I interviewed Rosemary Morishita who is a sophomore in her second cross country season, and a new addition to the varsity seven on the girls’ team. She said, “I think cross country is not publicized as much as football and other popular sports for sure, but every now and then when someone breaks some amazing time, it is talked about.” Morishita also mentioned seeing videos on social media about running.
Morishita explained she thinks that cross country does not get as much attention as other sports. “I think cross country doesn’t get as much attention because of societal preferences. I mean we’ve all heard of the Super Bowl and the World Series, but there isn’t really anything big for cross country in that way. We’ve made such a big culture around other sports.” She also went on to mention the fact that it may seem overall less entertaining.
Morishita said, “I think we can gain more attention from students at Poly to come to cross country meets and to make cross country more entertaining by showing how running doesn’t have to be miserable. I think running has a bad reputation in a way. You make so many connections and friends and now running doesn’t feel so bad. You learn to love the sport and the people you run with. It’s not just running, it’s lifelong friendships, experiences and memories.”
I was really satisfied with Rosemary’s answers, as I am a cross country runner on the team with her as well, and I feel the same way about all of her responses. Running is perceived in a negative way, and changing the way it is seen would definitely help people enjoy it more, and even want to watch it. Knowing that I got some information from someone in the sport, I wanted to speak to someone that publicizes events such as football games. For my next interview, I decided to talk to Devyn Curamen, a member of the student council who knows exactly what goes on behind the scenes of publicizing sports.
Curamen said, “ASB usually arranges publicizing of sports through social media. For example, many times all ASB commissioners are required to repost Friday Football games to increase the attendance and energy of the student section. There are also posters around campus publicizing sports game dates and dress up themes, if there are any.”
She also said “Some sports are advertised more than others due to student participation. For example, at football games, 3 sports are involved to show the spirit of Long Beach Poly. These sports are the Football team on the field, the cheerleaders on the track who give the student section energy, and the band who plays each famous tune known to make the Poly culture. Also, ASB is heavily involved in planning these events; with MCs for the student sections, running the concession stands, and grade senates selling items for the game.” She also shared how all of these factors unite the student spirit at games, celebrating our Poly tradition.
Curamen finished her thoughts saying, ”I think we can gain more attention from Poly students to come to cross country meets through increasing the spirit and energy of meets. Curamen gave some ideas to improve school participation at cross country meets such as doing cheering contests, playing music, and having more publicity on platforms like Instagram.
I really appreciated getting Devyn’s point of view because I got a better understanding of why sports like football are promoted more, and how the attention is directed to make it that way. I definitely think in the age of social media, getting people’s attention for cross country meets will need to come from somewhere people will see it, which is probably digital advertisement. For my next interview, I wanted the perspective of someone different, who understands cross country, and has seen the popularity and publicity change in the sport over many years from experience. I decided to ask Coach Mandy Wainfan, the head coach of girls cross country about her views on the topic. Coach Mandy ran at Poly all four years while she attended, and was a varsity athlete on the team for a part of those years as well. She is now the Head Coach of LB Poly Girls XC, Dr. of Chiropractic at Performance Place Sports Care, and an ultra-marathon runner. An overall very impressive woman that I am glad to know and have the benefit of receiving knowledge from.
Coach Mandy explained, “XC was known as a huge team when I was at Poly— if I recall correctly the girls team alone had more team members than football. It was status quo to have friends pulling their friends into XC who pulled their friends into it and so on. We were known for our team culture of support for one another and celebrating each other doing hard things no matter the speed/place etc” She mentioned her own time at Poly and how the team had a successful sweep at Moore League finals in all three levels on the girls side, and the Varsity team making it to state. “Perception has changed some with several coaching changes and with Covid killing our numbers for a couple years. The results side of it is different given sweeping league etc was insane, but I think those two factors combined have made cross country not cross the minds of those who don’t know about the sport.”
She stated further, “XC attention starts with the team and their friends and family. The first step is to get the team excited for the teammates they don’t know as well— knowing their PRs and goals and staying at races to cheer them on.” She also spoke about family members attendance helping the numbers, and telling your peers about the sport itself since they might not know a sport like cross country exists. “Context is everything particularly in a sport that isn’t as spectator friendly. A good viewing area at the finish is always exciting too!“
Lastly, she added “In fairness part of the lack of attention comes down to a larger social culture. Running, in the US, is seen as punishment or something people force themselves to do for health reasons. In other countries, races are celebrated as peak athleticism even below the pro level. There are trail races, basically adult XC, that look like the Tour de France in terms of how many spectators there are. If running were celebrated as a natural activity and something humans were born to do, I think the competitive side of it would be celebrated much more than it is in the US.” She added that if more people started to run, they would understand the insane physical attributes that High School runners have. People typically ask “why” runners put themselves through the pain, instead of being impressed by the determination. “Celebration starts with culture, and while I can’t control national culture, I think cultivating the support and context and excitement starting with the team and extending out to friends and family and hopefully the student body at large will help bring attention to XC.”
Coach Mandy’s answers put my research into a whole new perspective for me. Her points were above and beyond what I was looking for, and I am so glad to have her views in my story because they add so much more value from her experience, and that is something that you can’t fake. I realized that since running is perceived as a punishment in most sports, and an extremely painful physical feat to most people, so much so that most people are too shy to start running. Some don’t know where to start, and some don’t give it any thought because they “hate running”. I do think it is not impossible to shift this widespread view by society though because as Coach Mandy said, other countries celebrate running as part of the culture. The view of running being too difficult goes beyond just running, I think the U.S has normalized being significantly less active than other countries. This ideology is passed down from generation to generation, and as people spend less time outside, less time active, their perception of running and physical activity becomes worse and worse to the point where they just don’t do it. So going back to the heart of this entire story, we need to publicize, and let people know that small sports like running are fun, and not something that should be dreaded, it is something that you should be grateful that you have the ability to do. All in all, educating people about a sport through things like social media, that they do not know much about, could help the number of spectators attending increase, and bring a lot of benefit to athletes.
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