As the restrictions on sports continue to loosen during the COVID-19 pandemic, Green Level High has started to get back to striving in sports and academics. All athletes are excited to be able to get into their sports again. Recently the cross country team has been working hard to get ready for their season. Last week the Green Level Cross Country team had their first preseason workout of the year. Before now they have been hard at work on their own to get better in hopes of thriving during their season.

To get a deeper knowledge of the hopes and realities of cross country this year I took the liberty of asking Carly Barello how the preseason workout went for her and what she hopes and expects for cross country this year. I also asked her how she thought COVID-19 will affect the sport.

For Carly, she felt like things are going well and she loves that she finally gets to see people in person. She feels very fortunate to have a lot of people in her group with her. That’s probably one of the best things for Green Level’s student-athletes during this time. Connection with our teammates is highly important and it is a lot harder to accomplish that now.

I then asked Carly about her hopes for Cross Country this year and how COVID-19 might affect the season. She responded saying, “I hope and believe we will still have a strong XC season this year despite the adversities due to COVID. Covid will and has already affected the season a lot especially in terms of when the actual season occurs and it has forced our XC meets to be smaller. This is personally my first year of XC so it’ll be an interesting first season for me, but I’m looking forward to it regardless. It’ll be a challenge getting to know some of my new teammates I haven’t met before, but I’m still excited to get closer with those in my pod.”

Despite the challenges and struggles, Carly and her teammates push past them. They work hard to make the best out of their season, and are working to build a special bond between teammates. We hope that they will get the season they desire. The future is bright for Green Level Cross Country. No matter the walls that block them they will knock them down and thrive to the best of their ability.