A driving wind blew sheets of rain across Phil Moore Park during a brief shower Monday afternoon, inspiring Greenwood High School cross country team members to seek refuge beneath a shelter near their course’s finish line.

Last summer, the shelter and the course were merely pictures in coach Art Sciubba’s head. But, with the help of Warren County Parks and Recreation staff and Greenwood’s cross-country boosters club, the Coach Art Sciubba XC Course & Physical Fitness Trail is now a reality.

&#8220It’s a humbling experience,” Sciubba said of having the trail named after him.

Before the course at Phil Moore Park was designed, the cross country team practiced and hosted meets, including the annual Gatorland Run, at Kereiakes Park on Fairview Avenue. It was when a vehicle accidentally drove onto the course during a meet that Sciubba knew it was time to move, he said.

He spoke with Phil Moore, director of Warren County Parks and Recreation, and came to an agreement regarding a new course, to serve as the Gators’ home course. Last summer, Sciubba designed the layout and the parent booster club got to work planting trees, marking the trail and erecting signs.

&#8220Art Sciubba has done an excellent job coordinating the development of this particular course and seeing that particular developmental plan followed through,” Moore said. &#8220He should be complimented for that.”

The course, which winds through a relatively flat field before running under a bridge and looping back around, can be used by anyone in the community, Moore said. Fitness stations are located along the trail and accompanied by diagrams detailing how to use them.

&#8220I cannot say enough of these individuals,” he said. &#8220I saw an open field that had a tremendous amount of promise and development, and when I walked back down the other day I was amazed at what I saw.”

The cross country boosters paid $34,000 to create the course, Sciubba said, through fundraising and spending their own money. The fitness trail was a gift to the community, a way to say &#8220thank you” for supporting the Gatorland Run, he said.

One parent, Lee Ann Austin, has planted more than 190 trees along the course. She was hard at work Monday despite the rain, shoveling dirt and settling saplings into their new locations.

&#8220I absolutely love coach Sciubba,” she said. &#8220He is a dynamo. He dreamed all this up. … You won’t see a finer course if you go all over Kentucky.”

Austin buys the trees herself, then asks community members to &#8220adopt” one in memory or in honor of a loved one. Those who adopt are permitted to install a marker at the base of the tree, she said, and she’s more than willing to help someone choose one of her 26 types of trees to adopt.

The trees will provide more than pretty scenery, said Austin’s son, Brett, 15. The Greenwood sophomore has been on the cross country team for two years, and is already anticipating when the adult trees will provide relief from the sun a few years from now.

&#8220It’s a nice course,” he said. &#8220It’s flat, for the most part, and it’s developing. It’s come a long way, and, when the trees are grown, we look forward to the shade.”

The new course is made of grass, gravel and wood chips, which slows the runners’ times, Brett Austin said. The Kereiakes Park course was all gravel.

Fellow harrier Megan Reeves, 17, a senior, agreed the new course was harder on the ankles, but said it’s &#8220pretty spectator-friendly.”

The Parks and Recreation Department keeps the course maintained to Kentucky High School Athletic Association standards, Sciubba said. He and county schools Superintendent Dale Brown said they hope to someday host the KHSAA’s annual state meet at the new course – Bowling Green has never hosted the meet; it’s usually in Lexington, Sciubba said.

In December, Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon signed a proclamation naming the park after Sciubba, a 15-year veteran of Greenwood High School cross country. Despite the accolades heaped on him, Sciubba remains focused on his runners.

&#8220It’s not about me,” he said. &#8220It’s mostly about the kids.”

The Warren County Parks and Recreation and Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce dedicates the course at 11 a.m. Saturday. For more information, contact Duncan Hines at 842-5302.

– For more information or to adopt a tree, contact Phil Moore Park at 843-6665.