By A’ser Mostafa

With the beginning of the new school year comes the beginning of a new season for the Tempe Prep cross country team. This year like every year character building shares the number one goal alongside setting record running times.

“Patience, teamwork, and endurance are the main lessons we teach our runners,” says Doc Hickernell who is on his 18th year as Tempe Prep cross country coach. This character is apparent in many of the cross country runners at Tempe Prep, including senior Jacob Steineke who has been running for the team since his freshman year.

“Unlike other sports, many times during a cross country race a runner finds himself running alone in a desert without any spectators or other runners watching, and this runner must make the choice to push forward and not give up even though he or she might be dying on the inside with 10 minutes left to go,” says Steineke on the independence factors of the sport.

Even though cross country is perceived as an individual sport, Steineke says there are times when this is not the case. “While cross country can be viewed as an individual sport, ultimately it is the team that must work together to get their times down to beat other teams. On our team, we all run the same courses together during practice and the faster runners will often turn around multiple times during the course to run with and encourage the runners in the back. We always run faster when running with another teammate, so in many ways everyone on the team needs each other to succeed.”

All in all cross country has shown to build one’s character and perseverance through running. The team has already taken these qualities to two meets this year. Their season will continue from now into the month of October.