School just got out, and while most kids are on their way home or heading to the locker-room,  there are eight West Branch High School students who are making their way to City High — a fifteen minute drive.

West Branch students Emma O’Hara, Clare Muckler, Russell Martin, Ben Martin, Will Martin, Keegan Sotello, John Muckler and Jordan Baldwin all run cross country for City High. Ever since 2001, this arrangement has been in place due to the lack of West Branch High school students who go out for cross country.

“I decided to go out for cross country because I’m not very good with balls, so I decided that I should try running, because running doesn’t involve balls,” Emma O’Hara ‘16 said.

Typically, only a total of four to five West Branch students run cross country at City High. This fall, there are six boys from West Branch, the largest group in history.

“Hopefully we’ll continue to have at least a handful like that,” Boys Head Coach Jayme Skay said.  “The more we get, the better off we’re gonna be. We just show respect for each other and we know that they’re just as good as us and compete with us just as well.”

The girls on the other hand have seen a much bigger number than that.

“I had 18 girls one year,” Girls Head Coach Thomas Mittman said. “I typically have 2 or 3 girls. But I’ve had as few as 1, and as many as 18.”

The girls cross country team has about 70 members this year. This number generally remains the same, as there are many newcomers each year.

“I like running cross country at City High because I made a lot of friends, and it’s a different experience because the team is so big compared to my track team at West Branch, which is like 20 people,” O’Hara said.

The coaches all welcome the West Branch runners with open arms.

“It’s actually been a very positive experience. It benefits West Branch because they get a chance to train with a large squad, and traditionally City High has had a powerful group of runners. So it allows them to not only train with more athletes, but kids that will actually push them and pull them along and make them even better,” Skay said. “And for our guys, they benefit because they get to know the kids from another school, and we also benefit because there’s some very talented athletes that help push our guys.”

Even though the West Branch runners feel welcome, coming to another school where you may not know anyone can be challenging. Especially when it’s a big school like City High, compared to West Branch.

“They’ll say ‘meet in the commons’, and I’m like ‘oh my gosh’, where is the commons?!” John Muckler ‘18 said.

With time, things got better.

“At first I was kind of nervous, but after being here for only a week or so, I started to make friends and they welcomed me,” Will Martin ‘18 said.

Others can relate to this feeling.

“It’s kind of awkward at first because you don’t really know any of the kids, and you’re like an outsider, but once you get to know some of the kids it’s really fun because you just met like 70 new people,” Clare Muckler ‘19 said.

The City High runners on the team warmly welcome the West Branch runners.

“It’s so accepted as part of the City High Cross Country mainstream,” Mittman said.

Having home meets at West Branch will help unite the two schools a little more. The girls team came up with the “Bearhawk”  a few years ago to unite both schools. This is a combination of the West Branch “Bears” and the CIty High “Little Hawks”. The girls even crafted a bearhawk that they bring along to meets.

Unfortunately, not everyone was a fan of the “Bearhawk”. Way back in the early years, there were some people that were upset about it outside the team.

“There was some negativity outside the team, from outside the school, that created a stronger desire for the girls of City High and West Branch to bond together, and they came together for that,” Mittman said. “I remember City High kids going to a school board meeting, actually speaking in defense of continuing the program, even though some of those kids were being challenged for their varsity spots by West Branch runners.”

There are a few obstacles with this combination of schools. Logistics is an issue. West Branch has their early outs on Wednesday, while City has early outs on Thursdays. In addition, it can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes for the West Branch students to get to City, depending on where they live.

As for transportation, the Bears usually carpool.

“For me, Coach Cottingham is a great help because he coaches track out there, and he lives in West Branch. He’s helped us out an immense amount this year with the communication with the kids,” Skay said.

Not only is Coach Cottingham helpful with communication and recruiting, but he also drives many of the younger West Branch boys to practice.

“It’s fun because our school doesn’t have a cross country team, so it’s not like we’re rivaling or anything. I can root for two teams,” Will ‘18 said.

His brother, Ben, agrees.

“You’ve got two teams to cheer for, and [you get to] be part of another team,” Ben ‘16 said.

“I really like it. It’s like having a home away from home, or a school away from school,” Russell ‘16 said.