When the Florida Youth Running Association (FLYRA) was formed three years ago they had three main objectives: put on quality state championships, encourage more meets for middle school athletes, and help new programs get started. The Middle School State Championships in both track and field and cross country have been a success, qualifying meets across the state are sprouting up, and now with the help of flrunners.com they have helped provide for a new middle school cross country program in Polk County.
Marc Zimmerman of Central Florida's Polk County Sports Marketing was overwhelmed when he found out that FLYRA and flrunners were coming together on a $2,200 grant for local middle schoolers. He points to the great relationship built with both organizations. Polk County Sports Marketing helped start the flrunners.com Invitational and have been the hosts of the Middle School Cross Country Championships the past three years. The grant will help purchase new uniforms for the eleven middle school cross country programs, all of which wlll start their first season this fall. Zimmerman says the money will have a crucial impact on the area.
"Each middle school is allocated less than $1,000 for all athletics at their school. Most of the schools don’t have uniforms. They just have the kids wear the same color. The grant will not only provide each school with uniforms for cross country, but those same uniforms will then also be used for track."
FLYRA's Laura Frederickson, knows how important uniforms can be in creating a team. Seven years ago she was asked to coach middle school cross country in a small private Christian School League. Cross country was a newly added sport and she found herself putting on meets with a few other moms. She realized in order to be successful, they had to create a criteria with little to no cost. She says having gone through the process first hand she knew exactly where Zimmerman was coming from.
"I was able to identify where some monetary outlay was going to happen in starting a cross country program. Be it a school program or an upstart league. For an individual program, uniforms are the main one and for starting a league and putting on meets, course supplies and awards would be the top expense."
FLYRA's Laura Frederickson, knows how important uniforms can be in creating a team. Seven years ago she was asked to coach middle school cross country in a small private Christian School League. Cross country was a newly added sport and she found herself putting on meets with a few other moms. She realized in order to be successful, they had to create a criteria with little to no cost. She says having gone through the process first hand she knew exactly where Zimmerman was coming from.
"I was able to identify where some monetary outlay was going to happen in starting a cross country program. Be it a school program or an upstart league. For an individual program, uniforms are the main one and for starting a league and putting on meets, course supplies and awards would be the top expense."
Lakeland/Winter Haven was designated as the 7th Most Obese Metro Area in the United States. This was another reason Zimmerman felt it so important to get running and exercise in his area. He felt a need to do something and says he hopes this doesn't just turn into a high quality of running, but serves as an educational tool as well.
"I hope we can also introduce kids, who would otherwise not be active, to running. The idea is that anyone can do it as long as they are willing to put in the time and effort. Sure there will be kids who are better than others, but a team is a team and that helps to get kids moving and helps them to build relationships and confidence."
The eleven schools that partake in middle school cross country is only one third of the schools in Polk County. Zimmerman plans to host seven meets this year with those schools and ultimately establish a cross country program at every school. Frederickson is hopeful that this is the first of many grant based initiatives to promote middle school cross country across the state.
"The Polk County grant was the first time we were able to provide support to an upstart program. By growing the State Championships, we will be able to accomplish our mission. I know we have more opportunity for growth because there are still areas that are barely represented at the state meet. This past year, those areas were represented by individuals but very few teams."
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