VOORHEESVILLE — Phil Carducci has been a runner since he was 11. He won’t share his age but says he’s been running for 55 years.

Carducci is the new head coach of the boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams in Voorheesville.

He was the long-time assistant coach under Steve Relyea, who decided to step down from the position this year so he could spend more time attending the sports games of his own children.

“We have a good bunch of kids this year,” said Carducci this week. “No seniors, so we’re lacking in leadership a bit, but it’s also good because we’re new and fresh.”

The team started training two weeks ago and has been practicing at Wallace Park in the early morning to avoid the summer heat.

Wallace Park, on Swift Road in New Scotland, is the home course of Voorheesville’s cross-country team.

Carducci has thought of a new way to show the course off to the public.

He is the organizer of the Hilltown Triple Crown race series, now in its fifth year, which is a series of five-kilometer road races in Berne, Voorheesville, and Altamont. The event has grown over the years, with 80 people competing in all three races this year, and more than 100 individual competitors in each separate race.

For something a little different, Carducci decided to organize the inaugural Voorheesville 5K Cross-Country Challenge, to be run on Sept. 5.

Organizing a race is a lot of work, he said, but he does it for the love of the sport. He usually starts planning a year in advance, but said a minimum of four to five months is required to get sponsors and volunteers and to publicize it.

He organizes six or seven races annually and also owns a small race-timing businesses called White Knight Timing.

The Cross-Country Challenge is not a road race, said Carducci.

“It’s grass, dirt, crushed stone, and it could be muddy,” he said. “There are a couple of hills, not too bad, but enough to make you think ‘What am I doing here?’”

Carducci called the course “very fan-friendly” and said spectators don’t have to move from place to place to see a runner more than once.

He has organized the race so people can compete individually or in teams of three.

“That could be kind of fun if you wanted to make it a family thing,” he said.

Holding the race on Voorheesville’s home course will be helpful, too, in preparing it for the team’s Blackbird Invitational, which will be held there on Sept. 12.

“We’ll already have the course all marked,” said Carducci.

Nine schools have registered for the meet already and Carducci is expecting another three to five to register before the deadline.

“I’m really happy to be the head coach; I love it,” said Carducci. “We look good this season.”