Second-year coach Chris Fitzgerald, on the first day of practice, was pleased with how his eleven runners kept working diligently during the summer months and appeared to be in great shape.

While many of us haven’t even forked over our life savings for textbooks yet, both men and women’s cross country teams already started their seasons more than a week ago, in preparation for the upcoming Massachusetts Maritime Invitational scheduled for September 11. Unlike a typical cross country course, this race will be held on a flat surface. Coach Fitzgerald describes the first of the nine races of this season as, “a trial to see what we got at the beginning of the season.”

It’s unfortunate that most of us will not have a single opportunity to watch the outcome of their efforts. They are enthusiastic athletes who choose to run up and down hills on a rugged road, outside, in an urban area. About this year’s prospects, Fitzgerald stated that the women’s team has the potential to be a serious contender in the Little East Conference. “We have a strong women’s team with eight experienced runners. They are solid people who know how to compete in a race,” Fitzgerald commented. With two returning runners and six new-comers, Fitzgerald expects the team to perform better than past results would dictate. In last year’s Little East Conference XC Championship, the Beacons’ two runners finished at 26th and 44th out of 44 runners total.

As for the men’s team, Fitzgerald said, “This is a rebuilding year to get them experienced and prepare for next year and the year after.” Currently the squad has only three players while five are required to qualify as a team. sophomore Jin Zugian is the only returning runner from last season, while another sophomore, Thy Toeum, has only just joined, and freshman Michael Leavitt was only recently recruited from Brockton High School.

Fitzgerald talked about the difficulties of leading the UMB Beacons, a division three team, in competition against “big” college teams such as UMass Amherst, MIT, and Tufts. “It’s really tough to practice several days a week for five miles and compete against runners who practice seven days a week for eight miles each time.”

Among various challenges bothering Fitzgerald, the most troublesome has been a lack of players. When he became the coach of both the men’s and women’s clubs two years ago, he didn’t even have a full men’s team. So Fitzgerald, also working as general manager of the Beacon Fitness Center, talked to people who were in good shape or ran on treadmills and tried persuading them to join his team. Finally, he filled the five vacant spots in time and sent the team to the New England Alliance XC Championship to finish 10th out the 11 teams.

In addition to refining his current rosters, molding the Beacons into worthy challengers for their LEC rivals (including the nationally-renowned Keene State College), he also has to once again scout out players for this season. When asked how he convinces people to join up when cross country is deemed as one of the most wearisome and ball-busting of sports, Fitzgerald commented: “I’m not going to fool people by saying this is an easy sport. This is tough. But this is not the only tough sport.”

Fitzgerald, who himself captained the division two Northern Kentucky University, described the most interesting part of cross country as “[the] challenge of different courses, sometimes on grass and sometimes rocky.” Fitzgerald also pointed out that the sport also has the dimension of a mental challenge. For example, on a narrow trail, if a runner goes in front of another one, the former can see the whole view of what’s coming up, while the other runner cannot, and so becomes more anxious about upcoming factors (such as surface, and curbs), resulting in both physical and mental fatigue.

A message to new-coming students: “I prefer experienced runners, but I also welcome anybody who is interested in cross country.” Coach Fitzgerald can be reached at [email protected], 617-287-6788, or at his office at Beacon Fitness Center.