North Platte R-1 High School

Back Row: Alaina Scroggins, Jessa Cassity, Carly Hinton, Shelby Lingle, Coach Cary, Wesley Meadows, Gabriel Goodlet, Joshua Schaffart, Jacob Wright.

Front Row: Brooke Meadows, Jenna Cassity, Desiree Gaudio, Trinity Wrightfield, Madison O’Neill, Savannah Lingle, Daniel Fleshman, Jakob Scroggins, Reece Hinton, Jace Stubbs, Tyler Davis.

Chop Wood, Carry Water: The NP Cross Country Team Cross Country is one of the many sports here at North Platte, but why choose this sport? "The Cross Country experience creates a bond that's different from other team experiences. It is not  competing for a spot and playing time, but it is competing with your teammates to get everyone better," Coach Cary answered. He explains that he decided to coach this sport because he had a great experience as a high school athlete. This sport taught him discipline, work ethic, and the enjoyment of setting and meeting goals and seeing improvement. Getting to share this experience with students as a coach brings him immense joy. The Cross Country team sweats on the course between different types of workouts, like long runs, speed, hills, and auxiliary activities. In addition, Coach Cary and Coach Keraus prepare the athletes mentally through different mental imaging and preparation drills, as well as teaching racing strategies.  This work is paid back each time the team won a meet. The girls did well at Smithville and the boys in Mound City, but now the focus is performing well at the District meet to be able to qualify for State. But regardless of what they win at meets, the NP Cross Country team has a bigger goal: working to get better every day, pushing each other to be the best they can be, and having fun along the way. Written by Desiree Gaudio NP Student Published 10-20-2019