She wrote on her hand “How badly do you want it?”

Then, she began to pass people, including alumna teammate Megan Graham, who said “Go get her,” referring to the competitor ahead of them both.

Cross-country runner senior Erin Young followed Graham’s instructions, and she still trusts her teammates.

Young knows hardship. Due to her recent hip injury at the start of the season, Young missed out on races, but she knows how to overcome setbacks with the support of her team and the culture created behind the scenes.

Both girls and boys varsity cross-country teams practice every morning at 6:30 a.m. Their meets usually occur on Saturday mornings, starting at 7:30 a.m. The UIL 6A district 6 championships will take place Oct. 11 at Myers Park in McKinney. 

“I first got involved with cross country when I was in middle school. My best friend Liz wanted me to join cross country with her, so she wouldn’t be alone,” Young said. “So I got dragged into it, and at first I absolutely hated it. I was so bad and terrible at it.”

Before Young started cross country, she focused on pursuing volleyball, but now she’s part of the varsity elite cross country team at Prosper High School.

“Eighth-grade year, I got better at it (cross country), and it wasn’t too bad,” Young said. “Then I moved all the way from California the summer of my freshman year, and I was going to do volleyball because I had done a summer volleyball camp in middle school. I wanted to try it out here, but the coach never got back to me. But, the cross country coach did, so I showed up to the first day of practice. It was completely different from the program that I had come from in California. The culture was intense.”

Young said the seniors that were on the team her freshman year inspired her to be a “great” cross country runner.  

“I would describe it as like you walk into the room, and you could just feel the energy,” Young said. “You could feel that everyone there wanted to be there, and they wanted to win.  And, I was just like, I really want to be a part of that program.”

In addition to cross country, Young also runs in the track program. She said, through the two programs, she’s overcome many challenges and achieved her goals at the same time. 

“My most memorable race is my sophomore year. I had been sick most of the season, so I missed a lot of my races. And, I really wanted to go to regionals, and I hadn’t yet placed first or second on varsity open,” Young said. “I wasn’t on varsity elite, which varsity elite is the fastest people, and so at districts, I had written on my hand, ‘How badly do you want it?’ When the race started, I was up in second, and then I was in third, and then I was in fourth, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna keep going,’ and I kept running, then once we got to the final of, like the second lap, we were almost done.”

This year marks Young’s fourth year in cross country.

“We had about, like, 0.62 meters, we had about a 1k left and one kilometer,” Young said. “There was a girl right behind me, and their coach said, ‘How badly do you want it for the girl behind me? She’s like, Go catch her, referring to me. And, I was just like, ‘Okay, it’s my time to shine.’” 

The 2024–2025 team consists of four seniors, one junior, and the rest are underclassmen. Jackie Crisp is the head coach of the cross country team. 

“Like, it’s my time to go. Like I saw it as a sign from God, and I was just like, it’s time to go,” Young said. “So I started sprinting. I caught up to my teammate. My teammate goes, ‘go get her,’ and she was talking about the girl in front of her, and I go, and I catch her, and then I sprint all the way to the finish, and I was so dead, but it was so worth it. That was my most memorable race so far.”

Young started running cross country at her middle school in California.

“I mentally prepare for a race by trying to visualize how I’m going to take out the race – ‘Who I’m going to run with, and what goals do I want?'” Young said. “I make sure that I get enough sleep two days before. So the night before, when I can’t sleep because I’m so nervous, it doesn’t affect my performance. The next day, I just try to not overthink it, because when you overthink something, or you over analyze something, it puts a lot of pressure on you and your body. And when you’re trying to sleep, it makes it really, really hard. So, I tried to, like, not think about it too much, but definitely visualize how I’m going to take that race.”

On Monday the team does long runs, and on Tuesdays, they do hard runs, which resemble their actual race. 

“Usually we have two days of recovery before a race,” Young said. “It’s really hard to balance doing like seven miles on your long run day and having to come the next day, and do 4 miles hard on the track, like it’s very hard to balance. But the best way to be able to balance it is to make sure you’re properly fueling your body, and to properly recover. Because without that, you would not be able to perform. The main thing from overtraining is under recoverin. You just need your recovery, and that is what helps you make it through the week.”

Young said she hopes the team qualifies for state this year. In her Freshman year the team finished second at state. 

“The way I stay motivated during tough training sessions and races is I think because of my teammates,” Young said. “My teammates are pushing through this with me, and if I give up on my run and myself, then I think that’s selfish on my part. Because, if they’re out here giving it their all, and I’m giving it my half best, like, I just think that’s selfish. And I would never do that to them.”

Young said the team organizes outings for bonding activities. 

“I push myself to maximum limits no matter what, even if I’m sick, which I have been for the last couple of weeks,” Young said. “But, I will still push for them no matter what, because, like, every person matters. Every point matters in cross country, and like, I just use them as my motivation. My teammates are my closest people. You have to not run for yourself. You have to run for other people to be able to push through all of your hard runs because if you’re just self–motivated, then you won’t be able to improve, and you will not be able to just excel and racing, like it just doesn’t work like that.” 

This year Young said her hip injury has been the greatest obstacle she’s had to overcome yet.

“I will say that this year has been kind of a struggle to manage it, but junior year I had it down, so it wasn’t too bad,” Young said. “My biggest challenge as a cross country runner has been my frequent injuries and getting sick constantly. I have a weak immune system because I moved from California, and living in Texas is really hard because I just am not used to all these viruses, and my hip injury has been like a big issue this season so far. But, I’m staying on top of things and stretching and making sure I take my medicine and going to the doctor and all those things.”

The team gets massages or attends physical therapy whenever one of them gets an injury. 

“I will say it has been a really tough challenge, but I know that I’ve been through worse, and I can push through this. So I just tell myself that I know I’ve been through worse and that I can, I can keep doing this, because I have done this before,” Young said. “Like every single year of my cross country season, there’s never going to be like a moment where everything in my life is going to be perfect.”

Young sees the Physical Therapist at the Multi–Purpose–Facility.

“There’s always going to be something, some excuse for why my performance is not peak,” Young said. “But, that’s not going to stop me from dealing with setbacks such as injuries like my hip, injury – like how do I deal with it is I just full front attack it, like you have to incorporate stretching into your routine.

Hot tissue massages help the runners recover from hard runs and injuries. 

“The coaches don’t want us to base all of our worth on our athletic performance,” Young said. “They want us to base our worth. In our efforts and what we’re doing every day. Like, if they all they care about is if we’re giving our best on a bad day. Like, that’s all they care about.”

There are four seniors, one junior, and 19 sophomores and freshmen on the cross country team. The seniors make sure to send out information through their group chat and motivate the team. 

“Our coach is basically there to make sure that we’re mentally there,” Young said. “He tells us the workouts, and he just tells us to do it. He’s like, ‘the only reason why you guys succeed is because you guys want it,’ and he knows how badly we want it,” Young said. “And, he’s there to make sure that we don’t overdo it, or we do the wrong training, and therefore, just questions in general about our training program.”

The coaches set up logbooks to help hit the team’s goals and stay healthy throughout the season. 

“My running role model, if I had to pick one, would probably be my teammate, Aubrey O’Connell from my freshman year,” Young said. “She’s just a really good person.” 

O’Connell now runs track at Oklahoma State University. 

“When I was training for my sophomore year, I would tell myself be like, Aubrey O’Connell. Be like Aubrey O’Connell. Race like her,” Young said. “But as I’ve gotten older, I realized that I don’t want to be just like her. I want to be my own person and my own athlete because we’re definitely different people.”

Young said O’Connell inspired her to create a great culture in the program her senior year with the underclassmen. 

“I plan on running for my whole life. I do not ever plan on stopping running. I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to be running in college. We’re going to find out,” Young said. “I’m going to try and get my times down for track season. I really want to be a track runner. I don’t know if I want to run cross country in college, but we’ll see, depending on what college I do end up applying to.”

Young said her goal is to run 5–kilometer races this year.

“The advice I would give to someone who’s just starting cross country would be just get after it and don’t run by yourself,” Young said. “If you’re gonna try to do cross country, definitely run with someone else. Because, doing it by yourself is probably one of the most mentally taxing things a person can do, and just training by yourself is a lot harder to do if you’re an inexperienced runner.”

Young wants to continue her passion for running in college.

“If you want to start cross country, the best thing to do is ask yourself, why are you doing this?” Young said. “Like, what is your purpose? Because the only way you’re going to be able to run is if you know your purpose. Running is both a mentally taxing sport and a mentally gratifying sport. Running will give you both lots of joy and lots and lots of pain and suffering, but ultimately, it’s all worth it in the end.”

Once the cross country season ends, Young will head into the track season in early February.

“So if you want to try and start running, definitely try starting running with someone else, or like a team of sorts,” Young said.  “And don’t give up, even if you start and you’re terrible, like when I first started, I was one of the slowest people on the team, and now I’m one of their top, top athletes for the team. You don’t have to be good when you first start. All you have to know is that you have a strong mindset and you believe in yourself.”

Young said that her passion for running, and inspiration from her teammates has pushed her to where she is now, and she hopes younger athletes will do the same to achieve their dreams.

“All it takes is one person to believe in you, and that is the best way to be able to improve in cross country,” Young said. “You do not have to start out good. You do not have to be an amazing, fast, and talented runner. All you have to do is just be a hard worker. And, that is the advice I would give for someone who’s starting cross country.”