Susan Melgares, Manhattan High School’s cross country coach and Mind-Body Fitness teacher has been finding many fun ways to incorporate holiday themes into class and practice. 

Melgares finds holiday related yoga poses and cardio exercises like the Great Pumpkin game, which simulates taking pumpkins from other teams pumpkin patches. 

“If I’m teaching yoga I will look for a… Halloween yoga theme. Just kind of… an activity that will complement the holiday and go along with what I’m trying to do,” Melgares said. “Whether it’s cardio exercise or strength or cross country, we need to have some fun and take a little bit of pressure off the State meet, so it’s nice to do a Halloween run.”

She also holds holiday runs for the cross country team, such as the Halloween run and the Search for the Christmas Crab run. The Halloween run takes place at Warner Park and participants search for the coaches, who are hiding throughout the park. 

Melgares wants her students to be able to have fun and says she is constantly trying to up her game to look for more ways to make class and practice fun.