Fairfax Police
Youth Club

Season Updates

2024 Track and Field Updates

Welcome to Spring Track & Field 2024! My name is Molly Barba and I, along with a dedicated group of volunteers, took over the reins of the running program from Geoff and Lynda Hymans in fall 2023. I have been with the program since 2016 and am very excited to be a part of the group that will keep it going into the future.

For those of you that have been with the program in the past, you should find the transition to be fairly seamless. We will continue to practice on the same days and times. On Sunday our whole team will practice at the same time and location, but your child will have the opportunity to work with either our sprinting, distance or field coaches. On Tuesday, we will offer practice at Van Dyck Park (sprinting/distance) or Lake Accotink (distance only, with some speed work). On Thursday, we will be at Katherine Johnson Middle School or Lake Accotink.

We will hold four meets at the Fairfax High School track. The first and last meets (time trials and the Mother’s Day Meet) will be for FPYC runners only. Our other two meets will be open to other teams.

Coaches/Volunteers

We are an all volunteer organization and need you to help coach or volunteer! From experience, I can tell you that working with these athletes is incredibly rewarding and is clinically proven to reduce work/life stress. ;-)  If you plan to assist with coaching, please sign up now as a coach for running in the FPYC registration system. We understand if coaches cannot make every practice. The more coaches we have, the more easily we can absorb absences. We will need to collect T-shirt sizes for the coaches soon. If you have any questions about coaching, feel free to email me at running@fpycsports.com.

Accessing the FPYC Running Webpage and Schedule: 

From a computer...Go to www.fpycsports.com. Hover over 'sports' at the top and then scroll down to click on running. You will then see a blue column on the left where you can click the links to get information on the different topics. This works best from a computer. If you are having trouble, try using a different browser. 

From a mobile phone...Go to www.fpycsports.com. Then click where it says Site Navigation. Then click on the down arrow on the right. Then click on Running. You will have to scroll down to see the links and/or turn your to a horizontal position to see all the information.

Practices: For specific information on practice locations, please see the Practice Information page.

Emails: Please check with others in the family who should also be receiving these emails. The mass team email system does not notify us if an email does not go through. If someone who should be getting emails is not, please confirm the email address is listed in your account on Demosphere. If it is listed there and are they still aren’t receiving emails, please let us know. Check your spam folder and make sure that mailer@demosphere.com is considered a safe sender. Some email addresses at some point opted out of FPYC emails. That may be another reason emails won't go through. 

Team App: We will also communicate through a team app called Heja. More information about how to join will be sent out via team email.

Important Running Prep: The kids will run the first day of practice. We highly suggest that you start getting your child used to running and build up to running 3 days a week, especially if they are new to running or have not run in a while. This is important to help avoid injury from too much running over a short period of time without the prep work. It is ok to have your child run, then walk, then run etc. and progress to staying running more of the time. Practices are 1 hour and the kids will do a warm-up jog, running drills, core work, and a run workout at each practice. You can find the running drills and dynamic stretches that will be used under "Running Documents" on the website. Be very mindful of the heat and have your runner exercise as early as possible to avoid extreme heat. Try and find a shady park to run. Take plenty of water. We suggest parents run or ride a bike with their child to keep them safe and provide water. 

Shoes: Make sure your child has a good pair of running shoes without worn out tread. There are a few local running stores (PR Running, Pacers, and Road Runner Sports) that are good at assessing your child's running mechanics and helping determine the best type of shoe (neutral, stability, or motion control). Having supportive running shoes that are the appropriate type for your child's foot/running mechanics is very important to reduce the risk of injury. We will be having a team night at Potomac River Running where they will offer a discount on shoes. A great time to pick up a new pair if you need it!

Three good tests of a running shoe in general are: 1. Squeeze the back of the shoe. You want this to be firm and not give too much. 2. Bend the shoe with one hand at the toes and one hand at the heel. The shoe should bend at the toe/forefoot area, NOT the middle of the shoe. 3. Hold the front and back of the shoe and try twisting the shoe in opposite directions. The shoe should not twist too much. These are general guidelines. Again, a running store can help determine a good shoe for your child. 

Please feel free to email me at running@fpycsports.com if you have any questions. Either myself, or Kira, my admin extraordinaire will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Happy Running!

Molly Barba
Director, FPYC Running