Could it be that one wealthy family wrote a $5k check?
Could it be that one wealthy family wrote a $5k check?
My HS was all working class> lower middle class> flat out poor. The best XC teams were always from the richer areas.
It's just a casual observation but one of the biggest reasons we lost athletes wasn't because they weren't good, injured, chose another sport. We lost the most to after school jobs.
At 16 guys want a car, and where I'm from no mama's and daddy's were just going out and buying someone a car. Those that were lucky enough to get a hand me down car, the parents weren't paying all the gas, insurance, and fees that go along with owning a car.
So guys quit and got jobs flipping burgers, etc.
This is not something rich schools have to deal with. And a varsity XC team is a small number of kids, the difference between competing for a state title and being bad to middle of the road is one maybe two athletes.
Smoove wrote:
Genetics and behavior modeling. Distance runners are by their nature people who focus on goal setting, long term planning, delayed gratification and self-discipline. They probably have some of those traits before they get into distance running, and they probably got those traits from their parents. Those traits also tend to be the traits that generally result in economic and academic success. I'd bet that if you compared the GPA of the average cross country team to most other sports teams, at the high school or collegiate level, you would find that it is higher than that of most other sports.
+1
not rich wrote:
sorry dude but parents as a group being able to scrounge up $5K does not make them rich. that is a tiny amount of money in the grand scheme of things.
LOL thank you for pointing this out. Also, if you don't have $40-50 bucks you can spend on running shoes - you should quit and get a job!
rojo wrote:
OP it looks like you are posting from Beaverton, Oregon.
So if you weren't trolling, it would be because the parents of all of the kids on the team work for Nike so they can buy flats an employee discount .
Hi Rojo,
Been a long time user of the site, I love it.
I have no clue why my post talking about you revealing the posters location was deleted.
It was light-hearted and well-intentioned. I can't imagine a rule it broke.. Maybe your mods are just trying to prove a point that free-speech IS no unchecked here...
Not Cool Bro wrote:
I wouldn't buy specific shoes just for one race. Just use XC spikes, but take out the spikes. Issue solved.
A good pair of road flats for workouts isn't a bad idea anyway though.
You may be trolling though. $40-50 for flats? Most are more like in the $70-120 range.
This is how I knew it was a troll.
If the whole team went and found flats in the $40 range, they'd be extremely frugal.
"Rich" kids would pick up $100 shoes in the running store like most middle class people, not much money for something you can use at least a year.
What flats cost 40 to 50 in 2016? This is just a little more than an mid-range bottle of Bourbon.
Phil Fondacaro wrote:
Extracurriculars are important for college applications. Rich parents think their kids need to play a sport. XC is the sport for unathletic kids that can not make the team in any other sport. So XC ends up with all the rich kids that need to play a sport.
Interesting theory, but family affluence is commonplace in tennis, golf, swimming, rowing, soccer, field hockey, water polo, gymnastics, ice hockey, and lacrosse.