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Health & Fitness

Win The Day

Over the summer, you may have seen many young athletes taking the streets of Yorkville. 

Our annual Endurance Camp has grown exponentially since our first summer in 2007. That year (if I remember correctly) we had approximately 20-25 athletes regularly attend our six-week camp. This year, we had nearly 140 athletes.

Our athletes aren't just cross country runners. We purposely do not call our camp "Cross Country Camp." Anyone that wants to increase their fitness is encouraged to attend. 

The slogan on the back of our shirt this summer was "Win The Day."

That's a mantra that we hold daily with our cross country team as well. 

You may look back on your time in high school fondly, and maybe even think about how easy you may have had or.. or not, but I think most of us adults can attest that our high school days were a bit easier than the "real life" we now call routine.

But high schoolers these days have a lot more thrown at them than in the past. Athletics, piles of homework, and long days can take their toll. Then throw in family, friends, work, and all the little issues and conflicts come from them, and many have little time to devote to much else. 

So we simply ask them to take things one day at a time and Win the Day. Come out of today better than you were yesterday. 

The worst thing you can do is waste a day. You'll never get it back.

Two Days in the books

So far, we're two days into our season and we're pleased with where the team as a whole is at. We currently have about 80 athletes on the team this season.

We did a time trial on day one—3200m, or 8 laps on the track—for our newcomers and JV group. Athletes can earn their jersey by simply running this non-stop. Only three had to walk, which is by far the fewest we've had. These athletes will get another chance Saturday to earn their jersey. It's exciting to have so many youngsters on the team this year. It's up to us coaches to mold them from where they are now to seasoned vets by the end of the year. We have a particular way of doing things at YHS, and it just takes some time to get used to it. 

Our varsity group is in great shape after a tough summer of training, but we have some key injuries which will set us back a bit.

Our boys team is going to be led by the Hoffert twins, and they received a nice little shout-out by DyestatIL's Mike Newman, who is the go-to-guy for Illinois HS cross country coverage. Newman projects both to be in the top-5 in 2A this season. After them, we'll need some younger runners to step up big-time for us after we graduated a talented group of seniors last year.

On the girls side, we have three returning all-staters: Skyler, Summer and Erin. Kelsey also returns after missing all-state last season by three places, and being an all-stater on our 4x800m relay this last spring. We have a few younger runners after these girls that will fill in the void left by three of the most successful runners in school history graduated. Skyler was also mentioned by Newman as the preseason favorite to win the state title. Another outlet, IL.MileSplit.us picked out girls team to win the state title for a third-straight year

It's nice that others think highly of our program and our runners, but that's not how we approach state. We feel if we can be in position to be in the top 5 come the day of the meet, we've done our job. A lot can happen at that meet, and all you can do is put yourself in position to do your best, and let the results happen. 

Yorkville Invite Aug. 26

We'd love to see as many community members out at our only home meet of the season. It's Aug. 26 at Hoover Forest Preserve, and the racing kicks off at 4:30 p.m. We added a couple new teams this season, and it is usually one of the more competitive early-season meets. In fact, it takes place on the first day we can host a meet, in accordance with IHSA rules. 

It's the community's best chance to see how special our athletes really are, so we hope you can make it! We have some meets coming up that are somewhat local if you can't make our invite. Check our schedule page for a list of our meets.
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