How big is/was your high school team and how good?

1700 kids in the HS at the time. Probably 20-25 kids on the distance team.

Ran 7:40 in the 4x800 and 10:13 in the DMR.

The prep schools in my area are all really small but generally turn out some really good runners/teams.

around 1100 all boys. we ran 10:09 dmr and 743 4x8. also with equally solid performances in many field events. sprints were ok, I think we ran 3:21 4x4 once.

2005 msgr farrell

I went to a school of about 1600 and we averaged about 40 boys. Now I ciach at a school of about 1700 and we average about 75-80 boys. Both of the schools place top 4 in state nearly every year and both teams are/were generally ranked top 40 in the nation.

So both programs are/were pretty big but the one I coach is bigger because the coaches have established the program as a place that is "cool", fun, and successful. It shouldn't come as a surprise that teams like York draw large teams ... people want to have success and be with successful organizations (similar to people wanting to work for Apple or Amazon, etc.).

It's a numbers game. Having 60 guys as opposed to 30 gives you 30 more chances to get a sub 16:00 5k runner. Getting 90 or 120 boys gives you even more chances.

It is more than a numbers game. It is about the coach. Good coaches can get about 10% of the school to come out for XC after a few years of success and the word getting around. Bad coaches can't or even worse have cuts and end up throwing their #4 through #14 runners away.

2100 in my school. About 50 boys for XC, 120 boys for track. Only one guy in the history of the school went under 10 flat in the 3200. The sprinters and field events are just as bad.

public HS in Midwest suburbs, ~1400 kids

diverse socioeconomically, but still > 95% white student body

small XC program with usually with no more than 12 or 13 boys on the team due to soccer but always a good squad with a hard working and close-knit group featuring a couple really talented guys. Varsity 7 were usually all under 17:30 for 5k with 2 or maybe 3 sub-16 guys. 1 state championship with a couple high finishes. Speed was emphasized more in training (coach favored track over XC) so we always had a good 4x800 team and miler group.

High School - ~750 kids

XC team - 11-14 depending on the year

How good? - Meh

I couldn't imagine going to a high school with thousands of kids.

ie-aVM-893 wrote:

It is more than a numbers game. It is about the coach. Good coaches can get about 10% of the school to come out for XC after a few years of success and the word getting around. Bad coaches can't or even worse have cuts and end up throwing their #4 through #14 runners away.

Obviously there is more to coaching than just getting numbers (a coach would know that more than just about anybody). But getting numbers out is the first step, then you start to coach em up.

My school had about 800 kids and was very football and soccer centric. We had a dirt track, with no facilities for jumpers or throwers. The track team was the cross country team.

While I was there we were two time state cross country champions, but never amounted to anything in the state as a team in track.

We did have one sub 9 guy, and several 4:30 milers.

Our squad my senior year had about 90 kids and we shelled out a 7:32 4x8 back in '07. We were pleased, we thought we'd only run in the high 7:30's.

Enrollment: 1392

High school xc: ~45 kids

High school track: ~80 kids

Noteworthy school records:

7:40 4x8

4:08 16

52-0x triple

24-0x long

16-0 pv

64-10 shot

185 disc

typically among the mix in xc, ranked #1 in the state my senior year

PRs from 15:40s - 16:40s on that squad

I coach at a small school with only about 450 kids in 7th-12th and about 250 are boys. We're definitely behind a lot of teams from big population areas but our top 5 from 2013-2014 all ran between 9:17-10:14 on the track. The 2012-2013 year our team had these marks:

4x1- 41.9

4x2- 1:26

4x4- 3:21

100- 10.59

200. 21.5

400- 48.5

PV- 17-1

SP- 60-01

D- 150+

J- 161

LJ- 23-5

HJ- 6-8

TJ- 45+

Distance did not have a good year that year. The big thing for small schools is getting guys out as early as possible and getting them to believe track can be a sport as much as football/whatever other sport they compete in.

PA

1000+- students, 30 on track team

There is no team in I

Pretty mediocre at best as team - chalk that up to the distance runners being future letsrun time fabricators

2 state medalists my senior year...probably no more than 5 in 50 year history of school

High school had about 550 kids

XC team had 10-12 kids on each side.

We weren't too competitive as a team (we were midpack in our league) but we always sent an individual or two to the state meet in XC, one of the few small schools in the area to do so. That streaks been going on for almost 20 years.

The track team was a little more than double the size and a little more successful scoring at meets. Usually qualified a handful of individuals and a relay or two for the state meet and broke school records every season I was there.

HS Size: 750

Track Team Size: 110

XC Team Size: 40

How Good?: I was a sub 4:10 miler with a private coach; next miler was 5:06. Sprints/Jumps were decent, but distance was terribly lacking.

I'm not shannon fortune wrote:

It seems like there's a pattern between the amount of kids and success.

Elmhurst (York) from illinois has a plethora (to say the least) of kids and has 26? State championships.

My team has been/is a top 5 team in the state but has less than or equal to 30 guys.

As has been stated, getting #s out is a big part - bigger pool of talent to work with means more chances for better runners. The other big part is keeping kids healthy and developing them to be the best they can be (particularly as juniors/seniors).

Teams can compete well with only 30 kids compared to 100 kids, particularly if there are the same number of coaches working with the kids (say, 2 coaches for 30 kids vs. 3 coaches for 100 kids - that's an advantage for the 30 kid program because you're getting more individual attention). But in the long term (say, over the course of a decade), unless the coaching staff that tends to draw ~30 kids is vastly superior, the program that draws ~100 kids will come out on top more often.

My current cross country team has eleven guys, and apart from me only one of them isn't totally useless.

To give you an idea:

My mile PR: 4:41

Our #2: 4:53

Our #3: 5:51

And it just spirals down from there. We have four kids that have never broken 6:30. Needless to say, we are absolutely horrid.

3500 total in the high school

135 on the xc team

65 are boys

Usually 2 under 16:00(5k) each year

4-5 in the 16:00s

Rest of varsity (top 12) in the low 17:00s