Cross Country Adverts Make Program Successful

Advertisement for the Cross Country team throughout the year by runners and coaches contributes to the yearly recruitment success of the program. These advertisements appear in the form of posters that have been put up around the campus, flyers, and information given out personally by athletes.

Head coach of the Cross Country program, Charles Woolridge, joined the Campolindo staff in 2006 and took over the head coach position of the Cross Country and Track Teams. He said that the “most effective way that students find out about the program is through their peers and athletes that are already on the team sharing their experiences with their friends.”

Another thing that helps recruitment for the program is the involvement of Cross Country runners in other school activities. “We have several of our members that have been part of leadership…and of course, we have members that are on the Claw Staff,” said Woolridge. This can give Cross Country more exposure than other teams. In addition, the online presence of the Cross Country team is something that sets the program apart from other sports. They have a “Facebook page, Twitter feed and a website that hosts all kinds of videos and pictures,” said Woolridge.

Senior Tai Lee, a 4th year Cross Country runner, commented on the effect Covid had on recruitment rates in recent years, “…Obviously Covid had a big hit on [our numbers] as we couldn’t recruit…we had a gap year basically [and] there were a lot of factors that weren’t really in our control that have made our team smaller than we would like.” However, due to the dedication and determination of the runners in the program, the numbers have slowly increased over the past few years.

Recruiting the incoming class and advocating for Cross Country is a big part of the program for returning athletes. “Past teams have given [them] a very high recruitment standard”, said Lee. This standard has driven current runners to strive to get their numbers back over 100.

Junior Daisy Penney, a 3rd year Cross Country runner, discussed the recruitment process, “Our coach gives us these [pamphlets] with information on them about the team and we hand them out to freshman, sophomores, and people we think would be interested.” Handing out flyers, however, is not the only thing the team does to encourage people to join the program. They also set up a booth for students to come to on Cougar Day that “has lots of information about Cross Country,” Penney said.

While Campolindo is a school that fosters athletic programs, and, as Woolridge said, “…there’s a general culture here on our campus that students should be involved in extracurriculars,” the recruitment success of the Cross Country program can be largely attributed to the efforts and involvement of the participants.