Middle school programs help expand sport

Bridget Lanier laced up her running shoes and headed off into the great unknown that is cross country. An eighth-grader at the time, Lanier decided to join the Braden River Middle School cross country team.

“I thought it would be interesting,” said Lanier, now a Braden River High freshman.

And ...?

“I really love the sport,” she said.

That is the idea behind Manatee County’s middle school cross country program: to introduce students to a high school sport that does not have the feeder program of, say, baseball or volleyball or softball or football or wrestling or swimming or even track and field.

Now in its third year, the county’s middle school cross country program is paying off big time for the girls teams at Lakewood Ranch and Braden River high schools.

Lakewood Ranch is the favorite to win today’s Class 3A-Region 3 meet in Port Charlotte with a top five that consists of four graduates of the middle school program — sophomore Devin McDermott and freshmen Kristen Zarrella, Natalie Novak and Ashley Platt.

Braden River, running today in its first-ever region meet, has three freshman — Lanier, Madison Daunt and Kristie Affolter — who came out for the team in August with working knowledge of cross country thanks to the two-meet middle school season.

“It’s fun being part of a team,” said Daunt, who joined the middle school program as a seventh-grader. “It’s an individual sport, but it’s also a team sport. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Lakewood Ranch girls coach Mary Quinn said one of the toughest parts of coaching cross country is getting freshmen to come out for a sport they know little about. That’s why Quinn and Mustangs boys coach Bryan Thomas volunteered to introduce cross country at the middle schools four years ago. One of the young runners Quinn encountered was Emily Wray, who is now a junior at Lakewood Ranch and finished 12th at last week’s district meet.

“A lot of them don’t know they have the ability in this sport until they try it,” Quinn said.

Count McDermott in that group. She joined her middle school team as a way to build endurance for soccer. Turns out, McDermott is a pretty good distance runner. She lowered the Lakewood Ranch school record last fall as a freshman.

Braden River coach Chris Bratton, who coaches the Florida Express youth track team, knows kids love to race each other down the street or across the school yard. But racing non-stop for two miles in middle school and three miles in high school is a foreign concept.

“They don’t think they can, because they never tried it,” Bratton said. “But in every county where they have a middle school cross country program, they have good high school cross country programs. It’s helped my program tremendously.”

Beginning with Zarrella, who won the Class 3A-District 5 meet last week, seven of the top-13 finishers were Lakewood Ranch or Braden River runners with a middle school cross country background — Zarrella, McDermott (third), Novak (fourth), Platt (sixth), Lanier (ninth), Wray (12th) and Daunt (13th).

Breaking up that group was Ranch freshman Olivia Ortiz, who was introduced to the sport this season.

“They get started in middle school, they like the sport, they improve,” Quinn said. “When they get here, we fine tune them, get their endurance up and team them how to race.”

Today, those former middle school runners are racing for a spot in the state meet.