“WE WANT YOU”… a quote you might have seen in bold letters covering the cross country posters while walking through the halls of Campolindo High School. Walls, doors, and classrooms were showered with posters, showcasing seniors Kate Kabenina, Paulo Trento, and sophomore Taejin Chung, each striking a motivating pose.
This recruitment process was noticed by many students around campus and has created a lasting impression around the process of Cross Country recruitment. Chuck Woolridge, head coach of the cross country team, has always pushed for recruitment, positively reflected by the abundance of athletes regularly on the team each year. This year, Woolridge has taken a more head on approach, explaining that he felt like there was “already a precedent set that teams were putting up the images of their athletes and posters of their accomplishments to promote their teams and we wanted to do the same.” Each sport has advertised its team through posters in their respective stadiums, and much like cross country, displaying the strengths of their team.
Woolridge was mostly intent on recruiting freshmen with these posters, as every coach attempts to do at the beginning of the season. He wanted to ensure that word got out about the sport to incoming freshmen who “often do not realize the sport opportunities that exist.” The cross country team’s roster is typically on the higher side, ranging from 80-90 athletes with this year coming in at around 90. A notable detail of the posters are the statistics and facts about the team from previous years, creating an outstanding look. Woolridge took inspiration from the series of posters advertising other fall sports and wanted to give cross country the same opportunity to showcase their success.
The visual aspect of the posters is very impressive. Freshman Gavin Gunn noted, “I thought they were really professional.” Gunn, a new member to the Cross Country team, explained his perspective on the posters. He enjoyed the representation that the posters gave the team, and said that he was “impacted positively” because he likes “how they represented our sport, but not in a geeky way.” Gunn has been running competitively for most of his life and, to him, the posters put cross country in a positive light, differing from how the sport is often portrayed.
Gunn believed the posters reflect the more serious side of cross country and appreciated the thought behind them, but made it clear that not everyone shared the same opinions. When asked about the reaction from his friends who don’t participate in the sport, Gunn explained how, “no one really recognized the posters and no one really drew attention to it, but some people believed that it was a little out there for running”. The new look given to cross country from the posters may have surprised some students, but overall, highlighted the accomplishments of the team while also promoting the sport in an inspiring way.
Senior Paulo Trento, one of the athletes featured on the posters, described a more in-depth behind-the-scenes look into how the photos were taken, “Wooldrige had lights and set up a camera that he was taking pictures on and he told us to pose in different ways that highlighted the strengths of cross country.” Trentos friends appreciated his presence on the posters, but that wasn’t enough to convince them to join the team.
Trento also noted that, “I think they definitely helped with publicity, awareness of the cross country team’s success”. Something that each cross country representative agrees with is the positive light that the posters put the sport under. The team statistics and professional look that comes with these posters highlights the best parts of the sport, whether or not they effectively increased recruitment. Senior Kate Kabenina agrees with Trento on the success of the posters, “I’m really happy about how the posters turned out and I feel like it’s helped shine a light on cross country.” Recruitment aside, the decadent Cross Country posters left a positive impression on the school and showcased the best of what the sport has to offer.
