Girls’ XC: “acorn,” the secret warning

Unaware of the rival athlete speeding up to catch her, then sophomore Casey Takahashi is only about 100 meters away from the finish line of last year’s Lynbrook meet. She is completely oblivious and has no clue that she is about to be passed.

“Acorn!” Danny Moon, the girls’ cross country coach, yells frantically.

Without looking back, Takahashi suddenly increases her pace. Determinedly pumping her arms and legs faster, she speeds ahead and crosses the finish line. The other athlete is confused and left in the dust.

To the girls’ cross country team, the word “acorn” is more than a nut from an oak tree: It serves as a warning.

“When you’re finishing the race, [the coach] yells ‘acorn’ or ‘acorn acorn’ to let you know how many people are behind you, and you should really push it to the end so that you can come in before them,” said Takahashi, one of the three team captains.

The technique was invented in 2009 by a group of freshmen, including this year’s team captain senior Courtney Schlossareck. To prevent other teams from understanding the warning, they chose a secret word.

“If people behind you hear [your coach say] ‘there’s someone behind you,’ then they’re going to run harder to try to catch you,” Schlossareck said. “So by saying ‘acorn,’ they’re like ‘you’re nuts.’”

Because the team meets for practice underneath an oak tree, the girls were inspired to choose the word “acorn.”

“[The acorns] would drop down, and being the funny freshmen we thought we were, we decided to coin the term ‘acorn,’ ” Schlossareck said. 

In addition to warning the girls that there are racers behind them, “acorn” also encourages them to pick up the pace and stay ahead. 

“Toward the end of the [Lynbrook] race, I wasn’t really feeling up to sprinting my hardest and giving it 110 percent,” Takahashi said. “But as soon as I heard coach Moon yell ‘acorn,’ it brought that competitive feeling and I knew I had to sprint as fast as I could.”

Over the years, the secret warning has continually been helpful to the team at races.

“There’s always someone on your tail, and you hear coach yelling, ‘acorn! acorn!’” Schlossareck said. “Then you just kick it as fast as you can and just use that extra speed.”