Welcome to the team

Hello Husky Parents!

Today, I had the opportunity to speak with your son or daughter about our cross country program at Hughson High school.  I'm extremely confident that, should your child decide to try cross country, he/she will have a great experience.  I am including information regarding our team and how to become part of it in this email.  

With your kids, we talked this morning on just being open to the idea of trying the sport for 3 days.  Then, if after that they don't like it, no hard feelings and they can go do other normal high school stuff.  But, I'm confident that if they do come and try our sport, they'll like it.  Although we kind of fly below the radar, doing a sport that seems kind of weird to most kids, we have a great time, learn valuable life lessons, and win more  than any other program on campus.  

Here is the information you need to become part of our team.

1. Get a sports physical and upload it to home campus.  This post from our team web page should help get you started.
2. Check out the rest of our team website to get a feel for our program.  Most of the best information is in the "pages" section.  Specifically, you'll want to look at the Tips for Newbies and Parents page.
3. Check our team page on athletic.net.  Athletic.net is a service that all of the schools in California use for meet registration.  Plus, every result in the state is compiled on the site.  If you want to see how good we are vis a vis the rest of the schools in California, athletic.net can tell you. 

We will meet for practice next week, Monday - Friday, at 7:00 AM.  Practices last about 2 hours (but for newbies, it will be far less) For athletes that are brand new and are not cleared through home campus yet, I still encourage you to come and try for only 3 days. If you're liking what we're doing after that, go ahead and get the physical and become part of the Hughson Cross Country Family.   

Varsity Girls at Camp

Varsity Boys at Camp

Team Beach Trip - 2026

Practice Starts Monday, 8/3 @ 7:00 AM

Hey Team

We're less than a week away from the start of official practice.  Please note, practice begins 1 week before school begins!  As the coaching staff makes determinations as to who will travel and race with the varsity teams, we will be taking into consideration ALL missed practices throughout the year.  Here is our list of who is cleared to practice so far.  

Girls

Abraham, Zuleima

Aguiar, Sophia

Becchetti, Maggie

Benitez, Grace

Gomez, Sophia

Gutierrez, Anahy

Pimentel, Emily

Reynolds, Ava

Sanchez, Melanie

Boys

Alvarado, Jeremiah

Alvarado, Sam

Arambula, Esai

Franco, Noah

Hill, Tucker

Hoyle, Mason

Lockwood, Shane

Marquez, Oscar

Mendonca, Anthony

Montoya, Jacob

Nava, Carlos

Nunez, Juan

Palos, Juan

Phun, Tyler

Ruiz, Manny

Salinas, Diego

Ziya, Jude

Zurilgen, Jace

If you do not see your, or your child's name on this list, please make arrangements to get a physical and upload all documents to your Home Campus Account

See This Blog Post for instructions to create a Home Campus account

Beach Trip Video

 Our trip this year was GREAT!  I should have taken more video while we were there, though. 

How to Become Eligible to Compete

 

Athletic Clearance 

Don't be like JR

You cannot practice until you have gotten an athletic physical and completed your athletic clearance paperwork through  Home Campus.  Home campus is the ONLY place that you should turn in your physical.  It is part of your athletic clearance account and it will be used for all sports.  When creating your home campus account, make sure to select all sports you plan to play this year. That way you will not have to repeat this process for your next season.

Helpful Hint:  Once you have your phyical filled out, take a picture of both sides of the document.  When home campus prompts you to upload your physical, upload both photos. 

If you do not yet have a physical, Click to this link on the HHS Athletics Page for our physical form and for contact info for chiropractors that can get you in quickly for a physical. 

This process needs to be complete and reviewed by the Athletic Director prior to the start of practice on August 3rd.  Do not upload your physical at 6:45 AM on Monday and expect Mr. Futch to review it by 7:00 for the start of practice.  Get on it NOW!

July - Starting to Pick Up the Pace.

 As of Next Monday, We'll Have Been Going a Month

As we've discussed, in order to keep progressing your fitness, you can't just keep doing the same old thing over and over.  So, as we move into July, here are some suggestions for altering your training just a little bit.

1. Keep increasing the volume - If you are new, or if you are still low in mileage because you're coming off an injury or you just haven't built up your mileage very much yet, then your job is simple: Use our 2 week break to keep adding to your volume
2. Add a second "Hard Run" once every other week - Right now, we're running hard once a week on Tempo Thursday.  If your mileage is where you want it already, your next step can be to add one more hard session once every 2 weeks.  This means that over our 2 week break, you'd go hard 3 times instead of 2.  Simple.  Going hard is relative.  Nobody should be going "Race Hard" unless they actually run a race.

Speaking of Races

The Atwater Run for Independence is a good mid summer opportunity to check your fitness.  If you're a varsity athlete, I'd suggest running the 5 mile version.  If you're newer, or your mileage is still below 30 miles per week, the 2 mile race might be more appropriate.  

Some of your Predecessors in Atwater. 

Summer Beach Trip - 2026

 

End of June Beach Trip

We've Had a Great Summer

Now let's finish it off with a trip to run in my absolute favorite place, The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.  Then for good measure, after the run, Let's go to the beach!

One of the many trails at Nisene Marks

Anyone who has attended 5 or more practices this summer is eligible for the trip.  We have 26 seats in the vans available, so we should be good to go on space.

Here's a Rough Itinerary

7:00 AM - Meet @ HHS Back Lot

7:15 AM - Depart

8:30 AM - Bathroom Break at Casa de Fruta

9:45 AM - Arrive, Nisene Marks

10:00 AM - Run for up to 80 Minutes

11:30 AM - 5 minute drive to Seacliff Beach

11:40 - 2:30 PM - Hang out at Beach, Picnic, swim, etc....

2:30 PM - Depart Beach

3:45 PM - Bathroom stop at Casa de Fruta

5:30 PM - Arrive @ HHS Back Parking Lot.

Cost: $10.00 for food and park admission.  Just bring me cash On the day we go.

What to Bring -Updated 6/29

Come dressed in your running clothes,but you'll want to also bring

• Towel, and a clean change of clothes for afterwards
• Bathing Suit (there is a place to change at the beach)
• Sunscreen, sunglasses, hat

Here's who's going so far. 

Carlos

Diego

Mason

Noah

Eddie

Shane

Melanie

Alina

Emily

Oscar

Sam

Jeremiah

Allison

Maggie

Juan P

Esai

Tucker

Big Ava

Little Ava

Ellie

Juan N

Nayeli

Maritza

Josh

Alumni - Separate Vehicle

Sandro

Rick

Noeli

Bailey

Summer of 2026 is underway!

 June Assessments Are In the Books. 

Hey team.  We've accomplished one of our main goals of the early summer: Get assessments for current running abiliites.  All the training we do should be based on trying to be a little better than our current levels.  So, knowing our current levels is pretty important.  We didn't get all of you tested, but we're pretty close.  Take a look at the results by clicking on This Link. Click the Summer Testing Tabs.  

Let me explain the purpose of each test

• 6 Minute Test - This test gives us a very good estimation of the running speed at which you reach your body's maximum ability to deliver oxygen to your muscles.  We can now use that speed to determine the paces for some of our workouts.  
• 400m Time Trial - This test gives us a couple of pieces of information: 1. It tells us how well you can tolerate high levels of lactic acid in your blood and 2. It is a decent measure of your max running speed. However.....
• 10m Fly Test.  Timing your fastest possible 10m sprint with a running start gives us your True Maximum Speed. Since all of the races you run are at a smaller percentage of your maximum speed, having a higher max speed allows you to run all of your races at a relatively lower percentate of your top speed, and therefore race pace should feel easier and you should be able to use less overall energy at any given race pace. If you want to see how fast you ran in miles per hour, check out this chart.  If you're not currently fast enough to register on this chart.....GET FASTER!......consider this summer a chance to improve enough to get an official speed in MPH

Athletes who competed late into track season will likely have better
tests than those who's season ended at the beginning of May

What do we expect from our August Tests? 

The simple (and overly optimistic) answer is: We want to get better at everything.  For our beginners, this outcome is very likely, however for our experienced athletes that just came off a good track season, that answer is a little less clear.

• 6 Minute Test - For our experienced group, improvements of 50-100m are pretty standard.  However, we are going to run less intensity this summer, so smaller improvements may occur.  Since we won't be doing any workouts that are anaerobic in nature, some of the anaerobic fitness that you carried forward from track will have disappeared by august.  This means that any improvements you do get will be from improved aerobic power and improved economy, which is the focus of our training this summer.
• 400m Time Trial - As strange as this may sound, I don't really expect much improvement in your 400m TT this summer.  In fact, the coaching staff will be happy if you simply don't LOSE any 400m speed this summer.  Your ability to run a good 400 is largely dependent on Anaerobic tolerance, which we will ignore this summer.  What we, as a staff, really want to know is if the strides and short sprints that you'll do this summer will be enough to maintain the gains you made in the 400 during track season. Also, we want a measurement of how much of your 6 minute test performance comes from anaerobic power and how much is aerobic.  Beginners, some of you may improve by 15 seconds by August, though! 
• 10m Fly Test - We would like to see improvements in your 10m fly test of at least 3%.  This means if you ran 1.5 seconds for 10m today, we would hope you can run 1.45 in August.  Beginners, once again, you guys may blow your June tests out of the water in August.

Summer Fundraiser  - Raise Money and go to the fair for FREE!

We need our athletes to sign up for the fundraiser.  We will need a few adults as well.  The following is the information that I received from the Fair.  If you have not signed up yet, here's the link

n exchange for the donation, volunteers from your organization would assist the Fair’s Admissions Department with the following duties:

• Scheduling: Your organization will coordinate and fill 30–35 volunteer shifts assigned by the Stanislaus County Fair.

• Guest Welcome & Ticket Scanning: Volunteers will warmly greet fair guests and scan admission tickets at designated entry gates and the arena gate.

• Shift Length: Volunteers will work 5-hour shifts and must remain at their assigned position for the duration of the shift.

• Shift Times: Shifts begin as early as 6:00 a.m. and run until closing at 11:00 p.m.

• Group Apparel: Volunteers must wear apparel representing their organization (team jerseys, group t-shirts, team hats, etc.).

• Gate Lead: Each gate must have one adult Lead present at each gate from your organization responsible for maintaining volunteer coordination and ensuring professional conduct consistent with the Stanislaus County Fair Employee Handbook. 

• Training: All volunteers must attend a mandatory training session during the first week of July. Date TBA. 

• Schedule Deadline: All shifts must be filled and confirmed with the Stanislaus County Fair's Admissions Manager no later than May 30th to ensure coverage before summer breaks/vacations. 

Volunteer Perks

In addition to the donation made to your organization:

1. Every volunteer will receive a Fair Volunteer Badge, granting FREE admission for the day of their shift and an additional entry on us.

2. The badge also provides FREE parking in the North and West lots.

3. All volunteer groups will be featured for free on our large public-facing LED sign. Logos will be collected when the schedule is confirmed.