National Meet Brings Geography to Life
November 21, 2002

By Joe Soehnlen, AU Sports Information

When Ashland University head cross country coach Bill Gallagher was trying to think of a way to incorporate the Ashland community into the university hosting the NCAA Division II National Championships (Saturday, Nov. 23 1 p.m.), Gallagher’s first thought was the youth of the community.

“I wanted a theme for Ashland youth ranging from the grade school kids to the collegiate students,” Gallagher said.

After hosting the regional cross country championship in 2000 and having a few students help with the bags that hold the competitors’ warmup equipment, Gallagher thought that the national championships would be a priceless chance for the students to get a hands-on learning experience.

So Gallagher, along with St. Edward’s School principal Sue Valentine, came up with the idea of incorporating the national championship into their education.

“I wanted to go a step further for the kids by having them try to playfully incorporate this into their education,” Gallagher said.

So with the imagination and insight of Valentine, Gallagher came up with the idea of having the children correspond with all of the schools that would be sending teams to the national championships via email. Gallagher said that the ability to get input and share information with people from other parts of the country that would be coming to Ashland would be a perfect fit for his original vision.

“I thought the experience of learning about different people from different states was an excellent idea,” said Valentine.

Valentine said that along with the internet experience they are getting from emailing the teams, the students are also creating posters in art class and learning geography.

St. Edward’s student Anna Barnes said that it was, “really cool and fun” to learn about different places and to learn about the athletes from different parts of the world and nation.

“It is nice to actually be a part of the community and to do something exciting,” said St. Edward’s student, Tom Neel. “I’m excited to see the runners and to see everyone running fast.”