Middle School Cross Country League In The Making

Amy Simpson


Depending on what city they live in or what school they go to, middle school cross country runners can often be an underserved population in the world of athletics. Laura Fredrickson of the Florida Youth Runners Association is trying to change that. The creation of a middle school cross country league is her goal, and it could bring huge improvements to the sport for young runners.

The biggest problem facing middle school distance runners in Florida is not a lack of talent but a lack of infrastructure. Some schools have no middle school cross country teams. Competitions can be hard to come by for both middle school teams and individuals without an established team.

"Many years ago when I started working with younger kids, mainly in track, I had no meets to put these guys in," Fredrickson said. "So I actually had a huge running program and when you don't really have a lot of meets to put them in, they kind of lose that motivation. It was really discouraging."

Fredrickson used to home school her children, who were part of a running league for home-schooled kids. When she and some other parents saw how poorly the competitions were run, they stepped in to improve the league themselves. Fredrickson later ended up helping other leagues get organized and is now trying to make one overarching organization to meet the needs of the state.

"There's not a recognized public school cross country program in Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Polk County. I was getting approached by individual fathers -- parents wanting to put their kids in meets," she said.

The goal is to keep the league non-exclusive: groups can be formed from public schools, private schools, home schools or runners can compete as individuals. They will all be able to compete in smaller meets that the league will organize, making it easier to find venues to host meets. Runners will also have the opportunity to run in State qualifying meets.

"I don't know if the numbers are going to be there -- large numbers -- but at least the kids will get that opportunity," she said. "They'll be able to jump into these small meets."

As far as outreach goes, Fredrickson wants to get the word out to public schools especially. When it comes to forming athletic teams, private schools don't face the same amount of daunting red tape as their state-run counterparts. With the league in place, kids will be able to run as a team even if their schools do not provide an infrastructure for them.

"Participation from public school kids might be a very small percentage of the total individuals competing, but that's expected with something new," she said.

The amount of coaches and parents contacting her has been growing slowly. From an administrative point of view, Fredrickson is running the league on her own, which is no small feat. Luckily, she has a small army of parent volunteers behind her who have become adept at running meets.

"The Tampa Bay Heat parent crew pretty much ran the middle school State meet," she said, speaking of last year's competition. "They did the concession stand, they did the retail stand, they did the parking, they did the finish line."

"My parent crews get better and better and more fine-tuned so that when we get to the State meet, they've got the whole routine down pat."

The two most important things for the league right now are to attract more athletes or teams, and to find more schools to host small meets. Fredrickson hopes that there will be enough hosts to have multiple small meets around the state on the same day, rather than have huge meets every weekend.

If you are interested in forming a team, joining the league or hosting a meet contact Laura Fredrickson at Laura458@verizon.net or at 813-625-1417.

Related Coverage