Pros and cons about not having true HS nationals in XC, Track

As a person who grew up in New England, there are already regional meets set up (appropriately called "New Englands").

I did not run XC in high school, so I'm not sure on those qualification procedures (but I do know that there is team scoring at New Englands).

For the track versions, the top 6 finishers from each state meet qualify (if someone in the top 6 does not wish to run in a given event, then the next best finisher is invited, but you needed to declare by the end of the state meet if you intended to go or not). The events contested would typically be the events that are contested in all of the states in the New England area (so for outdoors, the hammer throw is not contested as not all of the New England states have it at their state meets. No steeplechase either, but I do not believe it is contested within the region at all...)

Perhaps this New England meet could be expanded to fit your idea.

My two concerns/questions are the following:

1) region size. As you mentioned in the last paragraph, money is more of an issue for high schoolers so travelling can be quite a challenge. I remember seeing some posts/articles on here last year of athletes begging for money for them to make it to Nationals as they could not afford it yet they had qualified. And asking for athletes to shell out money for long distance items multiple times within a short period of time (say twice within a span of three weeks, once for Regionals and once for Nationals) can be quite a challenge for the smaller and remote high schools/communities.

2) for the "opt-in events" as you called them - how would athletes qualify for those events in the Regional meets if their states don't have them? Would you do a descending order listing? Would results from a select non-state championship meets be the qualifiers? Within New England, they have a completely separate meet that focuses just on the hammer throws as it is not contested at the formal New England championships.

They should just use Nike's meet. Keep Nike as the sponsor.

NY taking 1-4-7 for boys this year shows that they (we) deserve our own region.

If the other NE schools weren't making it to nationals they wouldn't bother extending their seasons.

I remember those people begging on here too. But, they were trying to compete at the unattached level, with no high school sponsorship etc.

The opt-in events would give runners and throwers a chance to still make it to nationals if they do not make it in their primary event. I should've elaborated more on how this meet will be more than one day long for my logic to make sense.

And as far as remoteness of high schools, most high schools could afford to send their kids, if they qualify, to meets across the country, though some may have to involve a PTO meeting and fundraiser (my school raised $1100 one day during a team carwash) or donation from the student/parents involved. Either way, money is a non-issue, unless you go to a school who only focuses on football.

I say, imagine seeing Arcadia HS go up against Boys & Girls in NY and Broughton in NC. Wouldn't that be interesting? 3 schools with massive rosters battling it to the last point. I just think that would be awesome for coaches, parents, students, and the running community in general (maybe even televised), and probably would take some talent back from soccer and football, at schools that have a decent running program. More incentive to compete.

nationalist wrote:

The opt-in events would give runners and throwers a chance to still make it to nationals if they do not make it in their primary event. I should've elaborated more on how this meet will be more than one day long for my logic to make sense.

And as far as remoteness of high schools, most high schools could afford to send their kids, if they qualify, to meets across the country, though some may have to involve a PTO meeting and fundraiser (my school raised $1100 one day during a team carwash) or donation from the student/parents involved. Either way, money is a non-issue, unless you go to a school who only focuses on football.

I guess I'm still confused about the opt-in event - if your primary event is the hammer or steeple or pole vault or javelin, then how could you still qualify for nationals in those events if they don't contest it in your state? Would you have to qualify first in a similar event (i.e. shot put -> hammer; 2-mile -> steeple)?

While your scenario would be ideal for a remote high school team, but it would still make it challenging for an individual who qualified but is from a remote region and would be the only representative from their school/community. Is it possible? Maybe, but I think it would impact their athletic and academic successes if they need to spend a lot of their spare time fundraising, particularly if they have their breakthrough moment in the latter half of the season.

I believe the NCAA pays for travel expenses for athletes who qualify for nationals. (Schools pay a membership fee to be a member of the NCAA.)

So, this would be another expense for high schools on this model.

There's always debates about how much post-season competition opportunities are appropriate to balance with academics and other extra-curricular activities (including other sports seasons). Adding an additional formal post-season probably would not get a lot of support.

We live in an affluent area but our HS still can't afford to pay for uniforms or buses to meets. While I'm sure we could get the boosters to cover it if we qualified, there is no way this will fly without Nike or someone picking up the bill.