Jeff Johnson, West Point graduate & Father of Kaitlyn Johnson, Class of 2020
You can’t hide from adversity. You can’t hide your children from life’s ups and downs. Anything ever worth attaining is never handed to us on a platter. People achieve success by conquering obstacles, and cross country is certainly no exception. The HHS Cross country team has allowed my daughter to encounter challenges and overcome adversity. While she may not have obtained the personal records she desired or won a team state championship, she gained so much more and learned so many valuable life lessons over the past three years as part of the Huntsville Cross Country team.
As parents, we often want to build a cocoon around our kids and protect them from harm at all costs. However, in doing so we would deny our kids’ right to face struggles and adversity. Helicopter parents and those that would rather not see their children fail are cheating them. Those who attempt to shelter their children from every conceivable germ in society never really inoculated them from fear, worry, and the feeling of dependency.
HHS Cross Country has given my daughter and countless others an education they would never experience in a classroom. No other sport will challenge your child to maintain a discipline that isn’t just required for a few months, but throughout the entire year. In order for runners to compete at the highest levels, even in high school, they must train year round and push themselves in ways they never have before. Grit, tenacity, strong work ethic, determination, mental toughness and team focus are all traits of each HHS Cross Country runner. If you don’t want your kid to possess these, don’t encourage them
to run cross country.
A great deal of discipline is required for cross country runners to get up for early morning workouts during the weekday and for Saturday races. Sacrifices will be made by your children that will preclude them from attending some social events in order to get adequate rest but you and your children will look back on HHS cross country and agree that being on this team was one of most important high school experiences which prepared them for the real world.
As a leader, I’ve seen my daughter grow tremendously over her past three years on the cross country team. Before, she was mainly focused on improving herself. Over her past two years as a leader on this team, her joy was evident when her teammates PR’d or continued to improve. Even if teammates ran faster than her or she didn’t run the time she wanted in a race, she felt great satisfaction from the success of her teammates because she was their biggest fan. Her selflessness and desire to put her team success ahead of her own has been inspiring. The sense of family surrounding this team is like nothing I’ve experienced before. My wife, myself, and our two oldest daughters were college athletes. None of us have experienced the types of bonds Kaitlyn has with her teammates and coaches on HHS Cross Country. I couldn’t recommend the program or the sport more!