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Girls Trudge Barefoot Through Mud To Win First Place In School's Only Sport

By Linze Rice | November 10, 2015 6:37am
 Decatur Elementary School's fifth- and sixth-grade girls team placed first citywide in this year's cross country meet, while the boys team placed fourth out of more than 250 teams in the city.
Decatur Cross Country
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WEST RIDGE — It was a packed house at Decatur Elementary School on Monday afternoon as staff, parents and most of the student body gathered to celebrate the school's first-place ranking in this year's citywide cross country meet on Halloween morning.

Fifth- and sixth-grade girls took home the gold for the Decatur Dolphins, while the boys finished fourth — merely four points away from a second-place spot.

For some, it came at the expense of losing a shoe to thick mud, standing for hours in the soggy weather and sprinting across Washington Park just hours before trick-or-treating.

Runners dashed across a messy, mucked up field while sporting garbage bags as ponchos.

Many parents stood nearby huddled under umbrellas. One parent even brought three tents to help families hide from the rain.

But it was more than just a silly win, coaches and parents said Monday during an awards ceremony at the school, it was a "celebration about a community that just loves to run," said coach and longtime gym teacher Alan Albert.

The program is headed by Albert and a small network of parent volunteers — namely Laura Symons and Jeffery Skrentny, who helped hand out awards Monday.

It is the only sport at the tight-knit West Ridge elementary school, and 22 of the school's 47 runners participated in the Halloween day championship festivities.

It's helped build camaraderie between students at the selective enrollment elementary school, and empowered others to realize their running potential.

"Not all can be the fastest runner, not everyone might be able to say, 'Oh I'm the winner,' but all of you helped win for the team," Skrentny said. "You're taking a place that some other team can't have, and each one of you is important."

The Decatur Dolphins boys' team came in fourth place over Halloween weekend, despite losing shoes to mud, warming up in garbage bags and wiping out on slippery turns. [Provided]

As members from each team were called to a podium to receive a gift bag with mementos from the season, Symons and Skrentny spoke of each players' individual qualities and what made them an integral part of the team.

"If you want to meet a kid who always gives 100 percent, Owen's your guy," he said.

Of others, he spoke of the kindness they've shown other players — like when a teammate noticed his opponent's shoes were untied during a race and helped him get through the course safely.

Albert called Decatur's presence at the meet a "competitive force."

He thanked the Decatur community for its help and support in keeping the program going, including using personal time and resources to raise money and sponsor events.

Albert also thanked his wife for making sure he could always be there for his students.

"I'd like to thank my wife also, who allows me to go out and have fun on Saturday mornings."

Symons said support for the program has swelled over the last four years and hoped next year the school could assemble a varsity and junior varsity team to accommodate all the interested players.

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