Trumansburg cross-country keeping it positive

Trumansburg girls cross-country is on the cusp of ending Lansing’s streak atop Section IV. At last year’s sectional championship, the Blue Raiders finished in second place behind Lansing, and that was while missing a few of their top runners. This season, Trumansburg will have to wait at least six months to try to make that next step after the fall season was pushed back due to COVID-19.

Head coach Bryce DeSantis knows his team has the talent necessary, simply stating they need to stay healthy to compete for the top spot in the section. But in his 25 years of coaching cross-country, he’s never had to deal with a season quite like this. Going through the fall without being able to coach his athletes is just a strange feeling for him.

“It’s weird to rake leaves and not be at a meet on Saturdays and after practice and that kind of thing,” DeSantis said. “I think that, for some of the kids that have been doing this for a long time, it’s also rough. A lot of the kids really, I think, are really missing it from a standpoint of just the camaraderie and the team and the traditions, especially the seniors.”

The senior captains of this year’s team are Emma Wright, Fiona Clifford and Makenzie Masters (two of whom were injured by the time the Section IV Championships happened last year). DeSantis explained that these captains have been taking the lead on keeping the team active, as DeSantis himself can only do so much during COVID-19.

“I have a couple pretty active captains, and they’ve been trying to, on their own, do things that I hear about and they don’t tell me so I can’t be involved,” DeSantis said. “They’re really good about that and they kind of understand and think ‘What if coach can’t get us together? Let’s get together and run socially distant with masks. Let’s get together and have a Halloween party out in the barn where everyone can kind of be around together.’ There’s not a ton of them, so they can do it safely.”

He has been keeping tabs on the team through a shared Google Doc where the runners log their miles, which is a normal practice during summer. That has been implemented throughout the school year thus far as they await the next season.

Another way the team is staying active is through Trumansburg’s after-school workouts, which are not limited to fall athletes. They’re conditioning-based, which is right in the wheelhouse of the cross-country team.

“There’s been a group that have been coming to [the after-school workouts] kind of semi-religiously on Thursdays,” DeSantis said. “They can kind of get together and do a workout. That’s all [athletic director] Jason Hodge. I have to give all the credit in the world to him. He’s a great athletic director, extremely supportive. He’s the soccer coach, too, but he doesn’t play favorites.”

DeSantis hopes to start a running club as he awaits the Section IV season after hearing other schools around the area doing so to make the offseason easier.

“I’ve heard there are clubs that are going to kind of pop up,” DeSantis said. “That’s an easy one to do because you don’t have that high-risk factor like hockey or football or anything inside. So, that’s what we’re trying to do. Then, hopefully, we’ll be able to do this in March. Although, that’ll be interesting and snowy.”

Weather will certainly be a factor if the season does in fact happen in March, but DeSantis believes that will be nothing new for his team.

“March weather is kind of like right now,” he said. “This would have been championship season. The cross-country kids go from the end of August when it’s 95 or 100 [degrees], and then they go to the state meet last year, which was in snow. So, that’s not as big a deal. They’re all used to it. It’ll be the surface that’ll be different because in March it’s wet.”

Lansing’s coach, Becca Lovenheim, believes the upcoming season will be more competitive than ever due to the extra time to prepare. However, DeSantis doesn’t share that opinion.

“I’m not really sure that it’s going to be that way because you’re coming off of the winter as your preseason or your pre-preseason,” DeSantis said. “That’s a little different than running in the summer here. So, I’m not really sure. I think it’ll depend on whether there are sports seasons in the winter and whether those kids can stay active or not. I would think it would be the opposite. We haven’t done it ever, so we’ll see.”

A few “freak injuries” impacted last season’s results for Trumansburg so DeSantis will be taking the same approach that’s made him a successful coach for 25 years. This time, though, it will be during a different time of the year.