Lady Pirates enter season ranked No. 11 in 2A

For Nassau NewsLine

The Fernandina Beach High School girls cross country coaches, Dave Reinhart and Melanie
Wright, wanted to mix things up a little bit in their preseason training this summer to get
ready for a strong performance in the fall when the season starts. The team, preseason
ranked No. 11 in Florida Class 2A out of 145 schools by Milesplit.com, is looking to extend its
state meet-qualifying streak to four years in a row, so changes were the order of the day.
The Lady Pirates’ recent history includes being the top public school
in Class 2A statewide out of 110 teams in 2023 and last year was the
second year in a row as the top district and regional public school in
2A.
Along with the usual summer fare of early workouts held around various locations on the
island, the team had a five-day, four-night training camp in Orlando attended by 12 girls in
early August, highlighted by double-running workouts and classroom-like sessions on
nutrition, hydration, core work, racing strategies, mental toughness and strength training led
by Reinhart, Wright and Fernandina Beach physical education teacher Ashley Smith.
“Not only did we get in some great quality training but the secret sauce of wonderful team
bonding and memories built that we can’t a value on,” Reinhart said. “All great teams will
simply work harder and perform better when everyone leans in for the common good of the
team. Mission accomplished from that perspective.”
“Training camp was a huge success,” Wright said. “It brought the team together, pushed our
limits and set the tone for the season. The focus, effort and team bonding that happened out
there laid a strong foundation for what’s ahead.”
Cell phones even disappeared at night after dinner when old school games like Password,
Blackjack and Twister were played as well as that old standby, riding sofa cushions down a
flight of stairs. The girls pitched in with meals, clean-up duties except the garbage duty left to
the coaches. And history was probably made as there was not one trip all week to anything
that had the name Disney in it. 
New to the sport, sophomore Teagan Cochran summed up the week best.
“Camp was really the week that I realized cross country was going to have a huge impact on
my life,” she said. “Hanging out with the girls and coaches was such a fun, bonding moment.
From the hard workouts at 6 a.m. to playing air hockey in the garage, there wasn’t a moment
that I wasn’t laughing. Camp really made an impact on me because going into this season I
was scared to start a new sport, but camp broke the ice and allowed me to make such great
friends, memories and inside jokes.”
“Camp was an exciting and motivating experience that pushed me to step
outside my comfort zone,” said freshman Taylor Pearce. “It meant a lot to me,
because it not only helped me grow as a runner, but also gave me a sense of
belonging and happiness with my team.”