Just a shade over a week away from the start of the 2016 season for the ADM cross country teams.

As practices roll along the ADM athletes are participating in the uniqueness that is the sport of cross country, a sport that can stand alone but can also be a great help to other sports. Just one of the many sports that help illuminate the importance of participating in multiple sports. Multiple sport participation is often held in high regard especially for ADM cross country head coach David Zwank.

Coach Zwank spoke with Raccoon Valley Radio about the importance of multiple sport participation and how the sport of cross country can help.

“The multiple sports issue kinda has two prongs to it. I think about multiple seasons and how a kid running in the fall and how that creates a base to use towards conditioning for basketball, wrestling, and so forth. While those sports are more speed related, there’s certainly a great benefit; how important that aerobic base is. Certainly the connection between the fall and the spring; a cross country runner to a track runner. That base development of summer into the fall and carrying that into the spring into summer. It’s a common conversation we have with our student athletes about how they can help themselves out and I like to joke with them and say it’s not a sport if there’s not some sort of running involved anyway,” explained coach Zwank.

Especially in high school the participation in multiple sports is nothing but beneficial.