Back in January we spoke with Chris Keller and Liam McSweeney. They’re two Montpelier High School students who were taking the step of petitioning the Vermont Principal’s Association to classify cross country running as a team sport.
That’s because their school didn’t have a team, and under VPA rules they couldn’t run as part of U-32’s team because cross country is an individual sport.
Their petition was voted down by the VPA in a four to one vote.
Liam McSweeney says he wasn’t expecting it:
(McSweeney) "We were all really shocked because we thought that a lot of the arguments at the meeting were in our favor. So we were just really shocked and surprised when they voted it down."
(Host) To shed a little light on what happened at that meeting, we got in touch with Bob Johnson. He’s the Director of Student Activities for the VPA. He explains the way the member-to- member program works:
Click listen to hear the entire interview.
(Host) By the way, Chris Keller says there’s still hope for a Cross Country team at Montpelier.
(Keller) We’ve been talking to some kids at our school, and I think Liam and I might be able to get a team together of either four or five others, so hopefully that might happen. But if it doesn’t happen, I’ll just compete as an independent again."