward to for this fall’s cross-country season?

Jack: I'm super excited for the Three Course Challenge meet with like mud pits and hills. It's a big challenge. It's not fast but it feels like it's a really challenging course, so I really enjoy it.

Zion: Yeah same, Three Course is going to be a lot of fun and then our overnight trips that we do every year is going to be super cool. Hole in the Wall.

Jordan: Yeah, I definitely have to say our overnight meet and the spaghetti feed.

Leslie: I was going to say the same thing. The overnight meet will be really exciting and our team dinner.

Shaila: I am super excited about our overnight meet and Hole in the Wall. Also, the Three Course Challenge and being friends with the new girls