Ridiculous: Freshman star Andrew Brown Banned for rest of 2024 Season because he ran NBIN unattached

Your example cites playing with a CLUB TEAM. This runner competed as an unattached individual against other unattached individuals, which would be more like playing a pick up soccer game against other random individuals.

State association rules should only govern meets that those associations sponsor, including NFHS meets, when representing a member school. What an individual is allowed to do in his free time should be between the athlete and coach.

This is a stupid rule and a complete overreach by MHSAA

It's hard to put this on the freshman (13-14 years old?). You can say he should have known "the rule," but it's probably that he didn't know there was "a rule." You don't look something up if you don't know it exists. Who made this mistake? As a minor, could he be permitted to compete on his own say so? Did someone somewhere check a box that says "I read and understand the rulebook of the MNSAA"? Given the timing of New Balance, wasn't this a potential issue for lots of people? Did anyone say to these kids, "Oh, by the way, be sure to... if... because there's this rule"? It's hard to believe it was the kid's responsibility; why does the kid suffer the consequences?

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse!"

"I didn't know that either!"

The rule is that he shouldn't have run an indoor meet once the Mississippi outdoor season has started. The state wants to encourage young athletes to play multiple sports so competing in the 'off-season' is frowned upon because they want you to do another sport in that window. Seems absurd because it's not really off season for track.

The school were aware he had entered NB Indoor Mile and removed him from their roster in case there was an implication for them having one of their athletes breaking this rule. The school made him aware they had removed him because of a potential rule break but yet he still ran because flights and hotel had been paid.

Seems ridiculous but he did know that he'd be breaking at least one rule by running.

HOw do they handle swimming? Swimmers race almost all year and 90% of their races are NOT for their HS team?

And other sports too Lax, soccer, bball others probably are all club based and function year round.

This rule is utterly absurd and if someone asked a judge, probably it would be tossed immediately. Or at least enforced across the board.

No one needs to run HS track.

He should keep running unattached. It won't impact his college opportunities.

It is ridiculous, but the rules are the rules, and given that he has three years left to compete in HS, it’s not the end of the world for him.

Competing in HS XC and track was a great experience for me. Throwing that opportunity away over what happened to the kid, would hurt him a lot more than it would for HS sports in Mississippi

He should have run NBIN as Quenton Cassidy.

In all seriousness many associations have rule against running under an assumed name. I looked into it for someone i know in similar situation to this kid that wanted to do a race

+1, was going to say he should just keep running at all-comers meets, throw down solid times against real competition

Does Mississippi not have kids play AAU basketball or club soccer? That seems incredible if true. If not true blatant double standard.

A parent should have the choice to enter their kid in a non-sanctioned sport. This is nothing more than trying to get someone out of the way because they may beat your boys. This rule has not been applied to anybody else for indoor track ever that have participated in the Nike event. Please do not tell me that they did not know about the others because it was plastered all over milesplit. If your track people do not know what is going on in their sport they need replaced. Now any athlete should be encouraged to participate in these events because it brings light to our state. Only in Mississippi where the good ole boys rule. This makes my blood boil. Again indoor track non sanctioned no jurisdiction! One hell of a overreach

Nike, hire a lawyer to defend this young runner.

Not the father, just a concerned former Coach that has a brain which is something lacking in the MHSAA. Andrew father has hired a lawyer. I am no relation

If that were really true why are they allowing Spring football to go on in the track and baseball seasons. Every year they have spring football games right before our track and field qualifiers. Many athletes just do not show up the day after the spring game after they qualified so sometimes you have state meets with only 5 or 6 qualifiers attending. Hymm the MHSAA does not seem to care then. Also the Football and Basketball kids are treated like hostages to their sports and are scared to death to compete in track and whatever because the threat of losing their spot. In my opinion there should be a dead period in that time. Hey I am just telling it like it is because I have witnessed it.

So you can run a Road Race but you can not go to a national indoor meet in a unsanctioned sport. Sounds pretty ridicules to me.

I'm just glad they mentioned the running influencer in the story and got their thoughts. I am not sure how we move forward without that.

are you suggesting that someone else's full blown super serious meet is somehow your pickup game? that's not how reality works. it is in fact similar to kids who are supposed to be on the school team facing a potential conflict expecting them to moonlight during the season with their club team on a tournament that makes them miss actual school. like you are playing games on weekdays when you are supposed to be in class. then does the HS governing body or your coach let you play that saturday in the state playoffs if you can fly back home.

worse, there was the kid in PA who did no qualifying meets, but did do some high level youth meet, which he wanted to substitute. are you running on the team or not? under PA rules, you can run the meet but the time shouldn't count. under MS rules, you're ineligible, as you've competed with another team during the HS team season.

on the latter, i think what you're missing is the loyalties issue. you go to state your team may get points. but what if you've effectively competed for two teams that season? the rule says competing for yourself is effectively a second team.

and remember this is school sports. like one of the issues with dallas cup was we would basically have been skipping school all week then flying back for state playoff games. is that really a student that week?

last point, you make it a freedom issue on these kids. no one tells them no. there just may be consequences. you may be seen as having no eligible times to advance to state. you may be seen as having played for another team same year. you want to avoid it, save it for junior olympics. or i think one poster said maybe you could show up in your HS gear as an affiliated runner. though that might have implications for how many meets the team is allowed.

we can debate whether exceptions should be added but the rule as-is is crystal. and like i said, when we saw the developing situation, we read the darned book and asked around.