Our cross country movie started as a wild idea and became one of the most meaningful projects I have ever worked on. When the NCAA announced a new ruling limiting cross country rosters to just 17 runners, it sent shockwaves through college programs across the country. For us at LSU, the news hit even harder. The Southeastern Conference decided to take it a step further, capping men’s rosters at just 10 athletes to maintain Title IX standards. Suddenly, every spot on our team felt like it carried the weight of an entire program.
I wanted to capture what that felt like, so I made a short film about it. “The Cross Country Movie” is a trailer-style video that follows our LSU cross country team as we navigate this new reality heading into the 2025-2026 season. It is raw, it is real, and it reflects the conversations we were actually having in the locker room and on the phone with our families.
The Cross Country Movie Begins: The Cross Country Movie Begins: Only seven runners, zero margin for error
In cross country, it takes five runners to score and two more can displace. That means our entire team this year was seven deep. No bench, no safety net. As our coaches put it during one of our team meetings, “There’s no excuses. We have no room for error. If you have a bad day, you got to have the best bad day you can have.”
That line stuck with me because it perfectly sums up what competing in this new NCAA environment feels like. Every single person on the roster knows they hold one of a handful of spots that hundreds of other athletes would do anything to have. There is a new urgency to protect that spot with everything you have.
The recruiting arms race around us
Part of what made this season so intense was watching the transfer portal and recruiting headlines roll in. In the film, you hear us reacting to other SEC schools making big moves. Vanderbilt signing someone, Arkansas landing a transfer, the usual chaos. But our attitude stayed the same, and you can hear it in the video when one of my teammates says it plain and simple: as long as we beat Bama, we are good.
That is the mentality you need when your roster is razor thin. You cannot control what other programs do, but you can control how you show up every day. And with only seven guys, showing up was not optional.
The night before the first race
One of my favorite scenes in the video is the phone call the night before our first race. My mom could not sleep because she was too nervous, and honestly, neither could I. She kept asking what if something goes wrong, and I kept telling her nothing bad was going to happen. My dad chimed in from the background making sure I knew they would be watching and cheering from home.
Those moments do not make it into most highlight reels, but they are the realest part of being a college athlete. The nerves, the family support, the quiet anxiety the night before a big race. That is the stuff I wanted this film to capture.
Discipline over motivation
The heart of the film is a speech from our coaching staff that I think every runner needs to hear. The message was simple but powerful: motivation is great, enjoy it while it lasts, because it is not going to last the whole year. What you are going to end up having to count on is your discipline.
Our coach broke it down like this. It is easy to go out when you are motivated and crush a long run or a hard track session. But what happens when that motivation fades? You only have your discipline. And discipline will beat motivation every time. Maybe that speech gives you a little bit of motivation for a few days, but at the end, it is your discipline that is going to win championships.
I have played that line back in my head during some of the hardest training sessions this season. When my legs felt heavy and I wanted to cut a rep short, it was not motivation that kept me going. It was the discipline we built as a team.
Wearing the purple and gold
The final moment of the speech always gives me chills. Our coach reminded us that when we put on that purple jersey with those three gold letters across our chest, it means more than just us. It is our program, our university, our state. Be relentless and be tough. There may be blood, there may be sweat, but there will be no tears. It is LSU versus the world.
And then, of course, because we are who we are, the very next line in the film is one of my teammates saying, “We are so cooked, bro.” That is the duality of being a college athlete. You are simultaneously fired up and terrified, and honestly, that tension is what makes this sport so special.
Making this film was one of the most rewarding creative projects I have taken on. It reminded me that the story of a season is not just about race results and PRs. It is about the conversations in the van, the late-night phone calls with your parents, the speeches that stick with you long after the season is over. If you are a runner at any level, I hope this video reminds you why you started in the first place.
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