A glow in the dark run is how the Warren Central High School cross-country team is trying to keep practice exciting. Summer practices are a part of every athlete’s routine and with the heat, and repetitive nature of practices they can quickly become a chore. Friday night, the team met at the Vicksburg National Military Park and each runner loaded themselves down with glow sticks for the run ahead. They ran either the long or short north route and were greeted at the finish line with Gatorade and snacks.

“It was a nice change of pace from running the courses during the day and of course the free food at the end was nice. It was really fun,” said Alex Velazquez.

The cross-country team has reached an unprecedented size this year with over fifty team members ranging from seventh graders to high school seniors. This is because coach Beth Krapac does not believe in cutting people who want to run.

“As long as they’re happy I’m happy. I want to make sure they love this sport so they’ll do it forever.”

Krapac, in her third year as coach, decided to change things a bit.

“I had so much interest and so many seventh graders coming out really wanting to run and I started with a program of 30 seconds of running and two minutes of walking and built up from there. Now almost all of them can run the short north loop of 2.75 miles by themselves.”

Krapac is excited about this upcoming season.

“I’m a bit overwhelmed but overall very excited to see what we can do. We have so many young kids who will hopefully stick with it and the best training ground, the Military Park.”

The team has an upcoming season of seven meets and two volunteer runs. The first is at Clinton High School on August 28 and the last will be on November 8 at Choctaw Trails.

“Everyone is doing very well and the team is very big. All of the new kids will be really good when I’m gone. It just makes it more fun,” said KK McCarley, a veteran runner.