BUCYRUS — There is Little League to develop baseball and softball players. There is AAU to develop basketball players. Very little is heard about developing future cross country runners.
Brian Hensel thought, ‘Why not?’
Hensel started out on his own, working with his three daughters who are in the third, eighth and ninth grades at Wynford. Hensel himself ran cross country for Wynford where he was All-Ohio two years, graduating in 1990, then went on to run at the University of Findlay.
“I saw in a magazine that North Central Power puts out that there was a race up in Tiffin for elementary kids,” Hensel said. “So, I went up there and realized that Tiffin YMCA had an elementary program and Pleasant happened to be there along with Seneca East. They and others in the area all had elementary programs.”
That was five years ago and in his discussions with the Pleasant coach he found out that Pleasant had a program going for 20 years aleady at the time.
“I took my girls down there and continued running with them,” Hensel said. “But they got tired of just running with Dad, so they wanted to know if they could ask some of their friends. I said, “Sure. The more you do it the more fun you have, the longer you will do it.”
Hensel found out where other meets were and started going to them.
“Lo and behold, the program started growing,” Hensel said. “We’re up to about 40 kids now.”
Three of Hensel’s runners represented Wynford in this year’s national meet, which was held in Louisville on November 17. Six had qualifying times, but three could not make the trip for various reasons.
Drew Staneck ran in the boys’ 9-10 age group, Rylee Robinson was in the girls’ 9-10 group and Briana Westrick ran in the girls’ 11-12 age category.
Stanek ran the 3000-meter course in a time of 12:49, finishing 66th of 233 in his age group. Against just other nine-year-old runners, Staneck was 25th out of 101.
Robinson was 75th out of 280 with her time of 13:34 and was 57th of 150 for 10-year-olds only. Westrick was 128th of 283 in the 11-12 category, but 42nd of 117 for 11-year-olds only.
“You have to have a certain qualifying time, which they base on your age,” Hensel said. “Six-to-eight-year-olds run 2000 meters and 9-12-year-olds run 3000 meters.”
Though it is called a national meet, Hensel thinks of it as more of a regional meet.
“Teams come from St. Louis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Nashville, Ann Arbor and Detroit,” Hensel said. “It’s a pretty competitive meet. Last year it was in West Chester (Ohio), this year it was in Louisville. It’s kind of a rotating circuit. I’ve heard next year it’s supposed to be in West Virginia.”
There is also a state elementary meet in Dublin that, according to Hensel, anybody can attend, since it is considered a club sport at that level and is not sanctioned by the OHSAA. It draws teams from everywhere in Ohio.
“It’s kind of unfair for us because I take my Wynford team down there and run against teams like the Grasshoppers,” Hensel said. “They’re a team out of Columbus and they win it every year. They find every great runner in the area and we have no chance of beating them.
“I’ve thought about grabbing a couple other people from our area,” he continued. “But my main goal is to try to build the Wynford program, not win meets now.”
Since Hensel got the Wynford program going, others in Crawford County have followed his lead. Bucyrus and Colonel Crawford started elementary programs and Galion revived its program that had lapsed from some years ago.
“Four of the six county schools now have programs,” Hensel said. “And there are a lot of schools in Marion County, like Pleasant and Cardington, that have programs. Most of the high school meets are now having elementary races.”
Kindergarten through third grade race a half mile and fourth through sixth grades race a mile.
“We start whenever the Bratwurst Festival is,” Hensel said. “They have that fun run for the kids, which is like our first meet. We have a meet every Saturday for the next 14-16 weeks.”
Most of the meets take place in Findlay, Tiffin and Cardington.
So, if your youngster cannot hit a pitched ball or make a layup, take heart. There could be a place for him or her in cross country. And the programs are now in place to accommodate them.