By Jamari Saint Cyr
Our athletics department has always held a special place at Apopka for years. Apopka has been known for its spectacular sports teams from football to swimming and much more, so the cross country team is no exception. This year Apopka’s cross country team has jump-started into their season and is ready to tackle plenty of new hurdles in the coming months.
Cross Country is a running sport, like track and field, where teams and individuals run races over natural terrain on open-air courses.
photo credit: Mrs. Springer
Mr. Fowler, who is serving his first year as the Apopka coach, has already begun prepping the team for the new season and has expressed his excitement for the team.
“I’m excited about the team this year,” says Mr. Fowler. “We’ve done some things that I think are a little bit different than in the past. Like I said, this is my first year coaching here with the team, so we’ve implemented some different strategies in their training regimen, this year. I think that has paid off. Just about every athlete at this point has run their fastest time. They’ve all run their personal best this season, and we’re getting closer to this portion of the season now where they’ll be competing for the metro championship and district championship and trying to get as many people to qualify for regional and for state as much as we can. So, so far we are on pace for many of our athletes to surpass their personal records this year, but like I said, one of the goals is to get them to the regional meet or to qualify for the state league, so it’s going well right now.”
Though this is Mr. Fowler’s first year being a cross country coach at Apopka, he is in his seventh year coaching the sport overall, so he’s pretty much found a coaching style and method that suits him best. “Well, I was a track athlete myself,” he told us, “so I really have a passion for running and the sport of track and field, as well as cross-country because of course, that deals with running, as well. And just the idea of, you know, making individuals better at what they do. It’s kind of like being a teacher. I started off as being a teacher first, for ten years I was a math teacher, and coaching and teaching are one in the same. You’re in a business of helping students unlock the potential that they have and helping them build their confidence to reach higher levels than what they expected they can reach.”
Because he’s done cross country and track and field when he was a high school student, he finds the blend between being a student-athlete and being a coach for the team to be interconnected with one another. “I feel it does [blend]. I’ve experienced it. I’ve run stuff in high school and ran in college as well. So from the aspect of the experience and understanding what they go through physically and understanding what they go through mentally as athletes, or as student-athletes, because I also have to balance the academic side of things with practice and competition, and in that respect I do have that experience, I know what they’re going through and at the same time I know those obstacles that they’re gonna face as being student-athletes.”
Mr. Fowler also explains that being a good athlete doesn’t mean you’ll naturally make a good coach. “You have some people that are great athletes, but they’re not great coaches because they can’t convey those certain concepts to the athletes,” he explained. “So just because you might have been good or might have been great, doesn’t mean you can also teach somebody. So there are some, and I’m not saying that I’m great, but you know there are certain things that you have to be able to build into your coaching or certain qualities that you have to have as a coach outside of just, you know, having them do workouts.”
photo credit: Mrs. Springer, Yearbook
Things are already kicking off to a great start for the cross country team. On Saturday, October 7, the boys and girls cross country teams competed in the Darter Invitational Cross Country Meet at the field of fame. The top runners of were Sydney Fowler who came in 1st place, Ariana Jimenez who came in 2nd place and Jesse Barral who landed in 4th place. Ten of the team members ran their best time for this season. Their next competition is at the Metro Conference Championship on Saturday at West Orange, and they hope to maintain on their path to success as they continue on through the year and strive to represent our school at various state and regional competitions.