Leading the pack
Brown looks to set the pace for La Plata girls cross country
Before transferring to La Plata High School in March of her sophomore year, Hasanya Brown attended Enterprise in Redding, Calif., where she first was introduced to cross country by head coach Jim Deaver that same year.
She immediately fell in love with the sport and became the top runner on the girls team in her junior season with La Plata.
Brown, also a member of the indoor and outdoor track and field teams, strives to be more than the top performer on the girls squad.
During practice she runs with teammates stride for stride as one. She talks strategy with her teammates and makes sure the group is pacing itself right and saving energy for the final stretch.
Now as a senior, Brown has embraced that role as a vocal leader and will be the catalyst on the girls team as the 2017 season gets underway with La Plata’s first Southern Maryland Athletic Conference meet scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Patuxent in a tri-meet that will also include Lackey.
“I feel pretty confident about the season. My goal is to improve on my time,” said Brown, who grew up taking part
in Taekwondo, track and was a cheerleader. “I feel like this is my year. Being a leader of this team is just in my nature, so I don’t feel any pressure in that. My goal is score points for my team.”
La Plata first-year head cross country coach John Childers, a social studies teacher, has taught many of the runners on the team, including Brown in government class.
“She is a leader on the cross country team and in the classroom. She is an exceptional student,” said Childers, referring to Brown, who maintains a 3.5 GPA. “I haven’t seen her run in a meet yet, but I know that she runs year round and in practice she has a very good stride and kick.”
A season ago, Brown finished in the top 40 at the SMAC championships and took sixth overall at the Class 2A South
Region championships, while finishing in the top 100 at the 2A state championships.
This fall, Brown hopes to go above and beyond her results from last year as she has been doing a lot of training in the offseason to stay in shape. She hopes to run in low sub-20-minute race times.
“I’ve been trying to use my experience last year to do better this year,” said Brown, who was a All-County first-team selection last season. “It’s not about going out running fast, it’s all about pacing yourself and knowing the courses.”
Childers has 31 runners (18 boys, 13 girls) on the team thus far, but hopes to get more kids to come out for the team once school starts.
After James Chiriaco stepped down last season as the Warriors head coach, Childers decided to step into the role.
“I’m hoping to build some numbers like [former head coach] Richard Williams use to have,” said Childers, the
school’s head varsity baseball coach. “He use to have over 50 runners come out for the team.”
Over on the boys side, the top runners will consist of returning senior All-County first-team selections Ethan Kane and Steven Locke, All-County second-team sophomore Tyler Connolly and All-County second-team junior Michael Grainger.
Last season, the boys and girls teams finished in the top 10 at the SMAC championships and was third overall respectively at the 2A South Region championships. The boys took 14th at the 2A state championships, while the girls were 17th overall.
“I believe that our team has some work ahead,” Kane said. “If we’re going to reach our desired goals, we have to stay motivated every single day. This team has probably the most motivated group of guys I’ve ever seen on a cross country team, so as long as we keep pushing we’ll achieve our goals.”