My School is forcing me to Quit running?

If the schedules conflict then I can see both coaches not being happy especially if getting on the team is competitive. We have had athletes on the track team play tennis or lacrosse as their primary sport and show up when they can for practices or meets. That was our coach being nice. Typically, our school does not let kids do more than one sport in a season. In my state you cannot miss a high school practice or meet (game) for a club event but I’m sure you could figure out a schedule for both.

From what you've written I can't tell if you're being forbidden from doing both sports or just advised to focus on one, e.g. "You could get into the PGA tour in a few years if you totally commit to golf but will blow that chance if you also do cross country and track." If they're advising you as opposed to forbidding you, I'd think you could thank them for the advice and keep doing both sports. If they're forcing you to choose one sport exclusively that's different and I'd want to explore this further. Some high schools do not permit athletes to play more than one sport per season. Others do and it reads like yours is one that does. So I'd want to know why they're making you an exception and if they legally can do so. What do your parents make of all this?

That puts you in a difficult position. If I truly had to make that kind of decision, I would have to choose golf because it would be hard to train or compete on your own outside of school. In running you can do whatever you want on your own time and compete in open meets, club events, road races, and no tin-pot petty school bureaucrat can stop you.

Thing is I could really see running improve your golf game, via being more relaxed. My uncle made that orange whip golf training device, calls it a name specifically, it’s like hiccups, when you shank it from being nervous.

Ty : You take drugs, Danny?

Danny : Everyday.

Ty : Good.

It’s probably worth considering where you are being recruited for each sport. Are either of the sports giving you access to significantly better academic programs which will set you up better for post collegiate life?

Gonna give the benefit of the doubt that this isn't a troll job.

From a practical standpoint, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. If you're already receiving high level offers from P5 schools I don't see any reason to gamble that away on the chance you'll get good at running.

4:30s/9:40s frankly isn't that good as a junior. You certainly have a lot of upside and if you trained full time I don't doubt you could get into the low 4:20s/9:20s by your senior year (or maybe even faster), but that will likely be too late in terms of recruiting. Pretty much all of the competitive schools will have given out all their scholarship offers by then.

Essentially you're weighing college debt versus what you really want out of life. There's no guarantee that if you stuck with golf and took a large scholarship offer you'd be happier than if you had chosen running at a smaller school and no scholarship. But getting a college education debt-free will pay dividends down the road (especially if you're playing golf at an expensive school - the networking opportunities alone might make it more worth it).

I'd sit down with your parents are have a serious discussion about what your long term goals are - not just in college but beyond. You'll get a lot more clarity from that than you will asking strangers on the internet. And if at the end of it you still have a gut feeling one way or the other, maybe you should listen to it.

Best of luck

Running is an all-season sport. Even if you pick golf over spring track, you have the rest of the year to run. Why nut just make indoor track the focus of your running and play golf in the spring?

If he *really* wants to run in college, he could take a break year. Take Community College classes, maybe, and just run, and then have the scholarship waiting the next year.

120+ miles per week (and on the HS golf team)? 1/10.

Was it the listing of coaches that tipped you off. That was it for me.

BS story. Smaller schools don't have assistant coaches for anything other than football.

Did you post this on a golf forum, too? If not, I would guess that running is your priority.

I can just imagine "LETSGOLF", brainchild of the the super trust fund twins, Thurston and Mortimer. All the posters are super polite with their insult attempts, but with a snarky undertone. Thurston once played a round with a superstar lady golfer in which she played her greatest round ever, all thanks to him. Mortimer once coached night golfing at the famed Bushwood country Club

As in my title, I am a retired track and cross country coach. Over the course of 30+ years, there have been quite a few athletes in your situation. What surprises me is the lack of information concerning academics. The priorities for shared athletes in most cases was (1) academics, (2) Main sport schedule {in your case probably golf spring schedule,} (3) Secondary sport schedule {in your case probably track schedule.} For example, an exceptional tennis player was able to run our Thursday cross country meets but missed our league finals meet due to a conflict in schedules. On the other hand one of our premier sprinters in track ran the bases for our softball team (interesting softball rule.) In both cases all schedules were looked at in advance. This makes both coaches aware and not suddenly surprised by a conflict.

My suggestion is to approach the AD and coaches with this type of arrangement.

I, like many of you, think this is made-up fiction. However, there is a point worth addressing. Maybe someone else has a similar 2-sport problem at school. Maybe this guy is telling a basically true story. Anyway, this quoted post comes closest to the right answer.

For some sports, you need a team that competes within an organization such as NBA, NFL, NCAA....or your state high school association. You simply can't play a team sport without being affiliated with a team. But that is true of niether of these sports....especialy distance running. My teenage training partners and I would ask ourselves - on many a long run - what we'd do if we sprinted? Where would we find races to enter?

Although I don't recall coming up with this then, an easy answer would be: join the school track team. We, as distance runners, never did this. They didn't offer us anything - least of all access to competition that we wouldn't have had without them. ln fact, I would say school affiliation would have been an impediment to my running. This may or may not be true with golf, although, like running, the best don't seem to be part of any team.

The decision is easy. Don't do either for the school. This is similar to earlier posts about barging into an office and threatening as much. Difference is, anyone talking it about it like that isn't likely to pull the trigger. I didn't tell the track coach anything: I just simply never signed up. Or,

Golf for the school but run on your own. You may be surprised how little static the school will give you. No coach ever approached any of us. I ignored them. They ignored me.

Current D1 runner here, but also friends with some guys on the golf team at my school.

Firstly I would say playing these sports in college is two VERY different experiences. D1 running will generally consist of 6 AM practices, 80+ mpw, heavy summer/school break training, weights, and doubles. It is not the same is high school training at all, and a passing interest in running is not enough to get you through it. I love it, but if this does not sound exciting to you I would stick with golf.

My golf buddies, while I certainly respect their skills, have an objectively easier training schedule as I'm sure you know. As another plus for golf, their team trip locations seem to be cooler. Ultimately though being a D1 athlete is a full time job, and it probably won't be worth whatever partial scholarship you likely will get (no insult to you, just the current state of mens' ron-revenue college athletics) if you don't truly love it.

As a second point, I would really be honest with yourself about where your talents lie. While your times are solid and would have made you a pretty good recruit 10-20 years ago, the game is rapidly changing and American Distance running at the HS and college level is as deep as it has ever been. 4:20/9:20 just are not the surefire D1 times they used to be. I'm not saying you can't be a great runner, but if you are looking to run at the same schools you want to play golf at, expect coaches not to answer at all until you are substantially faster.

There's a third option... drop out of school and take up hookers and blow. That's what I did. Can't recommend it enough.

You didn't keep it consistent.