The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - It's a team sport and an individual sport, says Dayton cross coun­try coach Dan Nechodom. In this sport, you compete against other teams and try to move yourself up in the standings.

However you look at it, though, it's a sport you either love or hate, say the athletes who participate.

"It's about building endur­ance and just running and having fun," says Dayton senior Jason Norris, Dayton's only fourth-year runner on the team this year.

Cross country is a running event where athletes compete to complete a course over open or rough terrain. Cours­es often include grass, dirt, mud, hills and flat ground. Nechodom likes to mix things up during practice. "If all you did was run out on the streets, it would get boring," he said. The six-year veteran coach says he likes to get the kids running all over the place, including up in the Blue Mountains, where their bodies have to adapt to less oxygen, and a course he refers to as the "grandmother race" - where students run out the Touchet road, "and then it's literally over the river and through the woods," he said. Last year the boys' team finished "in the middle of the

said Norris. "But a lot of good runners graduated last year, so I think we'll do well. I think we're stronger this year." Norris, as with many of the students in cross country, participates in other sports later in the school year. He likes cross country because it gets him ready for basketball season, he said. Senior Claire Lyman plays softball. She believes the girls' team didn't do well last year, but that's not the point, she said. She just likes to run. "I have to admire the kids who do this," Nechodom said. "You don't get huge crowds out here to cheer them on, but they seem to enjoy it. Sometimes I wonder if they're crazy. I know I am."

Coach Nechodom trains with his students, running with them and encouraging them. "We'll do some tough stuff, but it's nothing com­pared to what they'll face in life," he said. "The first time they have a kid in their face yelling "I hate you," they'll be thinking, "Man I wish I could get out and run 10 miles.'" Nechodom, who also teaches middle school math in Dayton, said he takes the long view on cross country training. His focus is on encouraging life-long, char­acter building skills. "One of the things I like about cross country is that it gets you ready for being mentally tough for all the things life will throw at you."

"The human body is most amazing machine there is," he says, explaining that he likes to have his athletes run barefoot for 15 minutes per week in the grass to "teach the body to run the way it's supposed to." Shoes "baby" our feet, he said, and just like wearing a cast on your arm for a long time, shoes make our feet weak, he said.

Senior Jaron Button is a good example of a student who has seen the value of Nechodom's teachings. But­ton has enlisted in the Ma­rines with a delayed entry, meaning he'll be off to boot camp the day after gradua­tion. "I wanted a challenge," he said of his decision. "Some­thing to set the tone for the rest of my life."

Button has played foot­ball, basketball and par­ticipated in track in the past. Running cross country this year is helping him train for a better running time and preparing him for boot camp - mentally and physically, he says. Dayton Cross Country

Anita Jackson Briana Fulbright Claire Lyman Jacob McCleary Jaron Button Jason Norris Marshall Nechodom Nathaniel Steen Nick Owns Seth Jackson

Coach: Dan Nechodom