Adidas Nationals is a FAILURE

Brooks PR is arguably the most competitive hs track meet, especially on the distance side...

Seriously. And that’s the one that pays for athletes to fly out, puts them up in a hotel, takes them out on the town. It’s the premier outdoor championship.

Didn't know that. Well done, Brooks.

it isn't a championship though

I think the problem is that random shoe companies or businesses should not be putting the title "National Championship" on the name of their meet.

If All-Star Heating and Cooling decided to host a meet, could they call it the "ASH&C Nationals" or not? I hope not.

USATF is the governing body, they should auction off the title-hosting rights on like a 5-year cycle. Then people can really plan. All the other meets can continue as scheduled but they would called what they actually are --- invitationals.

Only the USATF sanctioned meet should be called "Nationals." That can be New Balance or Nike or whatever, but it can't be four meets. That is a joke.

What do you mean it's not a "championship"? There is no high school national championship other than maybe USATF Junior Champs.

Exactly!!

Brooks PR doesn't have any field events, so it certainly can't serve as a national championship for Track & Field. The lack of relays is kind of a bummer too.

exactly. it is the furthest thing from a championship. It is a nice PR stunt. All athletes are listed as unattached because of Brooks flying them out. Certainly the meet attracts good fields, but not all events either, because the athlete isn't paying for it. But there is no qualifying for it, unlike Footlocker (or whatever it is called these days). What exactly would an athlete need to run (or place perhaps) such that it would guarantee that they would be invited? There isn't such a Standard ( as championships would require) or place in a qualifying meet/race.

I don't ever foresee a true championship meet (except as mentioned above, one organized by USATF) for the HS level because it requires a qualifying process including ALL fifty states, and that kind of co-operation is never going to happen, and certainly not in this era of extremely divisive politics. Anything else is just some form of Invitational, regardless who sponsors it.

Agreed, USATF seems like the only organization that could bring sanity to this situation. They could do a couple of things:

Lower the qualification marks a little bit and expand the number of entries to the U20 championships, make it a big meet, host it somewhere people want to travel to and vacation (not Eugene). Market the heck out of it, live stream it etc. USATF has a great hand to play here as there is usually some kind of international qualifying spots on the line like Junior Worlds or Junior Pan-Am games etc. It's almost embarrassing how few people know about the U20 championships.

Or USATF could offer a proper high school championships. They might have to lower themselves to offering more typical high school events like the 1600 and 3200 or the mile and 2 mile, and/or measuring field events in feet etc. They also need to have a mechanism in place for accepting marks from non-USATF sanctioned meets, like high school state championships. Arcadia, NON, NBON etc all allow for this, USATF needs to suck it up and figure it out.

Either way the powers that be at USATF are missing a great opportunity to market the sport to a bunch of young track fans, it's like they are almost proud of the fact that they barely acknowledge that the high school season even exists. If they were smart they would plop down a national HS championships on the calendar 2 weeks after the last state high school championships and host it right next door to Disney Land/World or someplace like that.

Seriously, what's to stop any coach or meet director from putting on a meet and calling it a "National Championship" and giving out "All American" certificates. These meets are really only competitive invitationals. The New Balance meet was obviously the best, but I would like to see someone combine the results from the two meets and really give us a true top 6 All American for the biggest weekend of the year.

An organization did this over the past few years called "Speed Capital ". They put on some decent meets, and way more organized then AAU or USATF meets. The biggest thing they lack is quality athletes in field events. Heck I'm in Indiana where USATF is headquartered and youth meets sponsored by them is almost non existent except the state meet. AAU is just terrible all around in this area.

And this is just as bad in Cross Country.

We have NXN and Footlocker but then, somehow, our Junior national team which raced in Australia was not made of of the kids who won those meets. It was based on the results from a third meet.

It would make sense for USATF to scrap their own junior cross nationals and just give that to footlocker. Keep NXN for team nationals and as long as everyone knows about it, great. Problem solved. Don't put qualifying meets on the same weekend so kids who are on good teams don't have to choose NXN or Footlocker.

“Adidas Nationals is a FAULURE”

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I'm in Virginia Beach now with some of the athletes I coach. It seems like a good meet so far. Maybe the title of the meet doesn't matter as much as a bunch of kids having fun and running pretty fast?

I don't know. I'm fried after a long week of work and I'd have been perfectly happy staying home. But my kids are competing (so far) eh, okay, and not bad. And they're enjoying themselves. Plus, I saw Grant Holloway just walking around. That was cool.

Golden west wasn’t a “championship” yet it was the big post season meet everyone used to go to

Yes, but you are not at "Nationals" right now. I don't have a problem with having the meet (it is a free country), but only USATF can crown national champions.

Random PR people at Brooks and Adidas and Nike seem to just think they are in charge of handing out that title.

I don't care. Good on you for holding firm on this though. Somebody has to have a really firm and specific view on what track meets are called, and I'm too busy working my day job, coaching, and giving up my weekends ferrying these kids around, so it can't be me.

People that weren't All State are being crowned "All-American" at this meet. It's backwards.