We visited the Bay School located at the Presidio of San Francisco. The school opened in 2004 and their main building is a former army barrack built in 1912 and is a national historic landmark. The Bay School is a private college prep school that competes in California's division V. Coach Walfred Solorzano leads the team and this evening he had the athletes warm up to the Golden Gate Bridge. At the bottom of the bridge, the athletes did a single file drill for three miles to Fort Mason. They finished the practice with striders and exercises on the Main Parade Lawn at the Presidio.
As written by the 2024 XC captains:
During the summer, how often does the team practice?
We meet up five times a week. We usually do a Monday through Thursday schedule along with Saturday practice.
What are some special summer activities?
Every July, we have a few athletes participate in Tracksmith’s Twilight 5000, and much of the team comes out to watch. The athletes spend time together while cheering our teammates on! During the summer, some of the group goes up to Tahoe to train at altitude for a week. This is incredibly special because the team gets to spend the whole week together while getting some training in more intense conditions than we are usually accustomed to. But more importantly, it is a great opportunity to build better relationships.
How do you build team culture?
The Bay team is very special. It has come a long way since August 2021. A lot of this is due to the strong foundation built by the 2024 graduating class. Each year the upper classmates strive to create an inclusive and fun environment for incoming runners by enforcing the idea that your worth on the team isn’t correlated to your results. Each day, the whole team works together to push every member to be a better runner and better person. We are like a family with a supporting an environment where everyone can lean on each other for support and encouragement.
We try to foster this environment year round, especially during the offseason. The captains have done a great job making a team where everyone is motivated to show up and run, even on our more challenging days. Doing these things together every single day creates consistency and camaraderie while having fun. This also allows incoming students to meet the team and make new friends before their first day of high school.
During practice, we spend lots of time with each other. We start by hanging out at The Bay picnic tables, waiting to hear what's on board for practice that day. We then all walk over the green space to do activation exercises together. On our easy days, we pass the time with conversation. There’s rarely a moment when everyone is silent. When we finish running for the day, we all meet at the green space again to stretch and do core together. Even before practice starts, we all sit together, waiting for practice to start. While each of these events on their own may seem insignificant, together they add up.
One thing that unites our team is running together. There is rarely a day when a team member will find themself running alone, and be it during an easy run or a workout, having someone running beside you to chat with makes our runs so much better and brings us all closer. During practices, we spend so much time together, even when we aren't running. The team likes to chat between workout reps and during cooldowns, and at the end of every practice, we stretch and do core together. This brings the team together a lot, as everyone is united through all of our shared experiences.
What are some events that the team is looking forward to in the fall season?
Our first meet is the Lowell Invitational, which is always fun because it’s the first opportunity for most everyone to get out and race. Another fun event is Clovis invitational, because it allows us to preview the state course as well as spend time together. Everyone is also very excited for Fall Sports night, which is a fun way to showcase the progress the team has made during the season to the rest of our school.
We’re looking forward to seeing what we can do at NCS and State. Our program is relatively new and we’re seeing huge improvement year after year. We’re hoping to build off the momentum from last season, where the girls team qualified for the state meet for the first time ever and had our first individual state champion, Elsa Krummel. This year both teams have high hopes for where the season will take them, and the amazing progress everyone has had over the last few months has everyone feeling optimistic and excited for what 2024 XC season will bring!
Click HERE for the photo gallery of Bay School's practice
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