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FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield High School cross-country team continued a tradition that started last year of running a football all the way from the opponents’ high school back to Fairfield for the Homecoming football game.

Last year, the team ran the ball 67 miles from Keokuk, and this year they had to go even farther. The Trojans’ opponent for their Homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 27 was Benton County, which meant the cross-country team would have to run the ball 80 miles from the town of Van Horne, west of Cedar Rapids.

Fourteen runners participated in the new tradition – seven boys and seven girls on the two varsity squads who took turns carrying the football in a backpack. Cross-country coach Jerrod Belzer said each student ran twice, in increments of 1.5 to 3 miles, while the rest of the runners rode in a van. To complete the feat, the team departed from Fairfield at 5 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 to arrive in Van Horne at 6:45 a.m. and start the long journey back home. The team stopped for lunch in Keota, and returned to Fairfield a little after 3:30 p.m.

Belzer’s daughter Bailey Belzer, a junior on the team, said it was a great bonding experience, and that she felt good about being able to support the football team. It was an eventful week for Bailey, who also helped build the junior class’s winning float in the float contest for the Homecoming Parade Friday afternoon.

Bailey has been in cross-country since seventh grade, and was introduced to the sport at a young age through her dad’s involvement as a coach. She was in volleyball for a bit, but decided she liked the camaraderie best on the cross-country team. And while running laps is a punishment in other sports, cross-country members have to get used to doing a lot of it. How do they do it?

“You tell yourself that the pain is temporary, and the reward you feel after you finish the race is greater than the pain,” Bailey said.

The cross-country team has four meets left this season, with the state qualifying meet on Oct. 23. Cross-country runners have to be prepared to run under the blistering sun in their early meets, and in the bitter cold of their final meets. Between the two extremes, Bailey said the cold poses a bigger challenge.

“It’s harder to warm up your muscles in cold weather,” she said.

Luckily, the day of the run from Van Horne to Fairfield gave the team perfect running weather with a slight breeze in the 70s.