Middle School Coaches - Would you let your best runner miss meets for another sport?

I always have let kids miss for other sports. I figure it's a good idea to be as lenient as possible when introducing them to xc/track since for most it's their first experience. I learned years ago that at that age if you make them pick, they will choose the team sport over track/xc. In my area (Los Gatos,CA) it's club soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring. Sometimes they have more success and fun in xc/track and end up quitting the other sports by the next year.

YES!!!!!!!

Too early to be specializing in one sport IMHO (with a few exceptions).

I'd let my best high school runner miss a meet for another sport as long as he trained and showed up for the championship meets.

Yes, but let him know which meets he must attend

Agreed but what would the exception be?

Also just wondering how good is this sixth grader? I've seen some good sixth graders with potential but the gap between 6-8 is huge at that age and all the top runners are 8th graders with the exception of a few 7th grade studs.

Sahdude wrote:

Also just wondering how good is this sixth grader? I've seen some good sixth graders with potential but the gap between 6-8 is huge at that age and all the top runners are 8th graders with the exception of a few 7th grade studs.

Thanks for all the responses. To answer your question (without specifics) my boys team isn't that great. My school is one of the smaller in the area. He will probably be slightly ahead of a couple of 8th graders. They finished near the bottom of conference but I they did almost no summer training last year and I am going to turn it around. My girls team is pretty good with some depth and one of the best runners in the area.

100% yes

in high school i'd start having real problems with it except maybe like with a freshman

Yes. I let them miss. It's middle school and it's a good idea for them to try out multiple things. I give the schedule ahead of time and have them let me know where conflicts are.

Oh I see. I wish you the most of luck of turning things around!

I would. I am a MS coach and teacher and have had my kids bump up against other activities too.

Having said that, middle schoolers are SUPER concerned about the appearance of fairness. They want things to feel fair.

I would address with the team what your policy is: that you want them to be able to participate in things they care about, but you can't just skip practice for whatever you want. If they want to play another sport that overlaps, they must have a conversation with you to talk about how the schedule overlaps and work out an arrangement.

That way, other kids will know it is not just special treatment for the fast kid.

For example, Allie Ostrander skipped regionals and state for track in her freshman and sophomore years. She did soccer regionals instead.

Yes, I hate doing it but I would lose a quarter of my boys team if I didn't let them miss practices/meets for baseball.

i chose D2 wrote:

I'd let my best high school runner miss a meet for another sport as long as he trained and showed up for the championship meets.

I think that middle school athletes should be allowed (and encouraged) to enjoy multiple sports. This of course means understanding that they will have time conflicts and miss meets or games sometimes. At that age, the benefits of having a safe environment to be competitive with teammates far outweighs any benefits of exclusively focusing on one sport.

But I disagree that high school athletes should be allowed to miss track for another sport. I would cut any athlete who prioritizes another sport over track. At that age, they should be learning that being part of a team is a commitment to their teammates.

In some districts, the alternative is that half of your track team is doing year-round club volleyball or soccer and missing most of your meets. IMO, at this age they should be encouraged to do other sports outside of track season (or cross country if they're a distance athlete), but they should be focused on one sport per season.

I have coached on a track team where the head coach allowed the athletes to skip track for soccer, basketball, volleyball if he thought they would quit track otherwise, and he wanted the points. The result was that the kids who did not do those other sports took notice and many of them became much less committed and flaky. Some of the kids that remained dedicated became frustrated and upset that their relay teammates who did multiple sports were letting them down. Some kids were also very upset when they were scoring points in varsity during the year, but then in the league championships, they were bumped out of the entries for some races (we were only allowed a set number per event) for kids who had been at other sports during the in-season meets.

I think those are the wrong lessons to teach in high school.

This is 100% WRONG. My daughter is starting HS this fall and her coach has this same idea. XC and track should be no cut sports so that you find all the kids that grow into the sport. Similarly, you should let the kids miss practice and meets if they have another sport. This teaches the kids just behind them that it is their turn to help the team.

The chances are that they will miss a few days as freshmen and/or sophomore but eventually they will fade out of the other sport and run full time. No one runs by accident. They run because they like it, give them time to figure out which sport they like more. The chances are the other coaches won't give them this opportunity. You are playing the game to get intrinsically motivated athletes, that will run in the summer. They are worth much more than an athlete who you scared into flipping a coin to choose XC over soccer.

For 35 years, I thought like you. Then I watched my son's HS coach. He has 150 kids out for the team and about 80 finish the season. The next year of those 70 kids who dropped, 50 come out again but this time most of them have run during the summer. By the time they are seniors, those recycled kids make up 2 or 3 of his top 5 every year.

"But I disagree that high school athletes should be allowed to miss track for another sport. I would cut any athlete who prioritizes another sport over track. At that age, they should be learning that being part of a team is a commitment to their teammates."

Yes, no need to specialize now.

However, will he miss practices or games from the other sport as well?

I coach high school and kids have many activities and interests. My rule is I compromise but the other sides needs to as well. It's 50/50, not our sport that gives 100%. Otherwise our sport will never be taken seriously. Both sides need to work together!

I would let him miss. In XC we allow freshmen to miss as long as well are given a schedule at the beginning of the season and that they don't miss any meets in the state series (if they are a top 7 kid). Most XC kids make a decision after their freshmen year about whether or not they want to make a full time commitment to running because they realize the amount of work it takes to make the top 7, but we let them come to that conclusion on their own.

We are a lot more lenient in track because we have so many more multi-sport kids. Again, there is an expectation that we are given a schedule of the other sport at the beginning of the season and that they don't miss any of the meets in the state series. If we were to ban any kid that does volleyball, basketball, cheer, or softball from the track team, I'm not sure I'd have any jumpers or vaulters. Good communication and balance is key though!

My experience has been the exact opposite. I watched for three years as a team eroded because the head coach let the kids do that. A new head coach came in who expected all kids to make a commitment and suddenly it turned around. The team actually grew, not the opposite, because you didn't have kids fade away when they saw their teammates got away with letting their teammates down.

Again, I'm talking about high school and during the season only.