First Week of Practice

 OK.  HERE WE GO!!!!!

Tomorrow, August 3rd, marks the first day of the 2026 CIF season.  All serious teams in the SJS will be starting practice tomorrow.  Since we're serious.....we goin'!

Please check this week's pracitce schedule

Please note, if you are not cleared to participate, you cannot come to practice.  That will reflect poorly on you, but at this point, it is what it is.  

6 Minute Test Tomorrow

The purpose of any 6 minute test is to give us a snapshot of where we are at RIGHT NOW.  It CAN help to prognosticate how the season is going to go, but please remember, it's only August 3rd.  Give it your best effort tomorrow and if you put up a great mark, congratulations.  If your fitness ends up not being where you want it to be, then you still have a whole season to fix that.  

The 6 minute test will be used to guide our early season training.  Your early season hard workouts will largely be based on how you do on the test tomorrow.

400m Time Trial on Wednesday

I get it, none of you will race the 400 this season.  The purpose of the 400 time trial is to help gauge your aerobic fitness.  If you have a good 6 minute test, but your 400 his bad, this means that you're more aerobically fit than someone who runs the same 6 minute test, but goes 8 seconds faster than you for the 400.  That person is more anaerobically fit, and some of that anaerobic fitness showed up in the 6 minute teset.  

So, the 400m TT is ALSO going to be used to help guide your training paces early on.  

I think we're in a really good spot.

Some of you have had massive summers.  Mason, Sam, Jeremiah, Maggie, Tyler, Grace, Sophia A, Melanie......these are a few of the athletes that come to mind who have really stepped up their training this summer.  I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of break throughs all of that work will lead to.  

Remember, even though we're in a pretty good spot right now, we've got a long way to go.  Some of you are right about where I expected you to be and some of you are a little behind.  If you feel like you're a little behind, don't cry about it, just start stepping it back up.  We'll be fine. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at 7:00 Tomorrow Morning. 

- Bernard

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