Injured runner not allowed to return to team for State qualifiers, wins FL West

this coach sounds a bit like a powermonger. being injured sucks and can mess with your mind. way to pile on coach

How can you say the coach is a power mongrel. The coach came to an agreement that she had to make a certain amount of practices for her to run for the TEAM. Of course the mother says she made the REQUIREMENTS. Even if she made the minimum requirements and didn’t put to much thought or effort into the team aspect I still be hesitant to put her in the race. It is a high school race. Most likely there was a girl on the team that worked her butt off and came to every practice and would be sidelined from the competition due to the talented girl who quotes.

“I forgot running with the team was very important”.

That is a terrible attitude about the situation. I am sorry she got hurt but that is no excuse to ditch the team completely.

Plain and simple: motivate the others on the team by encouragement not shoving it into their faces by purposely cross training or going for runs by yourself when you know there is practice later in the day.

when you are injured, time is better spent pool running, biking or doing some kind of PT to get better, not holding a clipboard while your teammates do a workout. now it she totally blows off the team and doesn't support when she can, that's another thing, but this is odd, esp. when it's that kind of talent. if you are hurt in college, your coach doesn't make you do drills with the team, they want you in the pool as you are only allowed so much practice time. kids have homework and other commitments. 2 different workouts a day for a high school kid can be a bit of overkill if all they are doing is crunches at one of them

“I was well rested. I guess I did so well because I didn’t run any previous meets,” Nacouzi said. “It was a great experience.”

Doesn't sound like the girl was too upset about not competing with the team. Everybody is too much like sheep and want everbody else to conform also. Running is one sport where if you put in the work, you can prove it on the course. You aren't dependant on the coach playing you or other players giving you the ball. Sadly,there were even restrictions just to get the opportunity to race. Congratulations to her and continued success.

Wanna know how I know the coach isn't good?

A kid that didn't do the coaches training (and did her own) turned out better for it.

Coach shouldn't be on a power trip because she can't get the most out of her athletes.

She did better alright. She was hurt and didnt race. That will show the power tripping coach!

I believe there is more going on here - and the coach and the kid and the mom were much more 'volatile' than is being portrayed and it became a standoff deal - or worse. Coach seems over rigid.Would be interesting to hear the team-mates perspective. Pretty hard to argue against the results

Coach comes off as an ass. He was too eager to point out that "she doesn’t seem to want to be part of a team environment." You gotta say that in the papers, Coach? Feeling self-conscious about something? This is just a high school girl, right?

I wouldn't want to be part of that environment either. I'm glad she trained on her own and beat the girls who you trained. Jerk.

Teammate (assuming valid, but who knows) did respond to the article in comments section:

Fellow Viking Runner

November 13, 2010 - 11:04 pm

I find it important to comment upon this article, as I have been a team mate of Julie’s on both the track and Cross Country teams for many years. I will confirm that this year was very different, but rightly so. Like any other sports, there was enforcement of the policy concerning tardiness and truancy and absence from practice. Julie, as well as every other member of the team, was only required to come to 3 out of 6 weekly practices to be eligible to compete in races. This is not difficult. Being injured is an excuse, but she and her mom should have allowed it to properly heal and then got on with the rest of the season. As for Julie as a person, she is no where near what everyone thinks of her. She may seem nice, but that definitely is not always the case. As for her mother and her parents, they were consistently rude, inappropriate, and disruptive during meetings and other team gatherings, also often failing to recognize the importance and existence of their younger daughter who is also a member of the team.

Val Sell and the Montgomery administration held Julie to the standards that every athlete must be held to, including those concerning GPA and academic probation, and she was not allowed to compete because of her own choice not to be a part of the team. I know that as a person, I value integrity and participation more than sheer talent, and had she participated as a member of the team, I might feel differently, but in light of everything that transpired, I have no sympathy for Julie or her parents, and hold Coach Sell and the and our administration in high esteem for recognizing that sports are more than talent.

To keepersmom: Julie ran NBL finals for TRACK and didn’t run NCS for TRACK in May of 2010. (In case you still hadn’t realized this).

First, the coach is a "she" not "he." It sounds to me that the coach made reasonable accommodations and the athlete doesn't seem overly concerned about being "denied" the race opportunities. The team aspect is an important one at the high school level. A coach on a "power trip" would love to have a runner of that caliber show up for meets so the team can "win," but it sounds like this coach is an educator first.

Figuring wrote:

Coach comes off as an ass. He was too eager to point out that "she doesn’t seem to want to be part of a team environment." You gotta say that in the papers, Coach? Feeling self-conscious about something? This is just a high school girl, right?

I wouldn't want to be part of that environment either. I'm glad she trained on her own and beat the girls who you trained. Jerk.

You really are pretty clueless aren't you?

Clueless? wrote:

Figuring wrote:

Coach comes off as an ass. He was too eager to point out that "she doesn’t seem to want to be part of a team environment." You gotta say that in the papers, Coach? Feeling self-conscious about something? This is just a high school girl, right?

I wouldn't want to be part of that environment either. I'm glad she trained on her own and beat the girls who you trained. Jerk.

You really are pretty clueless aren't you?

Agreed Firguring does not seem to understand the purpose of high school sports.

Highschool sports are not College sports and cannot really be compared.

The coaches in high school are not paid to produced single championship runnners. They are paid to produce a positive environment for young athletes to learn what it is to be apart of a team and to discover how far they can push themelves in a safe protected environment. Establishig rules and critera to participate is part of this process. No one athlete should be treated any differently than the others or given special treatment.

If done right championship teams and runners can be produced this way.

It seems like this individual was denied the opportunity to participate not because of what her coach did but because of what she did.

When I have injuryed athletes they are required to show up for the start of practice. We have a team meeting the runners go on a run and then the injuryed athletes are sent to go do cross training. Showing up for the first 15 minutes of practice demonstrates that they want to be a part of the team is not to much to ask.

What most coaches understand is that if you allow one athlete to get away with breaking the team rules then you have to let alow all athletes to do the same and then before you know it the coach is not in control of the team.

Let the kids run. A high school coach does not have a greater cause.

Unbelievable that some people are siding with this girl. She didn't follow team rules, wasn't a team player and didn't deserve to run for the team. The coach made a difficult decision and a very unselfish one. Many coaches would just cave in because the athlete is so good. This coach stood up for her beliefs and didn't let the girl run. Pretty simple.

Women have expanded rights, see Title IX. The coach and school fail compliance test under prong three - Full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of underrepresented sex.

Clueless? wrote:

Unbelievable that some people are siding with this girl. She didn't follow team rules, wasn't a team player and didn't deserve to run for the team. The coach made a difficult decision and a very unselfish one. Many coaches would just cave in because the athlete is so good. This coach stood up for her beliefs and didn't let the girl run. Pretty simple.

Well, in the end, the girl did run and ran extremely well.

Has it crossed anybodies minds that the girl really didn't care about running on a team and the only reason she joined the team was because that is the only way she would be able to compete in those regional and state meets?

Why do you think a lot of top level tennis players and swimmers have nothing to do with their local high school teams? The inferior level really does nothing for the athlete trying to excell at a much higher level.

When these coaches implement some of these silly rigid "rules" that they then must enforce to save face, they end up hurting themselves, the athletes, the school system, and creating a big controversy.

Its comical how everybody is assuming that this girl is just naturally gifted but she probably runs twice as much as any other girl on the team. (The picture the article showed was of her in a half marathon difficult trail run at a nearby state park) It would be a travesty that she take the place of that 7th girl on the team who, while working so hard running about half the mileage, is also 3 minutes slower.

who is clueless now wrote:

Women have expanded rights, see Title IX. The coach and school fail compliance test under prong three - Full and effective accommodation of the interest and ability of underrepresented sex.

Lot of clueless people on this thread.

You would make a wonderful high school coach. Let everyone do what they want, have no accountability to your team, let athletes pick and choose what practices they think are important or not. The world has enough Allen Iverson's. Being part of a team is about responsibility and there is nothing to say this girl can't work out on her own as well, just like many high school runners do that are part of team. Why does it work for the thousands of other great high school runners, but this girl has to treat her team and coach like she is too good for them. Really kind of sad.