Register for Cross Country 2024

Welcome to Catholic United Cross Country! All skill and experience levels are welcome! From 5th grade through 8th grade boys and girls will come together to learn the basics of long distance running and through a variety of training sessions, they will progress in endurance, strength and speed.  Coaching will be structured to aid all runners regardless of skill and experience to develop all the knowledge and skills they will need to compete and reach their personal goals.  All the while, they will meet new friends and have a lot of fun!

  • The Catholic United Cross Country team shall consist of Catholic/Christian parish school teams that are members of the Grand Rapids Area Catholic Elementary Athletic Council (GRACEAC). Players must be enrolled in GRACEAC school or organization or be a member of a Catholic Parish. 
  • All other GRACEAC Handbook rules and regulations apply. 
  • The roster of players and coaches shall be listed in TeamSnap and considered the official team roster. Changes to this roster may not be changed or altered without the GRACEAC Commissioner’s approval. 

Practice 

  • Practices will begin on the 3rd week in August  
  • Practices are held Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7:15
  • Locations may sometimes vary but Millennium Meadows and Richmond park are typically the primary locations.
  • Practices will include warmup exercises followed by a varied workout routine including long runs (3-4 miles), speed drills, hills, fartliks (speed variations) and intervals.  One practice a week will always be a fun (relaxed pace) run.
  • Parents are not required to stay but help and participation in practices is definitely appreciated and very helpful (especially at most practices where the numbers of athletes range between 24-36).
  • All practices, updates, alerts, cancellations etc will be posted in the teamsnap app.  This app is the only tool used to communicate so it is strongly encouraged to have all parents utilize this on their mobile devices.

Meets

  • Meets will take place primarily on Saturdays from the Second week in September through the 3rd week of October.
  • Typically we will run 7-8 meets per season
  •  Meet dates, times, locations and specific information such as but not limited to arrival time, race times, varsity and junior varsity set up, volunteer assignments and drink and food assignments will all be posted on teamsnap.  Updates, alerts, cancellations etc will be posted in the teamsnap app as well.