What is the matter with my teammate?

Sounds like he is weak and has no endurance. 6', 135# is freaking anorexic. Up the mileage and hit the weights.

2/10.

Sounds like the fire's just not there. If he doesn't have the will to do it then all that potential is just that, potential, and will never be realized. That's a part of life you'll see over and over as you get older - wasted potential. Sounds like you've got your things together, so try to help this guy but don't be overly upset if it doesn't work out. You can't really help someone who doesn't want it.

He may be in the closet.

is he training for The Cup?

HS xc captain wrote:

like 28 minutes. Even my dad would beat him. He would always have an excuse (I got boxed in, I got tripped, etc).

Hilarious, boxed in on a road 5k to a 28 minute time.

Yup you can't coach desire, and you certainly can't force team mate to try. That's the way the cookie crumbles, best to find a hard working but less talented guy who will actually show some effort than to waste your time on a guy who simply doesn't want to be there.

viva italia wrote:

Sounds like the fire's just not there. If he doesn't have the will to do it then all that potential is just that, potential, and will never be realized. That's a part of life you'll see over and over as you get older - wasted potential. Sounds like you've got your things together, so try to help this guy but don't be overly upset if it doesn't work out. You can't really help someone who doesn't want it.

People always talk about wasted potential but it looks like the boy is using all his potential, in Soccer.

viva italia wrote:

Sounds like the fire's just not there. If he doesn't have the will to do it then all that potential is just that, potential, and will never be realized. That's a part of life you'll see over and over as you get older - wasted potential. Sounds like you've got your things together, so try to help this guy but don't be overly upset if it doesn't work out. You can't really help someone who doesn't want it.

Seconded. Also, 6' 135 is skinny but not THAT skinny. I know a guy who was an inch taller and 5 pounds lighter, and it didn't stop him from being a sub-14:30 5k runner.

[quote]What's the matter with my teammate?[quote]

He's a weak, big-mouthed, whimp who does not want to do the work.

I concur with most of the above. He either isn't into it or he's just a complete pansie. If it's the former, he should just move on. If it's the latter, you and your teammates need to go "code red" on him.

Thanks for the replies. He no longer plays soccer - we don't have it at our high school, so that is not the problem.

The responses were pretty much what I was thinking, that for whatever reason he just doesn't want to put in the effort to help us out. I don't really know why he comes out for the team, though, if he doesn't really want to try. I was thinking maybe there was something physically wrong with him, like asthma or something, that was limiting his distance ability, or maybe the wrong muscle type or something. But he never coughs, just stops running or scuffs the old feet. And he doesn't look anorexic - maybe he weighs 140 - he definitely is not overweight, but looks fit just to look at him.

Anyway, thanks for the replies. We'll see how it plays out. We are trying to encourage him and tell him we could really use him, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe one of the other guys will surprise us and be able to run under 20 minutes.

HS xc captain wrote:

Maybe one of the other guys will surprise us and be able to run under 20 minutes.

20 minutes is your goal for a 5th man on your varsity team? Ouch. My Junior year I was running around 16:30s and still wasn't always running in varsity races.

bahahaha code red him hahaha I doubt the OP will get the reference but I chuckled.

raise your bar wrote:

20 minutes is your goal for a 5th man on your varsity team? Ouch. My Junior year I was running around 16:30s and still wasn't always running in varsity races.

go and have a nice wank with the thought of your school's awesomeness. Not everybody is lucky enough to have a good set of athletes there.

On topic: anyone doing their brst for their team is worth staying on it, anyone who does not do the work should be thrown out.

Well, it is a very small school so choices are limited. Last year our 1 and 2 guys ran sub-15:45, our 3 and 4 low 17's, and number 5 was at around 18. But none of the other guys broke 20, at least that I can remember. There's no one new this year, so we have what we have.

This boy needs a fanny pack! Get him one and I believe his times will improve dramaticaly.

He obviously does not care much about XC.

Why don't the top guys try including him on runs, etc. Make him feel like a part of the top 5 so that he wants to show-up on race day.

When I was a freshman in HS, I was running to lose weight for soccer. Once I realized that I was a good runner, and accepted by the older, faster guys, I put in more effort. I became a foot locker finalist and gave up soccer.

...I kind of wish I had been a soccer player though, in all honesty. I was pretty good.

"Why don't the top guys try including him on runs, etc. Make him feel like a part of the top 5 so that he wants to show-up on race day."

We've tried that. A couple of weeks ago this college runner was in town with his dad, who was friends with our coach. Several of the varsity runners went out on a jog with this college runner, just to show him the town and some of our routes. And we invited the guy I am worried about to come with us. He hung with us for about 3 miles and then just started getting slower and slower and then started walking. And we were pretty much just jogging and shooting the bull, maybe 9 minute pace. He said he had a stomach ache. I offered to walk with him but he said no, so we went on. Maybe that was a mistake, but it was kind of a drag because we were pretty far from home. Later he said it was the heat and that he was throwing up, but it was evening and only like 80 degrees. I don't know....

55 and 2:08 are not "pretty good." More like "pretty mediocre."