After tragedy struck Saugus High, its girls cross country team found a way to rise up
The four words printed on the back of the Saugus High girls cross country team’s light blue shirts held strong meaning.
Unity
Love
Family
Hope
On Nov. 14, two students were shot and killed and three others were injured by a classmate on the Santa Clarita campus.
The team printed 16,000 shirts that was distributed on campus and the runners wore them at the California Interscholastic Federation state cross country championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park on Saturday.
Never forget, Saugus coach Rene Paragas said.
“We had big aspirations this season,” Paragas said. “To get on the podium, win championships, qualify for nationals, but all that went out the window two weeks ago with what happened at our school. We just came closer together as a team.
“What we’re doing in honor of our school, city, town, families and each other, we’re going to continue on and make the world a better place. We want to show other teams, other people, terrible things can happen to you, but you can rise up and do great things.”
Saugus finished third in the Division I race behind Buchanan and Great Oak-Temecula.
Saugus senior Kaela Beretta said one of her teammates designed the back of the shirts with the hands clasping saying ‘Saugus Strong.’.
“It really put things into perspective,” she said. “You realize cross country is just a sport, but we decided we wanted to do it as a team and build each other up and help each other through the races.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 5:21 PM.
