The Cross Country team at Harwood is described as a “once in a lifetime experience” by a runner at Harwood. Running through the woods led by John Kerrigan is a unique experience that brings the runners together and creates a “very tight knit community” by the same runner named in the next paragraph.

Senior Riley Powell started running cross country to stay in shape and because he needed something to get him “out of the house” and “to keep me healthy,” then he liked it and stuck with it to today.

He said that freshman year he joined and thought it was pretty weird; he didn’t know any of the people but he enjoyed it and stuck with it, making new friends on the team. Then this year he made even more friends and had good experiences with many returning runners.

He describes the community of the team as extremely close, he says it is even “closer than a family.” He said that they share the pain of running and bond over the pain and the close experience of it all.

This year he convinced Senior David Deschamps to join the team. Deschamps says that he made about 60-70 new friends from cross country because he says the family opened him up to being a more sociable person and more friendly to be around. Deschamps concluded by saying that “anyone would enjoy it.”

“Cross country is a once in a lifetime experience,” said Deschamps.

Senior captain Tristian Touchette started his interview by jokingly saying that cross country was the “bomb.com,” then got serious and said that cross country has helped his “endurance and character and gave me leadership skills.”

Although some believe it is very difficult to run every day for an entire sport season, at least some believe that the pain is worth it because of the incredible family that it produces and they stick through it to the end.