Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:XC is very serious at our FCPS HS and missing practice would be frowned upon.

Typically the top 10 fastest runner are varsity and the next 10 are JV. A few meets allow more runners and some meets have freshman only races. At our school- a lot of kids never compete in a meet, just go to practice.

Only 10kids from all 4 grades are on varsity? How is this a no cut sport?

How do you expect it to work? You think they let all 150 kids run in every meet no matter what? Imagine the logistics of that.

XC is a tough sport. It is not the easy option for anyone to do in HS.

Depends a lot on the school. At our school, you have to make a certain number of practices plus the time trials. Your weekend trip might still work, and the coach will know that some rising freshmen families won’t be aware of the August schedule. You should get your kid to email the coach directly to see when the time trials are and how many practices are needed. Making varsity at some schools just means that those kids run the big invitational and end of season meets. Does not mean that the other kids don’t get to run in any meets.

quite a few don’t make the squad at our hs - probably half. Lots of tears and regrets over not putting the mileage in over the summer. Summer miles win fall titles is the adage

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:XC is very serious at our FCPS HS and missing practice would be frowned upon.

Typically the top 10 fastest runner are varsity and the next 10 are JV. A few meets allow more runners and some meets have freshman only races. At our school- a lot of kids never compete in a meet, just go to practice.

Only 10kids from all 4 grades are on varsity? How is this a no cut sport?

10 girls/10 boys on varsity is every school and it is based on time from the previous week but you can only get a time if you can participate in meets.

It is no cut in the sense that kids can come to practice and try to make a meet. It is a hard sport.

And our Hs requires freshman girls to be able to run a 7 minute mile to even be considerd (I think boys is 6:30) and the times go down as you go up in grade.

Anonymous wrote:XC is very serious at our FCPS HS and missing practice would be frowned upon.

Typically the top 10 fastest runner are varsity and the next 10 are JV. A few meets allow more runners and some meets have freshman only races. At our school- a lot of kids never compete in a meet, just go to practice.

Only 10kids from all 4 grades are on varsity? How is this a no cut sport?

XC is very serious at our FCPS HS and missing practice would be frowned upon.

Typically the top 10 fastest runner are varsity and the next 10 are JV. A few meets allow more runners and some meets have freshman only races. At our school- a lot of kids never compete in a meet, just go to practice.

Anonymous wrote:OP and others, if you have a kid wanting to do a Fall sport realize practices/tryouts/etc. start in August.

10:02 gives good advice but it's totally up to the individual coach whether they take issue with it or not. And if they do, do not go to the AD or principal.

+1

Something I didn’t realize either until DC1 started high school.

I agree notifying/asking the coach is a good idea. I’d definitely have the KID do it however! (Help her with wording if needed )

Anonymous wrote:How does FCPS XC work? Everyone runs every XC meet or do they have A and B meets?

There are local quad meets during the week and invitationals on the weekend. It depends on how big the team is at your FCPS HS. Some schools take everyone and others have a tryout. Cross country scoring is different from other sports. The top 7 runners are varsity and the top 5 score.

Our fcps XC coach is very reasonable about having to miss a practice or two in August. He doesn’t want to discourage kids from trying XC, esp rising freshman.

In MCPS, pretty much every child makes cross country as long as they can run multiple miles without stopping and are committed to practice during the school year. Plenty of kids cannot make the mandatory summer practices but it hasn't been a problem, and we have a pretty tough coach! The school year practices are another story though. Not sure how FCPS is.

OP and others, if you have a kid wanting to do a Fall sport realize practices/tryouts/etc. start in August.

10:02 gives good advice but it's totally up to the individual coach whether they take issue with it or not. And if they do, do not go to the AD or principal.

How does FCPS XC work? Everyone runs every XC meet or do they have A and B meets?

I would email the coach directory. Our FCPS HS holds two time trials to make the team 2 weeks apart. Attendance at daily practice is expected starting August 5 unless the student is out of town and all absences should be communicated in advance. In the future, I would plan to not travel in August if you have a fall athlete. Once my child made the team, I had her handle all communication with her coach.

I’d email the coach before you think about cancelling a trip. We are in MCPS but at least on our team, it’s common for people to be filtering in and out on last minute family trips before school starts. I just emailed our coach about how my son will miss the first week of practice and she told me to have a good trip.

Can anyone tell us what this will entail at FCPS? We are new to the sport and to HS. They say practice is mandatory starting August. We have a long weekend trip planned. Do we cancel? Any chance DC won't make the team if we go?