One of my runners jogged the 4x800.

It seems to me like you should have planned accordingly and made C & D your first 2 legs telling them to run as fast as they can. Give it to A to just chill and maintain a position near the front, and then give it to B to run as slow as possible to get 4th and advance the team. We used to play these games all the time in high school meets.

runner b would have never made it to the starting line without a discussion of the race strategy. if runner b strayed from that strategy based on his own selfish decisions, he would not have been declared for regionals. sacrificing for the team is a part of the sport; in the years to come this kid will regret dogging the 4x8 more than he will enjoy having advanced to regionals and getting whipped.

This is a complicated issue because the offense was perpetrated by the hardest worker on your team. I could definitely see how he would be frustrated at the idea of compromising his chances of making states by running a relay race with 3 other guys who don't put in the work he does. Why should he care if they make it to regionals or not? Plus, he had already stated that he wouldn't be running all out in the relay a couple weeks beforehand. That would have been the time to address the issue.

On the other hand, he did the wrong thing. His teammates apparently did care and he let them down. Whether he felt they worked hard enough or not is irrelevant. He's not the coach. His job is to go out there and run the race he's scheduled to run. That's the honorable and right thing to do. He made a puss move if you ask me. A somewhat understandable puss move, but a puss move all the same.

First, I think as a coach you need to make expectations clear. If they are running in the 4x800 and it's not clear to runner B that the team is taking the 4x800 seriously as an event, then I can understand him "jogging" it. The serious question you need to ask yourself is whether you as a coach made it clear that he was expected to run the race hard.

Let's assume that you did give the athletes incentive to care about the relay. What runner B did was definitely selfish. Hopefully his teammates make that clear to him. If there are more track meets remaining and you're serious about teaching him something, I'd say only enter him in relays. Otherwise, you should probably let it go.

Did you seriously say that your best runner, A, trains for the 3200 and runs 20 mpw? Runner B does 50-60 mpw? C and D do whatever? What kind of team are you coaching that these runners can seemingly do whatever the heck they want? Do you just give them one workout a week and then tell them to run on their own? Is runner A "talented" only because you have no clue how to develop a guy to be successful?

Some things about this post lead me to believe you're a troll.

How shitty is Florida HS running? 10+ 3200 and 4:40 1600 guys advancing towards State? Christ, I grew up in Ohio and had to break 10 in the 3200 preliminary race just to get to the finals of the Sectional meet.

Seth here wrote:

How shitty is Florida HS running? 10+ 3200 and 4:40 1600 guys advancing towards State? Christ, I grew up in Ohio and had to break 10 in the 3200 preliminary race just to get to the finals of the Sectional meet.

And Ohio isn't even a good distance state!

Who cares? If you are in 5th place after a 2:38 your division is horrible. I mean, we have girls teams here that run 9:40s and were not even that big of a state.

kickin it in el azizia wrote:

Seth here wrote:

How shitty is Florida HS running? 10+ 3200 and 4:40 1600 guys advancing towards State? Christ, I grew up in Ohio and had to break 10 in the 3200 preliminary race just to get to the finals of the Sectional meet.

And Ohio isn't even a good distance state!

Aren't they any more? Back in my day they were pretty good. Drosky, Pittman, Nicholas, Fry, Kennedy...Flagpole!

I was exaggerating a bit. But Ohio hasn't been nearly as good recently as it was in the past. Still decent, but not a top state.

almost literally wrote:

Every state that runs the 4x800m as a regular event is a backwater state. Get with the times. The 4x800m shouldn't be run except for special occasions.

Read your NFHS rulebook. The 4x800 is part of the schedule. Any state that doesn't do it in high school is not operating under the official schedule for a track and field meet.

I'm shocked that you've been coaching that long and haven't figured it out yet.

No worries, I was just mainly trying to blow air up Flagpole's bloomers.

That is totally unacceptable to do for the first leg, especially since the other guys are seniors... not only do they not get to advance, but they have to remember THIS as their last meet. If you're even thinking about dogging it you should make it clear and then run the anchor leg. If B isn't a senior than that makes it even more unacceptable (and also easier to make him sit out his last meet). If he is a senior, it's harder to tell him he can't run the last meet, but still isn't out of the question.

You just don't jog it when you're the first leg. In doing so, you're basically voiding the races of the other three guys behind you.

Sounds like you did not do a very good job before the race figuring out strategies for each event. If you had done due diligence, each participant would be content with the situation and everybody would have the opportunity to discuss their personal situation.

yes, but a good coach would know of the potential for this to happen and be the proactive one. This always falls on the coach.

Very bad job of coaching here. You should have discussed expectations for the regional, sectional, and state meet. Usually when it comes to this part of the season the team takes a backseat to the individual.

kickin it in el azizia wrote:

I was exaggerating a bit. But Ohio hasn't been nearly as good recently as it was in the past. Still decent, but not a top state.

Let's see:

2010

1600 state champ winner in D1 - 4:09

3200 state champ winner in D1 - 9:11 (D2 winner ran 9:03)

2009

1600 state champ winner in D1 - 4:10

3200 state champ winner in D1 - 9:02

2008

1600 state champ winner in D1 - 4:15 (D2 winner ran 4:12)

3200 state champ winner in D1 - 9:15

2007

1600 state champ winner in D1 - 4:09 (D2 winner ran 4:08)

3200 state champ winner in D1 - 9:05

Not bad. Not sure there's a period of time where the general quality was much better. There have not been many sub 9 3200 runners ever from Ohio, and Bob Kennedy (4:05.13 - D1) and Scott Fry (408.03) still hold the state meet records in the 1600. In the 3200 Steve Padget (9:00.97) holds the D1 state meet record and Scott Fry (8:49.40) holds the D2 state meet record.

Anyway, Ohio is not California or New York or even Illinois when it comes to high school distance running, but it's pretty solid and has remained relatively consistent...a few stellar ones in there once in a while, but overall, D1 1600 wins state in 4:10 or so and 3200 in 9:05-9:10 or so.

well...if he had warned you several weeks before, you might have seen this coming and had time to convince him to do it for the team + you could have had him run last - this way he might realize he only has to run so fast and hangs on for 4th place....in fact since that is all he needed to finish to advance the relay why wouldn't you put the athlete who most needs to save something for a second race on the last spot for that very reason.

Had you set the relay order up that way, he probably would have bought into the idea of only running fast enough to qualify. If I were coaching i might have even left the decision of how hard to run up to him (because we are talking about a relay that is only looking to qualify not place at State, i presume).

this really just comes down to coaching...which happens before the race...and while i don't mean to sound so critical it doesn;t sound like you did much planning/stategizing/coaching before hand. And it is really not all that hard to do.

Some coaches just enter athletes and forget to consult with them before hand to make sure everyone buys in and is on the same page. Do you think that is what happened here? and if so, do you see how you might preempt it next time?

I agree with Racehorse. Kids need to understand that it is not just about them. Your runner was selfish and needs to understand how his behavior impacted the others. Just another example of "me first" generation