Q:

A:

The equipment needs for track and cross country are virtually identical. 

Required Equipment:

• Team Jersey (purchased through the Chippewa Valley Sporting Goods store at the time of registration)
• Black running shorts with no logo (middle school can buy any black running shorts, high school has a specific set of black shorts to match the team that must be purchased through the Chippewa Valley Sporting Goods store at the time of registration
• Running shoes (laces required)
• Water bottle
• Backpack/Duffle Bag for carring equipment
• Warm-ups (pants and jacket or sweatshirt) - these do not need to have the team logo or be a particular color, but meets and practices can get cold and we have had athletes deal with injuries due to not staying warm enough
• Stopwatch or watch with a stopwatch feature (needed for practices and home workouts)

Optional: 

• Running Spikes (typically used by high school athletes only) 
• GPS Watch
• Spare socks/shoes/sandals for pre-/post-race

Things that are not allowed during a race at a meet:

• Headphones
• GPS Watches / Smart Watches

Q:

A:

This is on a case-by-case basis.  The Lightning Bolts is an athletic organization that operates with volunteer staff who typically do not have training for special needs.  Our athletes are expected to be able to adhere to the code-of-conduct, operate reasonably independently, and demonstrate appropriate self-control and personal responsibility during Team Practices, Team Events, and Cross Country Meets.
We want to welcome as many athletes to join the Lightning Bolts but recognize our limitations and recommend families with Athletes that have special needs reach out to leadership to understand if the Lightning Bolts is a good fit for their family/athlete.

Q:

A:

Track Coaches: cvlb-trackcoaches@googlegroups.com

Cross Country Coaches: cvlb-xccoaches@googlegroups.com

Q:

A:

In an effort to give Chippwa Valley Sporting Goods plenty of time to get all our orders to us in time for the first meet, registration this year (2025) will be opening on July 1st and closing July 17th.

Q:

A:

The cross country season typically begins the second-to-last week of August and runs for 9-10 weeks, ending at the Homeschool Championship Meet which is usually held on the 3rd Saturday of October.

Q:

A:

During the cross country season, athletes are required to have seven "team" practices before they are eligible to run in a meet. Thus, our schedule looks like this:

Week 1: The team practices together daily Monday through Thursday

Week 2: The team practices together daily Monday through Wednesday

Weeks 3+: The team practices together on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and has home workouts M/W/F/S

Team practices have typically been from 4-6pm.

Q:

A:

Practices typically occur on running/biking trails at various county parks in the Chippewa Valley. Some of our recurring locations are: Lowe's Creek, City Wells, Irvine Park, and Tower Ridge.

Q:

A:

Practices follow a common structure: warmup, the day's run, stretching/cool down. The team opening and closing of practice is held at the practice location. During the run, runners buddy-up with two or more athletes that they are expected to run with and stay together on the trails. The coach(es) and some parent volunteers run or bike with the groups, but often the athletes are running unsupervised and are responsible for staying together and getting back to the starting area in a timely manner. Coaches will always wait for athletes and frequently check in with groups of athletes on the status of others who have not returned from the run yet.

Q:

A:

Athletes are expected to practice on their own following a set workout plan provided by the Cross Country Head Coach on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. An athlete can be excused from these workouts due to illness or injury. Please communicate the health status of your athlete to the coachng staff if they are unable to perform home workouts. 

Q:

A:

Athletes are expected to make every effort to attend team practices and perform Home Workouts. Three unexcused absences or missed team practice / home workouts will result in your athlete being ineligible to run in the next cross country meet. In the event they cannot meet these requirements, please contact the cross country coaching staff at cvlb-xccoaches@googlegroups.com to inform them of the situation. We readily work with parents/guardians as we know families are very busy and sometimes life just happens. As long as a logical reason is given, we typically excuse the miss or absence. "I didn't feel like it" is not an acceptable excuse.

Q:

A:

Parents/Guardians are welcome to stay at the Team Practices. We can always use volunteers to help keep an eye on equipment at the starting area and also run/walk/ride with athletes on the trails.  During home works parents are expected to ensure logging of the workouts is completed each day through the CVLB Website.  Additionally, while parents are not expected to participate in the practices, they are the accountability partner to the athletes ensuring that assigned workout activities are being performed, and also to monitor the athletes health ensuring overtraining or injuries are not suffered.

Parents/Guardians are expected to help their athlete find a location to train. This can be running laps around their yard, running in a neighborhood, or taking them to trails/parks. If possible, it is encouraged to run on non-paved surfaces but it is not required.  Many of our athletes train on streets or sidewalks in their neighborhoods.

Q:

A:

These are assigned by the head coach with instructions that are similar to what occurs at Team Practice. While there are middleschool and highschool workout plans, we highly encourage parents to communicate with the coaching staff if specific activities or instruction are needed for their athlete given as each athlete is unique.

Q:

A:

All Cross Country Athletes are expected to participate in the Meets.

Q:

A:

There are usually 8-9 meets each season. On average, there is one meet per week.

Q:

A:

Parents/Guardians are expected to ensure their athlete arrives on time to the meet. While at the meet parents are encouraged to participate in cheering and encouraging all athletes (not just our Bolts). If you have siblings attending, parents are fully responsible for non-athlete family members.

Every family is expected to volunteer to help time one meet. This involves choosing a race (ms girls, ms boys, hs girls, hs boys) and tracking/calling out the times of the runners as they pass by the 1 or 2 mile marker. We will give instructions and strive to ensure parents/guardians don’t miss their athletes race wherever possible.

Parents/Guardians should  know the rules of meets (some but not limited to):

• No balls are to be used at meets and should not be brought by the athletes or siblings (footballs, soccerballs, baseballs, etc.)
• Physical contact with athletes will disqualify an athlete (you cannot touch/help an athlete on the course)
• Spectators can cross the course so long as they do not disrupt any athletes.
• Spectators cannot run with/alongside any athlete or give the impression that they are pacing an athlete.

Q:

A:

Every meet is a little bit different in terms of time, but typically our team is expected to arrive on location around 3:00pm. We all meet together and one of the team captains gives a short devotional.

Then the team walks the course together. This is a time for strategy and thinking about how they will run the course, where they will try to speed up, and to get a good feel of what the race conditions are.

Most meets have the first race beginning around 4:00pm.

Depending on the year, the meet will begin with either High School Boys or High School Girls. Each race typically takes about 30 minutes.

The team is expected to stay for all the races and through the awards ceremony at the end where medals are awarded. This can vary by meet, but typically the first 10 - 20 runners in each race will receive a medal. Teams are awarded points for their top 5 runners (in xc you want the lowest number of points), and the first (and sometimes second) place teams are awarded trophies.

Meets end around 7:00pm, though some might end a little earlier and some might end later depending on whether or not the meet decides to have the middle school boys and girls run together or have their own separate races or a 5-minute "staggered" start.

Q:

A:

No, but it is strongly encouraged as it is a capstone of the season and a chance to run against other homeschool teams from around Wisconsin, and sometimes Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Q:

A:

Please let the coaching staff know as soon as you can if an athlete cannot attend a practice or a meet. You can email the coaching staff at:

cvlb-xccoaches@googlegroups.com

Q:

A:

Track and Field seasons start every spring around Mid-March. Registration opens in early February.

Q:

A:

All track and field athletes are expected to participate in the meets.

Q:

A:

All athletes will be required to do some running in home and team practices during the track and field season. 

However, athletes can choose to only compete in events such as discus, shot-put, high jump, long jump, or triple jump (high school only). 

Athletes may also choose to only compete in running events. Though during team practices, all athletes are encouraged to at least try a non-running event.