Cross country is a popular middle school choice, with teams offered at every SA middle school across the network. Many SA scholars have been running since elementary school, and many of them are outstanding athletes across multiple sports. Midtown West Coach Sean Young writes about how neither the pressure of defending the boys’ title, nor the intimidation of being a newly-established girls team, got in the way of his team’s focus, determination, and complete commitment to a try-and-try mindset.

If you passed by Yankee Stadium last month, you might have witnessed two boys running full tilt around the stadium’s perimeter, resistance weights on their legs, leaves crunching beneath their sneakers.