We visited Scott Valley High School at their altitude team camp at Donner Lake, California which is located north of Lake Tahoe and has an elevation of 6,000 feet. Scotts Valley is located near Santa Cruz, California and both teams qualified for State in cross country. Every year several athletes sign with division one colleges.
The camp is led by the parents of the Scotts Valley Cross Country team with input by the team captains. On the morning we visited, the team ran the six-mile perimeter of Donner Lake with parental support. Parents have water ready for athletes at different spots on the run, with a parent riding a bike alongside the athletes to help them stay on the course. If an athlete needs to be picked on the run, a parent can drive and help. The camp is organized by the parents using an elaborate Google Doc. After the run, the athletes jumped into the lake for a water run.
We spoke with parent Brenda George about the team camp:
Brenda George: This is our camp Lake Tahoe altitude training camp, and this is our third year. We come for a week every year. Our cross-country team comes out with all the families. We run every morning and we do pool running, well, a lake running in Lake Donner. We teach them how to run in the lake and they do core and stretching at the resort. Then we just have fun in Lake Tahoe and then at the end of the week we head back into Santa Cruz where we're from.
They all run the Wharf to Wharf with the mindset that they have the altitude training advantage, and they attempt to run fast at the Wharf to Wharf. It's a fun tradition for our team.
Today is our Donner Lake run. We run around Donner Lake. The group of parents meet at the halfway point for water stations and the kids do six miles around the lake. When we get back to the resort, they do some core and stretching and that's when they move to a lake running. It's part of our injury prevention with the aqua jogging belts and we teach them how to do pool running. We try to teach them that if they get injured during the season this is what pool running is. This is targeting our younger kids - our freshman and sophomores. The seniors and juniors run the camp. Our team captains they're the leaders and they teach them race strategy and they get some mileage in. This year we have 23 runners.
We asked some of the team leaders about their highlights of the season.
Ashlyn Boothby: Oh, I think definitely just showing up to practice every day with team. You know cross country is definitely a huge team sport and everybody plays a part in. It's just super fun to like, you know, get some good team bonding going and have a have a blast pushing each other to our max at the meets. That's probably my favorite thing. I like Clovis and State, of course, Artichoke Invitational is one of my favorite courses because there's hay bales you can jump over.
Mason Lantz: Pretty much any where we stay like for the night at a hotel because, although we can't have a whole team, it's just really fun just to kind of hang out with the team for a day. There's just a lot of like just hanging out with the team and not much like individual stuff. It kind of sucks because you can't have the whole team there as far as varsity, but definitely like going to state.
Spencer George: Definitely the away meets like Clovis and State because it's always fun to stay in a hotel with your team and it's like good team bonding and all that. I also like these trips the best.
Ben George: It's definitely like leagues, CCS and State because those are the meets, we like, build up to the whole season. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it running with the team and all that. That's definitely the biggest thing I remember the most are those big meets.
What are some of your team camp highlights?
Ashlyn: Let's see. I just love all the runs are really fun and being at altitude. I love the feeling of like pushing myself to my max. Jumping in the lake after the run. There's just something special about it and it feels so good. It's so fun to just hang out with everyone jumping in the lake and just having a blast.
Mason: For me it's pretty much the same thing; just being able to spend like the day with the team. I mean most of the time during the season like we you know practice together but then you'll see each other at school. There’s not much else time to really hanging out. Occasionally we'll get together, but like here, it's like the only thing we're doing is just hanging out as a team by the lake. We have tournaments of like spike ball, corn hole and stuff like that. Then swimming in the lake together and so just all the like miscellaneous stuff that's like not running because the running is nice, but we can do that whenever. Hanging out with the team together is probably the best part of this.
Spencer: The altitude training is, like, really encouraging because you feel it when you arrive, but you feel when you get back home. Oh my gosh, you feel it a lot when you're here and when you get back, we usually do Wharf to Wharf which is like a local race. It's a 10K. It's like the easiest race after this camp. This also like a vacation trip where we can bond as a team.
Ben: If we didn’t do this camp, we wouldn’t be as close as a team. Like at least last year, it was my first year on varsity and it was kind of what got me to get to know everyone and make me a part of the family. Also, the altitude training like the week before like this is the official season opener and gives me the confidence for the season.
Check out the photo gallery of Scotts Valley’s run. Click HERE