Sounds like administrators that don't care and have policies that flip-flop based on the sport or activity.
Excused absences happen in schools all the time for all kinds of sports and activities. Thats a totally bogus reasoning. I'm willing to bet these two athletes are also strong students who could handle one missed day of school for a national level competition.
This should of been a quick, easy decision for admin. The district has nothing to lose and everything to gain by these two representing the district at Arcadia.
Very interesting reasoning on the admin's part - I guess he knows better then the coaches about what an athlete needs. I love how almost proud he was that they were not sending the band to Ireland to because they can get "competition" in Missouri?!? Wouldn't the overwhelming point be the band gets to march in the St Patty's day parade in Ireland? Isn't that the kind of learning experience you would want your kids exposed too? Seems an awful narrow view of the world that permeates the track decision as well. If I were a parent in that district I would be really worried about what potential experiences my kid would miss out on because, I guess, Missouri has it all.......
BS wrote:
Very interesting reasoning on the admin's part - I guess he knows better then the coaches about what an athlete needs. I love how almost proud he was that they were not sending the band to Ireland to because they can get "competition" in Missouri?!? Wouldn't the overwhelming point be the band gets to march in the St Patty's day parade in Ireland? Isn't that the kind of learning experience you would want your kids exposed too? Seems an awful narrow view of the world that permeates the track decision as well. If I were a parent in that district I would be really worried about what potential experiences my kid would miss out on because, I guess, Missouri has it all.......
The ADs. Comparison of the band going to Ireland vs a couple runners going to California are completely different . The AD is way off base here. Does the band ONLY ever compete in Missouri? A group of probably 50-100 students? What about other clubs and activities? Are they limited to only Missouri competitions?
Why is the district choosing this activity and these students to limit opportunities?
I grew up in town near Blue Springs, Missouri and this is not surprising at all.
This is your typical midwest town who's school district is run by a 'good-ol boys' club. Unfortunately this will probably never change. Its shocking how many stupid people have held administrative roles in Blue Springs. All you have to do is drink with the administration every week night at the local watering hole and wha-la! You magically become an administrator, athletic director, etc. The majority of people in towns like Blue Springs are stuck in a old school mindset where there is no fun in sports...unless its Football or the marching band. The king and queen of activities.
I am sure the coaches of both track teams are pissed as could be right now. To continue to see other 'team' sports get permission to travel to tournaments and games across the country has to be such a slap in the face. Many of the other sports don't even sniff contending for a state title, but track and field is a consistent top 4 finisher at the state meet. The coaching staffs of both Blue Springs and Blue Springs South are class acts and deserve much better than this!
Like many have already said, the athletic director and school board are totally oblivious to their track programs. If they would look at meet results every once in a while, they would know that the competition in Missouri will never produce the level of competition as that of Arcadia. To have students compete locally because the competition is just as good in Missouri is such a bogus excuse that is completely false.
Its as if the leaders of the athletic departments for both high schools forgot that participation in track and field is not subjective. You rarely see politcal bull crap of For example, 'Oh well Johnny's dad paid for the new lawn mower for the baseball field, so we need to have him play shortstop and hit clean up tonight' (This is example is a true story btw)
The clock doesn't lie. The measuring tape doesn't lie. The best athletes get to compete and that is what I love about track and field!!!!! Screw these incompetent idiots for taking this away from these athletes.
As much as I would love to have Mugeche and Findley run at MU if they were to go to Arcadia and run some fast times that get attention from the distance blue bloods, I would hope they change their minds and go to Oregon, NAU, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Colorado, Stanford, etc.
Being a Missourian I am flat out embarrassed by this horrendous decision making.
Hopefully a petition is floating around out there or Go Fund Me page to help these kids compete at Arcadia.
If I lived in that district I would be doing everything I could to make sure that AD didn't have a job next year.
The response from the administrator was dumb. Mugeche was 35 seconds ahead of any boy in the state of Missouri indoors at 2 miles. Findley is 17 seconds ahead of any girl in the state in the mile and about the same in the 3200m.
They could use the competition. This is bullshit.
A quick search shows that the Blue Springs basketball team left Missouri to go to Arkansas and Kansas this year.
Mtn Dew wrote:
A quick search shows that the Blue Springs basketball team left Missouri to go to Arkansas and Kansas this year.
I think there is a distance maximum you are allowed to travel without permission, because both track programs compete in Kansas (including at KU relays) and also at the chile pepper invitational in Arkansas.
blue springs south band has also been to Nebraska, Indianapolis and will be traveling in the next few weeks to DC for competitions. Blue Springs band has been to indy and Hawaii within the last 2 years. It clearly isn't an issue with traveling, it is just the AD arbitrarily applying rules.
This sadly isn't a new phenomenon for Missouri. Before it was MSHSAA that had an arbitrary 250 boundary mile rule for competitions that eventually forced Adam Perkins to forego competing for the high school his senior year so that he could race better talent in the mile.
The AD's reasoning in this case is not sound.
It’s hard to argue with the AD on this one considering the main point is that they want their team to compete as a team rather than send top people off to places like Arcadia. That and the fact the AD surely has no clue of the significance of Arcadia’s 3200.
How much you want to bet the AD voted for Trump and owns at least 3 guns?
I don’t agree with the AD, but the fact is that Mugeche is only the third fastest returning 1600 and 3200 runner is his state. To say he has no competition there is an insult to those that have beat him.
Findley is the top returner in the state by a couple seconds in both the 16 and 32. Again, there is competition in the state it’s just not very deep.
This may be something taken into account: neither athlete has run national class times. Whether or not they could given the opportunity, I’d say Mugeche maybe although his 800pr is a little suspect.
Stats lie wrote:
I don’t agree with the AD, but the fact is that Mugeche is only the third fastest returning 1600 and 3200 runner is his state. To say he has no competition there is an insult to those that have beat him.
Findley is the top returner in the state by a couple seconds in both the 16 and 32. Again, there is competition in the state it’s just not very deep.
This may be something taken into account: neither athlete has run national class times. Whether or not they could given the opportunity, I’d say Mugeche maybe although his 800pr is a little suspect.
Stats lie wrote:
I don’t agree with the AD, but the fact is that Mugeche is only the third fastest returning 1600 and 3200 runner is his state. To say he has no competition there is an insult to those that have beat him.
Findley is the top returner in the state by a couple seconds in both the 16 and 32. Again, there is competition in the state it’s just not very deep.
This may be something taken into account: neither athlete has run national class times. Whether or not they could given the opportunity, I’d say Mugeche maybe although his 800pr is a little suspect.
9:09i is pretty elite, especially given that there is no formal indoor season for MO.
I believe his email is mbubalo@bssd.net.
usnspecialist wrote:
Stats lie wrote:
I don’t agree with the AD, but the fact is that Mugeche is only the third fastest returning 1600 and 3200 runner is his state. To say he has no competition there is an insult to those that have beat him.
Findley is the top returner in the state by a couple seconds in both the 16 and 32. Again, there is competition in the state it’s just not very deep.
This may be something taken into account: neither athlete has run national class times. Whether or not they could given the opportunity, I’d say Mugeche maybe although his 800pr is a little suspect.
assuming you are talking about Mikayla Reed being the close competitor to Findley in the 3200, she ran her 10:44 PR as a sophomore and has only broken 11:00 once in the last 2 years and has a best of 11:18 this year (10:49 at ku last year when Findley ran 10:40 in the same race), whereas findley was under 11:00 4 times last year, and twice already this year. The closest MO competition to Findley at the 3 biggest XC meets of the year (state, NXNMW, FLMW) is her teammate Danielle Hotalling who while a talented runner in her own right, is simply not in Findley's class.
As far as having run national class times (or having the potential to do so), Findley ran 10:37 for a 29 second win last week after splitting 2:18 on the 4x800 (Hotalling was 2nd in 11:06 in what was a PR race for both), and ran 10:49 indoors winning by 50 seconds. Given that she has had zero competition on the track, and won all of her regular season XC races, lets look at the last time she truly faced national caliber competition (NXNMW) to get a better gauge of where she stacks up in relation to her peers. She finished 7th in that race as the first non-qualifier (Sarah Schmitt from Naperville North qualified with her team), and listed below are the results from that meet, with the NXN result in parenthesis.
1. Katelynne Hart 17:28.6 (4)
2. Emma Wilson 17:33.9 (14)
3. Gracie Sprankle 17:36.1 (38)
4. Taylor Ewert 17:44.2 (18)
5. Sarah Schmitt 17:45.2 (8)
6. Morgan Gigandet 17:46.9 (20)
7. Victoria Findley 17:49.6
Given that she was within a few seconds of multiple top 20 finishers (and in fact beat Alex Morris from Naperville North who went on to finish 12th), i don't think it is unreasonable to peg her as a top 25-30 girl in that race, which is pretty much national class to me. If you are the type that doesnt believe that xc necessarily converts to track, here are the 3200/2M PBs and SBs for those girls
1. Katelynne Hart 10:11.51i/10:14.56i
2. Emma Wilson 10:29.82i/10:29.82i
3. Gracie Sprankle 11:03.14i/NT
4. Taylor Ewert 10:40.38i/10:48.38i
5. Sarah Schmitt 10:31.74/10:34.25i
6. Morgan Gigandet 10:40.22/NT
7. Victoria Findley 10:37.9/10:37.9
Those times make it clear that her run at NXNMW was not a fluke (not to mention that at 4:56.01y she has a faster 1600/mile time than anyone except hart and Wilson). Given her times and the fact that this is only her 2nd year running full-time (split time with soccer her first 2 years), it would not be a shock to see her run in the 1025 range, which last year was in the top 30-35 in the country.
Trust me I’m with you 100% because i understand the sport. I can infer that if someone has a huge XC season one can expect the same or close in the 3200 at the least. They are both national class runners, but their times aren’t truly national class. The AD doesn’t understand it takes a National class race like Arcadia to produce a truly national class time. That’s how the sport works unless you’re an Alan Webb type that likes to time trial alone. That’s not normal though, so I’d say a solo 9:09 indoors means a potential sub-8:50 at Arcadia. Nearly everyone PRs there, even the local kids. The point of my name Stats Lie is that if you look strictly at the track numbers from this season and last the AD could reasonably think these two have enough competition in their state and based on their times it looks to someone who doesn’t understand the sport like they’d finish last place almost in the Invitational heat with their current best times. We can’t expect people outside of our sport to understand it. We can only hope they’ll respect our advice about how to proceed in regards to the sport. That’s not happening in Blue Springs, unfortunately.
runnerFan wrote:
This should of been a quick, easy decision for admin. ...
This should have been a quick, easy decision for admin...
The band from BS South is headed to Washington D.C. this week and the orchestra is going to Georgia I believe. Both will miss 2-3 school days and cost significant amounts of money. The two track athletes were willing to pay their own way and were still denied!