Cross country has never been an extremely populated sport like football, volleyball, dance or cheer. When most think of cross country, they think of running for miles through rough terrain in the middle of nowhere. But, there is so much more to cross country than that stereotyped mindset.
This year especially, the cross country team has shown a great amount of selflessness, courage, and leadership. In other sports, the seniors are the team leaders, the ones who guide the younger athletes during games. In the 2026 season, the cross country seniors are more than just leaders. They are coaches, mentors, and friends without even lacing up their running shoes.
Louisville has reached an all time low of zero consistently running seniors. While this is extremely devastating for the seniors who are spending their last year of cross country healing, there are many positives for seniors Blake Beck, Keegan Witte, Kiara Trent, Sienna Stephens, and even sophomore Harper Gaebel.
Each runner has spent countless hours helping the younger runners. Due to their injuries and a lack of other upperclassmen, the team is based heavily around underclassmen. They now have more coaches than they have ever had before.
Every day at practice, the injured athletes don’t just sit around. They are up and moving, to the best of their ability, practically becoming secondary coaches.
Cross country coach Mr. York said, “The leadership has been really good. They remind folks of techniques, they encourage them, and challenge them during the run.”
Coaching and running are noticeably different skills in cross country. Each runner describes it as being a big change to their season of cross country. Senior Keegan Witte defines coaching as seeing a totally different perspective of the sport.
Witte said, “I thoroughly enjoy it. I like seeing what the coaches see, and seeing how difficult or easy it is to make certain decisions. It’s made me more of an unselfish runner in a way.”
Witte’s ankle injury didn’t start from just cross country alone. During his high school career, Witte had more than 30 ankle sprains throughout his multitude of sports. This dangerous number of sprains led to a needed ankle surgery during the start of the season.
“I couldn’t walk for two weeks, so the fact that I’m able to walk, jog, and jump now gives me a positive outlook on this injury,” Witte said.
Another top athlete at Louisville is senior Kiara Trent. Trent has had similar experience this season; being an impressive runner who has had her senior season taken from her in the blink of an eye.
As a senior, who is planning to run cross country in college, Trent was initially disappointed in the fact she would miss her senior season. But, she has found some positives in this hard time.
“I enjoy seeing the improvement of the younger runners; it’s made me further realize I want to be a high school coach when I’m older,” Trent said.
Sophomore Harper Gaebel has had a very different experience than the rest. Gaebel, a new runner on the cross country team, tore the IT band in her hip.
Without the cross country knowledge the other seniors have, Gaebel has only experienced coaching in cross country. She talks about her excitement for the years to come and is taking steps to help prevent further injuries.
Gaebel said, “I’ve been stretching a lot, and have been preparing myself to come back better next year.”
Coach York has also had to deal with the great absence of runners this year, creating a unique season for him to coach.
York said, “My heart regularly aches for them because they don’t get to do something they’ve chosen to do, or are not able to do it well.”
There have been some hidden positives for Coach York though. During practices he is assisted by all of the generous athletes who are unable to run, but have the heart to help. Mr. York even describes the experience as being more of a mentor than a coach this year.
All of these changes may not have originally been positive, but the team has found many new ways to, as Coach York says, “find the fun in the run.”