Seven Lakes High School’s cross country fall prep

By Nitya Hosur, Editorial Intern
Posted 8/19/21

“This is a sport where even if you have talent,” Kenney said, “talent can only take you so far.”

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Seven Lakes High School’s cross country fall prep

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Seven Lakes girls’ cross country coach David Pollack and boys’ cross country coach Scott Kenney are preparing for the upcoming season.

      Kenney has been with the program since its inception in 2005, and at that time, he was hired as the head coach for the girls track team. For the first eight years of the school’s existence, he served as the head coach for the girls track team, and then he became an assistant coach to spend more time with his family.

Five years ago, Kenney said he got back into coaching cross country and then was able to serve as the head coach for the boys cross country team. Kenney said that he has always wanted to be a social studies teacher and a coach, and he also teaches AP Human Geography alongside cross country.

       Pollack grew up around coaches, which influenced him and his idea for the future. He played football in high school and competed in track in high school and college. After graduating, Pollack moved to Texas from New York and coached track and football until 2012 at Hightower High School.

In 2012, when the head coaching position for the track team opened at Seven Lakes, Pollack applied and was given the position, as long as he was the head coach for the girls cross country team as well. Although Pollack knew nothing about cross country, Pollack said that Kenney, who was the head coach at the time, helped Pollack learn the ropes. 

“Cross country is a sport classified by the UIL as an individual sport,” Kenney said, “but there is a much bigger team component to the sport.”

        Cross country involves running a distance anywhere between two miles and five kilometers. Each school tries to put together a team of runners, which consists of a minimum of five scoring runners and a maximum of seven runners. Each team competes with other schools over a 5k or two mile race, and the first five runners are the scoring runners. Depending on their finishing position in the race, they will be allocated a certain amount of points, which will be totaled up to give a final score to the team. The sixth and the seventh runners count as tie breakers, in the event that two or more teams have the same score. Whichever team has the highest score wins the race.

         The freshman boys team competes in two mile races, while the JV and the Varsity teams compete in 5k races. For the girls team, the JV team competes in both the two mile and 5k races while the Varsity team competes in 5k races. In cross country, there are different divisions. Schools can have a varsity girls race and a JV race at one meet, along with an open race. Kenney said that the open race is for runners who are not able to participate in the freshman, JV, or Varsity races usually due to a limit on the number of runners in a team.

     Kenney said the goal of the cross country teams is to reach and win the district championship. The Katy ISD district, District 19-6A, is one of the more competitive ones in the state of Texas, Kenney said, and has always have their eye on winning districts. 

“Usually,” Kenney said, “it is a battle for the top three teams and Seven Lakes has always got their eye on trying to win the district championships.”

After the first round, held at Paul D. Rushing Park, the regional meet is held 12 days later, hosted by Sam Houston State University. After regionals, Kenney said, the state cross country championship will be hosted on November 6th, which is what the teams’ ultimate goal is.

      Coach Pollack said that in order for the team to be successful, each athlete should have self-motivation and a good work ethic. Pollack said that each athlete should be committed to training year-round, and dedicating time towards cross country while managing with their school lives.

“This is a sport where even if you have talent,” Kenney said, “talent can only take you so far.”

Seven Lakes, Katy ISD, cross country, running