September 5, 2008Knights Crossing hopes to have another successful year Tommy Maguire, head coach for the Cave Spring cross country team, and assistant coach Laurence Loesel have had many milestones in their coaching careers. The first is the simple fact they have been coaching together for seven years. The second is that Maguire and Loesel brought a cross country invitational to Southwest Virginia. “We work our butts off the two of us. We’ve worked together for so long. The two of us are in charge,” Maguire said about himself and Loesel. This year will mark the fifth year of their Knights Crossing Cross Country Invitational, which will be held on Saturday, September 13 at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County at 7 a.m. “It’s an exciting event. We’ve really been trying to build it up to make it a premier invitation in the state,” Maguire said. “We tried to work it so that Southwest Virginia could be involved. We go to Northern Virginia and the Chesapeake area and Richmond for invitationals. Southwest Virginia was kind of getting left out with hosting big invitationals.” Sponsored by Cave Spring High School, Project 50, the Knights Booster Foundation, Roanoke County Parks & Recreation, and Fleet Feet Sports, Knights Crossing has been very successful over the years. "We started pretty small. We had very small team when we started and didn’t have a lot of expectations and definitely never dreamed wed get an invitation this large," Loesel said. “Our first year we had about 300 people show up and mostly regional teams,” Maguire said. “The second year we had a little less. Then we started marketing to get more and more teams in there and we’ve steadily grown.” The third year of the invitational hosted about 700 people and this year they estimate will draw about 1,200 people. "I would definitely say we’ve been growing an average of 15 to 20 percent a year and I'd say that’s pretty much on pace for what we’ve seen," Loesel said. At the first invitational about 15 teams participated but Maguire said this year they currently have 46 teams signed up already. “We’ve had some out of state teams commit, but because of fuel costs it’s been a bit of a problem.” This year, three teams from Tennessee will join Cave Spring to participate in the invitational, one of which is ranked in its area as number one and the other ranked at number three. The girls' team will also participate, ranked at number two. “We also have Thomas Jefferson from Fairfax, the AAA State Champions and Nike Team Nationals Mid Atlantic representatives, and the three-time defending Blacksburg AA girl’s team and Radford boy’s A Champions.” The money raised at Knights Crossing all goes back to Cave Spring’s cross country and track teams. In the past about $7,000 has been raised and the money has been used to purchase a timing system used for outdoor track. This year, Maguire and Loesel hope to use the money to buy equipment such as, new hurdles, a new track, pole vault pads, and help pay for the entry fees in other meets and travel costs for the team. New this year at the Fifth Annual Knights Crossing will be an elementary school race. “We added the elementary school race because we know that there are teams forming, like ‘Girls on the Run’,” he said. “We lowered the distance from a 5k to a 3k so they can still participate. Our goal is to get more elementary schools involved.” Currently Back Creek Elementary School and Bent Mountain Elementary School have entered. The Knights Crossing is a free event for everyone. Teams that are participating do have entry fees depending on the race being entered and medals will be awarded to the top three overall and each age group. A concession stand will be available to purchase anything from T-shirts, snacks, coffee, Gatorade, or water. Volunteers can be found in red T-shirts during the event and arrive bright and early Saturday morning at 6 a.m. “We want to give mad props to our parent’s at Cave Spring High School. Without our volunteers it would never happen. I have friends in the community that help. Forty-five to 50 volunteers, a lot of really good friends, and great parents—they are amazing,” Maguire said. “Hopefully it’s going to be a pretty day. Last year was a downpour before the race, but it was gorgeous during the races, so we are hoping for a nice day,” Maguire said. Knights Crossing Schedule: 7:00 am Course Opens Knights Crossing Meet Records: Green Hill Course Records: Parking Information: Directions to Green Hill Park: From I-81(N or S): Take exit 137 (Salem). Take a right at the bottom of the exit ramp. Follow to 1st traffic light. Go right onto Route 460. Go to the 3rd traffic light and take a left onto Duiguids Lane. Cross the railroad tracks and you will come to Green Hill Park on your right. Please follow signs to 2nd entrance down access road. Photo by Josh Meltzer |
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