Mr. Louis Bonsteel and his team kick off another season of Cross Country starting in October.
Cross Country is a sport where many teams and individuals are able to run a race through the grass or dirt courses. The team features a boys and girls team and they have been conditioning and training for the past few weeks, gearing up for their first race against Bell High School.
Bonsteel gave insight about the new team and how he feels about returning for another year of coaching, stating that “ I actually didn’t choose to be the coach, it chose me”.
This year will be Bonsteel’s 8th year of coaching Cross Country. Not only is he the coach of just Cross Country, but he is also an active participant and leader of Students Run LA. Students Run LA challenges many students to experience the benefits of goal-setting, character development, adult mentoring and improve health by letting them in with a truly life-changing experience that’s been around for over thirty years.
For the most part, many students are actually committed and excited to do the marathon when it comes around, which in this case the first SRLA race will be held on September 30th.
His goals for this year’s Cross Country team is to have an even number of guys and girls on the team in order for them to be able to run in the city prelims. The city prelims are races that you get run after the cross country league and get to move up divisions.
In addition, he would even like to see some individuals or even the entire team advance from city prelims to city finals.
“Time” seems to be a major concern for Cross Country as Bonsteel is involved with other activities and he feels that not a lot of his time is fully set with coaching, but he knows that he will train his students enough for them to push themselves to do their best when he’s not able to show up.
Gema Juarez, senior and returning member, is excited about the new year and stated, “My goals (for the year) are to break the school record for girls varsity which is about 22 minutes.”
In the end, the Cross Country team and Bonsteel are prepared and ready to dominate the season this year and hopefully make it to those city finals.
The team is still recruiting for more runners.
Written By Celina Perez, Staff Writer