And that is a wrap on fall sports 2026!
We had three kiddos running in cross country, and 1 kiddo also in soccer. I had a blast coaching a Junior Cross Country team as well!
There were highs and lows this season, lots of memories made, and lots of great lessons learned!
Middle School Cross Country
Oh my goodness, we had the BEST experience with middle school cross country (7-8 grade). They started conditioning in July and continued practice 3x a week after school through the end of October. This was our first time having sports practice multiple times a week, and it was an adjustment. However, we ended up spending a lot of time playing at the park while she was in practice, so I don’t have any complaints. I even got in a few runs at the park while she was at practice.
There were only 3 middle school girls who did cross country, and 4 middle school boys, so they all got pretty close. It was really fun to see the friendships grow and it all 7 kids were so great! They also practiced with high school runners, so the whole team totaled about 15 kids.
Meets were typically weekly on a Saturday, although she had a few Monday and Tuesday meets, too. Meets were SO FUN. They ran 2 miles at each meet- up and down hills, through the mud, in cornfields, across streams, on rocks and pavement and tracks and everything else you could imagine.
Even though Tera is a not an elite runner, she did a great job of the actual running part, too! She was consistently achieving a PR (personal record) and pushing herself hard. It’s hard to believe that she is only in 7th grade, because I think she’s going to make a lot of improvements as she grows up! Tera’s first meet (2 miles) she finished in 18:43. Her last run (2 miles) she finished in 16:05! She was consistently running around 17:20 for most of her meets, but at our last race the boys and girls ran together and she and a teammate were neck and neck and pushing themselves HARD the whole race, and they both took off over a minute off their time. He was not about to let a girl beat him, and she was not about to be beaten by a boy!
Tera also really fell in love with running. As a parent, it is SO beautiful to see your kid find something that they love. Like, truly love. She’s tried several other sports and has enjoyed herself- she likes volleyball and basketball, but she LOVES running and cannot wait to keep running during the off season.
In our last meet, she finished 3rd place middle school female, which was a huge accomplishment!
Junior Cross Country
Both of the school aged boys also participated in our junior cross country team, which I also got to coach! This was an…experience. We had practice once a week for 1 hour and it was A LOT of work to keep kids engaged and interested in running games for that duration of time. The age groups spanned Kindergarten- 6th grade, so that was an added layer of challenge! I had 27 kids signed up and we played lots of running games, we ran around our field a LOT of laps, and visited the bathroom and water fountains approximately 900 times per practice. Lol.
Kiah and Ezra were both on the team, and did a GREAT job. Kiah is an energizer bunny, and I truly think that he could just keep on running for miles and miles. He was a great leader on the team and finished in 1st or 2nd place for the team in each race. Kiah’s PR for a mile was 6:45, which is pretty great for a 10 year old! I certainly can’t run a mile that fast, and I’m a consistent runner!
Ezra is a very great runner and even completed a half mile meet on a week that he wasn’t feeling great with asthma struggles. That kid has endurance like no other and I’m so proud of watching him run and grow this season! His PR for a mile was 7:46, which is amazing for a 7. year old!
Soccer
After we all got struck with World Cup fever this past summer, I finally relented and let Kiah sign up for a soccer team through the YMCA. He was SO excited and we had a great experience, although we ended up learning a lot through it! Kiah is very naturally athletic, so he quickly excelled on the soccer team. I think that he probably needed a more competitive league, but I am also not willing to become a select soccer family, so I’m not sure what the in-between is. Still, it was a great learning opportunity for Kiah since he hasn’t officially played soccer before. He learned a lot about placement/positions and playing with a team. He thought he might love being goalie, but after one challenging game with a few too many goals scored on him, he decided that he didn’t like goalie anymore.
Highlights and Memories
1- Learned to set up a whole cross country meet with my fellow coaches- THAT was a learning experience!
2. We got really good at reading maps leading over the river and through the woods 🙂
3. My three cross country runners at our cross country meet at Youngs
4. Cross Country Awards and celebration night (side note: finding cross country jewelry, decor, etc is HARD- cross country is such an overlooked sport!)
5. Tera receiving her award from one of her great coaches
6. Tera received “Diligent” as her character quality (when you only have 15 runners on the team, everyone gets a character quality and a personal message from the coach!)
7. Custom Royals cookies
8. There was a rainbow around the sun at our last XC meet! It was SO beautiful. In fact, we didn’t have one single meet that was rainy or miserable- we did have some HOT ones, though!
9. Tera and her teammate cheering for their other teammates crossing the finish line. This is one of my FAVORITE parts of XC- the kids cheer their hearts out for EVERYONE!
10. Thanks to Memaw for coming to many, many meets and soccer games!
11. Jesus was with us at a lot of meets. Well, He was with us at all the meets. But his statue was also with us at some meets haha.
Next up is basketball season, and then hopefully we will be able to join the Track team in the Spring!
