With all of the fall sports being at the beginning of the year they are very popular but there is one that is commonly overshadowed. Cross country is a very difficult sport, the athletes have to run 5k’s every meet and their training is vigorous, so why is this sport so small while all of the other fall sports are so popular?
The people in cross country often claim their sport is difficult so why would it be overlooked? When asked about why cross country was underappreciated Senior Joseph Meadows claimed, “ A lot of people just don’t understand it, running is kind of a niche sport, it’s not really popularized by the media so it’s overlooked.”
But there may be reasons in which people do come to their meets as it is not easy to watch a meet because of the long terrain there would not be many places to sit and you could only watch the start and finish of the race. Senior cross country runner Colin White, who has ran the sport for four years, proclaimed, “ I think it gets so little attention because it is so difficult to watch and it’s not that exciting [for the audience].”
Another reason cross country may be overpowered by other sports is because of track and field. In track and field you can see what is happening the whole time and it is easy to see how it is happening. Cross country veteran, Senior Ryan Graham said,“ I think track overpowers us because you can see what’s happening the whole time and it is easy to watch and in other sports like football and soccer you are on stands and everything that happens happens right in front of you.
Yet even though the sport itself is overshadowed by others the athletes still love their sport and are unfazed by and are resilient to the fact that they are not as seen Junior runner Cali Duke stated, “I love cross country, I do think it is underrated but it does not change my point of view. I love the sport and even if other people are not watching it as much it is just as much of a sport as soccer and football but if people knew how difficult it was it would be more popular.”
Based on all the previous information the assumption can be made that cross country is more than what it seems and running is barely scratching the surface. The team and people in the sport care so much about it and are so proud of themself that being underrated is the least of their concern.
