The future of the SBHS cross country team is looking very bright
with this year’s incoming freshmen making big strides
Hollister – When they were in the seventh grade, brothers Erik and Adrian Rodriguez began training with San Benito High cross country coach Jess Morales.
Fast forward two years and things look pretty much the same for the pair of SBHS freshmen. Only now, all of that training the two did in junior high has paid off in a big way.
Erik and Adrian are only in their first year of running cross country as Haybalers but their early-season progress has earned both of them a spot on the varsity squad, which has a big weekend ahead of it as the ‘Baler cross country team will be running at the Stanford Invitational, one of the country’s biggest meets, this weekend.
But the Rodriguez brothers aren’t the only talented freshman to join coach Morales’ team this season. Robert Hernandez, Ian Bambrick, A.J. Huertas, Morris Stevens and Lance Villasenor, who is also running with the varsity squad, are all making tremendous strides in improving their running skills.
As a team, the ‘Baler freshmen took third place at the Early Bird Invitational out of 50 teams and more than 200 runners. And the scary thing is, they’ve improved a lot since that invite earlier this month.
“In cross country, it all boils down to heart,” coach Morales said. “And these guys have a lot of heart.”
Adrian Rodriguez started the season by finishing the Early Bird Invite in 18:20, a respectable time that helped the team achieve its third-place finish. But last weekend at the Chieftain Classic in Salinas, Rodriguez showed how quickly he’s progressed to a varsity-level athlete by covering the same 3.1-mile distance in 17:30, almost a full minute quicker than at the Early Bird.
It’s all part of Morales’ master plan for his team. The sooner his younger athletes get comfortable with the speed of the varsity game, the sooner they will get comfortable performing on a high level.
“In the two invitationals that the freshmen have run, they learned a lot,” said Morales. “Now, running varsity doesn’t seem so hard to them. They’re ready for Stanford this weekend. The mentality is really coming along.
The three freshmen running varsity, along with seasoned veterans like Rigo Vasquez, Eddie Trujillo, Alfredo Lopez and Cameron Hill, will no doubt make some waves this season. And, given how quickly the freshman team as a whole is progressing, things are looking very good for 2005 and beyond.
