The Illinois HS XC Journal - September 8, 2020

Blog #6: XC Courses Outside of the Box

By Michael Newman

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We all know about the end of July and into August and the strain that school administrators and cross country coaches had to go through. There was the figuring out of schedules for the season and how to conduct the meets for the season. Coaches had to figure out how practices would be run safely and within the state guidelines. Those people also had to figure out where they would hold their meets.

The Year 2020 will be known for the global pandemic. It could also be known as a year of a Cross Country Renaissance. Gone is the state meet and the huge monster courses. Enter the smaller grounds near schools that require ingenuity to come up with a course design.

Cross Country in Illinois started with meets in small city parks and on school grounds before the sport evolved to the invitational meets and courses that could handle more than 40 teams.

The state guidelines in the 2020 season will not allow the big meets. Guidelines have also closed down some state parks and forest preserves to large gatherings. It meant for some schools finding a new place to host a meet.

Prospect Coach Jay Renaud said after their regional meet in which they hosted in 2019 is that he doubted that he would use the course that covered the east side of the school grounds. The regional was a tribute to long time Prospect Coach Mike Stokes who retired at the end of the season and they wanted to hold the race on their school property. It did not take long in August for Renaud and Prospect Girls Coach Pete Wintermute to figure out where their home meets would be at.

The same held true for Palatine High School entering this fall. They would not be able to host their own invitational at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve. The school did hold a small three team meet at the site last Friday. Most of their races will be held on school grounds. “With sports like soccer and football moved from the fall, we kind of run this place,” said Palatine Boys Coach Chris Quick. They have taken advantage of it.

District 200 schools in Wheaton that includes Wheaton North and Wheaton-Warrenville South High Schools were in a bind when the fall sports announcements were made. Both schools consider St. James Farm in Warrenville as their home course. The DuPage County Forest Preserve made a statement where no events would take place on their grounds. Wheaton North designed a course on the north side of their school grounds.

Wheaton-Warrenville South may have come up with a gem of a course after striking out at a couple of places. They ended up at Grace Church of DuPage which is located on about a mile south of the high school.

“Hubble Middle School has used this area for their home meets,” said Wheaton-Warrenville South Girls Coach Rob Harvey. “We made some tweaks to what they had to make it into a nice three mile course that could be suitable in hosting a regional meet.”

The course does not look big when looking at it on a map. It is deceivingly big once you step to the starting line.

“I was not as optimistic coming into here looking at the map seeing that it was a smallish course. It was three loops,” said Geneva runner Ben Calusinski who won a race on the Grace Church course on Saturday. “When I got here and looked it was really big. I loved the hill back there.”

There is one portion of the course where there is a steep uphill and then an immediate downhill. That is one of the things that gives this new course character.

The campus course makes it easier for school officials to regulate the grounds for spectators. Waubonsie Valley High School is one of those courses. Signs were posted near the course stating that spectators were not allowed. Parents and fans pretty much followed those regulations. There is a parking lot on the east side of the course where people were in their cars but watching out of their sunroofs. That gave us another definition of social distancing in these times.

The school course has been more popular even before this pandemic broke. Naperville North has a nice layout on their school grounds including utilizing their football field to finish their races in the middle. It is also easier to social distance.

Lake Park’s East Campus Course, the Niles West Campus Course, and the Lyons Township South Campus Course in Western Springs have stood the test of time and have been used for over a decade now to host state series meets. Oswego East developed a course three years ago so that they could host a regional meet. It becoming one of the top Cross Country Courses in their area.

There are some parks outside of the Chicago area that have allowed meets to be held at. The Fuller Forest Preserve near Winnebago is a course that has multiple loops in a small area. The layout is located in a patch of woods making this a cross country Xanadu.

Black Partridge Park in Metamora is still holding meets this season. The charm of the inner trails and the wide-open fields where fans can watch from a distance make this park a place to go to watch a meet. There are so many more that I have been to that could be mentioned. Maybe another time.

Why we might see more courses on campus is because of cost. The economic times in this country right now are not so great. The design and the use of a course on or close to campus will save school districts money. Some school courses may not have the character that a course located on a forest preserve may have.

They do provide a place for our high schools kids to compete and race. That is the most important thing.

I am a cross country geek. I cannot wait to discover more cross country course treasures this fall.